Текст книги "Canyons of Night"

Автор книги: Jayne Krentz

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Chapter 18

“HOW DID YOUR DATE WITH CHARLOTTE GO LAST night?” Myrna asked from the doorway of the office.

Slade did not look up from the list of names on the computer screen. “If one more person asks me that question, I may have to fire everyone in the department.”

Rex was on the desk. He had his beaded clutch open and was busy selecting paperclips to go inside. He paused long enough to chortle a greeting to Myrna. She went to the desk and patted him a couple of times. Then she studied Slade.

“Fire everyone, hmm?” she said. “All two of us?”

“Yes.”

“Did things go that badly or that well?”

He pretended that he had not heard the question. “Where’s Willis? Did he finish checking out the alibis of Gaines’s known associates?”

Kirk Willis materialized in the doorway. “Just finished the last one, Chief.” He walked into the office and put a file folder down in front of Slade. “None of the people on your list seems to have been anywhere near the island in the past year, let alone on the night Gaines died. What’s our next move?”

Slade turned away from the screen and opened the folder. “There’s a rule that applies to situations like this. It comes from an Old World investigator, Sherlock somebody. Something to the effect that once you have excluded the probable, whatever remains, however improbable, is the answer.”

Myrna frowned. “What the heck does that mean?”

“It means,” Slade said, “that there’s a high probability that our killer is still here on the island.”

Kirk and Myrna stared at him, disbelief in their eyes.

“You really think so?” Kirk asked, dubious but intrigued.

“Yes,” Slade said.

“I can’t believe that any of the locals is a killer,” Myrna said slowly. “This is such a small town. Everyone knows everyone else.”

“You’re forgetting the B&Bs that are scattered around the island and the folks attending those Reflection Retreats out at the lake lodge,” Slade reminded her. “We can get the names and addresses of the guests from the innkeepers.”

“What, exactly, are we looking for?” Myrna asked. “We already know most of them probably don’t have solid alibis. Any one of them could have snuck out of a B&B or the lodge and met up with Gaines at Looking Glass.”

“But most of them probably aren’t serious collectors of the kind of antiques that Charlotte handles,” Slade said.

Kirk brightened. “You want me to see if I can find out if any of them are collectors?”

“I want to know about any connections at all that any of them might have to the antique or antiquities trade.”

“I can do that,” Kirk said.

“I know you can,” Slade said. “But do it quietly. I don’t want the killer to get the idea that we think we have a murder on our hands or that we’re looking for him on the island. He’ll be gone on the next ferry and we might lose him altogether.”

“What makes you think he didn’t leave the day after the murder?” Myrna asked.

“I don’t think he got what he wanted,” Slade said. “He stuck around because as far as he knows there is no murder investigation going on. He feels safe. We want him to continue to feel that way.”

“I’m on it,” Willis said. He straightened away from the doorjamb, preparing to head out.

“One more thing,” Slade said. “Good work on these alibis. I know that some of the people on that list were very low profile. I’m impressed that you were able to confirm their whereabouts on the night of the murder.”

Kirk reddened a little. “Yeah, well, I’ve always liked working on a computer.”

“Good skill to have on this job. Get back to me as soon as you’ve got some information on the island guests.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kirk turned and went briskly down the hall. A moment later the front door closed behind him.

Myrna gave Slade a knowing smile. “Young Officer Willis has certainly developed a lot more enthusiasm for the law enforcement profession since you arrived on the island. I think he’s starting to feel like a real cop.”

“It’s his first murder investigation,” Slade said. “The experience tends to have that effect.”

“Actually, I think it may be the first murder investigation we’ve had on the island since Letty Porter decided she’d had enough of her husband getting drunk and beating up on her. She got him drunk one last time, drove him to Death Wish Point, and pushed him off. They never did find the body. That was almost twenty years ago.”

“What happened to Letty Porter?”

“She’s still here. Has a cabin out on Higgins Road. She’s in her seventies now. Chief Halstead was new on the job at the time. He was never able to prove murder. Not that he tried real hard. As far as everyone around here was concerned, George Porter had it coming. He was one mean drunk.”

Slade leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the desktop. “She killed once.”

“Forget it,” Myrna said. “Take my word for it, Letty Porter has absolutely no interest in antiques. And knowing Letty, even if she had wanted to kill Gaines for some reason, she would have used the nearest blunt object.”

“All the same, see if you can find out where she was on the night Gaines died.”

“Okay.” Myrna glanced at her watch. “It’s not quite four o’clock. I can take a run out to her place right now.”

