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Since I’d crapped out with the walls, I dropped tofor lines cut into the thick rugs Nothing Not so le fiber out of place

"This is weird," Donovan ht across several sheets of paper

"What?" I asked, still crawling around on the floor

"It looks like Dawson’s hired several geists in the last feeeks from a variety of firms," the detective replied

"There are receipts here made out to Jeweltones, Ge others"

I frowned "What would Dawson need with ge coal, not precious stones"

"I don’t know" Donovan pulled out his cell phone and snapped copies of the receipts to examine later

By this time, I’d made a complete circuit of the office onuseful Besides Dawson’s obsession with the Old West, the only other thing interesting or noteworthy, at least to me, was the dwarf ’s rock collection Such collections weren’t unco Stone elementals Even I’d had one as a kid, before ainst the back wall of the office housed the collection Three shelves full of rocks perched above a large block of black granite shot through with silverstone Some of the stones orthless Polished quartz you could find just about anywhere Odd bits of fool’s gold Others had so A teardrop-shaped ruby A lovely square-cut emerald I could hear the stones, of course

The soft, pretty old The flashy elegance of the gemstones

My eyes dropped to the botto coemstones, but still, I wondered why Daould even have it in his collection to start with The others rocks varied in value, but they were all uniquely shaped or interesting in soranite Black and rather boxlike in its appearance I knelt down and peered at the stone even closer Hlass case, but I took care of that with a well-crafted Ice pick Behind h papers I opened the door on the case The stones’ various murmurs washed over ranite Its vibration was low and muted in comparison to the other rocks, but I rather suspected that was the point Still, it only took me a second to attune myself to the stone And I realized its vibrations sounded hollow As though the stone was only a thin layer covering so else - like a secret chamber

"I think I’ve found Dawson’s safe - so to speak," I murmured to Caine

He looked up fro a door lock was one thing I had a tougher ti into a traditional metal safe without Finn’s help - or some explosives But Tobias Dawson didn’t have a traditional safe His was made of stone - my element, my specialty Still, we’d been inside more than three love, put ranite, and listened to its vibrations Slow, steady, solid, just like the rock itself There was also a sense it was guarding so important, valuable

Tobias Dawson’s secrets, whatever they ranite

Peering at the rock, into the rock And I realized the stone was only a couple inches deep Any thicker than that, and Daouldn’t have been able to putinside Also, the silverstone I’d noticed earlier forhlythe size of the hollow space inside

The dwarf probably had the ic, so that no one could open it but hiic, anyone who tried to force their way inside like that would probably spin their wheels for quite a while

But I was a Stone eleh the silverstone - only around it I held ranite and reached for er like it was a tiny blowtorch I leaned forward and pressed ic into the stone, deeper and deeper until I broke through the rock shell to the hollow space inside Once I er around the perier than the circle of silverstone at the heart of the granite

Less than a minute later, I made the last cut in the stone The rock creaked, and I used roove in one side so I could hook ranite was heavier than I’d expected, and it tookit out of the case and set it on the floor

Donovan looked up at the sound of runts and did a double-take "How the hell did you do that?"

I flashed him a smile "I have many talents, detective"

I turned my back on him and stared inside the safe It was an even smaller space than I’d expected, and it was curiously empty, except for a few sheets of paper

"Here" I plucked out the papers and handing theraph these"

The detective spread the documents on the desk and used his cell phone to snap off so what other secrets it held

My fingers closed around a sht over the container Black foaeernails, and rough around the edges, but it still sparkled with an inner crih-quality stone One that would polish up quite nicely

But its sound - oh, its sound That’s what heldwith its own purity

The ge, enchanting, even Like a Bach composition played by theto the dia for hours

Too bad an alar melody

Chapter Nineteen

For a moment I froze, crouched there on the floor, the diamond vial in my hand The alar in h the papers, as if he couldn’t hear the unending, violent shrieking He’d have to be deaf not to hear it

I frowned and stared at the granite safe The stone’s lowalarm A rune flashed to life on the front of the safe, on the slab I’d cut out of the rest of the block A tight, spiral curl burned a cold gray in theeye A spiral curl - the rune for protection<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>