Moving Target
|
Rarities Unlimited [1]
|
Elizabeth Lowell
|
The troubling message from Serena Charters's late grandmother appears in a package containing four pages of a centuries-old illuminated manuscript -- a strange inheritance that hides many secrets...and has already cost many lives. Seeking answers, Serena turns to Erik North of Rarities Unlimited, a reclusive manuscript appraiser with a passion for the past. Without warning, they are thrust together into the center of a lethal firestorm that rages between two worlds -- one long dead, yet living on in an ancient text, the other chillingly alive and fraught with peril.
In the blink of an eye, Serena and Erik have become targets of an unseen and determined stalker as they get closer to shocking revelations about Serena's legacy, the cold murder of an eccentric old woman in the heat of the Mojave Desert...and just how far a remorseless killer is willing to go. And now their only slim hope of survival is to keep moving.
For Cissy Hartley
web goddess extraordinaire
and
all the great global habitués of
http://www.elizabethlowell.com/wwwboard
*murfle*
Contents
Prologue
| The sky was a seamless blue, empty as a murderer’s heart.
| Chapter 1
| Like much of the town, the law offices of Morton . . .
| Chapter 2
| Ms. Charters, are you all right?” Hingham asked.
| Chapter 3
| Erik North sat in a lounge chair in his walled . . .
| Chapter 4
| Erik was tempted to ignore the ringing demon, but didn’t.
| Chapter 5
| Local tradition held that Serena’s house had been built by It might be a paying client. It might be a medieval scholar wanting to discuss some arcane aspect of calligraphy or mixing paints for illumination.
| Chapter 6
| Erik looked at his twenty-six-inch flat-screen monitor . . .
| Chapter 7
| By the time Serena followed the directions to Warrick’s Palm . . .
| Chapter 8
| Head thrown back, muscular neck bulging, the bighorn sheep stood . . .
| Chapter 9
| The helicopter wheeled like a falcon beneath the pilot’s steady . . .
| Chapter 10
| Cleary, Garrison, and Paul were seated around a steel conference . . .
| Chapter 11
| Dana waited until she heard the helicopter taking off to . . .
| Chapter 12
| The Rarities helicopter dropped Erik off at the clean, uncluttered. . .
| Chapter 13
| Serena knew there was nothing more she could do but . . .
| Chapter 14
| Are you all right?” Erik asked the woman whose back . . .
| Chapter 15
| Erik stared at Serena. “What makes you think I followed . . .
| Chapter 16
| I came here to find out what I could about . . .
| Chapter 17
| Serena?” Erik asked, kneeling down beside her on the cold . . .
| Chapter 18
| Manhattan wrapped around the House of Warrick’s headquarters like a . . .
| Chapter 19
| Thank you for coming in on such short notice,” Dana said . . .
| Chapter 20
| As the automatic gate to Erik North’s property rolled shut . . .
| Chapter 21
| ‘Tis useless to moan and rend garments at the graveside . . .
| Chapter 22
| The initial tells you other things,” Erik continued neutrally.
| Chapter 23
| Erik didn’t answer,” Dana said in disgust. She pushed back . . .
| Chapter 24
| Cleary Warrick Montclair paced the living room of her personal . . .
| Chapter 25
| The call came after midnight.
| Chapter 26
| Okay, Shel. Let me see if I have this right,” . . .
| Chapter 27
| Promptly at nine o’clock, Serena’s front doorbell chimed.
| Chapter 28
| Dana Gaynor was wearing the kind of sleek wool pantsuit . . .
| Chapter 29
| Erik looked at the old leather portfolio tucked beneath Serena’s . . .
| Chapter 30
| What type of tests?” Serena asked quickly.
| Chapter 31
| Still seething over Serena’s lack of trust, Erik organized her . . .
| Chapter 32
| I didn’t say the House of Warrick hired anyone,” Erik said . . .
| Chapter 33
| The house is clean,” Wallace said into his cell phone.
