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The house was fully engulfed. The drug dealers’ car was still parked in the driveway.
“I don’t think either one of them made it out,” Pallas said. There was a shiver in her voice.
He took out his phone and glanced at the screen. “No signal. We’ll have to drive back toward town before I’ll be able to call nine-one-one.”
“That will give you time to come up with a good story,” Pallas said.
“We don’t need to invent one. As usual, truth is stranger than fiction. Really, you can’t make this stuff up.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
We were sureGeddings was dealing, but he was smart about it,” the detective said. “We didn’t know he was stealing from the Institute’s medication locker, though. No one reported the thefts.”
He had introduced himself as Logan. Excitement hummed in the atmosphere around him. He was young and ambitious and riding an adrenaline high. He had reason to be thrilled, Pallas thought. He was going to get the credit for closing a major drug case.
She and Ambrose were sitting in Logan’s office, a small, cramped space that looked out over the town square. The library, fire department, and city hall could be seen from the window. It was noon. She wasn’t hungry but she knew she should have something to eat. The only thing Logan had offered was coffee. Ambrose had accepted a cup but she had declined. It was the last thing her nerves needed. She was going to relive the escape in the kayak in her dreams.
“Geddings always looked clean,” Logan continued. “No record. Honorable discharge. Until recently he had a steady job at the college. The two who died in the blast were new in the area, part of agang that has been trying to move into this town. Both had rap sheets a mile long. What made you go out to Geddings’s place this morning?”
“As I told you earlier,” Pallas said, striving for patience, “The Lost Night Filesspecializes in cold cases that don’t seem to be on anyone’s radar.”
“Geddings wasn’t on anyone’s radar because no one had reported him missing,” Logan said. “What made you think he had disappeared?”
“I had an appointment to meet him,” Ambrose said. “He said he had some information for me regarding my medical records. He didn’t show up. No one seems to know what happened to him.”
Logan frowned. “What kind of medical information?”
“I have no idea,” Ambrose said. “I told you, he never showed up. That made me very, very curious, so I contactedThe Lost Night Files. They agreed to look into the disappearance.”
That was the truth, Pallas thought. Maybe not the whole truth, and one could say there were a few lies of omission, but the truth. Mostly.
Logan turned to her. “What made Mr.Drake’s case interesting to your podcast team, Ms.Llewellyn?”
“The connection to the ruins of the old asylum, of course,” Pallas said. “That, combined with the local legends, made the case very intriguing.”
Logan got a pained expression. “Are you talking about the ghosts of Carnelian stories? I can’t believe you take that kind of stuff seriously.”
“It’s the perfect storm for a podcast series,” Pallas said. “Abandoned asylum, the ghost of an inmate who wanted revenge on her husband, and now a mysterious disappearance. We specialize in cases like that.”
Logan switched his attention to Ambrose. “Let me get this straight. You’re the one who suggested that the podcast look into the disappearance, but you’re also doing research for a novel?”
“That’s right,” Ambrose said.
“Uh-huh.” Logan did not appear impressed. “All right, you went out to the Geddings place to take a look around. Why did you go into the house?”
“Because it was obvious it had been torn apart,” Ambrose said. “We were afraid Geddings might be inside, maybe injured or dead. The door was open. We probably shouldn’t have gone in—”
“No,” Logan said. “I could charge you with criminal trespass.”
“As I said, we had reason to be concerned about Geddings’s welfare,” Ambrose continued smoothly. “Once we were inside we saw the entrance to the old smugglers’ tunnel. It occurred to us that Geddings might have fallen down the steps. We noticed the trip wire on the way down and stepped over it. We were in the cavern, looking around, when the two men with the guns showed up. They assumed we were after Geddings’s stash of drugs. They viewed us as competition.”
“We realized our only hope was to take the kayak,” Pallas added. “Even so, Mr.Drake did try to warn the two drug dealers that the stairs were booby-trapped. Obviously they didn’t believe him. You know the rest.”
Logan got up from behind the desk, walked around to the front, and angled one hip on the corner. He folded his arms and regarded Ambrose in silence for a long moment.
“You saw a trip wire,” he said. “Recognized it for what it was. And you just hopped over it.”
“Didn’t exactly hop,” Ambrose said. “And before you continue with the lecture I can tell you that, while it wasn’t the brightest moveMs.Llewellyn or I have ever made, it wasn’t quite as stupid as it sounds. I used to work for a security firm. It wasn’t the first time I’ve seen a trip wire.”
