Copper Beach

39

“IT WAS THE VOICE IN THE CRYSTAL THAT TOLD ME THAT The Key was in Mrs. Vaughn’s library,” Grady Hastings said. “I couldn’t believe it at first, but I heard it over and over again, so I knew it had to be true. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. At least, I don’t think I meant to hurt anyone. Can’t remember, exactly, to be honest. The doctor tells me I have to remember that part, but I can’t.”

“Why did you want The Key so badly?” Abby asked. “Do you remember that?”

They were sitting in the spare, utilitarian room the psychiatric hospital reserved for meetings between visitors and patients. An orderly stood some distance away, surreptitiously checking email on his cell phone. Or maybe playing a game, Abby thought. Whatever the case, it was obvious that he was not interested in the conversation. The woman who had led Abby and Sam to the visitors’ room a short time earlier had explained that they were the only people who had come to visit Grady since he had been admitted.

Abby and Sam were on one side of a wide table. Grady sat across from them. He was no longer radiating the wild, chaotic energy that had swirled around him on the day he had invaded the Vaughn home. He still gave off the vibes of an individual who marched to his own drummer, but he was not scary today. Abby found herself feeling sorry for him. He seemed very worried, very young and very lonely. He was dressed in hospital-issue garb, a loose-fitting shirt, trousers and slippers.

“I needed The Key to complete my experiment,” Grady said. His expression became animated for the first time. He straightened in his chair. “I was so close to the final step, you see, and the voice told me that the answer was in The Key.” His enthusiasm faded as quickly as it had materialized. He sagged back in defeat. “I can’t believe I thought I was hearing a voice in one of my crystals. I must have been crazy, just like everyone says. I screwed up, and now I’ll never know if I was on the right track or not.”

Sam looked at him. “What was the nature of the experiment?”

“I was trying to grow crystals that could be used as hearing aids. My mother was deaf. I used sign language from the cradle. When I was still a kid, I told her that one day I would find a way to help her hear. She believed in me. She died when I was fourteen, but she made me promise that I would never give up my goal of inventing a new kind of hearing technology. But they won’t let me have a lab in here. When I asked them for some of the crystals that I was working on at home, the doc said that the fact that I believed crystals had some kind of special powers was another indication that I needed more treatment.”

“Your doctor doesn’t think there is power in crystals?” Sam asked.

“Nah.” Grady grimaced. “He thinks it’s all woo-woo stuff.”

“Did you remind him that it’s crystal technology that makes it possible for him to have a personal computer and carry a phone that can access the Internet?” Sam asked. “Did you mention lasers? LCD screens?”

“Sure,” Grady said. “But I was working with crystals that have some paranormal properties, and the doctor can’t grasp the concept.”

“He’s not alone,” Abby said.

Sam folded his elbows on the table and fixed Grady with a deeply interested expression. “You were working with crystals to invent hearing devices?”

“Yeah.” Grady came alive again. “According to my theory, almost anyone could use them. You wouldn’t have to have a lot of talent. If I’m right, it will take very little psi to make my hearing devices work. Everyone produces some energy. But I was missing a critical element. I knew there was a problem, but I couldn’t get at it. Do you know that feeling?”

“Yes,” Sam said. “I know it well.”

“One day I started hearing this voice telling me that I needed The Key.” Grady rubbed his forehead. “It sounds freaky, I know. But I just got this feeling that if I could find that book and the woman who could crack the encryption, I could make the breakthrough that I needed.”

“You said the voice came from a crystal?” Sam asked. “One in your collection?”

“Yes.” Grady frowned, bewildered. “I think so. But I can’t remember which one. I don’t understand why I can’t remember that, either.”

“What color was the crystal?” Sam asked.

“I don’t…” Grady stopped. “Wait. It was green. I’m almost positive that it was one of my green stones.”

“The voice in the green crystal told you that The Key was in the Vaughn library?” Abby asked.

Grady gave her a plaintive look. “I guess so. I told you, I can’t remember exactly. But how else could I have known that?”

“You had never met Mrs. Vaughn before you went to her home to get The Key?” Sam asked.

“No.” Grady snorted. “Get real. How would a guy like me meet someone like that? I don’t know anyone who has that kind of money.”

“Where did you get the gun?” Sam asked.

“Huh?” Another troubled frown came over Grady’s face. “I’m not sure.”

“Did you buy it?” Abby asked.

“No.” Grady rubbed his forehead. “I think I found it somewhere. Maybe on the front seat of my car. Can’t remember.”

“Did the voice tell you where to find the gun, and that you had to use it when you went to get The Key?” Sam asked.

“Maybe.” Grady Hastings winced. “I’m sounding crazier by the minute, aren’t I?”

“No,” Sam said. “You’re sounding more and more like a man who was set up.”

Abby looked at him. “You think Grady was somehow hypnotized to go to the Vaughn house that day?”

“That’s what it feels like,” Sam said.

“But why? The Key is an interesting book, but the only thing that makes it really valuable is the psi-encryption.”

“The contents of the book weren’t important,” Sam said. “The idea was to test you to see if you really could break a psi-code.”

“Good grief,” Abby said. “This is starting to make some sense.”

“You and Grady were both unwitting participants in someone’s experiment,” Sam said. “The experiment was a success. Whoever conducted it is now after you.”

“The blackmail notes,” Abby said.

“Wait,” Grady blurted out. “I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I,” Sam said. “Not all of it. But I think I’m finally getting close.”

Abby looked at Grady. “Sam is an expert on paranormal crystals.”

Grady nodded. “I was starting to figure that out.” He looked at Sam. “You’re one of those Coppersmiths, aren’t you? You’re connected to the family that owns Coppersmith Inc.”

“That’s right,” Sam said.

“Your labs must be awesome,” Grady said wistfully. “State–of–­the-art and then some.”