| Chapter 34
| Niall could have watched the transaction from one of the . . .
| Chapter 35
| Serena stood in a guest room on the second floor . . .
| Chapter 36
| As soon as Serena began weaving, Erik took his computer . . .
| Chapter 37
| Niall pushed back from his desk and stretched hard enough . . .
| Chapter 38
| Serena didn’t know what time it was when she realized . . .
| Chapter 39
| Erik looked at the page on his drafting board waiting . . .
| Chapter 40
| Serena’s eyes widened and her mouth flattened into a narrow . . .
| Chapter 41
| When Erik’s mental alarm clock went off, Serena was sleeping . . .
| Chapter 42
| Serena couldn’t ignore the watery noises any longer.
| Chapter 43
| Erik, wait! I’ve got a rock in my shoe.”
| Chapter 44
| Risa Sheridan stared at the ringing phone like it was . . .
| Chapter 45
| Wallace, aka Bad Billy, eyed the last twenty feet between . . .
| Chapter 46
| What do you mean, you lost them!”
| Chapter 47
| No sooner had Erik and Serena walked in the front . . .
| Chapter 48
| The long, monotonous thunder of huge jet planes sliding down . . .
| Chapter 49
| Erik stepped off the escalator, waited for Serena, and led . . .
| Chapter 50
| Heller was pretty sure Erik North had made him.
| Chapter 51
| Risa Sheridan smiled at the young dealer who was trying . . .
| Chapter 52
| People are still jammed around the book,” Serena said as . . .
| Chapter 53
| Erik gave one of his Rarities Unlimited business cards to . . .
| Chapter 54
| Despite the cozy honey tones of the Retreat’s large suite . . .
| Chapter 55
| The silence inside Erik’s silver SUV was thick enough to . . .
| Chapter 56
| Niall went to the car, touched the hood, and felt . . .
| Chapter 57
| Dana glanced up from her desk as Erik, Niall, and . . .
| Chapter 58
| Coffee steamed gently in front of Serena and Erik. . . .
| Chapter 59
| Dana’s calm voice cut through the silence that followed Erik’s . . .
| Chapter 60
| Only if there’s no other way,” Dana cut in quickly.
| Chapter 61
| Cleary Warrick Montclair paced one of the Retreat’s spacious suites . . .
| Chapter 62
| The Retreat’s ventilation system was so efficient that only a . . .
| Chapter 63
| Screens around the clean room showed each of the seventeen . . .
| Chapter 64
| The remains of Chinese takeout lay scattered across the clean . . .
| Chapter 65
| We’re not getting anywhere,” Erik said, pushing away from the . . .
| Chapter 66
| It would have been more symmetrical to incinerate the old . . .
| Chapter 67
| The helicopter shot a spear of white light over the . . .
| Chapter 68
| Lantern and camping gear stowed in back of the SUV . . .
| Chapter 69
| The loom was there,” Serena said quietly.
| Chapter 70
| The impact of the bullet spun Erik around and dumped . . .
| Chapter 71
| Paul Carson,” Erik said grimly.
| Chapter 72
| The doorbell chime’s melodious fifteenth-century harmonies blended oddly with . . .
| Chapter 73
| Serena sat at her loom, flanked by colorful yarns hanging . . .
| Author’s Notes
About the Author
Also by Elizabeth Lowell
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Prologue
EAST OF PALM SPRINGS
JANUARY
T
he sky was a seamless blue, empty as a murderer’s heart.
The woman who had three names smiled grimly into the rearview mirror of her old pickup truck. The man following her in the white Toyota sedan had blended right into the freeway, but he ran out of luck as the roads grew narrower and lonelier on the dirt track that led to her isolated home.
It was hard to hide in a desert. Even hanging way back, trying to be invisible, he stuck out like a neon tongue.
The dry, wild land looked unchanging, but wasn’t. It was full of hidden life, of surprises that ranged from sweet to deadly. Some of those surprises were sand traps that had nothing to do with golf courses. Other surprises were rocks and potholes.
