Zinnia

Chapter 7

He had her hooked, Nick thought as he hung up the phone. Now all he had to do was reel her in quickly and carefully. She would call back by the end of the day. She would not be able to resist.

True, she had gotten a little stubborn, even a trifle annoyed with him there at the tail end of the conversation, but when she'd had a chance to cool down and think it over, she would call.

Nick was satisfied with his analysis of the matrix that now included Zinnia Spring. She was the loyal type. To a fault, in his opinion. She was under the impression that she had a responsibility to find Fen-wick's killer. He had offered her a chance to do just that.

She would call. Soon.

In the meantime, he had another problem to sort out.

He stood and walked to one of the mirrored panels on the wall of the lushly decorated chamber. He pushed a hidden switch with the toe of his shoe. The panel slid open to reveal the functional state-of-the-art office where he did the real work required to manage the casino and his extensive investments.

When the section of mirrored wall closed behind him, he went to the desk and opened a small concealed drawer. He wondered what Zinnia would say if she could see the hidden office and the secret drawer. Typical matrix-talent. Obsessive. Secretive. Probably paranoid.

The truth was, in his business, it paid to be cautious and careful. Besides, there was an old saying to the effect that even paranoid matrix-talents had enemies.

He removed the two small white cards he had retrieved from Morris Fenwick's address file. He had waited until Zinnia's back was turned the previous night before he had taken them. He suspected she would have disapproved of him removing anything from the crime scene.

He studied the neatly typed address cards. One contained his own name and the number of his private phone line. It had been no surprise to discover it in Fenwick's file. He had given his number to the book dealer, himself. But with Fenwick dead it seemed only prudent to remove the record from the file. The fewer people who had access to his private phone number, the better.

What he had not anticipated was the name on the address card that had been filed directly behind the one that contained his own private phone number. Orrin Chastain. President of Chastain, Inc. Brother of Bartholomew Chastain.

Nick's uncle.

He knew for a fact that Orrin had no interest in rare books. There was only one reason why his name would have been in Fenwick's files. Orrin was after the Chastain journal.

The discreetly embossed name on the plate in front of the formidable-looking receptionist read MRS. HELEN THOMPSON. She took one look at Nick and managed to appear both disapproving and polite at the same time. A neat trick, Nick thought.

"Do you have an appointment with Mr. Chastain?" she asked, coughing discreetly. "Mr. Chastain?"

"No." Nick glanced at the closed door of Orrin's office. "But he'll see me, Helen. Don't worry about it."

"I'm afraid he's in conference this morning." Helen's expression was tight with reproof. "He does not wish to be disturbed."

Nick smiled. "But, I'm family, Helen. Of course he'll see me."

He started around her desk without waiting for a response.

"Wait." Helen surged to her feet when she saw that Nick was halfway to the closed door. "Come back here, Mr. Chastain. Where do you think you're going?"

"Hold his calls, Helen. This won't take long." Nick opened the door and walked into his uncle's office.

Unlike Chastain's Palace, Chastain, Inc. had been decorated with Restraint and Good Taste. Everything was done in muted shades of beige and gray. It was a model of corporate elegance. In fact, it had been featured in a recent issue of Architectural Synergy magazine. Nick had read the entire article. He was studying Good Taste these days. It was part of his five-year plan to become respectable.

"You know, Uncle Orrin, this place could use a touch of red."

Orrin was seated at his desk, speaking into the phone. At Nick's words, he swung around, scowling.

"Get back to me on that as soon as you get the numbers from Riker, understand? Fine. Do it." Orrin dumped the phone back into its cradle and glared at Nick. "I see you've managed to drag the Chastain name into the papers. The least you could have done was stay clear of Chastain, Inc. until the worst of the fuss blows over. We don't need that kind of publicity."

"How long have you been looking for the journal, Uncle Orrin?" Nick sank down into one of the gray leather chairs. Orrin hated to be reminded of their biological relationship, so Nick made it a point to drop the word "uncle" into the conversation as often as possible whenever he visited.

In truth, there was not much of a family resemblance. Nick had been told that he looked very much like his father, Bartholomew. Orrin, on the other hand, had the light brown hair, hazel eyes, and sturdy build that characterized much of the rest of the Chastain gene pool.

Orrin ripped off his glasses and tossed them carelessly onto the desk. "What in five hells are you talking about?"

"You were dealing with that antiquarian book dealer, Morris Fenwick, who was murdered last night. You have no interest in rare books in general, so you must have been after the Chastain journal."

"That's a goddamned lie."

"I found your name and private phone number in Fenwick's address file last night."

