The Shop of Shades and Secrets (Modern Gothic Romance 1) (38 page)

“Gideon, I did a Tarot reading tonight—my first one ever—and it said that Fiona’s in
danger
. You have to find her! She went somewhere with Barnaby, and I’m sure he’s going to hurt her!”

He’d shifted his car into reverse and pulled out of his parallel spot, even as he responded, “You did a Tarot reading and you want me to use that as an excuse to hunt her down? Iva, you know I love you but—”

“Gideon! This is your grandfather. Now listen to me—forget what Iva said about her Tarot reading—this is serious. Fiona did a palm reading on Barnaby tonight and—”

“Not you too!” Gideon exploded, nearly slamming on the brakes in the middle of the street. Had his whole world gone mad? “Look, I’m going to go home and—”

“
Gideon!
” His grandfather thundered. “I’m going to hang up and call the police. Do you want me to tell you what’s going on first or not?”

“What?” Now his heart was starting to pound. “What!”

“When Fiona did the palm reading on Barnaby tonight, she told Iva that she had the most immediate, forceful reaction to him—one of dislike and fear. She sensed something was wrong, but she didn’t know why. Barnaby told her he wanted to go to the shop to look for his wallet, which he thought he’d left there…but I saw him use his wallet to pay for a drink tonight.
He was lying to her.
He’s up to no good, Gideon!”

“All right. I’m on my way to the shop. Five minutes. Wait to call the police until I check back in with you, okay? Just in case Iva’s wrong.”

He disconnected the call and immediately called Fiona’s cell, but of course she didn’t answer. And based on the fact that she never did, he knew it meant nothing. But he’d had to try.

For all he and his grandparents knew, the wallet line was a ruse for Barnaby to get Fiona into bed at his house. Or sprawled on that big old desk in her shop.

Lightning-quick jealousy shot through him, and Gideon turned his attention back to the shop’s door, squinting even harder this time. He was just about to turn away when he saw a faint light near the back of the shop come on, then go off. Then, moments later, a very bright light glowed from the back.

That did it.

He tried the door, and to his shock and amazement, it opened. Unfortunately, bell above jingled as he slipped in, making his presence known.

“Fiona?” he called.

Only three lamps had been lit, and the shadows loomed tall and dark. Everything was silent and eerie. Gideon felt a shiver crawl up his spine as he stepped a few more paces into the shop. “Fiona, are you here?”

“She’s a bit indisposed at the moment.”

The voice, a whip crack, snapped through the air and Gideon turned to face Barnaby Forth—who had a gun pointed straight at him.

His insides tightened and he gritted his teeth, ignoring the threat of the weapon. “If you’ve hurt her, I’ll kill you.”

Forth laughed. “You sound like a frigging B-movie actor, Nath. Why don’t you step this way before my trigger finger shows you how happy it is to see you.”

“Where’s Fiona?” Gideon snapped, but turned as the gesturing gun insisted he do. There was no sense in getting himself shot before he found out what was going on.

The metal poked him in the back, but they hadn’t taken two steps toward the bowels of the shop when a gust of wind blasted toward them.

Gideon paused, frowning. The gust was cold and sudden, and brought with it the strong scent of roses…and then it was gone. The gun jabbed him, and Gideon glanced behind him to see Forth darting his eyes around the shop.

“What is that?” Forth said furiously.

Gideon didn’t reply, but the hair on the back of his neck had lifted. And all at once, he remembered Fiona’s babbling about unplugged lamps and odd things happening in the shop. Then he tripped and stumbled over something in his path.

“Fiona,” he gasped, heedless of the gun behind him, and fell to his knees beside her crumpled body. Thank God there was no blood, and she was breathing…but she wasn’t moving and her skin felt cold and clammy.

He didn’t have a chance to do anything more than touch her face before Forth stalked up beside him. “She’s all right—for now. You being here is going to make this a lot easier for me, Nath. I was going to have to stage this to look like another break-in, but now I can just make it look like a lovers’ tryst gone bad.”

He stepped back, the gun still clutched in his hand as he gestured around the shop. “A few candles, a little bit of wine, and a little carelessness…you knock the candles over and the whole place goes up in smoke—the two of you along with it.”

Gideon pulled slowly to his feet, taking care not to make any sudden move. “Why, Forth? What am I missing?” He leaned casually against a table, noticing a short brass statue of a Buddha that looked like it’d pack a good wallop.

“My uncle was not a nice man. He was one of Hitler’s elite, and somehow managed to escape here in Philadelphia. If it ever came out that Nevio Valente was the notorious Josef Kremer, I’d be ruined. My political career would be over before it started.”

He glared down at Fiona. “The old man wrote everything down. He had a journal and put everything in it—even boasted to me once about how he’d bashed his old lady on the head because she’d tracked him down and threatened to expose him—Gretchen. Must be the body you found here. He made me sit and listen to him, time and time again, over and over. He promised he’d leave me the money, but there wasn’t any mention of it in the will. Nothing. And then he gave this shop to
her
. It was a slap in the face, after all I’d done for him, sitting and listening and keeping it all a secret.”

“Were you the one blackmailing him, then?” Gideon asked.

