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  If she hadn’t herself been one of the few to ever actually see him, she probably would have doubted his existence. And as she had told Christine, the fact that she had seen him really had increased her cachet at Athena. Girls would cluster around, begging her to tell the story one more time. New girls would be sent to her for the introduction to the legend. For the first time in her life she had understood what cronies of her grandfather meant when they talked about someone dining out on a story.

  So she had known he existed then, and she was almost certain she had seen him again just an hour ago. Then he had been a wild, shatteringly beautiful boy just out of his teens, afire with the passion of his certainty that somehow Athena was responsible for his sister’s death.

  Now she guessed he was in his mid-thirties. And he was still darkly striking, but with the mature handsomeness of a man, not the youthful beauty of a boy. His face was fully adult now, his features strong, his body filled out from that near-skinny teenage gangliness. She hadn’t been close enough to see his eyes all those years ago. Now she knew they were an amazing blue-green, burning with bright, fierce passion. The students had never been told his name, but Alex was certain Christine Evans would confirm it.

  When she’d seen the Angel, he’d been about twenty. And to her somewhat naive, teenage eyes, he’d seemed the most romantic, exciting male creature alive.

  But if she was remembering correctly, the first time he’d broken into Athena had been five years before that, the year after Rainy had started at the academy. She could summon up only the sketchiest of details of that time, since the staff had been so careful not to speak of him or his actions in front of students. She knew only that his sister had died and he had somehow become convinced Athena Academy was, if not totally responsible, at least involved in whatever had happened to her. Alex never really understood why, or even how she had died, because that had also been among the things the adults didn’t discuss in front of them.

  Which of course had only made the legend grow larger and faster.

  Her cell phone rang as she was pulling in front of the guest bungalow, the special ring that signaled it was one of the Cassandras. She parked and went for it immediately, sliding it out of the belt clip and glancing at the screen. Kayla. She hit the talk button.

  “Alex here.”

  “It’s me. I’m heading for a dead zone so I’ve only got a minute. I’ve been looking into that other possibility we were discussing.”

  Alex knew she meant what Tory had brought up, the chance that this had nothing at all to do with Athena. She didn’t think any of them really believed it, but Tory was right, it was possible, and had to be pursued.

  “And?”

  “So far nothing, at least with the people you mentioned. All scattered, and as far as I can tell, none even in the state any longer.”

  “But there are others?”

  “Yes. Sam came through for us via e-mail. She gave me a name. Someone who’s a guest in one of our state-sponsored hotels, with lots of contacts and reasons to be angry. I’m headed there now.”

  So, because of Rainy, somebody was in an Arizona state prison. That would be reason enough to want revenge, certainly. “Anything I can do?”

  “Not at the moment, thanks. Just wanted somebody to know where I was going and why.”

  Alex heard what she wasn’t saying, that none of the Cassandras could take any chances, not now.

  “Good thinking,” she said.

  “I’ll check back with you tonight. Later,” Kayla said, and as if cued by her words the call was dropped.

  Alex disconnected on her end, and found herself feeling good about the fact that Kayla had chosen her to call. Of course, she could have been the only one reachable at the moment, but Alex decided to accept her first thought and not second-guess.

  Since the cell phone connection had been short-lived, she hadn’t been able to tell Kayla what she suspected about Justin. And probably wouldn’t have, not on the cell, not until they knew for sure what connection he had to everything.

  But still, she wondered what Kayla’s reaction would have been. She supposed it would depend on what the answers were to the questions Alex had been wrestling with when Kayla had called with her news. Tough questions she had no answers for. Yet. Like why was he back at Athena now, all these years later? Could he still be carrying that grudge, the cause imagined or not? The idea intrigued her. Could anybody really love a sibling that much, to pursue this madness for two decades?

  She tried to imagine if something happened to Ben. She’d be heartbroken, of course. No matter how he annoyed her with his seemingly aimless lifestyle, he was her brother, they had a lifetime of memories together and she loved him. If something happened to him, if he died and if there was something suspicious about his death, would she have the resolve to hang on that long?

  The answer came to her in a different form, when she thought about simply walking away now from whatever had happened to Rainy, who was not even a blood relation to her. The moment she did, the answer became as clear as the desert sky.

  Oh, yes, she had the resolve.

  So she had to believe the Dark Angel would as well. Justin Cohen, she corrected herself. Now that she knew his name, it would be better to use it. Take some of the mystique away, so she could think about him more rationally.

  But that still left the question of exactly what he was after. The simple answer would be that he wanted the truth about what happened to his sister. But things that involved love and family and death were rarely simple. Alex knew that as well as anyone who worked in the law enforcement field. So even if he was looking for answers, if and when he found them, what then? What did he plan to do with whatever he discovered, if there was even anything to discover? Was he looking for retribution? Revenge, perhaps on any Athenan he could get his hands on?

  Had he already gotten his hands on one of them, and had she died in a freak one-car accident as a result?

