That’s not how it works, Stevens, he thought furiously. You and Whitney don’t get to call the shots.
Frank had warned Jamie MacIntosh that this would happen. That bringing in amateurs was the thin end of the wedge. But of course, no one had listened to him.
Frank paid the bill and slipped out into the night.
Regrettably, it was time to take matters into his own hands.
TRACY’S MIND WAS RACING too fast after dinner with Jeff for her to go back to her hotel and sleep. She decided to take a walk along the river.
Before she got a hundred yards from the bistro, her cellphone buzzed with a text.
It was from Cameron.
I miss you.
Tracy texted back. I miss you too. Then she felt guilty because it wasn’t true. Not in that exact moment anyway. Or perhaps the guilt was because she’d just seen Jeff—not only seen but agreed to work with him again—information she already knew she wasn’t going to share with Cameron.
Why not? she asked herself now. Is there something about Jeff Stevens that brings out the liar in me? The con artist?
When Jeff was around life always got more exciting. But it also got more complicated. More gray.
Or perhaps Tracy was blaming Jeff for her own uncertainty? Right now she had no idea how she felt about Cameron, or Jeff, or anything. I barely know who I am anymore. She still hoped that when she solved the mystery of Althea there would be some sort of closure on Nick’s death, and that she could move on. But move on to what?
Without Nick, who was she?
Who did she want to be?
Cameron Crewe loved her. He hadn’t said it in so many words yet. But since their trip to Hawaii, Tracy knew.
The question was, did she love him back?
Unfortunately, Tracy didn’t have an answer. She was happy when she was with him and sad when she left him behind. Was that love?
She felt calm around him. Was that love?
Her darling dad always used to tell her that if you had to ask whether you loved someone, you didn’t. Tracy had never had to ask with Jeff. Then again, loving Jeff had brought her more pain than anything else in her life—apart from losing Nicholas, obviously. Perhaps loving Cameron Crewe would be different? Calm and easy and painless.
Could
love be like that?
Perhaps having dinner with Jeff tonight had been a mistake? It had stirred everything up again, filled Tracy with doubts and fears and emotions that, up till now, she’d convinced herself she had under control. The fact that Jeff was so obviously jealous of Cameron only made things worse.
On the other hand, the idea of working with Jeff again was exciting. If anyone could outsmart Hunter Drexel and help Tracy find Althea, it was Jeff. Together, Tracy and Jeff could do anything.
Except stay together, Tracy chuckled to herself. For some reason that’s always been the hard part.
Gazing across the still waters of the Seine, shimmering like molten silver beneath a full moon, Tracy realized she’d walked farther than she’d intended. Across the water she could make out the gardens of the Sorbonne. It was a good hour walk back to the Georges V from here, and the evening breeze had turned from cool to distinctly chilly.
Pulling her scarf more tightly around her shoulders, she turned to retrace her steps when she felt the first blow. Something hard and heavy, like a metal bar, slammed painfully into her back, sending her flying forwards in the darkness. Before Tracy could see where it had come from she heard a scream. Someone behind her must have seen Tracy’s attacker.
Then the second blow slammed into the side of her head. The last thing Tracy remembered was the sickening crunching sound of her own skull cracking.
Then nothing.
CHAPTER 22
JEFF STEVENS PARKED HIS car outside the Mountain Mall in downtown Steamboat Springs and walked into Jumping Beans coffee shop.