Cassidy Jones and the Luminous (Cassidy Jones Adventures Book 4) (24 page)

“Why’s everyone up?” Nate asked with alarm as they entered the kitchen. “What’s wrong with Cass?”

I couldn’t bear to lift my head. I just wanted to shrivel up and blow away. My heart broke for Jared.

“Please sit down, boys,” Dad requested solemnly.

Jared pulled out the chair next to me. His arm brushed mine as he sat. I straightened up and found his hand under the table, but couldn’t bring myself to look him fully in the face. His palm was moist. He knew bad news was coming.

Dad broke the news, and a torturous silence ensued. Jared squeezed my hand and finally cleared his throat.

“Vilvary and his bodyguard—they were the only victims?” he asked.

The guilt edging his voice shattered me. Jared felt responsible for the deaths of the two men, which meant he believed his father was a murderer.

“To my knowledge,” Dad answered.

I peeked sidelong at Jared’s profile. His face was deadpan.

“Keep in mind that the cause of death is a presumption at this time,” Dad went on. “Autopsies could reveal more.”

“Like poison,” Nate interjected.

“It doesn’t matter how they died.” Jared stood. “If it’s cool, I need some time alone.”

“Of course,” Mom said, eyes full of sympathy.

I captured Jared’s dangling fingers. He pulled his hand away.

“Thanks for telling me.” Jared turned to go.

“Don’t call your father,” Emery ordered.

I wanted to smack him.

Jared shot Emery a glare over his shoulder.

“I wouldn’t do that,” he said coldly, then left the room.

“Dude, that was heartless,” Nate chided Emery in a whisper.

“So is murder.”

I started to get up.

“Cassidy, give him space to work this out,” Mom advised.

I nodded, then sat back down. Why did everything always have to be so terrible?

“We’re jumping to conclusions,” Dad pointed out. “We only have the details that have been released to the media. Vilvary had a substantial enemy list. Plus, we don’t know for certain if he had hired the men who attacked Jared and followed him. His involvement is complete conjecture.”

“That’s right.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Gavin drew the conclusion that Vilvary was involved in the first place—based on complete conjecture. And Mr. Wells denied it, remember? He said Vilvary had no issues with him. Maybe his death
is
a coincidence.”

“We’ll know soon enough. I’m sure Vilvary has security cameras,” Emery said. Then he steered the conversation toward matters he deemed more critical. “Drake, we need to go over your approach with the Grimm interview, especially in light of last night’s events.”

