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“I suppose this isn’t the best time for someone who is inclined to be a tad clumsy to take charge,” she said.
“I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“I appreciate that.”
She went back to the top of the steps and watched from the shadows of the closet.
Ambrose moved over the sixth step, stopped on the one below, and looked back at her.
Nothing happened.
Pallas allowed herself to breathe again. She went back down the steps. When she reached the danger zone Ambrose extended a hand without a word. She took it, her grip very tight, and stepped carefully over the nearly invisible wire. She stopped beside Ambrose and held his hand a few beats longer than necessary. Her heart was pounding.
“Okay, that was scary,” she said.
“Yes, it was. My nerves may never be the same.”
“Probably a dumbass thing to do,” she said.
“Probably,” he agreed.
“The fact that we would take such a risk makes you realize just how desperate we are for answers.”
“It does,” Ambrose said.
They went cautiously downward. The wooden walls of the tunnel gave way to natural rock. The damp and the smell of the sea grew stronger. Pallas kept her senses heightened and Ambrose examined each concrete step with his camera light.
The excavated tunnel abruptly ended at the rear of a cave that had been carved out by the force of the waves. Water splashed in thedarkness. Ambrose swept the interior with the beam of his light. Pallas did the same.
A wide stream of seawater washed through the cavern, ebbing and flowing with the rhythm of the waves outside. A two-person kayak had been hauled out onto the stone floor.
“Something tells me Jodi Luckhurst is in for disappointment,” Ambrose said. “Looks like Geddings was still dabbling in the drug business.”
“Maybe he just enjoyed sea kayaking,” Pallas said. “It’s very popular here on the coast.”
“Call me cynical, but I doubt he went to the trouble and risk of booby-trapping that tunnel just to protect his kayak. See anything worrisome?”
She looked around and shook her head.
“No,” she said. “There’s definitely a lot of fresh energy down here. I think he came and went this way often, but I don’t see any overt signs of violence or anxiety. There’s none of the kind of heat I noticed on the sixth step, either.”
“Good,” Ambrose said. “Let’s check out the kayak.”
He kept his hand on her shoulder as they crossed the damp, uneven floor of the cave. When they reached the kayak, Ambrose aimed the flashlight into the interior openings. A hefty, military-style flashlight was clipped to the inside of the vessel. A waterproof bag was tucked into a compartment.
Ambrose studied the bag in the beam of his phone’s flashlight.
“Any heat?” he asked.
“Some, but nothing that looks dangerous,” Pallas said.
Ambrose picked up the bag and handed it to her. She unsealed it. Inside were a change of clothes, a man’s wig, sunglasses, and a stack of crisp hundred-dollar bills.
“A go bag,” Ambrose said. “Geddings was ready to run on a moment’s notice, but he never got this far.”
Pallas reached into the bag and took out the clothing and the wig and the money. Underneath there were more items, including a waterproof container about half the size of a shoebox. She removed the lid and looked at the six small glass vials filled with a clear liquid.
Ambrose picked up one bottle and studied the label. “A string of numbers and letters. Must be code for whatever is inside. This stuff looks like it came out of a private compounding pharmacy.”
