Page 10 of The Shop on Hidden Lane

She was so rattled by what had just happened that she had forgotten about the sofa. That was not good. She had to stay focused.

Luke evicted Bruce from the sofa and then he raised each cushion in turn. He retrieved an unmarked envelope from underneath the third one. Sophy watched him tear it open. He considered the contents and took out a business card. He glanced at the front and then turned it over.

“Well, shit,” he said very quietly.

Curiosity overcame her disgruntled mood. She moved closer to see what he had found.

“That’s one of my aunt’s business cards,” she said. “I don’t understand.”

Without a word, Luke flipped the card so that she could read the one word scrawled on the back.

“Kaleidoscope.” Sophy looked up. “Your grandmother was right. This does involve the pact.”

“Looks like it.” Luke took two printouts from the envelope. “It explains why you saw your aunt and my uncle together in the cabin after you read the murder scene. They’re both involved in this thing.”

She groaned. “You knew I saw Aunt Bea?”

“Lucky guess.”

“You aren’t the type to take wild guesses.”

“No,” he admitted. “I just connect dots. When you suddenly went quiet and popped out of the trance I knew you had seen something that you thought you needed to keep secret.”

“Forget it.” She frowned at the printouts he was holding. “What are those?”

“Two passes to the Fool’s Gold Canyon Art Colony.”

“Fool’s Gold Canyon? I’ve never heard of it.”

“The fine print says the art colony is located at a little-known vortex site in Arizona.”

“So it’s one of those places that attracts the woo-woo crowd.”

“You and I could be classified as card-carrying members of the woo-woo crowd.”

She waved that aside. “Do you know anything about the art colony?”

“No.” He glanced at the printouts again. “I’m not into art.” He dropped the passes back into the envelope and removed a printout. “Looks like Mr. and Ms. Ainsley have a booking for room two-twenty at the Vortex Inn, which happens to be located on the grounds of the art colony.”

Sophy held out a hand. “Let me have one of those passes.”

“Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to check out that art colony.”

“Not a good plan.” Luke slipped the room reservation back into the envelope. “The passes and the hotel booking are the only leads I’ve got. Deke left them here for me to find. He knew that if he went off the grid I would be the one who looked for him.”

“Why you?”

“Because I’m pretty good at connecting dots and that’s how you conduct a search.”

“He lefttwopasses because he and my aunt knew I would be here with you when you found that envelope. That means one of those passes is for me.”

“I’m not following your logic.”

She gave him another steely smile. “You don’t need to follow it. Just give me one of those passes.”

“We can talk about this in the morning.”