Orrin's jaw clenched. "You went through a dead man's address files?"

"I had a little time to kill while my companion and I waited for the cops. Don't worry, I removed the card with your phone number on it."

Orrin's face reddened with anger. "You're a disgrace to your name."

"I believe you've mentioned that once or twice."

Nick's young unwed mother, Sally, had made certain that her son carried his father's name. That fact was a festering sore in the sides of the legitimate Chastains. They saw it as a blatantly encroaching move on Sally's part, an attempt to try to grab a share of the Chastain fortune.

Gruff, taciturn, good-hearted Andy Aoki had raised Nick after Sally's car had plunged off a jungle mountain road. Andy had owned the tavern in Port LaCon-ner where Sally had worked. She had left her infant son with Andy the day she headed for Serendipity to find out what had happened to Bartholomew Chas-tain. She had never returned.

Nick had grown up in the tavern. He had learned a lot from Andy including how to stop a bar brawl, how to survive in the jungle, and the elements of honor and self-control.

Andy was the only parent Nick had ever known. When he was thirteen he had told him that he wanted to change his last name to Aoki.

Andy gave him a long thoughtful look and then slowly shook his head. "Your mama wanted you to be a Chastain, son. And so did your pa. You need to honor their memory by respecting that."

"I'd rather honor you," Nick said, meaning every word.

Andy's eyes lit with a rare warmth. "You've already given me more than you'll ever know, son. It's enough. Keep your name."

Andy had died a little more than three years ago, a casualty of the Western Islands Action. He had been shot dead by one of the invading pirates while defending his tavern. At the time, Nick had been deep in the jungles together with Lucas Trent and Rafe Stone-braker, hunting more of the invaders.

Andy had died behind his cash register. The rifle at his side had been fired until it was empty. Nick had managed to shove his grief into a dark corner of his mind but he doubted if it would ever disappear entirely.

After he had tracked down Andy's killer, Nick had finally gotten around to sorting through the contents of the cluttered storeroom behind the tavern. The old storage shed had been crammed with memories of a life that had spanned eighty-one years. Nick had found faded photos of Andy's long-dead wife, records of his early jelly-ice prospecting trips, business receipts, copies of Nick's school records, and childhood artwork.

He also found the small metal box that had belonged to his mother. The discovery had come as a stunning surprise. Andy had told him that all of her possessions had been destroyed in a fire that had consumed her house around the time of her death. But before she had left on the fatal trip to Serendipity, Sally had apparently hidden the metal box in Andy's back room without telling him what she had done.

Inside the box Nick had found only one item, the last letter that Bartholomew Chastain had written to Sally before he set out on the Third Expedition.

Nick still couldn't decide which irritated his Chastain relatives more, Sally's defiant attempt to force them to acknowledge her son, or the fact that he had made his fortune on his own and had no interest in their wealth.

The Chastains were accustomed to controlling people with money. Nick's failure to ask anything of them made him, in their eyes, uncontrollable and therefore dangerous. Nick understood. He was, after all, a Chastain, himself. He figured that his own need to be in command of any given situation was probably stronger than that of all the other members of the clan put together.

"I didn't come here to reminisce about the past, delightful as that no doubt would be," Nick said. "I want to know about your interest in the Chastain journal."

"What about it? If my brother's private journal exists, it belongs in the family." Orrin's mouth tightened. "The legitimate branch of the family."

"I've done a lot of thinking since last night. No offense, Orrin, but it's difficult to believe that you've suddenly developed a keen interest in family history, especially the part my father played in it."

"Just what in hell is that supposed to mean?"

Nick smiled. "We both know that it was the fact that my father died out in the islands that made it possible for you to take over the reins of the family empire, wasn't it?"

"Bastard," Orrin hissed.

"Yes, but that's old history. As I was saying, if Bartholomew Chastain had lived, you wouldn't be sitting where you are today. What's more, he would have married my mother and I would have become the heir apparent to Chastain, Inc. Funny how things work out, isn't it?"

"Bartholomew would never have married your mother." Orrin's face worked furiously. "He knew his duty. He would never have given the Chastain name to some cheap hooker he met in a Western Islands bar."

The blood suddenly pounded in Nick's ears. He was on his feet before he had time to think. He rounded the corner of the desk and seized a fistful of Orrin's expensive shirt.

"My mother was not a hooker," he said very, very softly. "Don't ever call her that. Do you hear me, Uncle Orrin? Don't ever call my mother a hooker or, so help me, you and everyone else on the legitimate side of the Chastain family will pay."

Orrin's mouth opened and closed. His eyes bulged. "I'll have my secretary summon security."