“Events,” I muttered. Only Emery would describe his near-death experience as an “event.”

~~~

Dad, Ben, Emery, and I headed for the Luminous Water offices a little after ten a.m. Jared and Nate had gone to school. When Dad had suggested that Jared stay home, he politely declined, pointing out, “No one will be following me anymore. Vilvary is dead.”

Dad didn’t argue. Despite his earlier encouragement, he believed, as we all did, that the threat had been eliminated.

“So, Serena found some kind of weird parasite in Luminous Water?” Ben summed up. My dad had shared selective information with him.

Ben didn’t know specifics about the parasite, its link to the missing people, or that said missing people were now slumming around the bottom of Lake Washington. He also didn’t know the aqua people were most likely behind the Lake Washington Monster sightings. The missing locals, the sightings, and the parasite—they’d all come together the moment Mr. Levy came out of hiding, floating in the water like Aladdin’s genie.

“Yes,” Dad confirmed from the driver’s seat. “The interview is a cover. The goal is to determine if Grimm is aware that there is a parasite in his product, without mentioning the parasite, of course.”

“And you’re not just coming out and asking him
why
? You are a reporter, and that is what reporters do.”

“There’s an investigation the public is unaware of,” Dad explained vaguely. Ben also didn’t know Gavin was CIA. “We don’t want to compromise it in any way.”

“Understood,” Ben said. He shivered and made a face. “Glad I never tried the stuff.”

You have no clue, Ben
, I thought.

“Drake, if you don’t mind my saying, you look like you’ve been hit by a semi,” he observed.

“It was one of those nights,” Dad replied dryly.

Glancing out his window, Emery hid a smile behind his hand.

I scowled at him, not seeing the humor in giving my poor dad another one of “those nights.”

Dad pulled into the business complex where the Luminous Water offices were located, an uninspired white building lined with tinted windows.

Luminous Water was on the fifth floor. We entered the reception room, and the cheerful smile of a young male receptionist greeted us. Recognizing him, I almost tripped over my feet. He hadn’t looked so friendly clawing at my face seventy feet underwater.

“May I help you?” he twanged.

I peeked at Emery. With a pleasant expression, he gave his head an almost imperceptible nod, indicating that he recognized the receptionist as well.

“Yes, hello, I’m Drake Jones from Channel Five News. I have an interview scheduled with Patrick Grimm.”

Emery stepped on my toe. Understanding the signal, I hiked up my gaping jaw and forced my eyes to glance around the room, as though admiring it. My thoughts were so scrambled, I wasn’t even sure if I could remember how to walk.

“Great to meet you, Mr. Jones. My name is Josh,” the aqua man introduced himself. “I’ll let Patrick know you’re here.” Smiling, he said into the phone, “Hey, Patrick. Drake Jones is here . . . Will do.” He hung up and explained, smiling his almost-too-pleasant smile, “Forgive the informality, Mr. Jones. We’re like family at Luminous Water.”

I felt my jaw slacken again. Family? Guess that was one way to put it.

“That’s wonderful,” Dad replied. I was glad he didn’t know the truth about Josh. Otherwise, he might be acting as weird as I was, studying a handy brochure about water treatment as though it were the Declaration of Independence.

“You’re lucky,” Dad added.

“Don’t I know?” Josh agreed and stood. “Patrick is a great boss
and
a great guy. You’ll really like him. Follow me, please.”

As we trailed him into a hallway, he gestured to the camera perched on Ben’s shoulder. “I see you’re the cameraman.”

Before Ben could answer, a smiling woman stepped out of an office. My heart skipped a beat as I recognized her, too.

“Hey, Mary Jo,” Josh greeted her, then directed his toothy grin toward Emery and me. “Are you Mr. Jones’s kids?”

“She is. I’m not,” Emery answered with ease. My tongue appeared inoperable. “We’re doing a career thing in one of our classes. Mr. Jones was cool about us following him around.”

“Sounds like fun.” Josh gave me a strange look.

I ducked my head to hide my face. What if he recognized me? The scuba mask and regulator had concealed our faces, and the hood had covered our hair, but who knew what abilities these human hosts had?

“Well, here we are,” Josh announced and knocked on an office door. PATRICK GRIMM, PRESIDENT AND CEO was etched into a brass plate mounted to it.

“
Entrare
!” Patrick Grimm responded. I remembered his voice from the news broadcast.

Josh pushed open the door.

Smiling, Grimm rose from a sleek black-lacquered desk topped with a thick slab of glass.

My eyes narrowed. He had to be one of them, too. However, there was no way to tell. So far, all the aqua people I’d seen appeared like any other human, until they were submerged in water.

“Hello, Mr. Jones.” Grimm rounded the desk to shake Dad’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m honored you’d interview me for
In the Spotlight
.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Grimm.” Dad shook his hand. “I appreciate you making the time. Please, call me Drake.”

“Only if you’ll call me Patrick.”

“I look forward to learning more about Luminous Water, especially your numerous charitable acts. Patrick, this is my cameraman, Ben Johnson.”

“Nice to meetcha, Patrick,” Ben said, shaking hands.

“Likewise, Ben. Did you go?” Patrick indicated to Ben’s X-Games T-shirt.

“I did! It was awesome! You?”

