Dream Eyes

carrier flew open. Max shot out. He dashed across the porch and into the house.
    Before Gwen could react, she heard a familiar voice screaming in panic somewhere inside the house.
    “Let me go, let me go,” Nicole Hudson shouted. “Please, I swear I won’t tell anyone—”
    “Take it easy.” Judson’s voice echoed along a hallway. “No one’s going to hurt you.”
    To Gwen’s surprise, Nicole obeyed. At least she stopped the hysterical shrieking and subsided, instead, into jerky, frightened sobs.
    “Please don’t hurt me,” she whimpered. “I won’t tell Chief Oxley.”
    “Tell him what?” Judson asked.
    “About what I saw in the basement,” Nicole whispered. “Please.”
    “Let’s go see what it is you’re not going to tell anyone about,” Judson said. He raised his voice. “Come on in, Gwen.”
    Gwen moved through the doorway. She groped for the hall light switch and found it. But when she flipped it, nothing happened.
    Judson appeared at the end of the hall. The gun was no longer in sight. He had a firm grip on Nicole’s arm.
    “I just tried the switch at the other end of the hall,” Judson said. “The power is out. Looks like someone got to the electrical panel.”
    “It wasn’t me,” Nicole whimpered.
    “What’s going on?” Gwen said. But she knew.
    “Where’s the body?” Judson asked Nicole.
    “Downstairs in the basement,” Nicole said. She gave him a pleading look. “Someone killed Louise.”
    “What makes you think she was murdered?” Gwen asked quietly. “Was there blood?”
    “I don’t know. I didn’t go down there.”
    “But you’re sure she’s dead?” Gwen asked.
    “I think so. She died the way the others did.” Nicole looked at Gwen with an expression of veiled horror and then looked away very quickly. “Just like the others. Everyone will think it was a heart attack or that she tripped on the basement stairs. Or something. No one will be able to prove that it was murder.”
    “Let’s go take a look,” Judson said.
    “Please, I don’t want to go down there,” Nicole whispered.
    “Where are the basement stairs?” Judson asked.
    “That way,” Nicole muttered. She gestured toward a hall.
    Judson steered her in the direction that she had indicated. Gwen followed. Max appeared at her feet, crowding close. His ears were flat and his tail was high.
    “There you are,” Gwen said quietly. “I wondered where you went.”
    They halted in front of an open door midway along the hall. Concrete steps descended into an inky darkness split by a sharp beam of bright light that angled across the concrete floor.
    “A flashlight,” Judson said. “She took it with her when she went downstairs to check the electrical panel.”
    Max wove a restless path between Gwen’s legs and muttered urgently in the mysterious language of felines. The sepulchral music of the sculptures that hung from the ceiling seemed to grow louder.
Should have closed the front door,
Gwen thought. The draft was getting stronger.
    Nicole froze at the top of the steps. “I don’t want to go down.”
    “We’re all going down together,” Judson said. “And remind me to ask you later what the hell you were doing here in the first place.”
    Nicole started reluctantly down the steps. “I just wanted to talk to her.”
    “Did you bring your father’s old hunting rifle along for the chat?” Judson asked.”
    “No, I swear, I didn’t bring it.” Nicole stopped, gripped the railing and stared back at him. “I know what you’re thinking. Oxley came by the shop. He said you thought I took a shot at you out at the old lodge yesterday, but that wasn’t me. He asked me to show him Dad’s old rifle but I couldn’t find it. Someone stole it.”
    “Yeah?” Judson made it clear he didn’t believe a word Nicole was saying. “When did that happen?”
    “How should I know?” Nicole wailed. “I keep it in my grandmother’s cedar chest. I haven’t had any reason to open that chest in months.”
    “You’re lying,” Judson said. “We can go over the details later.”
    Halfway down the steps, another unsettling shiver of awareness stirred Gwen’s senses. She realized that Max was no longer talking to her. She glanced back and saw that the cat was not following her down into the basement. She could see him silhouetted in the doorway. He had gone very still, very alert, at the top of the steps. But he was not watching her and the others. His attention was fixed on something only he