Erin said Gaelen Riley was a professor of Celtic Lit at the university, so he had to be listed. Annabelle thumbed through, quickly locating Riley among the language department members. His credentials were very impressive: B.A. in Linguistics from Rutgers, master's degree from Johns Hopkins, Ph.D. from Harvard, now a full professor at UNC.

"Pretty toney background. Wonder if he's old money?"

His office number was listed there, so she dialed.

"Dr. Riley's office."

"Is Dr. Riley in?"

"No, I'm sorry he isn't. May I ask who's calling?"

Who? All her years in tabloid journalism hadn't been for nothing.

"My name is Erin Tinker. I'm a..." Annabelle paused so the full effect of the word would hit Riley's secretary, "Friend of his brother, Lucas."

"Oh, Erin! I didn't recognize your voice. It's Susie."

Uh-oh. What now?

"Oh, Susie. Sure. I didn't recognize you either." Annabelle decided to use the misunderstanding to her benefit. "Susie, I don't have a lot of time. Is Gaelen there? I need to talk to him about Lucas."

"Is something wrong?" Susie was a good friend if the concern in her voice was sincere. Annabelle felt guilty using her like this.

"I'm not sure. I haven't seen him for a couple of days. We had a little fight." Why not juice up the story a little? "I just wanted to make sure he was all right."

"Gee, I'm sorry. I haven't seen him since, I guess it was Monday."

Could it be a coincidence Lucas hadn't been seen by a close friend since Monday, the same day of Erin's ill-fated date with him?

"Erin?" Again Annabelle noted the concern in Susie's voice. A needle-sharp prick of envy pierced her heart. She didn't have a close friend who'd care what happened to her. The only person she'd told about her trip to North Carolina had been her editor.

"Erin?" Susie asked again. "Are you okay? What's happened?"

Annabelle shook off her self-pity. "It's nothing, Susie. Can you tell me where Gaelen is?"

"You just missed him. He got a call a few minutes ago and dashed out. He said he'd be back as soon as he could, but he didn't say where he was going. Didn't sound like he'd be gone long, though."

The mysterious convocation he'd mentioned in his message? Where was it? What was it?

"You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Don't worry. Thanks."

As Annabelle hung up the phone on Susie's next question, she hoped she hadn't ruined her sister's friendship with her deception.

More important, though, she'd hit a dead end.



Chapter Three



"Of all the inconsiderate, arrogant, downright sassenach things to do!" His footsteps and angry words echoed off the stone walls, reverberating through the hand-hewn hallway descending beneath the New Jersey countryside.

Gaelen didn't care. The Council had to know this was a bad time to call a convocation.