What Hides Inside: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 2

after a couple of feet, but still, if it was open at the other end we’d see light. It must be covered over with something.”
“We should measure the tunnels before the cops get here,” Sam said. “We need to figure out what’s on top of this thing.”
“Then we can do some poking around topside.” Placing his flashlight and hard hat on the ground, Dean untied his sweater from around his waist and pulled it on. “I have a pretty accurate pedometer in my bag in the SUV. I’ll run get it and we can do some quick and dirty measurements. They might not be one hundred percent perfect, but they’ll be good enough.”
“Good man.” David clapped Dean on the back. “Run, boy, run like the wind.”
Dean rolled his eyes as he put his hard hat back on. “Smart ass. Be back in a few.” Smacking David on the arm as he passed, Dean snatched his flashlight off the ground and took off jogging down the tunnel the way they’d come.
“He’s a good one,” David declared, watching Dean’s light shrink into the distance. “Smart as a whip, and full of great ideas.”
“Good thing you talked Bo into hiring him. I was getting sick of interviewing unqualified people, frankly.” With one last curious glance at the narrow opening in the ceiling, Andre focused his light on the walls and floor. “Don’t know what makes people think that just because we investigate hauntings, we don’t really need the qualifications we ask for in the ad.”
“Yeah, that’s irritating all right.” Leaning close to Sam, who’d kept deliberately quiet during this exchange, David dropped his voice to a whisper. “Dean’s into you, man.”
“Oh really?” Sam murmured. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Yeah, right.” David snorted, dismissing the obvious lie with a wave of his hand. “I know you said he wasn’t your type, but come on. There’s no way you don’t wanna hit that.”
Sam chuckled at David’s typically blunt assessment of the situation. “Yeah, okay, I wouldn’t mind. And I did notice him flirting with me. I’d have to be blind not to.”
“I knew it.” David grinned, blue eyes sparkling. “So go for it.”
“Why are you so interested in my love life?” Sam asked mildly, walking over to inspect a deep gouge in the dirt wall. “It’s not like you need to live vicariously through me or anything.”
“You’re my friend, Sam. I want my friends to be happy, and you haven’t been happy in a long time. Maybe Dean can change that.”
That simple, honest sentiment brought a lump to Sam’s throat. “I’ll think about it,” he whispered. “Thanks.”
“Any time, man.” David gripped Sam’s shoulder in a sympathetic squeeze, then let go and stared at the piece of wall Sam was examining. “What the fuck’s with all these scratches in the walls and floor?”
“There’s more over here.” Keeping carefully away from the pit containing the teenage girl’s book bag, Andre walked over to join David and Sam. “The damn things are everywhere in this general area.”
David’s gaze was riveted to the wall a few feet away, where three parallel scratches marked the brick lining the pit and the walls. “You know what it looks like.”
Sam swallowed hard. “Yeah.”
Without a sound, Andre turned away and walked down the tunnel, far enough that Sam could only see his hand holding the flashlight. He didn’t blame the man. Not when they all suspected the cause of those scratches and furrows had long, wicked claws of glassy black.
    In the next half hour, Dean measured the entire length of the old tunnel, and David and Andre inspected every inch of the brick-lined pit. Using the digital camera Dean fetched from the SUV, Sam took pictures of the whole area. By the time Bo and Cecile returned with Mr. Innes and two uniformed officers, the four of them had documented the place as thoroughly as possible without touching anything.
    After briefly questioning everyone, the police made them all leave, just as Bo predicted. Andre showed the officers the shaft leading toward the surface, then the group began the journey out of the tunnels. At least we’re not suspects this time, Sam thought as he followed the rest of the group down the passageway.
    “What else did y’all find while we were gone?” Bo asked, dropping back to walk beside David and Sam as they climbed the steps into the school hallway. “Not that that shaft in the ceiling isn’t plenty.”
    “Andre and I looked over the walls, floor and ceiling as well as we