Chapter 3

Gabriel and Renee looked at each other across the table. Their host was saying something, but they weren't giving him their full attention.
"Senor? Senorita?" His questioning voice came through to them.
"Si, Senor?" Renee replied, composed before Gabriel was.
He looked at her, then returned his attention to Gabriel. "I asked if you would like to see the stone."
"Yes, Senor," Gabriel replied eagerly.
He led them up the stairs and down a long hallway with a door at the end of it. When they arrived at the door, he took a key out of his pocket, stuck it in the lock, and turned it. The door opened and the three of them stepped into the room.
It was very dark and the light didn't work, so they stood there until their eyes had adjusted to the lack of light. Once they had, their host, Javier Rodriguez, led the way to a small box sitting on a desk on the other side of the room. Gabriel followed him, while Renee roamed around the room.
On a dresser, there was a pile of old photos. She flipped through them until she came to one of a man with white hair. She had never seen Mr. Kenneth Irons in person, but had seen his photo before. She knew this was him. She looked at the other photos. Then, she came to one of Sara. The next one in the pile was of Gabriel, only he was wearing the outfit of a South American cowboy. She dropped the photos back on the desk and walked over to the window. Then, she heard the two male voices and came back to herself.

"Could I leave it up here until we leave?"
"That would be fine, senor Bowman."
"Gracias.
"De nada."
They walked over to where Renee was standing and Gabriel put his hand on her shoulder.
"Beautiful out there, isn't it?" He asked them.
The sun was beginning to set behind the stables and the sky was lit up in several different colors. The most prominent of these was the red.
"Yes, it is," Renee replied in almost a whisper.
"Why don't the two of you take a tour before it gets dark?"
Renee looked at Gabriel and he nodded his head. They turned around and started for the door. When they stepped out onto the porch, Renee took a deep breath of fresh air.
"Is something wrong?" He asked her, concerned at the paleness in her face.

She started to tell him about the pictures, then changed her mind, just saying, "No, I just needed some air. It was really stuffy in there." She put her hand in his and they started down to the stables.
*******
When Sara opened the door to her apartment, she paused for a second, then continued in. Ian being there when she got home had stopped surprising her quite some time ago.
"What are you doing here, Nottingham?" She asked a little harshly. She didn't mean to, but she didn't want to let her guard down and start enjoying these visits.
"My master doesn't want you to know anything more."
"What an explanation," she replied sarcastically. Then, she asked, "What doesn't he want me to know?"
"Anything about the witch blade, your cases, just anything." He sounded truly troubled and Sara suddenly felt sympathy for him. But she was curious about something.
"If he doesn't want you talking to me, then why do you keep coming back?"
"Because you need help, Lady Sara."
She just looked at him for a minute before replying, "Thanks, Nottingham."
He nodded and turned to leave. Stepping out the window, he disappeared into the darkness. She turned just as her phone rang.
*******
When they had come to the end of the row of stalls in the main stable, they walked out the back door and to the fence of the pasture located behind the stable. Renee leaned against the fence, admiring a flashy paint stallion as he showed off for them. She stood there as if mesmerized by his movements.

She was only vaguely aware of Gabriel's presence until he put his hands on her shoulders and turned her toward him. He brought his mouth to hers. She put her hands on his shoulders, then let them slide down his back. He wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her closer to him. Her lips moved from his mouth and across his cheek. He ran his hands through her hair. With his hands behind her head, she laid her forehead against his shoulder.
Then, he bent his head down, putting his face in her hair. They stood there together like that for several minutes. Then they reluctantly started to pull away from each other. Gabriel pulled her back to him. When he finally let go of her, she was smiling and her eyes were shining bright. She leaned toward him for one more kiss, then they started back up to the house, walking arm in arm.
*******
"How could he be connected to this? He's not even in the city."
"I don't know, Pez. All I know is that there's a dead body behind his shop. And that looks suspicious to me."
Jake had called and told Sara they had a new case. When he picked her up, he explained further. Someone had called in, reporting that there was a dead body behind the talismaniac.com shop. This person had seen someone leaving the scene, but could not make out anything about them.
"Nothing is as it seems." Danny's voice came from behind her. It took all the self-discipline she had not to look at him.
"Let's wait until we get to the scene before we start suspecting anything, Jake," she told him.
When they did arrive, they saw their boss, Stephen Richards, waiting for them. Sara walked over to him with Jake following close behind. "Do you know where your friend is, Pezzeni?" He asked her.

"Yes, sir. I do."
"Well, could you get ahold of him. We're gonna have to talk to him."
"I can't, sir."
"What do you mean? Why not?"
"He and Renee Mackenzie left this morning for Argentina."
Richards looked shocked. He recovered quickly though. "Well, when will he be back?"
"In a couple of days, sir."
"Then that is when we will talk to him."
"Yes, sir. But I know he had nothing to do with this."
"And how do you know that, Pezzeni?"
"Because I know Gabriel, sir. He would never do this."
He looked at her and saw the stubborn set to her jaw that he was finally starting to get used to. "You might be right. If he's your friend, I'm sure you are. But we still have to talk to him. The murder was committed by his shop."