“Do that.”

Myrna started to step back from the doorway. She hesitated. “You know, I’m starting to get a little worried about Devin and Nate.”

“Wasn’t this the day of the big treasure hunt?”

“Yes, but they left early this morning,” Myrna said. “I expected them back by lunchtime. They’ve only got a few energy bars and some bottled water with them. They’re thirteen-year-old boys. They should be starving by now.”

“Maybe they’re living off the land.”

“Trust me, a few summer berries wouldn’t do it for boys that age. I called Nate’s mom a short time ago. Laurinda said she had expected them back earlier, too, but she wasn’t worried.”

“You are?”

“Devin’s a city kid. He doesn’t know his way around the island.”

“Nate does.”

“I know.” Myrna nibbled on her lower lip. “I’m being overly protective, aren’t I?”

“He’s a growing boy. He needs to spread his wings. This island is a lot safer place to do that than the big city.”

“I know that, too.”

“But you’re still worried.”

“It’s just that I’ve had this weird feeling since this morning.” Myrna sighed. “There are some dangerous places on the island. Steep cliffs. Rip currents in the coves and inlets. What if one of the boys fell?”

“The other would have come back to town to get help,” Slade said.

“What if they tried to get through the fence and got lost inside the Preserve?”

“When was the last time an island kid got through the fence?”

Myrna sighed. “It’s never happened as far as I know.”

“The fence works, Myrna,” Slade said.

At least it did when it came to keeping out those with no measurable levels of talent, he thought. Devin, with his newly stirring senses, might have been tempted to try to get inside but Nate would not have made it. If Devin had managed to get lost in the Preserve, Nate would have raced back to town to report the problem.

“There are other things that can happen to a couple of kids alone,” Myrna said.

“It’s okay to worry,” he said.

“Gee, thanks for that, boss. I feel so much better now.”

“Sorry,” Slade said. “That wasn’t very reassuring, was it? Look, Devin said that he and Nate were going to Hidden Beach to do their treasure hunting. They would have taken Merton Road. You could drive out there and see how they’re getting on for yourself.”

“Are you kidding? I can’t check up on Devin. He would be absolutely mortified if I did that to him in front of Nate.”

“True. I’ll tell you what, I’ll drive out there and take a look.”

Myrna looked inordinately grateful. “Thanks, Chief. I really appreciate this.”

Slade looked at Rex. “Let’s go, buddy.”

Sensing a new adventure, Rex chortled, grabbed his clutch, and bounded up onto Slade’s shoulder.

Slade looked at Myrna. “It has been suggested that hanging out with a dust bunny who carries a purse might have a negative impact on my image as a hard-core crime fighter.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Myrna said. “It’s a very nice clutch.”

Chapter 19

NATE GRABBED DEVIN’S ARM. “DID YOU HEAR THAT?”

“Ouch.” Devin winced. “Yeah, let go, man. That hurts.”

They were sitting side by side, their backs against a massive granite rock. Nearby a waterfall splashed into a pool. It was late afternoon but night fell fast and early inside the Preserve. The last of the sun had vanished a few minutes ago and a deep twilight was descending.

The plunge through the weird energy fence had been bad for both of them, although Devin suspected that it had frightened Nate more than it had him. Nevertheless, they were now facing the prospect of spending the night inside the Preserve and he was not looking forward to it any more than Nate was.

At least there had been no sign of the two smugglers. The really bad part, Devin thought, was that they did not have a flashlight. They hadn’t had anything to eat for hours. He thought wistfully about the packs they had left on top of the cliff above Hidden Beach.

“There’s that creepy noise again,” Nate whispered. “Maybe it’s those two guys.”

Devin stared hard at the dense darkness between the trees. Nate was not imagining things, he decided. Something had moved in the shadows. He could have sworn that for a couple of seconds he saw a pair of glowing eyes but it was hard to be certain because whenever he concentrated with all of his energy it seemed to him that there were a lot of small, strange things glowing in the dark around them. He’d realized very quickly that Nate could not see all the scary glow-in-the-dark stuff so he had decided not to mention it. Nate was already freaked out enough as it was. One of them had to stay calm.

“No,” he said. “It’s not the smugglers. If they had found us they would have shot us by now. You heard them back there at the cove. They said they couldn’t follow us into the Preserve.”

“They think that whatever is in here will get us. Don’t know about you but that doesn’t make me feel any better. Who knows what’s in this place?”