  Alex sat there for a very long time, heedless of the heat, her thoughts tumbling. Everything that had happened since Rainy had called her, asking her to come to Athena, no questions asked, ran through her mind. Just the fact that Rainy had invoked the Cassandra promise put this out of the realm of the ordinary.

  She supposed it was possible Justin Cohen wasn’t an enemy, but her instincts were so thoroughly aroused right now everything seemed suspicious to her. And his actions definitely fell into that category. Yet, somehow, realizing he was that boy who had so desperately wanted the answers to his sister’s death changed her feelings a little. It was as if they were on the same kind of crusade, and for the first time she truly understood what had driven him all these years.

  She wondered if her trick of calling the police on him had gotten him into trouble at the field office in Phoenix. And it suddenly struck her, the unexpectedness of the Dark Angel having become an FBI agent. Why? Had he been driven to that course by his obsession with his sister’s death? Had he had some idea he could one day use his position as an agent to open doors closed to him back then?

  She thought back to her own academy days, the hardest sixteen weeks of her life. She’d been in good shape, or so she’d thought, but the physical demands had been beyond what she’d imagined. And the mental demands were only tempered by the fact she’d had the unique training offered at Athena.

  So, would someone really go through the entire, difficult process of becoming a special agent—and with a record of getting in trouble, even if Athena hadn’t prosecuted him for burglary as they could have, it had to have been more difficult for him than for the average guy—just to risk it all for a years-old fixation?

  And the bottom line was still, why now? Why had he come back now, of all times?

  Suddenly all the thoughts, questions, and puzzles whirling in her mind were too much, and she leaped out of the car. Swiftly she walked inside to the phone.

  She picked up the receiver and dialed the extension that would ring in Christine’s bungalow. When the woman
answered, she wasted no time on preliminaries.

  “Did the Dark Angel have any connection to Rainy?”

  “What?” Christine asked, clearly startled.

  “When he was caught here the first time, when Rainy was a second year, was there a connection?”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Christine said. “Why on earth do you ask?”

  “Because he’s here again.”

  “What?” Christine repeated, clearly startled again. “The Dark Angel? You’re not serious?”

  “Justin Cohen,” Alex said, knowing that the name would make her point, since none of the students were supposed to know it.

  “Why, yes, that was his name. How did you find out? We tried very hard to keep all that…hysteria away from you girls.”

  “You succeeded. We never knew his name.”

  “But you know it now,” Christine said slowly.

  “Yes. Remember that FBI agent I caught snooping around in the infirmary?”

  “Yes.”

  She waited, silently, for Christine to make the connection. It didn’t take long.

  “I…you mean he is Justin Cohen? The Dark Angel? Are you certain?”

  “I ID’d him through the FBI. But you would be certain, too, if you’d actually seen him. He was at the graveside service. And I saw him again at Rainy’s doctor’s office. He was apparently searching through her files.”

  “The FBI is investigating this?” Christine sounded both astonished and upset.

  “No.”

  “Then what was he—”

  “He’s apparently doing this on his own, from what I can find out.”

  “Oh.” Christine went very quiet for a moment. “You mean he’s still on his crusade?”

  “So it would seem.”

  “But…you think he was looking for Lorraine’s files, at her personal physician’s office? Whatever would he want them for? What does that have to do with his sister?”

  “My question exactly.”

  “I see. No, Alex, honestly, there was no connection between them that I know of.” She paused a moment before adding, “But it does seem very odd that he should turn up just now, doesn’t it?”

  “Very odd,” Alex agreed, although the word she would have used was suspicious. Very suspicious.

  “What are you going to do?”

  Somehow, during this discussion, the chaotic thoughts had calmed slightly, and out of the mess had crystallized the only logical course of action.

  “I’m going to find him,” she said. “And ask him what the hell he’s up to.”

  “Hopefully he’ll tell you, you being a fellow FBI agent,” Christine said.

  “Oh, he’ll tell me,” Alex promised her.

  One way or another, he’ll tell me.

  She realized she was pacing, already eager to start, take some action. Any action. Mental puzzles were all well and good, but sometimes she just needed to do something.

  But before she hung up, one last question to Christine popped out before she even thought about it.

  “How did his sister die?”

  There was a long pause that made the answer all the more significant when it finally came.

  “She died in childbirth.”

  Alex’s pacing came to an abrupt halt. Christine said no more, but long after she’d hung up Alex still stood there, her gaze unfocused, all those thoughts, possibilities, improbabilities and coincidences rattling around in her head all over again.

  Childbirth.

  Rainy’s eggs.

  What in the hell was going on?

  Chapter 14

  A lex had spent a restless night and woken determined to take action. Christine had her hands full with all the new students this week. Kayla had work. Alex’s job was to pin down the Dark Angel. But where?

  She had to think of him as Justin, she stopped and corrected herself yet again. If she ever let that out he’d probably never talk to her, since he likely had no idea he’d become such a famous figure at Athena, let alone one with a nickname like that.