“Nah, haven’t had the chance. But it’s on my bucket list, along with a zillion other things. I’ve seen the world a few times over, but can’t seem to get enough of all it has to offer.”

“I know what you mean,” Ben said and then aimed his grin at Emery and me. “Patrick, this is Drake’s daughter, Cassidy, and our friend Emery.”

“Hmmmm . . .” Patrick rubbed the cleft on his chin, attempting to give us a suspicious look, which his grin utterly defeated. “Playin’ hooky, huh? Not that I’d throw any stones. I cast a line in ol’ Mr. Disick’s pond more than I ever saw the inside of a classroom.” He let out a hearty laugh, holding his thumb and forefinger slightly apart. “Maybe that’s a
slight
exaggeration.”

“Watch him,” a woman’s voice warned in a Southern drawl. “He’s apt to do that.”

I turned around with everyone else, and fire suddenly blasted through my veins. The beast lurched from the recesses of my mind, howling and bloodthirsty.
IT’S HER!

Emery’s fingers dug into my wrist.

I glared at the woman through slit eyes. A growl rumbled deep in my throat.

Emery increased the pressure.

I shook the haze from my head and swallowed the growl.
No, I will not thrust my foot into her gut
, I told myself, unclenching the fist connected to the wrist that Emery was squeezing the tar out of.
No matter how much I want to
.

“—And beware of his big fish stories,” the woman continued, seemingly unaware of my severe reaction to her. “He used to catch bass
this
big in Mr. Disick’s pond.” She held her slim arms wide, as her long legs on high heels clicked their way toward Patrick. “When I was ten, I believed him.”

She pulled up alongside Grimm. Her lips, defined with liner and lustrous lipstick, held a coquettish smile. Her caramel-colored hair was immaculate, but I envisioned it wild, thrashing around in the water, across the sharp edges of her face. Her neat hair revealed a pronounced widow’s peak that resembled a spear, which I had missed last night. I wanted to pluck it from her forehead, strand by strand.

Grimm caught her cheek with a kiss, then draped an arm around her shoulders. “Meet my partner-in-crime and the gullible recipient of my tall tales—”

The woman snorted and slapped his stomach.

“—The beautiful and brilliant Constance Grimm, undeniably my better half.”

“Well, if you insist,” Constance teased and turned up the wattage of her smile. She had the whitest teeth I’d ever seen. “Wonderful to meet you, gentlemen, and my lady.” She slightly bowed her head to me.

Dad, Ben, and Emery returned the sentiment and shared their names while I worked the corners of my mouth up into a rigid half-smile. It was like stirring a stick in setting cement. I had never met such a spirited woman in my life, and under normal circumstances, I could have smiled at her playfulness. But these were far from normal circumstances. She had tried to murder Emery and Jared!

Was it her or the parasite that had tried to drown us?

Is there even a “her” left in there?

That was something to consider. Was the real Constance Grimm no more than a vessel now? Did
she
have any control over her mind?

“And who might you be, pretty lady?”

Constance’s voice knocked me out of my thoughts. I shifted my eyes, which had drifted to her thick brass choker and up to her golden, almond-shaped eyes. Her daughter had inherited her eyes. That’s where I’d seen them before.

“Cassidy Jones.” The words sounded oddly hoarse.

“Well, pleased to meet you, Cassidy.” Constance scrutinized me. Her smile didn’t waver, but I could see that something about me bothered her. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who recognized eyes.

“I’m envious. I’ve always wanted red hair. I’ve been a redhead twice in my life, but could never pull it off.”

“Red?” Patrick feigned confusion. “I recall
orange
.”

“Stop!” Constance gave him a little shove. “He’s been giving me a bad time for years. We grew up together.”

“And she wouldn’t have a thing to do with me all through high school. Broke my heart.” Pouting, Patrick patted over his heart, as though trying to console it. “I blame her for my enlisting in the military the day after graduation.”

“
Patrick Grimm
, you know full well that had nothing to do with me!” Constance protested, wagging a finger in his face. “He’d been accepted to Duke, but thought that college would cramp his style. He wanted freedom, to see the world. So what did he do? Join the United States Army.” She rolled her eyes.

“Yes,” Patrick conceded, good-natured. “I was a lost pup for a long, long time. When my term was up, I left the Army so quickly that heads spun. Then I aimlessly wandered this grand country of ours until I found my way back home to Connie. She’d come to her senses by then, and realized I was the man for her. The rest, as they say, is history.”

“Yep, that’s it, Drake. Guess y’all can pack up and go home now.” Constance winked. “I won’t hold you up anymore. Good luck getting straight answers from this fine specimen of a man. In all honesty, I couldn’t be more proud of anyone. Patrick is an inspiration—a visionary—as you will soon see for yourself. Give Josh a holler if you need anything. Again, wonderful to meet y’all.”

Constance left the room.

I stared at the doorway she had disappeared through, trying to get my mental bearings. My instinctual reaction to her, and the lively, warm woman who had just treated us as though we were neighbors, had my mind spinning in a cyclone of contradictions. At least the confusion had tempered my feral side. I wasn’t seething with murderous hatred—for the moment.

I redirected my attention toward Patrick, who was chatting with Dad and Ben as he helped them organize the room for the interview.