“You’ve lived on Rainshadow all your life. If there were dangerous wild animals in here you would have heard about them by now.”

“I’m not talking about wild animals. I’m talking about other stuff. Lots of people have gone missing in the Preserve over the years. What if they didn’t just die? What if they’re still around?”

“There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“How do you know that?”

It was, Devin thought, a legitimate question. How did he know there was no such thing as ghosts? He decided he did not want to pursue that line of logic.

“At least it’s not too cold in here,” he said. “If we have to spend the night we won’t get that hypo thing.”

“Hypothermia,” Nate said automatically.

“Yeah. That.”

Devin took out the old compass that Charlotte Enright had given him. He held it tightly in his hand. He had already discovered that it didn’t work inside the Preserve. When he’d tried to use it earlier he saw that all four points of the compass were glowing equally brightly. There was no way to tell which way was true north. But it felt good to hold it in his hand. Comforting.

“I’m thirsty,” Nate said after a while. “I’m going to get some water.”

“Me, too.” Devin got to his feet.

They moved across the grass to the grotto pool and looked down at the frothy water.

“Huh,” Nate said. “Something weird about that water.”

“Like what?”

But he could sense it, too, Devin thought, probably better than Nate could. There was something strange about the water in the pool.

“You can’t see the bottom,” Nate said. He looked down into the pool as if he was fascinated by it.

“The rocks at the bottom are dark so the water looks dark. That’s why you can’t see anything,” Devin said.

“Oh, man, there’s something down there,” Nate whispered.

“A fish, maybe,” Devin said uneasily.

“Whatever it is, it’s big. Don’t know about you but I’m not thirsty enough to put my hand into that water.”

“It’s just a fish.” Devin started to lean forward to scoop up some of the water.

Something dark swirled in the depths of the water. He realized he suddenly felt an overpowering urge to plunge into the pool. The darkness down below summoned him with a force that was slowly becoming irresistible. His heart started to pound. He leaned a little farther forward.

“Are you crazy, man?” Nate shouted.

He grabbed Devin’s arm and yanked him back from the edge.

Devin felt as if he had just awakened from a nightmare. He gasped for air and took several deep breaths trying to calm his racing pulse.

“Thanks,” he managed.

“Come on, we need to get away from this place,” Nate whispered.

“If we start running around in the Preserve no one will ever find us.”

“No one’s ever gonna find us, anyway,” Nate said. He did not take his eyes off the dark surface of the pool.

“Wrong,” Devin said. “The chief will find us.”

Chapter 20

SLADE BROUGHT THE SUV TO A HALT AT THE END OF Merton Road and sat quietly for a moment, hands resting on the wheel. The first frisson of unease shifted across his senses.

“This is not good,” he said to Rex. “We should have passed the boys on their bicycles somewhere along the way.”

Rex was perched on the back of the passenger seat where he had a good view out the windows. Sensing Slade’s concern, he muttered.

“We’d better go take a look.” Slade opened the door. “If Devin did decide to try to get Nate and himself into the Preserve and it turns out they got lost, I’m going to be pissed.”

Clutch in paw, Rex sidestepped along the back of the seats and hopped onto Slade’s arm. From there he scrambled up onto Slade’s shoulder.

They made their way through the trees along the top of the cliffs. To the left sheer rock walls plunged into the cold, churning waters of the Amber Sea. Slade knew that the rock face went down several hundred more feet below the surface. Rainshadow was a natural fortress, he thought. It wasn’t the first time that realization had crossed his mind. If you wanted to conceal some serious secrets, this was a good place to do it.

Fifteen minutes later he stood on top of the low cliff above Hidden Beach. There was no sign of Nate and Devin. He tried to shake off the chill factor but his senses were growing colder and more acute. His hunter intuition was telling him the truth, whether he wanted to acknowledge it or not.

He went down the rough trail to the rocky beach. Small pebbles and debris skittered from under his boots.

The beach was clean. Too clean,he thought. You’d never know a couple of teenage boys had spent time here looking for the lost treasure of a legendary pirate and smuggler who had worked the Amber Sea Islands fifty years earlier.

“The boys have been taught to pack out all of their trash but there should be some traces left behind,” he said to Rex. “We’re talking about a couple of teens. They can’t even keep their rooms this clean.”

He jacked up his senses a couple of notches. The action was automatic. He did not expect to find anything, he did not wantto find anything, because the only psi he could detect was the burning radiation that indicated violence. With his talent he could pick up only the bad news. But somewhere along the line he had slipped into hunting mode. There was no turning back.

