The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2)(68)

Slater moved to a workbench and examined the burner and the simple equipment that Nyla used to process herbs into essential oils, tisanes and other concoctions.

“This is all pretty low-tech,” he said. “Hard to imagine that she could produce the sophisticated stuff used on us with this basic equipment.”

“Maybe we’re wrong about her.”

“You said Trevelyan made periodic trips out of town to sell her products. It would be easy for her to purchase lab equipment while she was away.”

“Sure, but I’m telling you, if she had a more sophisticated lab anywhere around Fogg Lake, everyone in town would know about it.”

“Not,” Slater said, “if it was hidden in the caves.”

Icy fingers touched the back of Catalina’s neck. “If you’re right, maybe that’s where she’s hiding Olivia.”

Slater did not respond. He was opening and closing drawers, checking out the contents.

“Receipts, notebooks filled with data about the local plants, flyers about upcoming craft fairs.” Slater tossed several papers aside. He picked up a booklet and flipped through it. “Here we go.”

“What?” Catalina said.

“It’s a catalog of lab equipment. Some of the items are circled.” Slater looked up briefly, taking in the glass beakers and the simple burner on the workbench. “I don’t see any of these things here. She’s got another lab, Catalina. That’s the only explanation that fits the facts.”

“How are we going to find it?”

“With your mother’s sketches and the map we are going to draw,” Slater said.





CHAPTER 31


They made their way back to the Lark house to embark on the creation of a map. The process went quickly. Less than an hour later Catalina sat beside Slater at the dining bar and watched Slater study the rough sketch of Fogg Lake and the surrounding countryside. Her memories combined with her mother’s drawings had provided a remarkably accurate rendering of the area, but it only served to illustrate just how daunting the task of locating Nyla Trevelyan’s lab—assumingit existed—wouldbe.

“Talk about a needle in a haystack.” Catalina looked at the map. “It would be easy to conceal a drug lab anywhere inside the caves.”

“We’ve got a few facts to work with,” Slater said. “We know that the lab has to be within a reasonably short walking distance.” He looked up. “Unless Trevelyan is in the habit of disappearing overnight?”

“Not that I know of, except when she goes down the mountain to the craft fairs,” Catalina said. “But she only does that a few times a year.”

Slater tapped the tip of the pen against the map, thinking about it. “You said she has lived here for years?”

“Yes. I think she moved here about five years before Olivia and I witnessed the murder.”

“She’s had a couple of decades to get to know the caves and the woods.”

“She’s probably quite familiar with the woods, but I very much doubt that she’s gone deep into the caves. No one does. The radiation is just too intense.”

“A lot of heat would probably have unpredictable effects on any drugs that she might be producing. That tells us her lab is probably well hidden, but not far inside the cave complex.”

“Even if you allow for a relatively short hike to one of the entrances to the caves, you’re not talking about a stroll in the park,” Catalina said. “It’s more of a trek. The terrain is very rugged. There is a decent trail from town to the lake and another that leads to the entrance of what we call the Freak Zone complex, where the murder occurred, but that’s about it. This area is riddled with caves.”

“If we’re right about any of this, Trevelyan needs a cave entrance large enough to allow her to come and go with her lab equipment.”

“That still leaves a lot of options for her,” Catalina warned.

“It’s a good bet that she’s been running her drug operation for years,” Slater continued. “You don’t invent exotic street pharmaceuticals and hallucinogenic gases over the course of a long weekend.”

“What are you getting at?”

“There will be a trail,” Slater said. “And I think it will be very, very hot, because tonight she realized we are closing in on her. That’s why she ran. She’s probably in a state of high anxiety or maybe outright panic. She’ll head for the one place she feels safe.”

Catalina hopped off the stool and began pulling on her trench coat. “If there is a hot trail, it will start at her cottage. If she used the path tonight, the tracks will probably still be fresh enough for me to identify them. We have to hurry.”

She grabbed her day pack and a flashlight and headed for the door.

“Not so fast,” Slater said. But he was on his feet, too, shrugging into his jacket. He grabbed his pack with the vintage phone and the contacts file and picked up the gun he had placed on the counter. “If we do find her, she may have a couple of Marge’s clones with her. We need backup.”

“We’ll wake up Euclid Oaks and some of the others,” Catalina said. “They’ve all got guns and they know how to use them. They will help us if we convince them that we may have a lead on Olivia’s whereabouts.”