“Oh, right. I got sidetracked, didn’t I?” Maggie winced. “Sorry about that. Lillian had trouble with nightmares that caused her to walk in her sleep. I advised her to get rid of a certain object in her bedroom that was casting a bad shadow. She did as I suggested and was able to use her natural lucid dreaming talent to rewrite the scripts of her dreams. When the nightmares stopped, so did the sleepwalking.”
“She was afraid to get on board a ship because she might walk in her sleep?” Sam asked.
“She wasn’t just alarmed by the possibility of waking up in a public place wearing her nightgown,” Maggie said, “although that would have been bad enough. Lillian was terrified she would go overboard in her sleep and drown. I think something about the object that was giving her nightmares was linked to water.”
“You’re saying that once she was confident she wouldn’t walk overboard, she felt free to book the voyage?”
“Right,” Maggie said. “I told you that you probably wouldn’t believe me.”
“Huh.”
“Changing your mind?” She gave him a thin smile. “Worried I might be delusional after all?”
“No, just contemplating the power of suggestion.”
“You think I somehow hypnotized Lillian into believing she was cured?”
“Doesn’t matter. If it worked, it worked. Let’s get back to the case.” Sam leaned forward and folded his arms on the table. “Here’s what we’ve got. We don’t know if Beverly Nevins was the blackmailer or oneof the victims, but we do know that she is dead under circumstances that are strikingly similar to the Virginia Jennaway death.”
Startled, Maggie frowned. “I’m not sure I agree with you.”
“Somehow that does not come as a surprise.”
She pretended she hadn’t heard him. “It’s true they are both dead and they both appear to have had a link to other people who are interested in dream analysis, but beyond that, their deaths are not all that similar. Jennaway drowned. The verdict on Nevins looks like natural causes or accidental overdose. She certainly did not drown.”
“Jennaway’s death was ruled accidental, but there were rumors of a possible overdose,” Sam pointed out.
Maggie thought about it. “True.”
“The details vary but the result is the same. Two women are dead. Both had links to groups that study dreams, and there were rumors of an overdose in each case.”
Maggie got the unpleasant icy-hot frisson that one gets when one narrowly avoids a close brush with disaster.
“There’s another constant in this case,” she said quietly. “The Traveler.”
Sam’s eyes tightened. “You’re talking about that old legend you mentioned when you hired me?”
“Yes. I told you the Traveler supposedly murders people by invading their dreams.”
“Such a murder, if it were possible, would leave no evidence of foul play.”
“Like an overdose,” she pointed out.
“I’m not buying the possibility of murder by supernatural means.”
She raised her eyes toward the ceiling. “Of course not.”
“I can, however, go for the theory that the killer used the legend of the Traveler to stage a death that looked as if it had been caused by astral projection. It’s an interesting idea. The murderer would have to be someone very familiar with the tale.”
Encouraged, she gave that some thought. “My friend Prudence Ryland works in a research library that is dedicated to the study of the paranormal, including dreams. She’s an expert on legends. If you think it might help, I’ll telephone her in the morning and ask her to find out what she can about the Traveler.”
“That might be useful.”
At least he wasn’t dismissing her suggestion out of hand. She lowered her voice. “Meanwhile, you’re going to do something illegal, aren’t you?”
“Only sort of illegal.”
Chapter 16
