“No, I’m sure it isn’t. Whoever sent me this herbal is trying to impress me. This is a very generous gift. I could probably sell it for several thousand dollars, enough to cover my mortgage payments for a while and pay off my new furniture.”

“Are you impressed?” Sam asked softly.

She drew one finger across the elegantly hand-tooled leather cover. Hushed power locked in stasis stirred her senses.

“Oh, my, yes,” she whispered. “No one has ever given me anything like this in my whole life. The book is valuable in and of itself as an antiquarian text, but the psi-encryption makes it worth much, much more to the collectors in my market. Who knows what secrets may be hidden inside.”

Sam’s jaw hardened. “In other words, the person who sent it to you is wooing you.”

She smiled. “You could say that. Giving me this book is the equivalent of giving another woman a very nice set of diamond earrings.”

She could see that Sam did not like hearing that. She wondered why it bothered him so much. She had merely been trying to illustrate a point.

“It’s not personal,” she said quickly. “I mean, it’s not like he wants to have an affair with me or anything. He just wants me to know that he can afford my services and that he’ll pay well for them.” She touched the herbal again. “This gift also tells me that he respects my talent.”

“Don’t get any ideas about dumping me and taking him on as a client,” Sam warned. “You and I have a deal.”

She sighed. “Yep, I’m committed.”

“You don’t have to act like it’s a tragedy. That blackmailer is still out there, remember.”

“Believe me, I haven’t forgotten.”

“Can I have a look at that herbal?” Sam asked.

“Sure.” She handed it to him with some reluctance. The energy of the book was mildly intoxicating. Like an exotic perfume, she thought.

Sam opened the book with due care. “I can feel a little heat, but nothing that would warn me that it’s encrypted.”

“Whoever locked that book was very skilled with the old techniques. You probably wouldn’t notice anything at all unless you actually tried to concoct some of the recipes. Then you would find out, probably the hard way, that the perfumes you created were all off in some fashion.”

Sam looked up. “The hard way?”

“The results might vary, from foul-smelling concoctions to some that are downright poisonous. It would depend on just how serious the person who set the code was about protecting her secrets.”

“You think a woman locked this book?”

“Yes,” Abby said. She smiled. “Every psi-code is unique. It’s like a fingerprint in that it reveals a lot about the individual who set the encryption. You’ll have to take my word for it when I tell you that you do not want to re–create any of those recipes unless the code is broken first.”

“I believe you.” Sam put the book down on the desk. “What are you going to do with the herbal? Keep it?”

“No, I really can’t do that. The person who sent it was very gracious and very generous about insisting it was a gift, but I could never accept such a valuable item for services that haven’t been rendered.”

“How will you return it?” Sam asked. “You don’t know the sender.”

“I’m sure that won’t be a problem. I’ll give the book to Thaddeus Webber. He’ll find a way to return it to whoever sent it. Thaddeus has connections throughout the hot-book market. Unlike me, he works the deep end.”

“Do you think that the person who sent you the herbal is a deep-end collector?”

“Yes.” She placed the herbal carefully back into the box. “I do.”

“Think he knows you’ll arrange to return the book if you don’t accept him as a client?”

“Certainly.” She smiled. “I told you, I have a reputation in this business.”

“In other words, he didn’t take much of a risk when he gave you the herbal.”

“No. But it was a very elegant gesture, regardless.”

Sam watched her close the lid of the box. “You know, I had no idea until now how delicate business negotiations are in your world.”

“I thought I made it clear. In my line, reputation is everything. All my transactions involve an element of trust.”

“Well, that attitude explains why you aren’t yet ready to hold hands and jump off the edge of a cliff with me,” he said, without inflection.

She blanked for a couple of beats. Then she chuckled. The chuckles turned into laughter, and she was suddenly laughing harder than she had in some time.

“That’s hilarious.” She wiped the corners of her eyes. “You are a very unusual man, Sam Coppersmith.”

“You want to know the sad part? I wasn’t trying to make a joke. I need your trust to do my job, Abby.”

She sobered and blinked a few times to clear her eyes. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t realize. Never mind. As you just pointed out, we have a deal, and I do trust you to honor your part of the bargain. I give you my word I’ll honor my end. I’ll do my best to find that lab book. Speaking of my little problem, just how do you plan to go about finding the blackmailer?”

Sam looked as if he wanted to pursue the topic of trust, but he must have concluded that the conversation was not going to be useful. He turned away and went to stand at the window, looking out into the night. Newton joined him.

“A chat with Thaddeus Webber would be a good place to start,” Sam said. “But I’d like to do it in person, not via email. Unlike you, he isn’t so easy to find. Think you can get him to agree to talk to me?”

“Yes, I’m sure I can. I want to see him, myself, in order to give him the herbal. I’ll email him tonight and set up a meeting. He’s quite security-conscious, though, so he’ll want to choose the time and place.”

“Fine by me, so long as he makes it soon, preferably tomorrow.”

“I doubt that will be a problem. Thaddeus is the one who sent me to you in the first place, after all. He’ll be as helpful as he can.”

“Good.”

She waited a beat. Sam did not say anything else. He and Newton continued to contemplate the night.

She cleared her throat. “So do you plan on returning to Copper Beach tonight? It’s a long trip.”

“What?” Sam sounded distracted, as if she had interrupted his train of thought. He turned around. “No, I’m not going back tonight. I thought I made it clear I’ll be sticking close to you until this is finished. Got a spare blanket for your sofa?”

Blindsided. She stared at him, speechless. A tiny tingle of panic iced her spine. Should have seen this coming.

“I really don’t think it’s necessary for you to spend the night here,” she said quickly. “It’s not like there is an immediate threat to my safety.”

“Sure there is.”

“I don’t see it.”

“Let’s review,” Sam said. “You are suddenly very hot, in more ways than one. Every time I turn around, someone else is either trying to bribe you or trying to blackmail you into working for him.”

“Just two people,” she said. “Three, counting you.”

“That’s two too many. Sooner or later, someone may decide to take more direct action. This place is not exactly a fortress.”

“I’ve got Newton,” she said. But she was grasping at straws, and she knew it.

“I’m sure Newton is a fine animal, but he’s not exactly a pit bull or a rottweiler. Tonight, I sleep here.”

She thought about the black leather duffel he had left in the entry hall. “I’m guessing that whatever is inside that bag you brought, it’s not your gym stuff.”

“Overnight kit, a change of clothes and some of the equipment I use in my consulting work. I never leave home without it.”

“You came prepared.”

“We’re in this together, Abby.”

“Right.” She took a deep breath. “Actually, there are three of us involved in this thing. You, me and Newton. And right now Newton has priority. It’s time for his late-night walk.”

“Please don’t tell me that you make a habit of going out onto the street alone at this hour every night?”