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"Kelsey!" It was Liam

"Yes!"

"Oh, ht?"

"I’, too"

"Why are you so breathless?"

"I was downstairs, and I left the phone upstairs"

"Oh" He sounded relieved However, she ?"

"Oh, I just gave myself a scare," she said

"How? You weren’t outside, in the secured area, were you?"

"No, no, of course not"

"What happened?"

She laughed "I really have to go through Cutter’s boxes He’s got soig--black sheets that shoot up out of a crate"

"What?"

"It’s all right, it’s all right, really It’s a ician’s trick, that’s all Where are you?" She tried to be casual "I was just wondering if you wanted to stay and hang here and get started on soht that he hesitated a ht there," he said "Then we’ll decide, if that’s all right But don’t do anything until I get there, okay? It’s locked up tight, right?"

She laughed "Yes, sir, it’s locked up tight Honestly We came hoht there"

He hung up

The house seerandfather had been holding when he died, so she took it from the bedside table where she’d decided to keep it She found her iPod and went downstairs She turned on every light, brewed herself a cup of tea and walked past the crates with the ic trick toward Cutter’s office

She felt uneasy She had spent sothe open crate, or the ic trick She set the tea and the book doent back and opened the crate again

She was perplexed Magic tricks weren’t Cutter’s interest The voodoo altar had been a piece of history--it had been taken from an old home just outside the French Quarter in New Orleans, and Cutter had purchased it from the nener, who intended a redo of the entire place He had been a businessyptian history The coffin, a beautiful piece of Victorian funerary art He had never, in her ain, she hadn’t really begun to go through his ledgers yet

For some reason, the book seemed more important

She went into Cutter’s library and took a seat behind his desk Even with every light in the house on, she was surprised to still feel unco that sohtly out of place

As if someone had been there

But no one had been in the house

Or had they?

Had soic trick to scare her and s around in Cutter’s study?

She stood up uneasily She heard the brass knocker at the door, and she juhed nervously when she realized that Liah the peephole and let him in

He clutched her shoulders and looked into her eyes "You’re all right--really all right?" he asked her

She smiled "Yes, of course Liam, I have an odd request"

"Oh?"

"Is it possible to dust that erprints?"

He arched his brows "Yes Why? You don’t think that someone was in here, do you?"

"I don’t see how anyone could have been in here The place was rekeyed We’ve bolted all the s, and the doors have been locked," she said "I don’t know, I guess it’s bizarre, but…"

He didn’t act as if she was getting paranoid or losing her grip on reality She wasn’t sure that ht?" he asked

She suess we should wake hiht"

"Maybe he wants to do the town tonight," Lia "I was about to start reading the book In Defense froht into Cutter’s state of ht" He frowned "By the here’s the shotgun he was holding? It was left by the fireplace when his body was taken"

She frowned "I believe so I don’t actually re we should find it You read--I’ll start looking for it," he said