“Me? No, damn it. Wish I’d thought of it, to be honest, but once he told me about his past, I knew I couldn’t. But I believed Uncle Nevio when he told me he’d leave me the bank accounts and the journal so I could destroy them. It was Rudy and Viola who were blackmailing him. He knew it all along, and he damn well paid them—that I can’t understand.” Barnaby shook his head, then glared anew in the low light. “The damn journal’s around here somewhere—and I can’t find it, so the whole place is going to be torched. Can’t take the chance it’ll be found. I’d hoped to track down the numbers of his bank accounts in Switzerland…but your damn girlfriend wouldn’t tell me that either.” He brought back his foot and, before Gideon could react, rammed his toe viciously into Fiona’s still body.

Gideon’s vision blazed red, and he caught himself just before making what would have been a fatal move toward Forth—for the gun was pointed right at his abdomen.

“Now, now, Nath…I didn’t realize you had a temper like that. Why don’t you just—”

Forth didn’t finish his sentence, for all of a sudden, another whoosh of something blasted by them. It was stronger than before, palpable and cold, and it ruffled their hair. The scent of roses was accompanied by a faint moaning, whistling sound.

“What the hell is going on?” Barnaby whirled to look behind, and Gideon took his chance, surging toward him.

Barnaby turned in that split second, swinging his gun, just as Gideon slammed into him. As they fell, Gideon banged his head on the edge of a heavy table, and heard the crack of the gun firing near his head. He wasn’t hit, but his head swam with pain. He looked up to see Barnaby poised with the gun, kneeling above him, and just as the man swung it to cold-cock him, Gideon rolled, and the metal crashed harmlessly onto the cement floor.

Pulling to his feet, Gideon staggered against a table and looked down to find the gun trained at his forehead.

“Say goodbye to your girlfriend, Nath. I promise to take good care of her.”

Gideon froze and watched as Barnaby’s finger squeezed the trigger. Suddenly, the lights went out, plunging the shop into total darkness. Gideon jumped to the side as the sound of the gun’s retort filled the space. Then, silence.

Gideon, who’d fallen on the floor when he moved, silently shifted backward, trying to keep his breathing soft and silent.

It was so dark…dark enough that he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. Then he noticed two tiny lights glowing from the back of the shop, and Gideon felt his body numb as the lights moved, coming closer…and then he recognized them as belonging to the cat, Gretchen. She was stalking them, moving toward them, her green eyes fixed, unblinking, in a manner that made the hair on the back of his neck rise again.

His attention whirled to the front of the shop when a light suddenly blinked on…then off…then another came on…then off…and then another and another.

Gideon gaped at the display, and, in the dim light, saw Forth staring toward the front of the shop. Even in the soft glow, he noticed the other man’s jaw sagged in shock, and from his silhouette, he could see the gun hanging uselessly by his side.

One light stayed on, and all of a sudden, the moaning sound came back, along with another blast of wind—this time as though it were coming down the stairs to the second floor. It was as loud as a train, roaring and cold, and beneath it that eerie moaning noise.

“What’s going on in here?” Forth shrieked, his eyes wild.

A crash splintered the air, and Forth jumped, whirling around and fired in the direction of the noise, the sound metallic and sharp compared to the horrible moaning sound. He shot again, and something near the front of the store exploded into pieces.

Gideon didn’t move—he just stood there, frozen in fascination and horror. His hands turned clammy and his heart raced inside as he wondered, too, what was happening—but whatever it was had served to distract Barnaby. Gideon groped along the table for the brass Buddha he’d seen earlier, and hefted it gently in his hand.

Just as he turned his attention back to Forth, all of the lights in the shop went black. He heard Barnaby’s gasp, then jolted when Forth fired his gun again into the silence.

Then, nothing. It was dark—black—and silent and cold…very cold.

And the smell of roses was very, very strong.

Gideon thought he heard a whimper from the other man, but he did nothing but tighten his grip on the statue.

The air moved. Something cool brushed past him, and past Barnaby, who gave a low shriek.

Then all at once, every light in the shop blasted on at full brightness. Gideon saw the frozen, terrified look on Forth’s face before everything went black again.

The sound of heavy, short breathing rasped in the air, grating in the silence. A stale smell permeated the room, growing stronger and closer over the essence of roses, filling Gideon’s nose with such horror that he wanted to choke. It didn’t smell rank or putrid…it just smelled cold and stale and…dead.

He drew in a deep breath through his mouth, trying not to smell it, and trying to remain calm. A soft groan from below alerted him to Fiona’s movements next to him on the ground, and Gideon stepped closer to her. He felt her shift against him just as the roar of wind came through the room again.

Barnaby fired again, and then, again, all was still, there in the smothering blackness.

But this time, when Gideon turned, he saw something that made his hair lift all along the back of his neck.

It was an amorphous shape…greenish, yellowish, and it glowed there in the dark as it wisped like curls of smoke right in front of Barnaby.

The man’s illuminated face was frozen in an expression of slack-jawed terror, and he gasped for air as though something pulled the life out of him. The shape…the ghost, for lack of a better word, swirled gently, and, as Gideon watched, metamorphosed into something that resembled a figure. A woman.