Page 97 of When She Dreams

“Yes,” he said. “I did say something like that, didn’t I?”

“I believe you suggested that the Traveler’s target was a woman, but that’s just a detail, isn’t it?” Maggie said.

Arthur turned to Dolores, silently pleading for help. But her attention was focused on Maggie.

“Come with me, Arthur,” Dolores said. She ripped her gaze away from Maggie and took Arthur’s arm in a firm grip. “We must talk to the reporter from theHerald. We may have a chance to get on top of this story after all.”

Sam watched the couple hurry through the crowd. Then he looked at Maggie.

“It’s going to be rather ironic if it turns out you just saved the Institute a second time,” he said.

“Yes, it will be,” Maggie said. “I did it so that you could judge their reaction to the notion of saving the Institute.”

“I know.”

“Well? Did you learn anything?”

“Their reaction confirmed what we already knew. They’ll do anything to salvage the Institute and the business.”

Chapter 44

Beverly was a desperate, unhappy woman,” Pamela Springs said. “She grew up with money, you see. She was accustomed to good clothes and jewelry. She liked to party with her rich friends. But her father lost everything during the worst of the hard times. Took his own life with booze and pills. Earlier this year her sister did the same thing.”

“Detective Brandon wasn’t able to track down any close family members,” Sam said. “Apparently there is just an elderly aunt back East.”

Pamela had been reluctant to talk about Beverly Nevins, but Maggie had assured her she would be paid for her time. Pamela said she needed gas money for the drive back to L.A. and enough cash to cover Nevins’s portion of the rent that month. Maggie told her that was not a problem.

The three of them were drinking coffee at a sidewalk café in the heart of Burning Cove’s fashionable shopping district. Well-dressed tourists and locals strolled the palm-shaded sidewalks and studied theexpensive offerings in the windows of the boutiques and galleries. Viewed from this perspective, Maggie thought, you’d never know the country was still hauling itself out of a terrible depression.

“I told you Bev had a sister,” Pamela said. “Eleanor. She and Bev roomed together in a boardinghouse. Eleanor was a very troubled woman. After she took her own life, Bev moved in with me. For a while she seemed to be doing okay. She got a job working at Bullocks on Wilshire. It was a good position, and she had the polish and the background to sell luxury goods to wealthy people, but she hated it.”

“That explains the fashionable clothes in her hotel room,” Sam said. “Did she steal them so that she could look good for the conference?”

Pamela grimaced. “She said she was borrowing the clothes. She planned to return them to the stockroom when she went back to L.A. Now it looks like I’ll be the one who has to take them back to the store. I just hope I don’t get accused of theft.”

“If there is any problem, give me a call,” Sam said. “I’ll contact Brandon and get things cleared up.”

Pamela relaxed a little. “Thanks.”

“Did Beverly attend the conference at the Institute because she was interested in lucid dreaming?” Maggie asked.

“She wasn’t the least bit interested in dreams,” Pamela said. “Not until she read her sister’s diary.”

Sam didn’t move, but Maggie realized he was suddenly even more focused and intent than he had been a moment ago.

“The sister left a diary?” he said very softly.

Pamela nodded and selected a small sandwich off the tray. “Bev was curious, so she read it. She told me that four years ago Eleanor ran with a fast crowd of society people who were excited by the theories of psychic dream analysis. They joined a group formed by a man who called himself the Dream Master. Silly stuff, Bev said. But apparently the Dream Master was very good-looking. Eleanor fell hard for him. Bev found a photo of the two of them tucked into the diary.”

“Did Beverly come across any other secrets in the diary that might make blackmail material?” Sam asked.

“Apparently one of the members of the group died under mysterious circumstances. There were rumors of drugs. The only other interesting thing was that, according to the diary, the woman who later became Aunt Cornelia was a member of the dream group for a brief time. I think her last name was Dunstan or Danvers or something.”

“Dewhurst,” Maggie said quietly.

“Maybe,” Pamela said. “I don’t remember. I know Bev tried to find her in the Keeley Point phone book and also tried the L.A. phone book, but she didn’t come up with anyone who was female, the right age, and the right social class, so she gave up.”

Lillian was not in the phone book, and she lived in Adelina Beach, not L.A. or Keeley Point, Maggie thought. It would have been very difficult to find her unless you knew more about her than just her name.

---