In Too Deep

keep the Queen in working order?”
    “Someone who can handle the psi in this place and who also feels a duty to protect the artifacts.”
    “Walker,” she said softly. “But that means he knows about the second entrance. Why didn’t he mention it?”
    “Walker operates in his own universe and employs his own kind of logic,” Fallon said. “It’s our fault. We didn’t ask the right question.”
    “I think that, in his mind, he has turned over the responsibility of protecting the inventions to J&J. He probably assumes that you know everything he knows.”
    “Yes.”
    Isabella looked at the skeleton. “What do we do with the body?”
    “Nothing until we get the inventions out of here. Gordon Lasher has been here for twenty-two years. He can wait a while longer.”

14
    T hey emerged from the shelter a short time later, closing the hatch to cut off the disturbing psi wind. Isabella fondled the dogs while Fallon told Henry and Vera what they had found and explained his plans to bring in an Arcane team to remove the remaining curiosities.
    Henry squinted at Walker. “Let me get this straight. Vera and I have been guarding the front door of that shelter for twenty-two years while you’ve been coming and going through the back door?”
    Walker was bewildered by the question. “Have to k-keep the Queen working. Takes oil.”
    “Why didn’t you tell us there was another entrance to the shelter?” Vera asked calmly.
    Walker looked confused. “No one knew about it.”
    “Except you and Rachel and the Asshole,” Henry said, disgusted.
    “J-just me, now,” Walker said earnestly. “Gordon Lasher is dead. Rachel never came back. I kept the secret.”
    Henry grimaced. “Wonder how many other people discovered the second entrance during the past twenty-two years.”
    “I don’t think that anyone else knows it exists,” Fallon said. “As far as we could tell, all of the devices are accounted for. Walker’s footprints are the only new ones down there.”
    Walker rocked. “No one knows about the tunnel d-door. Except me. And Rachel. But Rachel never came back.”
    “Where does the door lead?” Isabella asked gently.
    Walker concentrated. “Comes out in the h-hot springs cave.”
    “Which is out at the Point,” Vera said. “Well, that explains it. The only people who know about the springs are those of us who live in the Cove.”
    “I’ve been inside the hot springs cavern a few times,” Fallon said. “There’s a vast network of tunnels leading off of it that have never been explored. Obviously one of them leads to the shelter.”
    “Walker, Lasher and Rachel saw the second door when they went down into the shelter,” Isabella said. “But how did they find the entrance from the hot springs cavern? They would have had to map that maze of tunnels. It would have taken weeks, at the very least. But from the looks of things, Lasher was back inside the shelter shortly after he left town with Rachel.”
    “Rachel,” Walker said suddenly. “Rachel f-found the tunnel that leads to the shelter. She showed it to Lasher.”
    Fallon looked at Isabella. “Sounds like Rachel Stewart had some serious talent.”

    WALKER CHOSE TO WALK back into town. Isabella grabbed the handhold just inside the door of the big SUV and did a little hop to get up into the cab. Fallon put the remains of the Queen, together with the clock, into the cargo bay of the vehicle and got behind the wheel.
    Isabella’s phone rang just as Fallon drove out of the Sea Breeze parking lot. The number looked familiar.
    “Norma Spaulding,” Isabella said. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
    “Clients are always trouble,” Fallon said. “In a perfect world J&J wouldn’t need any.”
    “That would certainly be an interesting business model.” She opened the phone. “Hello, Norma,” she said, going for her most professional tones.
    “The buyer I had lined up for the Zander house just called,” Norma said tightly. “He heard the news about the so-called Haunted House murders. He is no longer interested.”
    Isabella winced. “I’m sorry about that.”
    “Damn it, I didn’t hire Jones & Jones to kill the deal.”
    “I assure you, it was an accident.”
    “Finding three bodies in the basement is an accident?” Norma’s voice rose. “A serial killer dropping dead in the house is an
accident
? The property is a crime scene now. The press is having a field day with the story.”
    “I realize it may take some time