Free Sharp Edges by Jayne Ann Krentz

wake up and start asking questions.
    The truth, she thought wryly, was that she had no idea what she was doing. She did not know how to conduct an inquiry into a murder. She only knew that she had to start somewhere, and that Glass House was the obvious place.
    It was ironic that she found herself sharing the house with a professional investigator, but she did not dare ask Cyrus for help.
    Cautiously, she opened her bedroom door and walked to the balcony rail. She looked down into the atrium. Darkness cascaded in waves down the staircase.
    For a moment she hesitated, uncertain how to satisfy the restlessness that had kept her from sleep.
    She remembered that Nellie had once mentioned in passing that she had used a room on the third floor of Glass House as a studio. If she had left her mark anywhere in this house, it might be there.
    It was as good a place to start as any other.
    Eugenia turned and walked along the balcony toward the staircase. Her slippered feet made no noise as she tiptoed past Cyrus's door.
    She had almost reached the staircase when she saw that the darkness down below was not nearly so absolute as it had been a moment ago.
    At first she thought that her eyes had adjusted to the tomblike atmosphere. But her instincts did not buy that easy explanation. Neither did her common sense.
    A chill shot through her.
    She switched off the flashlight and went to the railing to peer down. There was a slender wedge of light angling from a crack in the door that opened onto the basement stairs.
    Even as she watched, the light shifted slightly. Someone with a flashlight was standing at the top of the basement stairs.
    Anger poured through her. There was only one other person who could be creeping around Glass House tonight. Cyrus had waited until he thought she was asleep, and then he'd set out to explore on his own.
    She'd known from the beginning that he was up to no good.
    She leaned as far out over the railing as possible. "What do you think you're doing, Colfax?"
    The light from the basement winked out abruptly. Whirling, Eugenia dashed to the staircase.
    "How dare you sneak around like this in the middle of the night?" she yelled as she pattered swiftly down the stairs. "I knew you had something up your sleeve."
    She reached the floor of the hall and raced to the basement door. It was closed now. She yanked it open and stumbled to a halt at the top of the steps. Thick darkness severed only by the beam of her own flashlight greeted her. Cyrus was lying low in the shadows.
    "Come out of there, Colfax. I knew Tabitha should never have trusted you. I don't care what the Daventry estate lawyer said."
    She groped for the wall switch and found it. But when she turned it on, nothing happened.
    She started cautiously down the steps, her flashlight trained on the floor below.
    "Don't you dare try to frighten me, Cyrus. It won't work. I want to know what's going on here. What do you think you're doing?"
    A large, powerful hand closed around her shoulder from behind. Eugenia was so shocked, she could not even scream.
    "I was just about to ask you the same thing," Cyrus said from the step above her.
    "Cyrus." She froze and then turned around so quickly she hit him in the midsection with the flashlight.
    "Umph." His hand went to his ribs.
    He had obviously just gotten out of bed. His hair was tousled and his chest was bare. She could not help but notice that it was a very broad chest. The triangle of curling hair on it tapered down over a flat, hard stomach and disappeared into a pair of chinos.
    Eugenia stared at him, eyes widening. "Oh, my God. If you're up here with me, then that means someone else is down there."
    "Brilliant deduction." Cyrus snapped the flashlight out of her hand as he moved past her. "Stay here."
    He plunged down into the darkness at the bottom of the stairs.
    "Oh, no, you don't," Eugenia muttered. "You're not going anywhere without me. I don't trust you one bit, Colfax."
    Six
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