Free Psych:Mind-Altering Murder by William Rabkin Page B

smile faltered. "May I ask what this is about?"
    "You can, but it won't do you any good," Lassiter said. "Take it from someone who's been asking for weeks."
    "I'm Detective Juliet O'Hara with the Santa Barbara Police Department," she said. "This is my partner, Detective Lassiter. We scheduled this appointment with Mr. Masterson to talk about one of his former employees, Mandy Jansen."
    "In that case, you'd better follow me," the blond woman said. "I'm Chanterelle, by the way."
    "That's a pretty name," O'Hara said.
    "It's a mushroom," Lassiter said.
    "It's a pretty mushroom," Chanterelle said.
    The woman named for a fungus got up from behind the desk and started up the spiral staircase. O'Hara looked up to see where they were going and found herself wondering why any woman who knew she'd be going up and down steep stairs all day would wear such a short dress, unless she was hoping to save money on visits to her gynecologist. Staring straight ahead she followed the sound of the receptionist's footsteps until both of her own feet were on level floor. Then she looked around.
    They stood in a much smaller lobby, which was only the size of the entire Santa Barbara police station. Corridors led off in either direction and they were dotted with doors spaced far enough apart that Juliet was certain the offices behind them must be enormous.
    Chanterelle waited until Lassiter had stepped up next to O'Hara--his sense of chivalry had kept him from mounting the first stair until the hem of the receptionist's dress had disappeared through the hole in the ceiling--and then pointed to a double door. "I'm going to put you in conference room B."
    "Are you going to put this Masterson in there with us?" Lassiter said. "Because we'd prefer not to bankrupt our city government."
    The receptionist smiled broadly, apparently choosing to ignore whatever she couldn't understand, and walked to the double doors. She gave a gentle knock on one of them and then threw it open.
    As Chanterelle headed back down to her station, O'Hara led Lassiter to the door. Inside, the room seemed to stretch the length of the building and it contained a polished granite table that ran from one end to the other. Enough leather chairs were clustered around it to seat a joint session of Congress. All the way at the far end of the table Juliet could make out the form of a man.
    "Mr. Masterson?" Juliet said, hoping she could make her voice carry over such a distance without shouting.
    "Please come in," the man said. His voice was muffled by the distance, but Juliet thought there was something familiar about it.
    O'Hara and Lassiter came into the conference room and started down the length of the table.
    "Mr. Masterson, we talked briefly on the phone," O'Hara said as they began to get close enough to make out the figure sitting at the end of the table.
    "I'm afraid Sam Masterson isn't with us anymore," the man said.
    "I just talked to him a few days ago," O'Hara said. "He didn't mention he was leaving the company."
    "I'm sure if he had left the company he would have contacted you first," the man said. "Sam was really good about things like that."
    "Was?" O'Hara said.
    "He took a personal day on Monday and zipped up to Tahoe with a girlfriend to get in a little skiing," the man said. "Hit a tree at sixty miles an hour. At least he didn't suffer."
    "And you are?" O'Hara said.
    She took another step forward and now she knew why he had looked so familiar. And from the shocked gasp in her ear, she could tell Lassiter had recognized him, too.
    "Really glad to see you," Gus said. "Seems like it's been forever."

Chapter Twelve
    T he girl was holding something back. Shawn knew it. She tried to come across as an innocent college student--majoring in library sciences, no less--but he was convinced she was the key to finding Macklin Tanner.
    He had first become suspicious when he'd spotted her ducking out of a jewelry store he'd been trying to break into. The safe inside contained a diamond