The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2)(70)

“For nearly two decades I’ve been trapped here in Fogg Lake,” Nyla said. “I’ve been afraid to leave for more than a few days at a time because I’ve been terrified the bastards at the Foundation would realize I didn’t die in that lab fire that killed my bastard of a husband and his girlfriend.”

“Well, damn,” Slater said softly. “You’re Alma York, aren’t you? The chemist who murdered her husband and two women in one of the Foundation labs twenty years ago.”

“He was fucking that bitch,” Nyla said, her voice tight with fury. “I trusted both of them. Helen made me believe that she was my best friend. I actually thought Greg loved me. The three of us had a nice little drug business going.”

“You’re in this for the money?” Catalina said, shocked. “You’re a scientist.”

Nyla reacted with genuine outrage. “The street drugs were supposed to finance our real work after the three of us left the Foundation. We knew we had to get out while we could because the Rancourts had found out about the drug business and wanted a cut. Helen and Greg and I had a plan. We were going to disappear and set up a lab on a private island. We would do brilliant research in the field of paranormal drugs. Then I found Greg and Helen in bed together. They were planning to set me up. They said they didn’t need me. I acted first. Self-defense.”

“But you botched the job,” Slater said. “I’m told the explosion in the lab was impressive, and so was the fire that followed. You even made sure the remains of three bodies were found in the wreckage, one male and two females. Who was the other woman, by the way? Uncle Victor and Uncle Lucas opened an investigation after they took over the Foundation, but they were never able to identify her.”

“She was just an addict who had been living on the streets for years,” Nyla said. “She was about my size and age. I didn’t think your uncles would go to the trouble of running a DNA test. The Rancourts certainly didn’t give a damn.”

“You don’t know Victor and Lucas very well,” Slater said. “They told me they were suspicious from the start. But the case had gone very cold by the time Victor became director. He and Lucas didn’t have a lot to go on.”

“I thought I could just disappear,” Nyla said. “I had cosmetic surgery to change my face. I got a new identity. But I never felt safe. All these years I’ve been looking over my shoulder, watching for those damn cleaners.”

“So you sought refuge in Fogg Lake,” Catalina said. “The one place you assumed the Foundation would probably never think to look for you.”

“And even if they did send someone, you would have plenty of warning,” Slater added. “Because this is a close-knit community. Everyone knows everyone else, and the community as a whole regards the Foundation with deep suspicion.”

“You created the perfect cover for yourself,” Catalina said. “You became the local healer.”

“I hate this town,” Nyla said.

“What was in that tisane you made for Olivia and me?” Catalina asked.

“A hallucinogen that had the benefit of making users confuse their memories with dreams,” Nyla said. “I tried to add a hypnotic suggestion, too. But there was no way to know how long the effects would last.”

Catalina sensed the strange stillness that signaled the fog-bound lake. She was very glad Nyla was in the lead, because walking along the water’s edge was dangerous enough in the daytime. At night it was foolhardy.

Nyla stopped in front of a mass of vines that glowed with a faint blue sheen. She pulled the greenery aside as if it were a curtain. Catalina saw the rowboat.

“Be careful when you get in,” Nyla said. “If you go overboard it’s very unlikely that you’ll come out alive. In fact, they probably won’t even find your body.”

She made sure Catalina, Slater and the two clones were seated before she carefully got aboard herself. She untied the rope that secured the craft to the trunk of a tree. She sat down in the back of the boat and picked up a long pole.

Catalina held her breath as Nyla used the pole to guide the rowboat toward the entrance of a partially flooded cave.

The boat glided silently into the deep darkness of a cavern. Tony switched on a flashlight, revealing the tunnel walls. In several places, large stalactites and rocky outcroppings loomed dangerously low over the water.

“Keep your heads down,” Nyla advised. “It’s a little tight in places.”

Catalina shivered. Even though it was cold, she was sweating. It helped that the boat was moving, but the unrelenting darkness all around combined with the unknown depths of the cave river was unnerving. She focused on the thought that she would see Olivia soon. Unless Nyla was lying.

“When did you realize Catalina and Olivia had discovered the main lab facility on the night Morrissey was murdered?” Slater asked.

“Not until a few days ago,” Nyla said. “I finally tracked down one of the old logbooks from the Fogg Lake facility. It described the generator chamber the lab had constructed. I could not believe that all those years ago I had come so close to what I’d been looking for. But at the time I thought the girls really were hallucinating when they described what they called a ballroom.”

“You looked for the logbook first in Ingram’s collection, didn’t you?” Catalina said.