Stealing Shadows

EPILOGUE

MARCH 12, 1999

"I should have realized," Cassie said, shaking her head. "It was making me uneasy that the killer seemed to be blowing hot and cold, varying his methods and the way he left his victims. I should have remembered that was Vasek'sM.O."

Standing at the foot of her bed, Matt said, "Three thousand miles and months away, how could you? Besides, if he was telling Ben the truth, the bastard made damned sure you wouldn't think it was him."

"In other words," Ben said, "you are not and have never been to blame for Conrad Vasek's crimes." Let it go, he added silently, and when she turned her head to smile at him, he felt the warmth like a physical touch, and the bright shimmer of her amusement in his mind.

Bossy.

Never.

Admit it. You like bossing me around.

I love having you around. Big difference.

Cassie reached out a hand, and his fingers twined with hers. Aware of the sheriff's gaze, Ben didn't kiss her, but he thought about it, and Cassie's smile widened.

Oblivious of the mind-play, Matt said, "With Vasek dead, Mike Shaw has pretty much gone to pieces, and even his hotshot lawyer has admitted the only question is whether he gets the gas chamber or locked in a rubber room for the rest of his life. If my vote counts, I say I'd rather my tax dollars weren't spent on keeping him alive."

"You'll be in the majority," Ben said. "But I'm betting he won't be judged fit to stand trial."

Matt shook his head. "Then we'd better ship his ass someplace far away from Salem County. There's a lot of confusion about Vasek's role in all this, but everybody knows Mike was caught with his hands around Abby's throat." His face darkened with the memory.

Ben said, "Since we don't have a jail or hospital capable of dealing with him, I imagine he will be shipped away."

"What about Lucy?" Cassie asked Matt.

"She's finally getting the help she's needed for years. Faced with what his son has done, Russell had to finally admit it wasn't smart to keep some things in the family. He's lived all his life with the knowledge that the Shaws have had a strain of mental instability that apparently goes back several generations. He thought he could handle it, keep his mother safe and Mike from getting worse. And he might have managed it. If Vasek hadn't come looking for a tool."

Which is not your fault, Ben reminded Cassie fiercely.

/ know. I know.

"Anyway, it's over now," Matt said. "Things are finally getting back to normal. And you'll be out of the hospital tomorrow. Which reminds me – Ben said you came out of this with all your psychic abilities fried."

"That," Ben said, "is not exactly how I put it."

"Well, close enough. So it's true, Cassie? You can't read me anymore?"

"I can't read anybody, apparently. Except Ben." The sheriff grinned at his friend. "So how does it feel to be an open book?"

Ben smiled at Cassie. "Actually, it feels pretty great." And deeply, unexpectedly satisfying.

Matt shook his head. "Better you than me. Is it permanent?"

Cassie said, "After reading through Aunt Alex's journals today, I have to say it probably is. At least, to all intents and purposes. She got back some of her ability eventually, but it took nearly twenty years and she was never as strong as she had been before." "Before what?"

"Before she was almost trapped in the mind of a madman. She didn't offer many details, but I gather that just before she quarreled with my mother, she was asked to help find a lost child. The kidnapper was totally insane, and she was adrift for a time in his mind." "Creepy," Matt noted.

"Yes." Cassie didn't reveal to him that she had already faced and was dealing with the knowledge that Conrad Vasek had found his way into her mind uncounted times without her awareness. "Aunt Alex came out of it changed. Emotionally. Mentally. And physically." Her free hand strayed up to briefly touch the white streak at her left temple.

"How about you? Any regrets?" "None at all."

Matt studied her. "I have to say, you look much more peaceful. I guess silence is golden, huh? I mean, except for Ben."

Cassie smiled at him. "You have no idea."

"So if I should need a little special insight in any future investigation – "

"Try tea leaves. Or a crystal ball."

"Anything but you?"

"That's the idea."

"Umm. But you are sticking around, right?"

"Yes," Ben said. "She is."

Bossy.

Never.

"Glad to hear it," Matt said seriously. He eyed them a moment, then added, "I think it's time I was leaving."

"We wouldn't want to rush you," Ben said mildly.