“And then some,” Sam agreed. “We do a little R–and–D work with hot rocks, too.”

“You mean paranormal crystals, right?”

“Yes.”

“Awesome. I’d give anything to have access to a lab like that.” Grady looked around the bare visitors’ room, his gloom deepening. “But I’ll be lucky to get out of here someday, and even if I do, there won’t be anything left of my lab. I’ll have to start over.”

“Why do you say that?” Abby asked.

“My equipment and my crystals are in the shed in back of the house I’m renting,” Grady said. “Lease is up next month. I don’t care about my furniture and clothes, but as soon as the rent comes due, the landlord will clean the place out. He’ll probably put my crystals and lab instruments into a yard sale. All my stuff will be gone.”

“I know exactly how it feels to have someone else mess with your stuff,” Abby said. She sat forward. “If you like, Sam and I can pack up your rocks and your lab equipment and store it for you.”

Grady looked startled. “You’d do that for me after I pointed a gun at you?”

“Yes, because I don’t think you ever really meant to point that gun at me. By the way, Sam is not just a crystal expert, he is also a security expert.”

“Yeah?” Grady was curious now.

“He’s investigating what happened to you and me at the Vaughn house,” Abby explained. “He’s been working for me for a few days, and as of now he’s working for you, too. Isn’t that right, Sam?”

Sam looked at her, brows elevated. “Well.”

Abby turned back to Grady. “Consider yourself one of Sam’s clients.”

Grady processed the new data. For a few seconds, he looked hopeful. Then his eyes went flat. “I can’t afford to hire a private investigator.”

“Lucky for you I work cheap,” Sam said. “Like Abby said, consider yourself a client.”

“Yeah?” Grady started to look hopeful again. “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” Sam said.

“And you’ll pack up my lab stuff before the landlord sells it?” Grady asked urgently.

“Don’t worry,” Abby said. “We’ll take care of your stuff.”

“All part of the service,” Sam said. He got to his feet. “I don’t suppose you still have the key to your house?”

“No key,” Grady said. “They took that away, too. But the lock on the porch door is nothing special. You shouldn’t have any trouble getting inside the house. The hard part will be getting into the shed out back. I installed my own door and security system, mostly to keep my landlord out.”

“Give me the code,” Sam said.

“See, that’s the tricky part,” Grady said. “It’s not an off-the-shelf system. It’s PEC-based.”

“Yeah?” Sam looked intrigued.

Grady glanced around the room and then lowered his voice. “You’ll need a crystal to work it.”

“What kind of crystal?”

“Doesn’t matter. You just have to be able to generate a little energy through it. Find a resonating frequency, and the lock will open.”

Sam moved his hand, calling subtle attention to the fire crystal in his ring. “Will this do?”

Grady studied the copper stone. Abby felt energy hum briefly in the atmosphere.

“Sure, that will work,” Grady said. “Nice stone. I don’t recognize it.”

“Synthetic,” Sam said easily. “It was grown in one of the Coppersmith labs.”

“Awesome.”

Abby rose before Grady could ask any more questions. “We’ll report back as soon as we have some information.”

“That would be cool,” Grady said, brightening. “I don’t get many visitors. In fact, you’re the only ones I’ve had.”

Abby frowned. “You don’t have any family?”

“Not that you’d notice. I think there are some people on my mom’s side somewhere, but I never heard from them after she died.”

“What about your father?” Abby asked.

“He skipped out before I was born.”

A chill of intuition twisted through Abby. “Did you go into the foster-care system after your mother died?”

“For a while,” Grady said. “But everyone decided that I was on the crazy side, so I ended up in a special school for wackos.”

Abby stopped breathing for a couple of heartbeats. Her talent flared. She was aware that Sam was motionless. His eyes were a little hot.

“Was the name of the school by any chance the Summerlight Academy?” Abby asked.

“Yeah.” Grady widened his eyes. “How’d you know?”

“I’m a graduate, too.”

“No kidding?” Grady sighed. “Well, I guess we both survived.”

“Yes,” Abby said, “we did. And when this is all over, I will introduce you to some other graduates. You can join our alumni club if you like.”

Grady started to smile. The smile stretched into a grin. “A club for graduates of the Summerlight Academy? That would be sort of cool.”

Outside, in the parking lot, Abby got into the SUV and fastened her seat belt. She waited until Sam climbed in beside her.

“Given what we know of the laws of para-physics, what are the odds that Grady Hastings and I both have the Summerlight Academy in common?” she asked.

“Realistically, the odds probably aren’t all that bad, given your psych profiles and the diagnosis that you both got when you were in your teens,” Sam said. “I doubt that there are a great number of boarding schools in the Seattle area that accept students with your unusual issues.”

“Okay. What are the odds that both of us wound up together in Vaughn’s library that day by sheer luck or coincidence?”

Sam started the SUV and snapped it into gear. “Zero.”

“I was thinking the same thing. Where does that leave us?”

“Looking for a psychic who knows how to locate other genuine psychics in the Seattle area. Someone who has access to the Summerlight Academy records.”

“If he has access to the records,” Abby said, “he would have a lot of information about the students’ psych profiles and their personal situations. I’ll bet that bastard picked poor Grady because he knew he was not only a talent but also alone in the world. There is no family to worry about him or to protect him.”

“The son of a bitch would also know that you have a complicated relationship with your family. I’m guessing he would have preferred to use someone like Hastings, a loner, to break the psi-code, but he doesn’t have much choice. There aren’t a lot of sensitives with your kind of ability running around the Pacific Northwest. There are others who can find the lab book for him, but it would be almost impossible to find another code breaker.”

“In other words, he was stuck with me.”

“Something like that, yes.”

“It’s always nice to be appreciated for one’s talent.”