Flash by Jayne Ann Krentz Page A

tie.
    â€œNice place,” he said.
    Olivia caught his eye as she removed the cork from a bottle of chardonnay. “Surprised?”
    â€œBy your condo? A little. But it suits you.” He paused. “I was more surprised by the note in the door at Light Fantastic.”
    â€œSomething came up.” She tossed the cork into the waste basket and poured two glasses. “We need to talk.”
    â€œI thought we were going to do that at your office.”
    â€œI didn’t feel like staying there alone until youarrived.” She picked up the glasses and walked around the corner into the living area. “It’s been what you might call a difficult day.”
    Jasper studied the wine in the glass she handed to him. It was almost the same buttery shade of yellow-gold as the art glass bowl that sat in the center of the coffee table.
    Olivia sank down in the chair across from him and tucked one leg under her thigh. She took a sip of wine and then nodded toward an envelope that lay on the mosaic table.
    â€œTake a look at that,” she said quietly.
    â€œI’m not really into the mysterious approach.” He did not pick up the envelope. Instead he took a swallow of the chardonnay. It was good, just as he’d anticipated. Lush and mouth-filling. It made him wonder what it would be like to kiss Olivia. “I like to do things in a logical progression.”
    â€œAll right, we’ll do it your way. Where do you want to start?”
    â€œWhy don’t you begin by telling me why you were trying to hide behind an old hat and a pair of shades at the Market this afternoon? Then I’ll open the envelope.”
    She shrugged. “I was trying to identify the person who is blackmailing my aunt.”
    Jasper stilled. He realized he had been braced for a completely different kind of admission. He had expected to be told that she had gone to the Market to meet someone, a married lover, perhaps, who had been scared off by Jasper’s appearance on the scene.
    The relief that surged through him was totallyinappropriate to the situation, he told himself. But it sure felt good.
    He did not take his eyes off Olivia’s face. “Explain.”
    â€œWhen I returned from your office this morning I found Zara, in tears. She told me she’d found a blackmail note on the front seat of her car that morning. The instructions ordered her to leave five hundred dollars in a paper bag on a planter in the Pike Place Market.”
    â€œThis is for real?”
    â€œYou think I’d make up something as nasty as this?” Jasper went cold to the bone as he put the rest of the tale together. “You went to the Market to see if you could spot the blackmailer when he picked up the money.” He shut his eyes. “Shit.”
    â€œIt seemed like a perfectly reasonable move to me.” She sounded offended.
    He opened his eyes and stared at her. “You and I obviously have two different definitions of the word
reasonable
. Let’s go back to the beginning. Why is your aunt being blackmailed?”
    Olivia’s mouth tightened. “It’s a personal matter.”
    â€œOf course it is.” He forced himself to exert some patience. “Blackmail is always a personal matter. If it wasn’t personal, there would be no threat. I need to know why your aunt was willing to pay for someone’s silence.”
    She frowned warily. “Why do you need to know the details?”
    â€œI always gather as much information as possible before I act. It’s the way I work.”
    â€œYou sound just like Uncle Rollie,” she muttered. “Isuppose your basement is full of file cabinets, too?”
    He had a brief, mental image of the row of black metal cabinets that lined one wall of his Bainbridge Island basement. He told himself he would rise above the goad.
    â€œOlivia, the fact that you’ve gone so far as to say the word
blackmail
means that, for some reason,