The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2)(54)

“If Uncle Victor is right, the guy with the glasses was John Morrissey.”

“If you say so. He took a clunky-looking instrument out of a black case and set it up here.”

She was standing several feet away from him, but he could sense the energy rising in the atmosphere. The powerful currents of her aura were as distinctive as her scent and just as addictive. He would always know if she was nearby, he realized. He had already figured out that he wanted her, but the electrifying kiss in the kitchen had sealed his fate. No matter what happened, whether they made it into bed or not, he would never forget her.

But they would make it into bed, he promised himself.

“Can you be a little more specific about the device Morrissey brought with him?” he said.

“It looked like something you would see in a laboratory,” Catalina said. “But it didn’t have the appearance of an instrument or a piece of equipment that had come off a production line. I think it might have been handmade.”

“It probably was. I’ll bet Morrissey built it himself.”

“I remember that he told the other man the thing had to be properly tuned. It was clear Morrissey was having a problem doing that. Even a lot of low-tech gadgets don’t work well in the caves, or anywhere else around Fogg Lake. Flashlights and a few other old-fashioned battery-powered devices are about it.”

“The paranormal radiation is too strong,” Slater said absently. He thought about that for a moment. “It sounds like the two men came in here with a clear objective. They were planning to search for something. They were hoping that the gadget Morrissey had brought along would help them locate whatever it was they expected to find.”

“That makes sense.” Catalina went still. “But I think … I think the killer screwed up.”

Slater knew from the change in her gaze and in her voice that she was sliding into her other vision. But she wasn’t being overwhelmed by whatever it was she perceived. She was in control this time.

He waited.

“Morrissey is very intent on what he is doing,” Catalina said, speaking in an eerie, dreamlike cadence. “He is excited. Impatient. He is concentrating very hard. But he is suddenly distracted. He is … bewildered. Then he realizes something is wrong. He’s … sinking into himself. He can’t breathe. He knows now that he is dying. You stupid bastard. You’ll never find what you’re looking for without me.”

The last bit sounded like a direct quote, but Slater refrained from verifying that because he did not want to interrupt the vision. Catalina backed away from the rock where the man had been killed. She clasped her hands very tightly together.

“The killer is excited, too,” she continued in the dream voice. “He is thrilled. But suddenly he is alarmed. Furious. He runs toward one of the side caves. There are witnesses. He cannot allow them to live.”

Catalina snapped out of the trance. She was damp with perspiration and she was breathing quickly.

“Are you all right?” Slater asked.

“Yes,” she said, once again in her normal voice. “I can tell you what alerted him. He spotted a camp lantern that we left behind. He realized there might be someone else around. We knew he would find us so we fled down that tunnel. He called out to us. Told us he was an undercover cop. We didn’t believe him. We just kept going. Eventually he gave up, but we couldn’t be sure he was gone.”

“So you spent the night in the caves.”

“We were afraid he might be waiting for us out here. We stayed put until we were sure it was morning. We knew that people would be out looking for us.”

“Any idea why the killer gave up trying to find you?”

“Sure.” Catalina unlocked her hands and gestured toward one of the side tunnels. “He wasn’t from around here. He didn’t know how to navigate the caves. He must have realized that if he went too far into the complex he would get hopelessly lost. It’s not just that the tunnels are a maze—there’s also the paranormal radiation. It’s very disorienting. You start seeing things. The deeper you go, the worse it gets.”

“Hallucinations?”

Catalina looked at him. “Oh, yeah.”

“How did you and Olivia keep from getting lost?”

“We followed the currents of a hot paranormal river going in. Followed the same currents out the next morning.”

“But the killer wasn’t able to follow you, at least not very far.”

Catalina raised her brows. “A lot of the locals can’t navigate the energy rivers in these caves. Olivia and I are both pretty strong, but even working together it was all we could do to sort them out.”

“I don’t doubt it. There’s a considerable amount of disorienting energy here near the entrance. It’s bound to get really hot in the side tunnels.” Slater swept the flashlight around the cavern. “Back to Morrissey and the killer. According to the records, no body was ever found.”

“Olivia and I saw the killer dump the body into the underground river.” Catalina turned to look at the stream of deep water that emerged from a cave on one side of the cavern and vanished into a flooded tunnel a short distance away. “The current is very strong. If you throw something into that water it disappears very quickly.”

Slater walked to the river and stopped a safe distance from the edge. He aimed the flashlight down into the depths. The water was incredibly clear.