Page 41 of Demon Loved
Belshegar could see that. They were somehow masterful and casual at the same time, conveying an almost effortless combination of light and shadow, of brushstrokes that were strong without overwhelming a piece.
The woman went to fetch a card and wrote something down on it, then brought it back to him. “Here you go,” she said. “We’re open seven days a week, so drop by any time you like.”
He took the card and thanked her, then headed outside. A glance at the back of the card told him the name of the painting was “Oak Creek Reflections.”
The same Oak Creek he’d be visiting in a few hours?
It must be. He had a hard time believing there would be two of them in the same general location.
A coincidence, most likely. Still….
He slipped the card into his jeans pocket and made his way down the sidewalk. Perhaps it would be too much to ask that someone might simply provide him with Angela and Connor’s address here in Jerome — he could tell the woman at the co-op had known and had withheld that vital piece of information — but he still knew much more than he had even ten minutes ago.
Sooner or later, he’d be able to track them down…and the artifacts as well.
13
Bill was right on time. Not that Brianna had expected anything less of him, but still, it was nice to know he could be relied on not to show up half an hour late with a mouthful of excuses.
She didn’t have a lot of patience for that kind of behavior, not after one of her college boyfriends had been the type of person to have only a nodding acquaintance with anything remotely resembling a schedule.
And she also noted that today Bill was much more casual, in faded jeans and hiking boots and a light blue T-shirt. A pair of sunglasses hung from the neckline of that shirt, although she’d never seen him wear any before and had figured he must be one of those people who didn’t have a problem with lots of light.
Apparently not. Or maybe he’d come to realize after spending some time in Jerome that the hard, bright sunlight of northern Arizona was a lot different from what he was used to in L.A.
“Ready?” she asked, and he nodded. He’d given a brief glance around the room after she let him in, probably to get an idea of what her furniture and decor were like, but it wasn’t as if he’d been openly staring or anything. Since she did pretty much the same thing whenever she was in a new place, she couldn’t exactly give him grief for that.
“I’m looking forward to seeing Oak Creek,” he said.
So was she. Every once in a great while, she had a gig in Flagstaff, but most of the time, she had no real reason to go that way, which meant she only went into the canyon for the sole purpose of wanting to soak up its beauties.
“I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised,” she said lightly. “I’ve already got some bottled water and snacks in Sally, so we’re ready to go.”
“‘Sally’?” he echoed, now looking confused. “Who’s that?”
“My Suburban,” Brianna replied. “Don’t ask me why I gave her that nickname. She just felt like a Sally to me.”
His shoulders lifted, but it appeared he was ready to go with the flow, since he only said, “Then let’s get in Sally and get going.”
Smiling, Bree picked up the backpack-style purse she used for these sorts of outings and slung it over one shoulder, then waited while he stepped onto the landing so she could lock the door behind them. With a key, of course; she wasn’t stupid enough to lock up her apartment by merely touching her finger to a door handle with him standing there.
The apartment had one parking space carved out between the rear of the building and the side of the hill directly behind it, and she led him back there so they could both get in the SUV. A moment to back out and another to reorient the vehicle so they were pointing in the right direction to pull onto Main Street, and then they were on their way.
Should she ask him what he’d been up to earlier today? That kind of query felt like regular small talk to her, but she didn’t want him to think she was prying or anything.
Probably better to start with the weather. That was innocuous enough.
“I’m glad it’s cooler today,” she remarked as they made their descent toward Clarkdale. “We’ll probably be able to last a little longer.”
“Yes, I noticed that,” Bill replied. “It feels more like fall.”
It did. Not that they probably wouldn’t peak in the upper seventies, but that was still better than the mid-eighties it had been for the past week. Brianna tended to keep an eye on the weather reports just because some of her gigs were outdoors and it was always good to know if there might be a last-minute switch to an indoor location if it got too windy or started to rain, and from what she could tell, Jerome was supposed to experience a slow cooling trend over the next week.
Yes, autumn really was almost here.
Although they’d driven through Cottonwood before now and on the highway beyond, she noticed that Bill still paid close attention to everything flowing past outside the Suburban’s windows. And when they passed the turnoff for Airport Mesa and began driving through the heart of Sedona and into Uptown, he was practically like a little kid with his face glued to the window.
“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” she asked, and he nodded.