"I understand, sir."
Sara and Jake walked over to the crime scene and began to look around. The victim was a well-dressed young man around the age of twenty-five. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes. He seemed to have been in good shape and a fairly decent height while still alive. Looking at him, she was reminded of Gabriel. She shook her head at this. He had told her soon after they met that he was an only child.
"Sara," Jake said as he came up behind her. "Maybe I should take you home."
"No, Jake. I'm fine."
"You don't look fine," he told her. "Come on."
She reluctantly agreed and walked with him to the car. When they reached it, she stopped with her hand on the handle of the door. The visions always caught her off guard. Now she saw a man, she thought it was the victim, knocking on the door to Gabriel's shop. Then, he was walking around to the back. The next thing she saw was someone coming up behind him.
"Sara."
She shook her head and looked at Jake. "What?"

"You look like you're about to faint."
She glanced at her reflection in the window and thought that he might be right. Her face was the palest she could ever remember it being.
"I'm fine," she said as she opened the car door and slid inside.
*******
Senor Rodriguez had opened a bottle of wine and was pouring its contents into three glasses when Renee and Gabriel walked into the house. He held one of the glasses out to her, but she shook her head, refusing it.

He had a hurt look on his face. Gabriel urged her to accept it. "I know you don't like to, but it won't hurt if you drink once. And we're not going to be going anywhere," he whispered in her ear.
She finally took the glass from him. Gabriel accepted the one offered to him and the three of them went and sat at the table. She took a careful sip from her glass. Gabriel was watching her face for a reaction. She swallowed, then smiled. "This isn't bad," she said.
Javier's face broke into a grin when Gabriel whispered to him, "That means she likes it."
"Gracias, senorita. It is made from my own grapes."
They finished their wine, then sat at the table talking for more than an hour. By that time, Renee and Gabriel were growing tired, so they went to their rooms and went to sleep.
*******
The next morning, Sara met Jake at the office. He dropped an envelope on her desk. She picked it up and opened it. Dumping the contents onto the desk, she wondered what they would tell her about the victim. She picked up a wallet and flipped it open. The name on the driver's licence was Thomas Logan. The picture was that of the victim.
She put the wallet back on her desk and looked through the rest of the stuff. The last thing she came to was a folded up piece of paper. She unfolded it and skimmed over the contents. On it were written directions to Gabriel's shop. Sara figured that meant he was either selling something to or buying something from him. But if that was the case, why had he come when Gabriel was going to be out of town?
"Anything else?" She asked Jake as she was putting everything back into the envelope.
He shook his head. "No, nothing."

She sat down at her desk and put her head in her hands. "Why are all our cases like this?" She asked frustrated.
"Do you want to go back to the scene?"
She looked up at him. "Yeah. That might help."
*******
Renee and Gabriel came down to breakfast together. She was dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans and a light green shirt. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail to keep it out of her face and off of her neck. He had on a pair of light blue jeans and a tan-colored shirt.
The night before, Javier Rodriguez had told them that they would be going riding today. Renee was excited; it had been quite some time since she had done that.
Once breakfast was finished, the three of them walked down to the stables. Walking inside, they could see that a groom had led out three horses and saddled them already.
Javier pointed to a chestnut mare. "Senorita Mackenzie, you can ride her. And Senor Bowman, you may ride that gray gelding."
He mounted a bay stallion and they followed him out on theirs. They started down a trail that went behind the stables. Renee sat straight and tall in the saddle as they rode down the trail.

An hour later they stopped beside a stream. They dismounted and let the horses graze. Renee and Gabriel sat by the stream while Javier laid down on the grass. She put her head on Gabriel's shoulder and closed her eyes. "This is so peaceful," she said in almost a whisper.
"Yeah," he replied contentedly.
They sat there in silence until Javier stood up half an hour later. Gabriel jumped to his feet and held his hand out to Renee to help her up. She stood up and they started to walk over to their horses. They had only walked a few steps when Renee's right foot slipped on a bit of wet grass. Gabriel reacted quickly, grabbing her arms and pulling her toward him. But gravity won out in the end. Both of them tumbled to the ground.
Once she had recovered from the shock of the fall, Renee sat up and started to laugh. She got to her feet, then helped Gabriel to his. With her arm around his shoulder, they walked back to their horses.

Once they were mounted again, Javier led off back the way they had come. He started to sing a song in Spanish. Renee could pick up on a few of the words here and there, but not enough to understand it.
They had only ridden a couple of miles when something flew across the path in front of Renee's horse. The mare reared up on her hind legs, then took off in a dead run past the other two horses as soon as her front hooves touched the ground again. Renee could feel the horse's muscles bunch under the saddle as she carried her away. She let the mare run for several steps, then began to ease her up, pulling gently on the reins. She finally slowed, then came to a stop. The horse's muscles were trembling. She had started to calm down by the time Javier and Gabriel arrived.
Renee could see the look of extreme worry on Gabriel's face, so she smiled and mouthed the words 'I'm fine.'
Relief flooded across his face, but the look in his eyes remained skeptical. The truth was that she really wasn't fine. Every muscle in her body felt like it was shaking.
Javier rode over to her and looked at her carefully. Then, he asked gently, "Are you ready to go, senorita?"
"Si." She turned her horse back toward the trail and they headed for home.