“I’ve met monsters,” she said. “Spode, for example. Did you know that each of the topiary funeral vaults in that horrible maze marked one of his murders or one of his father’s? He was a serial killer. So was his father. Spode told himself he wasn’t because he did it for the money. But he was one of the real monsters.”

“I didn’t know about the topiaries.” Harlan paused. “Can I assume we are not talking about us in the past tense?”

“Unless you run very far, very fast, I’m going to marry you.”

He smiled a slow smile that was so hot it could have ignited a fire. “What happens if I run?”

“I’ll walk into hell to find you.”

“Right answer.” His eyes burned. “No one has ever offered to do that for me.”

“It’s not an offer, it’s a promise,” she said.

“I love you, Olivia.”

“I love you, Harlan.” She started to close the bathroom door but paused. “Wait. You never told me how you found the island.”

“People keep asking me that question.”

“Gee, I wonder why.”

“I’ll tell you at breakfast, and then I’ll have to go through it again later this morning when we meet with Arganbright and Pine and the others.”

CHAPTER 50

They gathered in the reception area of the offices of Lark & LeClair. Daniel Naylor, the administrative assistant, was ensconced behind his desk, looking cool and effortlessly trendy, as usual. Victor and Lucas were seated in the two chairs intended for clients. Additional chairs had been hauled out of the inner offices to provide seating for Olivia and Catalina. North Chastain and Catalina’s husband, Slater Arganbright, were propped up against one of the walls.

Harlan was standing at the window. Olivia knew the position was strategic. It allowed him a view of the street as well as the door of the office. He was back in his nothing-to-see-here mode. Old habits die hard, she thought. Or maybe he wasn’t ready to risk a few new habits.

She did not need her aura-reading talent to pick up the vibe of relief that flooded the small space.

“We discovered early on that the old Vortex lab was on an island in the San Juans,” Harlan said. “Given time we could have searched each one, but time was the one thing we didn’t have. We had a lot of other data, however.”

“The paintings, the camera and our very own oracle,” Victor said.

Olivia was tempted to interrupt with another denial of her so-called oracle status but decided that, under the circumstances, she would exercise some restraint.