"My parents planned to marry when my father returned from his last expedition. But Bartholomew Chastain didn't make it back alive." Nick leaned closer. "No one knows exactly what happened, but we all know who benefited, don't we?"

Orrin's mouth opened and closed twice more be fore he managed to put a coherent sentence together. "How dare you imply that I might have had anything to do with Bart's death or that I was glad he never returned. That's a goddamned lie."

"Is it?"

"Face the facts, Nick. There never was a Third Chastain Expedition. It's just a legend. The most likely explanation for Bart's disappearance is that he walked off into the jungle one afternoon and committed suicide. He was a matrix. Everyone knows they're not real stable."

"If you believe that there was no Third Expedition, why are you after his journal?"

"Look, I'm not saying that Bart didn't leave a personal diary of some kind," Orrin snapped. "God knows, he was obsessive about keeping notes on everything. But it couldn't be a record of the Third Expedition because that venture never took place."

The roaring in Nick's ears diminished. He noticed that his hand was clenched much too tightly around the fine fabric of Orrin's shirt front. Disgusted with the loss of self-control, he released his grip and took a step back.

A glint of gold caught his eye. He glanced at Orrin's expensive cuff links. They were each elegantly embossed with a large C and the initial O. Every man in the Chastain family received a pair of gold cuff links when he came of age. Nick wondered what had become of his father's set. Damned if he would ask Orrin.

He met his uncle's eyes. "So we come back to the basic question," he said softly. "Why would you be willing to pay a lot of money for my father's journal?"

"Because it's a family heirloom." Orrin straightened his tie and collar. "If you had any sense of responsibility toward the family you'd understand that. Now get out of here before I have you thrown out."

"I'm on my way." Nick walked to the door. He paused briefly just before he opened it. "I almost forgot to ask, how are things going with Glendower? Any luck convincing him to pour money into Chastain, Inc.?"

Orrin stared at him with stunned shock. Then a slow flush rose in his face. "What do you know about Glendower?"

Nick shrugged. "I'm aware that Chastain, Inc. is in bad shape since the acquisition of Meltin-Lowe. You paid far too much for the company, didn't you? Meltin-Lowe turned out to be a very deep hole. Now you're in trouble. You need cash so you're wooing potential investors. I believe Glendower is the third one you've talked to in the past six weeks."

"That is none of your business, damn it."

"Relax, I'm family, remember?" Nick smiled. "But a word of warning, Uncle. I know you've got a cashflow problem, but if you're after Bartholomew Chas-tain's journal because you believe those old rumors about the treasure, save your time and energy. The legend that my father discovered a fortune in fire crystal is just that, a legend. Old Demented DeForest invented that part of the story just like he did the part about aliens abducting the expedition team."

Without waiting for a response, Nick let himself out of the office. He closed the door very quietly.

Helen bristled when she saw him.

"Have a nice day." Nick smiled as he went past her desk.

She flinched.

He walked down the plush corridor to the elevator. When the doors slid open he stepped inside and glanced at his watch. Perhaps Zinnia had called by now. Impatience and a strange sense of eagerness pulsed through him.

A few minutes later, he walked out of the imposing entrance of the Chastain building and into a light misty rain. He strode quickly to where his dark green Synchron was parked at the curb.

He reached for the phone as soon as he was behind the steering bar.

"I'm on my way back to the casino, Feather." Nick eased the sleek Synchron into the light traffic. "Any messages?"

"I put out the word that you were willing to pay five grand for any information about the Chastain journal, just like you said, boss. But nothing so far."

"Double the reward." Nick absently calculated the distances that separated the Synchron from the other vehicles on the street. He factored in the effects of the rain, the wet pavement, and the speed of the blue compact ahead of him. Something was not quite right in the matrix. He changed lanes.

The driver of the blue compact suddenly slammed on his brakes, narrowly avoiding a rear-end collision with another vehicle. Tires screeched. Horns blared. Nick accelerated smoothly past the near-accident.

He drove the same way he did everything else, with an instinctive awareness of all of the elements in the matrix in which he moved. He always knew exactly where he was in relation to the objects around him. His timing was nearly always perfect. It was one of the side effects of his psychic talent.

"Any other messages?" he asked.

"Nothing important," Feather said.

Nick tightened his grip on the phone. "Has Miss Spring called yet?"

"No, boss."

"I'll be there in a few minutes." He punched the disconnect button on the phone.

She would call. He was good at this sort of thing. He knew she would call.

But he could feel something shifting again in the matrix. Zinnia was proving to be unpredictable.