Sapphire Nights (Crystal Magic Book 1)(64)

He picked up the palm-sized collection of wired rocks and crystals to show her. “Yours almost looks like a butterfly.”

She smiled in delight and took it from him. “How does she do this? I’d never be able to get all those stones to hang together long enough to wrap them with the wire. Look, it even has some tiny blue stones glued to the head. For eyes?”

They hurried up the stairs to the apartment. Sam handed him the statuette so she could dig her keys from her purse. Stopping at the top of the stairs to scratch Emma’s head, she jerked back, as if startled. “Mr. Black? What are you doing here?”

“Xavier?” Walker pushed past to see the rental agent slumped in the wicker porch chair, unresponsive. He flashed his light at the visitor and his gut froze. “Go get Cass,” he ordered curtly. “I’ll call for an ambulance.”

Although Xavier Black looked past the need for a hospital.





Chapter 21





“I know CPR.” Sam tried to push past the obstacle of Walker’s arm while the cat dashed back down the stairs. “We should at least check his pulse.”

“It’s a potential crime scene,” Walker warned. “Stay there,” he said curtly, pointing at the stairs. “I’ll check. That’s a kerosene can beside him.”

Astounded, Sam stayed put. Kerosene? That dazed old man had burned the cross? Had he intended to burn her home?

She took Daisy’s artwork from Walker and set it aside on a mosaic table. So much for protective spirits.

Or had the spirits stopped him? Maybe she was the one who needed to broaden her thinking.

Walker pulled out his radio and ordered an ambulance, then reached over to check the old man’s wrist. “It’s weak, but I think I feel something.”

“How long will it take for an ambulance?” she asked anxiously, helping him lay Xavier flat on the balcony. His green blazer hung loose on an almost skeletal frame.

“Too long. Run over to Cass’s.” Walker began compressions, counting out the pace. “There’s a nurse who lives up here somewhere. She’ll know. It might be diabetic shock for all we know.”

“Why on earth would he be on my porch with kerosene?”

“Keep him alive, and we’ll ask,” Walker said grimly, pumping. “After you fetch Cass, find the evidence bags in my car. We need to bag up that can.”

Sam took his keys and ran down the stairs, but before she could cross the lawn, she saw Cass’s irregulars on the move. She opened Walker’s car and found what she hoped was an evidence bag as the women approached, then dashed back to the balcony to warn Walker. “Here comes the light brigade, right on schedule.”

While she bagged the can and Walker kept up the compressions, Sam called to the approaching crowd. “We need medical help. Walker says there’s a nurse nearby?”

“I’ll fetch her,” Mariah cried, peeling off from the pack and jogging down the path to the cottages below.

“Who is it?” Cass demanded. She carried a large flashlight and led the way for the others.

“Xavier Black. Does anyone know if he’s diabetic or has a heart condition? It will be a while before the ambulance arrives.” Sam eased to one side, allowing only Cass up the stairs before blocking the others. The balcony wasn’t large.

Cass checked under Xavier’s eyelids, then called to the women milling about below, “Who has the naloxone?”

“Crap,” Walker said, sitting back on his heels and turning Black on his side. “He’s an addict?”

“Painkillers mostly,” Cass said crisply. “He self-medicates but usually not to this extent.”

“I won’t ask how you come to have the antidote,” Walker said grimly.

One of the older women ran up the stairs and handed over a box that Sam passed on to Walker, who seemed to know how to handle the nasal spray. Xavier coughed briefly but didn’t regain consciousness.

Walker took his pulse. “Stronger. Give it five minutes to kick in. Anyone know why he was on Sam’s porch?”

“He’s kind of been hanging around me a bit,” Sam said, fretting at her bottom lip. “I had the feeling he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words. I really didn’t sense any harm in him.” Of course, he hadn’t been carrying kerosene at the time.

Cass muttered an unladylike expletive and gestured at her audience. “You’d best all go home before the police arrive.”

Amazingly, they did as told. Wide-eyed, Sam watched everyone depart, chattering. “Police?” she asked. “Walker is the law up here. Why would they need anyone else?”

“I’m off duty,” Walker reminded Cass. “I didn’t ask for back up, and no one is likely to be here until morning, when the sheriff heads for the lodge. A drug overdose won’t rate suspicion, yet.”

He checked his watch and Xavier’s pulse again. The old man seemed to be stirring.

Ignoring them, Cass lowered herself to the top step. Emma arrived to bat her furry head against Cass’s leg until she was petted. Worried, Sam glanced from Walker and the unconscious man on her doorstep, to her great-aunt, who looked worn thin.

“You know something,” Sam concluded. She sat cross-legged on the only space remaining between Walker and Cass. She’d hoped to have Walker naked and in her bed about now. He sent her a glance that probably meant he was thinking the same thing. That revived her a little.