In Too Deep

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    “Eclipse Arch, Eclipse Bay, Oregon,”
Isabella read. She looked up. “Never heard of the place.”
    “I have. Your grandmother is safe, but we can’t risk contacting her until this thing is over. She was right about one thing. Communication between the two of you at this juncture might put both of you in danger.”
    “You said if my grandmother was alive, it would change everything.”
    “Yes,” Fallon said. “It does.”

28
    S hortly before midnight, Isabella stood with Fallon in the night-darkened gardens of the Vantara Estate. They were not alone. Julian and the Lucan agent who was posing as a security guard were with them. They all contemplated the theatrically illuminated mansion. With its pastiche of Baroque, Renaissance and Iberian architectural elements, the ornate structure looked like a fairy-tale castle.
    “Got to admit, those old 1930s film stars knew how to do over-the-top,” Fallon said.
    Isabella smiled. “I like it.”
    “Let’s go,” Julian said. Urgency and impatience crackled in the atmosphere around him.
    “I’ve got the code,” the hunter said. “I’ll let you into the house through one of the side doors. I turned off the alarm system just before you got here. You’ll have the mansion to yourselves. You should be okay if you stick to pencil flashlights, but don’t turn on any lights in the main rooms. There’s not a lot of traffic out here at night, but the county cops run regular patrols every couple of hours.”
    “I don’t need visible spectrum light to do my job,” Isabella said.
    The hunter led them through a section of gardens steeped in shadows. He wielded a flashlight, but Isabella knew that he did not need it for himself. His preternatural night vision allowed him to move through the darkness as confidently as if the path were lit with floodlights.
    He stopped at a discreetly concealed side door and punched in a code. The door opened. He ushered Isabella, Fallon and Julian into a hallway.
    “Got the floor plan?” he asked.
    “Yes,” Julian said.
    “I’ll leave you to it, then,” the hunter said. “I need to check in with company headquarters. Don’t want to break routine or they might send someone to check.”
    He closed the door, plunging the hall into darkness.
    Fallon switched on a pencil flashlight. Julian did the same. Isabella raised her talent.
    There were always secrets aplenty in old houses and the Vantara mansion was no exception. Traces of psi fog swirled in the hallway. Layer upon layer of wispy mists indicated decades of small, private secrets that were nobody’s business but that of the individuals who harbored them. Isabella suppressed her awareness of the old radiation and concentrated on the newer mysteries. As usual in a space that had been well traveled, there was a great deal of fog, including some very hot stuff that she recognized as having been left by the hunter.
    “Nothing here that looks like it ever had any connection to your broker,” she said.
    Fallon consulted the map. “According to the team, he entered the mansion on a regularly scheduled tour. All the tours start in the Grand Hall.”
    “To the left,” Julian said.
    He led the way around the corner and down a long, high-ceilinged corridor paneled in rich, dark hardwood.
    Isabella lowered her senses, not wanting to waste energy that she might need later for more nuanced detective work. Still, even when perceived with only a fraction of her talent, there was an abundance of fog to wade through. There were no such things as ghosts, but sometimes she wondered if down through the centuries, others endowed with her kind of talent had started the rumors of spirits from the Other Side. It was easy enough to imagine phantoms in the eerie light.
    She followed Fallon and Julian through another doorway and into a heavy sea of fog.
    “Whoa.” She stopped abruptly, adjusting her senses down another notch. “This, I take it, is the Grand Hall?”
    Even in darkness lit only by moonlight slanting through high, Gothic-style windows and the two thin beams of the flashlights, the vast space glowed with gilded splendor. The walls were hung with huge ancient tapestries depicting medieval hunting scenes. Marble tiles covered the floor. Heavy, ornate furniture adorned the room. Couches and chairs covered in velvet and embroidered brocades were arranged in groupings around tables inset with lapis and malachite. Massive chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
    “We know for certain