“ What is it?” Pichot shoved him aside and took a step inside the room.
A red light on the far wall blinked on.
“ No!” Galen grabbed Pichot, pushed him through a window, shattering glass, and dove after him.
The house exploded into a fireball.
Deschamps went rigid as the signal button on the warning device that was always with him went off. He took the device out of his pocket, but the red light went out even as he looked at it.
He closed his eyes as waves of pain surged over him. “ No,” he whispered.
It was gone.
“Damn you.” Travis’s hand tightened on the phone. “ I’m going to break your neck, Galen.”
“ Why bother, when I nearly managed to do that on my own?” He paused. “ I didn’t expect it. I thought maybe a desk or a safe would be rigged but not the whole damn house. The switch wasn’t triggered until Pichot stepped into the room. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Did you get a glimpse of what was in that room?”
“ It looked like a bloody museum. Like an Aladdin’s cave with paintings and sculpture . . . That’s what doesn’t make sense. One of the paintings had to be a Monet. I’d swear it was the water lily painting that was supposedly burned with the Rondeau estate last year. If that was an example of the quality of art treasures in that room, why would Deschamps blow it up?”
“ I’ll ask him . . . when we find him.” He added grimly, “And if you don’t go off on the hunt alone again. I want your promise, Galen.”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“Galen.”
“ I guess fair is fair. I had my shot. I’ll let you have yours.”
“ Thank you,” Travis said sarcastically. “ I appreciate the favor.”
“ You should,” Galen said. “ I was royally pissed when I picked myself up off that sidewalk outside Deschamps’s house.”
“Are you coming back here?”
“Soon. I’ve still got to go see the Dumairs in St. Ives. See you.”
Travis hung up and went outside on the porch. Dammit, he should have known Galen would do something crazy if the opportunity offered itself. He was always a law unto himself. Admit it, he was jealous of Galen, who was free to go after Deschamps and not tied up here. Well, at least Galen had gone on the offensive.
They would just have to see what kind of fallout his actions would bring from Deschamps.
Two nights later Cassie had a nightmare.
Melissa jerked upright in her bed at the first piercing scream.
“Cassie . . .” She swung her feet to the floor. “ No, baby, don’t do —”
“ What’s wrong?” Travis stood in the doorway. “ I thought you said you didn’t think she’d have any more nightmares.”
“ I said I hoped.” She turned on the lamp.
Cassie screamed again.
“Don’t just stand there. Sit down beside her and start talking to her.”
“ The usual things?”
She nodded and got under the covers with Cassie. “ But when I tell you to stop, do it.”
“ What are you going to do?”
“ I’m going to call her bluff.”
“ Bluff ?”
“ I’ve been telling her she won’t have any more nightmares.” She closed her eyes. “She’s showing me I’m wrong.”
“ Pretty drastic demonstration.”
“She wants me out. If she proves me wrong, she thinks I’ll go away.” She cuddled closer to Cassie. “ Talk to her, Travis.”
She closed him out, only vaguely aware of the murmur of his voice. Cassie was keeping her at bay. There was no strong pull catapulting her into Cassie’s world as there usually was during one of the nightmares. It took her a few minutes to force herself into Cassie’s mind.
Terror.
Swirling horror behind her.
Monsters.
“No monsters,” Melissa said.
“Liar.” Cassie was running, going deeper. “They’re here. I have to get away.”
“If they’re here, it’s because you brought them. And you can send them away.”
“I told you they’d come.”
“Because you want an excuse to stay here.”
“Have to go deeper . . .”
“No.” Melissa put herself in front of Cassie, blocking her path. “Stop running.”
“Get out of my way.” Melissa could feel the force of the child’s will pummeling her. “Go away.”
“There are no monsters behind you. Turn around and see.”
“I won’t. I won’t.”
“Turn around.”
“They’re here. I have to run.”
“Turn around.” Melissa took her shoulders and forced her to turn around.