  Through Kayla she found out that Justin had talked his way out of the situation she’d tossed him into with the police. Alex sat in her car for a moment, thinking.

  She’d done nothing so far this morning but dress in the lightest-weight clothing she’d brought and then run down to her car, when she should have been figuring all this out. Lot of good it did her to be sitting here in the car—other than to put the air-conditioning on full blast so she could stand to be in it—with no idea of where she was going to go first.

  Mental abilities had been stressed as much as and sometimes more than the physical at Athena. And that had included understanding people. Her time with the FBI had only honed that ability. She just had to remember that although this was so very much more personal, she still needed to handle it as if it were a case she’d been assigned to.

  So, think! she ordered herself silently.

  What would Justin do now? She ticked off the possibilities.

  The first one that came to her was that he could go back to Dr. Halburg’s office. Now that would fit the determination—or the stubbornness—of the man, or at least what she knew of him. Anyone who could hang on to a grudge for twenty years wouldn’t give up at the first sign of trouble.

  She also had a sneaking suspicion it was what she herself would do, under the circumstances.

  She supposed he could quietly go home, wherever that might be. Somewhere in Phoenix or a suburb, most likely. But that course of action didn’t seem very likely to her. This was a man with a mission, and going tamely home to sulk wouldn’t get it done.

  He could continue his search somewhere other than the doctor’s office. Back at Athena, perhaps. She considered that for a moment, then reached for her cell phone and called Christine, who was currently in her office in the administration building.

  “That subject we were speaking of yesterday?” she said. “That…returning pest?”

  “The winged one?” Christine asked, quick to pick up both on her meaning and the need for discretion.

  “Yes, that’s the one,” Alex said. “Keep an eye out. It may come back.”

  “Oh? Do you think it will be flitting around the same light?”

  “Probably. If it does show up again, catch it and hold it. I want to see exactly what it is.”

  “I think I can manage that,” Christine said.

  I have no doubt, Alex thought. And, she added as she hung up, good luck to anyone who thinks you can’t because you’re a bit gray.

  “Now, back to the possibilities,” she muttered as she stood the phone in the cup holder of the rental car.

  If he didn’t go home, to the scene of the most recent crime, or to Athena, then where would he go?

  Maybe back to Phoenix and the FBI office, to try and cover his butt there should anyone from Tucson P.D. decide to make a call and let his superiors know what he was up to. Now that was a definite possibility. In fact, he might just try that first, then go on to one of the other options. Although she didn’t know what kind of story he could concoct that would explain what he was doing in a closed doctor’s office without betraying what she assumed he was keeping secret from his employer.

  Maybe he’s so far gone he doesn’t care about that anymore, she thought. Maybe he’s just decided to go for broke, damn the torpedoes, throw caution to the winds, and all those other clichés men use when they wanted to justify an action they had to know was reckless.

  As her own thoughts echoed in her mind, she suddenly found herself trying to picture Emerson doing anything reckless. She couldn’t imagine any circumstances under which that would happen. And for the first time she wondered if any of his great success as a surgeon resulted from playing it safe, from simply refusing to do operations that were too chancy.

  Deciding that was unfair, and that she didn’t know anywhere near enough about his work to make that kind of judgment, Alex turned her attention back to the problem at hand. Finding Justin Cohen.

&nb
sp; Christine would handle it if he showed up back at Athena, so that was covered. She really didn’t think he’d go and sit quietly at home; if he was that type, he wouldn’t have shown up at Athena or Rainy’s funeral in the first place.

  That left the FBI office and Dr. Halburg’s.

  “Okay, then,” she murmured aloud, “I have to drive through the outskirts of Phoenix to get to Tucson anyway, I’ll just go by way of the FBI office.”

  It was only two or three miles off I-10, if she was remembering correctly. And she thought she was; while still at Athena she’d spent some time there observing.

  She put the now blissfully cool car in gear and headed off the Athena grounds and toward the freeway. She took the eastbound ramp and brought the car quickly up to the speed limit. She settled in for the drive; it was fifty miles to the 7th Street ramp, so she had some time. She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do when she got there…. It struck her then, the obvious answer.

  “Well, duh,” she muttered.

  She started checking off-ramps the moment she got into the urban sprawl that was now Phoenix. She looked at the signs of business that looked easily accessible, spotted a 24/7 convenience store and bailed off the freeway. She pulled up to the pay phone in front, wondering if soon anyone but people who had something to hide would ever use them.

  She checked the phone book, then dug out a quarter. She picked up the receiver then immediately dropped it, it was so hot. She really was out of the habits she’d learned here to deal with the heat.

  She stepped back to the car and grabbed the linen jacket she hadn’t put on because of the soaring temperature. She draped it over her hand and then picked up the receiver again. She took the quarter, slipped it into the slot and dialed.

  “FBI,” a deep male voice answered on the second ring.

  “Yes, is Agent Cohen in?”

  “I’ll check. What’s it regarding, please?”

  She’d known that was coming. “I have some information he wanted, about some property I had stolen.”