When She Dreams (Burning Cove #6)(45)

“You said Guilfoyle has a habit of sleeping with women and then dropping them,” Maggie said. “Are you speaking from personal experience, Valerie?”

“Yes, if you must know.” Valerie clenched her hands on her lap. “He’s a real creep. Makes you think you’re special. Says you have a natural talent for psychic dreaming. Says you can fly with him on the astral plane. Calls you his soul mate. Then he dumps you.”

Maggie looked at Sam, evidently uncertain how to respond. He kept his attention on Valerie.

“How did you get the job as a dream guide?” he asked.

“The Guilfoyles put an ad in one of the Hollywood papers. Said they were looking for people with acting experience. It sounded a lot more interesting than working at a lunch counter, and we get to live rent-free at the Institute. I figured being a dream guide was the same as working in a magic show or a theater, plus I’d be in Burning Cove. I told myself there would be plenty of opportunities to meet important people in the movie business in this town.”

“At what point did Arthur Guilfoyle seduce you?” Maggie asked.

“Each dream guide gets some one-on-one sessions with Guilfoyle. It’s part of the training process. In my first session he went into a trance. When he came out of it, he told me some things about myself he couldn’t possibly have known. For a while I actually believed he was psychic. I was a fool.”

“Did he tell you the sort of things you would hear from a fortune-teller?” Sam asked.

“No. Well, not exactly. He didn’t just tell me stuff about the past. He told me he could help me achieve my full potential as a lucid dreamer.” Valerie hesitated. “That’s when he told me that I had a special talent for dreaming. He said if I followed his techniques and allowed him to guide me, I could develop real psychic powers. But first I had to expand my dream experience and learn to access other planes of consciousness.”

“What did that require?” Maggie said.

Valerie snorted. “Ever hear of the casting couch?”

“What an appalling man,” Maggie said.

“Yeah,” Valerie said. “And I fell for his line.”

“When did you figure out he was just using you?” Sam asked.

“When he hired another dream guide,” Valerie said. “Her name was Betty. She moved into the Institute about a month ago and started her training. After she and Guilfoyle had a couple of one-on-one sessions, Guilfoyle told me he and I wouldn’t be doing any more sessions together because I had reached my limits as a psychic dreamer.”

“I don’t remember seeing a dream guide named Betty,” Maggie said.

“That’s because she didn’t last long,” Valerie said. “I found Betty crying in the bathroom one day. She said Mrs. Guilfoyle had caught her in the old caretaker’s cottage with Mr. Guilfoyle and fired her on the spot. Betty packed up and left that afternoon.”

“Has Arthur Guilfoyle tried to seduce Gloria?” Maggie asked.

“No, she’s not his type,” Valerie said. “Lucky for her, he likes blondes. Gloria isn’t interested in him anyway. She and Larry are dating.”

“All right,” Sam said. “Arthur Guilfoyle is a womanizer. That’s interesting but not surprising. We’re here to talk about the Traveler. So far you haven’t told us anything we didn’t already know. We expected a little more information in exchange for the cash.”

“This is the part that’s worth the twenty-five bucks,” Valerie said. She leaned forward. “Last night after the police, the doctor, and everyone else was gone, I went into the gardens to have a smoke. I overheard the Guilfoyles and Dr. Oxlade talking as they walked back to their villas. I could tell they were discussing the dead woman, so I didn’t light the cig. I knew they couldn’t see me, because I was on the other side of a tall hedge. I stayed real quiet and listened.”

“What did you hear?” Sam asked.

“Oxlade said something about Nevins’s death looking like the death of someone else. Jenny Something.”

“Jennaway?” Maggie asked.

“That’s it, Jennaway,” Valerie said. “Oxlade told the Guilfoyles he was worried there might be rumors of the Traveler. That really rattled Dolores Guilfoyle. She got angry and ordered him to stop talking about the old legend. Rumors like that would be bad for the image of the Institute, she said.”

“How did Oxlade respond?” Sam asked.

“He agreed with her,” Valerie said. “He was worried about bad publicity, too. He was afraid the Institute might get a reputation for being some kind of cult. He said he couldn’t afford to lend his good name—that’s what he called it, his good name—to an organization that would be laughed at by the scientific community. That’s when he mentioned you, Miss Lodge.”

Maggie clutched the back of the leather seat. “Oxlade talked about me? What did he say?”

Valerie opened her mouth and then appeared to rethink whatever she had intended to say.

“Professor Oxlade is not what you’d call real stable,” she said instead. “That’s not just my opinion. All the dream guides think he’s strange.”

“What did Oxlade say about Miss Lodge?” Sam asked, keeping his voice very even.

Valerie flinched and sat back against the seat. “Never mind—it’s not important.”