Page 96 of It takes a Psychic

“It did answer a couple of very interesting questions,” she said. “We now know the identity of the body we found inside the Vortex machine. Cyrus Willard, twin brother of Nigel Willard, the man who kidnapped Molly all those years ago. I didn’t recognize him because the mummification process distorted his features. The last entry in the journal is about his plan to climb inside the Vortex machine. He was convinced he would emerge with all of Vance’s powers and the stability needed to control them.”

Oliver reached for the last slice of pizza. “Thus proving he was unstable before he went into the machine. Only a deranged individual wouldhave climbed into that thing without making sure there was an exit strategy.”

“I wonder if the Willards really were descended from Vance.”

“It’s possible. Vance ran a cult and he was a womanizer. By all accounts, he had more than one lover.”

“A biological connection to Vance is not something most families would advertise. Definitely not the kind of thing you want to put down on a matchmaking agency questionnaire.”

She had called Molly and the moms to give them a full report and assure them that she and Oliver and Roxy were okay. They had wanted to see her when she arrived but she had pleaded exhaustion and promised to get together in the morning for a full accounting.

The first thing she had done after leading Oliver into her apartment was open a bottle of wine and order an extra-large pizza from Ollie’s House of Pizza.All four food groups in each delicious bite.

She and Oliver were now kicked back on the sofa in her apartment. The pizza box was empty and they were making their way through the last half of the wine. Roxy was on the table polishing off her final slice of pizza.

There were answers in the journal, and some of them were unsettling. Talking about them with Oliver was complicated, Leona thought, because they edged too close to the Griffin Family Secret. She had tried to go there when she told him that she was sure she was a triple, but he had seemed unconcerned, maybe because he didn’t believe her. The fact that she did not know the nature of her third talent made the claim hard to prove.

Still, the question of whether or not she had three talents had been raised, at least. It was no longer a secret. The mystery of her birth and the reasons why she had cause to believe she was a triple, however, were still a deep, dark family secret.

Molly had taken the huge risk of confiding the truth about theirorigins to Joshua, but that was different. She and Joshua had been through a lot together. They trusted each other. They were going into a Covenant Marriage. They were making a lifelong commitment.

She and Oliver, on the other hand, were merely sleeping together. Correction—they’d had a one-night stand.

She drank some wine and thought about that. When you got right down to it, they were not even involved in a serious romantic relationship. Yes, they had been through some bad stuff together and survived—which probably explained the hot sex. But they were nowhere near family secret territory. Maybe at some point in the future…

Great. Now she was sliding into a brooding mood.Achieving Inner Resonancestrongly advised against allowing that state of mind to take control. Besides, this was not the time to contemplate the possibility of a future with Oliver. They both had too many other things to focus on. Priorities.

“It might be interesting to do a genealogical search on the Willard family,” Oliver said.

Clearly he was focusing on priorities. She suppressed a sigh.

“Good idea,” she said, trying for a bright and professional vibe. “The moms conducted one on Nigel Willard after he kidnapped Molly, but they didn’t get far. He was a real loner. There was certainly no mention of a twin or a sister. They found enough mysterious dead ends to conclude that he had gone to a lot of trouble to erase most of his history. That made them think that there was probably a streak of psychic instability in the bloodline. Families will go to almost any length to conceal that kind of thing.”

“Discovering that Nigel Willard had a twin and a sister will give your mothers some new leads,” Oliver said.

“When you think about it, it doesn’t matter if they were Vance’s descendants.” Leona swirled the wine gently in her glass. “Both brothers have been dead for years, so we won’t be getting any more answers from them.”

“The sister may still be alive, though. If she is, she will probably be living in an asylum under an assumed name.”

“The moms will find her. They are very good at that kind of research.”

Roxy chose that moment to bounce off the coffee table and hustle over to the balcony door. A dust bunny with places to go and things to do.

She stopped and chortled. Leona pushed herself up from the sofa and crossed the room to open the door. Roxy dashed out onto the patio and disappeared into the night, fascinator ribbons flying.

Leona smiled. “She’s back in town and ready to party.” She closed the door, flopped down on the sofa, and yawned. “Wish I had her energy.”

“So do I.” Oliver rested his head on the back of the sofa and contemplated the ceiling. “We’ve resolved several issues, but we don’t have the answer to the most important question.”

She looked at him. “We don’t know the identity of the person who put together the complex schemes that lured both of us to Lost Creek.”

“No, but we know that the individual was in Lost Creek,” Oliver said. “Hiding in plain sight.”

“Think it was someone we met while we were there?”

“Probably, but maybe not. We also know that person was at the Antiquarian Society reception, too.”

“Whoever it was murdered the waiter.”

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