“Your mother definitely had it with her the day she was killed. She couldn’t have taken the holographic image of the man with the recorder otherwise. Where do you think she hid it during the years you were growing up?”

“She had a safe-deposit box,” Olivia said. “After her death I opened it, but it was empty. The bank had a record of her accessing the box a few days before her death. I suppose she could have stored the camera in the box all these years.”

“And removed it when she made plans to meet the killer,” Harlan said.

“Yes, but if she kept it hidden for so long, why would she give it to a stranger?”

He thought about that. “Maybe she never told you about it because you showed no signs of developing your grandmother’s talent. It might have been her way of trying to protect you from the dangers involved with Vortex.”

“But she left me the clue in the painting in case I someday discovered that I was the granddaughter of the Vortex oracle?”

“Maybe.”

“Why not tell me the truth about my grandmother?”

“A lot of people function under the illusion that it’s better to hide dangerous truths,” Harlan said. “A case of need-to-know. You didn’t have the oracle talent, so you had no need to know what it might mean. As for giving the camera to a stranger, he must have said something to convince her that it would be safer to get rid of it.”

“So she gave it to a man who promised safety?”

Harlan swirled the wine in his glass, thinking. “He may have used the recorder to hypnotize her. Or maybe he simply told her he was from the Foundation and that she and her daughter would be safer if she gave up the camera.”

Olivia’s fingers tightened around her own glass. “You sound very sure of that.”

“I’m pretty good at figuring out how the monsters think, Olivia.”

She stopped in front of the fireplace and gazed into the flames. “The man in the hologram killed my mother for the camera. Presumably he got what he wanted. So how did it end up in Gwendolyn Swan’s shop?”

He was on steadier ground now. She was asking for logical answers. He could handle that. “Here’s what I’m seeing—”

“Seeing?”

He waved that off. “Visualizing. Whatever. Here’s the scenario that is taking shape. The killer murders your mother, grabs the camera and then realizes he can’t access it. And he has just murdered a woman who could unlock the artifact.”

“He must be a strong talent,” Olivia said. “I almost killed a much younger man with the camera. Mom managed to take that hologram of the monster, but he evidently survived.”

“We can assume we’re dealing with a high-end talent,” Harlan said, “one who was able to resist the full force of the energy in the camera.”