Page 111 of Tightrope

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

“I love you,” Matthias said.

“That’s good, because I love you, too.”

“You’re telling the truth,” Matthias said.

He sounded as if he had made a glorious discovery, one that had the power to change his world.

“Is that your lie-detecting talent at work?” she asked.

“No. I told you, you’re one of the few people who could lie to me and make me believe you. Sometimes it all comes down to trust. The reason I believe you now is because I trust you.”

She smiled. “I trust you, too.”

“What makes you so sure you can do that?”

“Flyer’s intuition,” Amalie said. Her side was getting more painful by the moment. She tightened her grip on the bandage. “I guess this means we won’t be going out on a real date tonight.”

“We’ll be dining at home,” Matthias said.

Home.Amalie smiled.

“That sounds like a very good idea,” she said.

Chapter 59

“Eugene Fenwick was also being manipulated by Jasper Calloway?” Amalie asked. “Why?”

She and Matthias were sitting on a bench in the conservatory at the Hidden Beach. There was a tea tray on a nearby table. Her side hurt but the doctor had assured her that the wound was superficial. Fenwick hadn’t been trying to kill her, not while she was at the wheel. At that moment his goal had been to make her stop the car. There was a small bandage on one side of her neck where the black glass beads of the necklace had cut her, but that injury was minor, too.

“It was Fenwick who broke into your inn,” Matthias explained. “He told Luther that a man in a mummy mask was watching the villa that night and saw him make his escape. Mummy Mask followed Fenwick back to the auto court where Fenwick was staying.”

“Calloway was the man in the mask.”

“Right. Initially he must have assumed that Fenwick was also after the Ares rotors, but when he found a suitcase full of press clippings relating to the Death Catcher murders, he evidently realized he wasdealing with a dim-witted killer who was obsessed with murdering a certain former trapeze artist. Calloway evidently decided he might be able to use Fenwick.”

“How?” Amalie asked.

“At that point Calloway’s initial plan was on the rocks,” Matthias said. “Things had gotten complicated. Looks like he decided to keep Fenwick in reserve to be used as a distraction or a fall guy if needed. But once Calloway was dead, there was no one left to control Fenwick. Giggles reverted to his original scheme to kill you.”

“Do you think Eugene Fenwick was the sequel that Calloway promised with his dying breath?” Amalie asked.

“Maybe,” Matthias said. “It’s a possibility.”

“Why would Calloway want Fenwick to murder me?” Amalie asked. “What good would it have done?”

“Calloway probably figured your murder would create a distraction that would send the Pickwell investigation in an entirely different direction,” Matthias said. “That possibility would have looked like an even better idea after the news of the escaped robot hit the papers.”

“That means Jasper Calloway was actually in Burning Cove the night before he showed up driving Vincent Hyde’s limo,” Amalie said.

“He was in town before that,” Matthias said. “I talked to Hyde. He confirmed that Calloway had asked for a few days off to take care of some personal business. The time off corresponds with the night the robot shot Pickwell and the night Fenwick broke into your inn.”

“How did Calloway persuade Vincent Hyde to drive to Burning Cove so quickly?” Amalie asked. “He and Calloway arrived the day after the break-in.”

“Calloway didn’t have to do any persuading. He simply placed a call to Lorraine Pierce in his role as her number one client and gave her instructions. She was already in Burning Cove because she had come here to murder Pickwell and collect the Ares machine. The morning after the break-in, Hyde received a call from Pierce tellinghim that she saw a golden opportunity to get some terrific publicity in Burning Cove but he had to move fast. She told him that to get his name in the papers he had to book a room at the Hidden Beach Inn.”

“What about Ray Thorpe, the studio security guard who Lorraine shot?”