Smoke and Shadows by Tanya Huff Read Free Book Online Page A

answered her question, which wasn’t so much a question as an expectation of an answer, he’d pass the point of no return. Putting it into words would make the whole thing real.
    Screw it. It can’t get any more real for Nikki Waugh!
    â€œI’ve seen shadows acting like shadows don’t. Don’t act,” he added when Arra’s brows rose. He’d never noticed before that her eyes and her hair were the exact same shade of gray. “And that’s not all. I’ve heard a voice on my radio.”
    â€œIsn’t that what it’s for?”
    â€œYeah and that’d be funnier if someone wasn’t dead.”
    â€œYou’re right. I apologize.” She looked down at the front of her Darkest Night sweatshirt and brushed a bit of imaginary fluff off Raymond Dark’s profile.
    Tony waited. He knew how to wait.
    Eventually, she looked up again. “Why have you come to me?”
    â€œBecause you’ve seen things, too.”
    â€œI saw your friend last night. On location. He walks in shadow.”
    â€œDifferent shadows.”
    â€œTrue.”
    â€œYou know what’s happening.”
    â€œI have my suspicions, yes.”
    â€œYou know what killed Nikki.”
    â€œIf you believe this, why not go to the police?”
    One moment the baby was alive and the next moment it was dead.
    â€œSome things, the cops can’t deal with.” Before she could speak again, he held up one hand. “Look, this dialogue is heavier than even the guys upstairs would write; can we just cut to the chase and leave this crap to those who get paid to say it?”
    Arra blinked, snorted, and grinned. “Why not.”
    â€œGood.” He wiped damp palms on the front of his thighs. “What the hell is going on around here?”
    â€œDo you have time for a story?”
    â€œTony!” He jerked as Adam’s voice jabbed into his left ear with all the finesse of an ice pick. “Where the hell are you? The cops left fifteen minutes ago!”
    Apparently not. “I’m sorry. I have to go.”
    â€œWait. Give me your radio.” When he hesitated, she frowned. “I don’t care what he wants you for. This is more important.”
    He unholstered the unit and passed it over, carefully stepping back out of her personal space.
    Arra looked distastefully at the ear jack and left it lying on her shoulder as she raised the microphone to her mouth. “Peter, it’s Arra. I’ve stolen your PA for a while.”
    The director’s voice sounded tinny but unimpressed. “What for?”
    â€œDo you care?”
    â€œNo. Fine. Whatever. I’ve only got a show to shoot here. Do you want a kidney, too?”
    â€œNo, thank you. Tony will do.”
    As she handed the radio back to him, he realized two things. He shouldn’t have been able to hear Peter’s reply—not from a meter and a half away—and she hadn’t changed the frequency. She shouldn’t have been able to reach Peter on that frequency.
    â€œSo, it seems you have time for a story after all.”
    It seemed he did.

Three
    â€œI T’S A FAIRLY long story.” Arra nodded toward an old wooden chair nearly buried under a stack of paper—mostly technical diagrams and the mathematical notations necessary for pyrotechnics. “You’d better sit down.”
    The time it took him to clear the chair gave her a bit of a breathing space, a chance to collect her thoughts.
    Tony Foster had seen the shadows. More importantly, he had seen her.
    He wanted to know what he had seen.
    Fair enough.
    Curiosity had been the driving force behind the rise—and fall—of innumerable civilizations. It prodded creation and destruction equally. And once let off the leash, there was no catching it again until it was satiated. This left Arra only one option.
    Well, actually, two options; although the odds of her taking the second were so infinitesimally