The flaring acid light he dreaded viewing was splashed like blood all over the rocks on the beach.

“Shit,” he said very softly to Rex.

Rex mumbled ominously, tumbled down to the ground, and began exploring.

The energy was fairly fresh, Slade decided, only a few hours old. It had not been laid down by either Nate or Devin. He knew both boys. Neither of them could have generated such a cold, violent fever. What he was looking at had been left by adults. Two of them, if he was analyzing it correctly. The ultralight in the prints told him that they both possessed some talent. The chill on his senses went glacial.

Rex was at the far end of the tiny beach, investigating the rocks. He appeared very intent on whatever it was he had discovered. A crab,Slade thought, or maybe some other small creature trying to hunt or hide at the water’s edge.

There was no time to waste but for some reason he felt compelled to find out what had captured Rex’s attention. He crossed the beach and studied the rocks.

“What do you see?” he asked softly.

Rex pawed at one rock as though he wanted to play with it. But there was nothing playful in his demeanor. He, too, was in serious hunting mode.

Slade crouched. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

He picked up the rock, prepared for a multilegged shore denizen to scuttle away. But it was not a crab that gleamed in the light. It was a spent shell casing. Someone had recently fired a gun here in the cove. Or from the top of the cliff.

He glanced up, thinking about how casings scattered. The violently luminous light was splashed all the way up the trail. He ran the scenario in his mind. The shooters had been surprised while they were on the beach. They had rushed up the trail in a killing frame of mind. It didn’t take any psychic talent to figure out that the boys had been spotted by a couple of thugs who did not want any witnesses.

The sons of bitches went after a couple of unarmed kids, Slade thought.

The hunting fever was upon him now. He took the notebook out of his shirt pocket, ripped out a sheet of paper, and used it to pick up the casing. He folded the paper around the casing and tucked it back into his shirt. While talent could be used to track down criminals, very little evidence of a straight paranormal nature was allowed in court. Judges and juries still liked hard evidence.

He got to his feet and looked at Rex. “How the hell did you know the shell casing was important?”

Rex fixed him with a disturbingly intense look and growled darkly.

“Let’s go,” Slade said.

He started up the trail. Rex scrambled after him.

At the top of the cliff Slade stopped, trying to think like a couple of teenage boys who had inadvertently surprised a pair of men with guns. If they had been scared, which was the only reasonable response, they would have run. If they had fled, they would have dropped their packs. So where were the packs?

The most likely answer, the one he did not want to acknowledge, was that the gunmen had killed the boys and dumped the bodies and the packs into the deep, cold waters of the Amber Sea. But he would not go there yet, not until he had ruled out all other possibilities. The boys might have had time to escape.

He forced himself to look for the black ultralight that indicated spilled blood. Relief roared through him when he did not see any on the ground. He fought back the emotional response because it would interfere with the hunt. Still, it was useful information, a solid fact. He could use a few more facts of that nature.

“No blood,” he said quietly to Rex. “They were shooting at the boys but they didn’t hit either of them. At least not here.”

That left a lot of equally awful possibilities. The gunmen could have chased the boys into the trees, grabbed them, and murdered them elsewhere.

But there was one other possible scenario. The outer edge of the energy fence that marked the Preserve was not far from here. Both boys were aware of it.

He looked at Rex, who was now staring intently into the trees where the fence began. Slade got the impression that he was waiting. Waiting for me to start the hunt?Rex was acting as if they were a team.

Cautiously he eased his talent up another notch. The first whispers of the dark stormlight energy at the far end of the spectrum flickered across his senses. He could not risk going any hotter, he decided. If Charlotte was wrong, he might trigger total and complete psiblindness right here and now. He needed what was left of his senses to find the boys.

But Devin and Nate had been in a flat-out panic when they ran. They had left tracks that were vivid enough to be seen with his senses only partially elevated. One set of tracks glowed hotter and more vividly than the other.

“Smart boys,” Slade said softly. “You made a run for the Preserve.”

Devin’s newly emerging intuition might have told him that he could get through the barrier. He might even have realized that he could drag Nate with him. It would not have been a pleasant experience but a couple of scared kids could overlook a lot of disturbing energy when they were running for their lives. Adrenaline would have fueled their flight. It was a potent drug and it left seething tracks.

Slade started toward the fence line.

The shooters’ prints stopped short of the invisible energy barrier. Relief surged through Slade. The gunmen had not pursued the boys into the Preserve. That made sense. They clearly possessed some talent, but not a lot, probably not enough to make them want to risk going into the Preserve.