Matt grinned. "Okay, I'm going. But before you lock the door behind me, I should warn you that Bishop said he'd probably stop by sometime today to say good-bye."

Ben waited until his friend said his own good-byes and left to tell Cassie, "Good-bye, hell. Bishop will be very lucky if I don't deck him."

"He told you that you could get me back," Cassie reminded him, smiling.

"Yeah, but the bastard left me to figure out how by myself. If he'd told me, and right from the beginning, you wouldn't have spent a week in a coma and I wouldn't have nearly gone out of my mind worrying about you."

Cassie looked thoughtful. "Maybe we both needed that time. Me to… drift in limbo, where there was nothing to do but think about things, and you to find the willingness to open yourself up and reach out to me."

He lifted her hand to rub it against his cheek. "God knows why it took me so long, why I wasn't willing to admit even to myself that I loved you. The best thing that ever happened to me, and I was afraid to accept it. So afraid I almost lost you."

"You didn't lose me." Her voice was serene, like her smile. "Things happen for a reason, Ben. Aunt Alex knew that if I became involved in the search for a killer here, Abby would be saved – but she also knew what would happen to me, that I'd be trapped by the death of the killer and, she thought, destroyed. So she tried to avoid both fates. She warned Abby, hoping she'd be able to change her own destiny. And she left a warning for me to avoid you, hoping it would keep me safe. Her warning to me should have been delivered on time, but a fluke series of events delayed it. Which gave me the opportunity to meet you and fall in love with you – the only person who really could save me. It all had to happen just as it did."

"If you say so," Ben murmured. But the terror of nearly losing her was still strong in him, and he leaned over to kiss her because he had to.

"I can come back later," Bishop said from the doorway.

Ben made a rude noise, but Cassie sent the agent a welcoming smile. "No, come in."

"If you're here to say good-bye," Ben said.

Bishop didn't appear distressed by this eagerness to see the last of him. "I am," he said calmly.

Cassie gave Ben a look, and he relented. "Thanks for your help," he said to the agent.

"And damn me for not offering it sooner. I'll take it as read, Judge."

"It's always nice to be understood."

Giving up, Cassie said to Bishop, "So you're leaving us. Another so-called psychic to debunk?"

"No, nothing so interesting, I'm afraid. I'm called back to the office on far more mundane matters."

"Well, I would say it's been a pleasure, but we both know I'd be lying. It has been interesting though. As usual."

"For me as well." Bishop eyed Ben for a moment, then told Cassie, "Be sure and invite me to the christening. In the meantime, have a nice life."

"You too." Cassie waited until he'd nearly reached the door, then said, "Bishop?"

He turned, lifting one brow questioningly.

"Good luck. I hope you find her."

That hard, scarred face was perfectly still, perfectly enigmatic. Then he nodded, more in acknowledgment than acceptance, and left.

"Find who?" Ben asked.

Cassie smiled. "Who he's looking for."

"And that is?"

"Not my story."

Ben thought about that for a moment, then blinked. "Christening?"

"I don't know why he thinks there'll be a christening," Cassie said almost absently. "He knows I'm not religious."

"Christening?"

Cassie slid her arms around his neck as Ben leaned over her, and her laugh was soft and warm. "Well, I distinctly remember as I was coming out of the coma hearing you say you were definitely ready for a long-term commitment. As a matter of fact, you were quite fierce about it."

"Yes, but – You're sure? So soon?"

"Positive. Do you mind?"

My darling…

I love you, Ben.

Cassie… my Cassie… I love you so much.

It was a long time later when Ben lifted his head. "A connection that is literally of the flesh. That's what he said when you were still in the coma. I thought he meant because we were lovers, but that wasn't what he meant at all. And just now he asked to be invited to the christening. He knew. Dammit, Bishop knew. How?"

Cassie said serenely, "I suppose he must have seen it in the tea leaves, darling. Does it matter?"

With her warm gray eyes smiling up at him, her slender body in his arms, and the astonishing intimacy of her presence glowing inside him somewhere deeper than thought, Ben decided that nothing else mattered.

Nothing at all.