Slade loped after Rex, who was trotting eagerly ahead. Rex’s mood had changed. He chortled enthusiastically, evidently enjoying himself. It was obvious that he was following the boys’ prints. He knew both Devin and Nate. Maybe he thought this was some sort of psychic game of hide-and-seek.

With his talent slightly elevated, Slade had no trouble following the trail into the denser stand of trees. The oppressive energy of the fence was strong now, but he had entered the Preserve often enough to be able to push through it. Devin and Nate had managed to get through it, too. Their psi-prints were still visible and still leading deeper into the Preserve.

There was one last blast of nightmarish energy from the fence and then Slade was through the force-field barrier. He stopped long enough to orient himself and adjust his talent to a lower level. When he looked down he could still see the glowing trail.

“Once inside they probably wouldn’t have gone far,” Slade said.

But Rex wasn’t listening. He bounded ahead with his purse.

Slade followed the prints through a jumble of boulders and another stand of trees. Rex vanished into the woods, chortling cheerfully. A short time later Slade heard Devin’s voice.

“Look, it’s Rex. What are you doing here, Rex? How did you find us? Where’s the chief?”

“Right here,” Slade said. He walked out of the woods into a small clearing.

He took in the scene in a single glance. Devin was perched on a rock, patting Rex. Nate was nearby. His face lit up when he saw Slade.

“Chief Attridge,” he said. “You found us.”

“Told you he’d get us out of here,” Devin announced proudly.

He gave Rex one last pat and jumped to his feet. He dashed toward Slade. So did Nate.

There was a disconcerting moment when it looked like both boys were going to throw their arms around Slade. He breathed a sigh of relief when the teens stumbled to an awkward halt a short distance away.

“Nice work,” he said to cover up the embarrassing moment. “You saved yourselves and you stayed put until someone got here. Your families are going to be proud of you. So am I.”

Devin and Nate grinned.

“Two guys shot at us,” Nate said.

“We think they were drug smugglers,” Devin added.

“Devin got us through the fence,” Nate said. “I didn’t think he could but he did it. That was one weird trip, let me tell you. I thought my head would explode or something.”

“I know,” Slade said.

Devin’s triumphant expression faded. “I know we aren’t supposed to go into the Preserve, Chief.”

“You did what you had to do to save Nate and yourself. It was the right thing.”

Devin flushed but he grinned again.

“Did you catch those two guys who chased us in here?” he asked.

“No,” Slade said. “They’re long gone and the site has been pretty thoroughly cleaned. I couldn’t find your packs or your bicycles.”

“Those two assholes probably dumped them into the water,” Nate muttered. “My bike was brand-new. Dad said if I let anything happen to it he wouldn’t replace it.”

“I’ll have a talk with your dad,” Slade said. “Got a hunch he’ll be reasonable, given the circumstances. Let’s get out of here. You can give me the whole story on the way home.”

“They wore caps,” Devin said.

“And they had guns,” Nate added.

“I know,” Slade said. He looked down at the ground around Devin’s feet. The boys’ footsteps were still glowing hot. “Devin, are you carrying amber or anything with crystals embedded in it?”

“Just my compass. But it doesn’t work in here.”

“Let me see it.”

“Sure.”

Devin fished the compass out of his pocket. Slade took it from him. All four crystals were glowing brightly.

“Huh,” he said.

“I told you, it doesn’t work in here,” Devin said. “It’s been lit up like that since we went through the fence.”

“It’s not functioning as a compass,” Slade said. “But I think it is working as some kind of tracking device. It might explain why your prints were so clear.”

“What does that mean?” Devin asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s interesting.” He gave the compass back to Devin. “We’ll worry about it later. We need to get you guys back home.”

Nate looked uneasy again. “Does this mean we have to go back through the fence?”

“I’m afraid so,” Slade said. “But this time it will be easier for two reasons.”

“What reasons?” Nate asked, still wary.

“Reason number one is that all three of us are going to go through it together. Brace yourselves, we’re going to hold hands.”

Devin snorted. “Yeah, that’s how we did it the first time, huh, Nate?”

Nate rolled his eyes. “Why does that make a difference?”

“Hard to explain,” Slade said. “But it does.”

“What’s the second reason it will be easier?” Devin asked.

Slade smiled. “It’s always easier to get through something like this when you know what’s waiting for you on the other side. In this case, it will be dinner.”