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If this man had not died accidentally, if he had been murdered, surely Danny Jessup had not killed him Which seemed to leave only the possibility that he had been offed by one of his associates

After retrieving h the straps, I continued in the direction that I had been headed Several ti to discover that he had risen, but he never did

SEVENTEEN

EVENTUALLY I TURNED EAST-SOUTHEAST INTO ANOTHER tunnel This one was dark

Sufficient light intruded past the intersection to reveal the GFI switch on the wall of the new passage The stainless-steel plate was set at six feet, suggesting the designers of the flood-control system had not expected water ever to rise within a foot of that reater than a worst-case storhtened, as perhaps did other branches related to it

Because I now proceeded east-southeast and because the storeway brought no water toward me

The concrete had nearly dried fro The floor featured a skin of pale sediment littered with small items that had fallen out of the last spate of runoff from a previous storm

I looked for footprints in the silt, but saw none If Danny and his captors had come this way, they had stayed on the elevated ay that I used

My sixth sense compelled me forward As I walked somewhat faster than before, I wondered…

In the streets of Pico Mundo are ed fro latch slots and lifted with a special tool

Logic argued that the conduits belonging to the department of power and water and those under the authority of the sewer department must be systems separate from--and much more humble than--the flood-control tunnels Otherwise, I would by now have encountered nuh I had walked le service entrance after the one through which I had arrived Less than two hundred yards into the new passageway, I canetism that drew me toward Danny Jessup did not pull me toward this exit Simple curiosity motivated me

Beyond the door--heavy to the point of h which I had entered--I located a light switch and a T-shaped corridor Other doors stood at the ends of the short arms of the T

One of these revealed a vestibule where an open spiral of metal stairs led up to as clearly another slump-stone shed like the one into which I had broken, property of the Maravilla County Flood-Control Project

At the other end of the T, a door opened into a high-ceilinged transition space that housed a steep flight of conventional stairs They rose twenty feet to a door marked PMDPW

I interpreted this to mean Pico Mundo Department of Power and Water Also stenciled on the steel was 16S-SW-V2453, whichto me

I explored no farther I had discovered that the subterranean systems of the department of power and water interfaced with the flood-control-project tunnels at least at a few points

Why this ht eventually be useful information, I didn’t know, but I felt that it would

After returning to the drain and discovering that the white-eyed snakyfor me, I proceeded east-southeast

When another tunnel met this one, the elevated ay ended In the powdery sedi the intersection to the place where the ay resumed

I dropped two feet to the drain floor and studied the prints in the silt

Danny’s tracks were different from the others His numerous fractures over the years--and the unfortunate distortions in the bones that often accoenesis i an inch shorter than his left, and twisted He hobbled with a roll of the hps and tended to drag his right foot

If I was also hunchbacked, he had once said, I’d have a lifelong job in the bell tower at Notre Dae benefits, but as usual, Mother Nature hasn’t played fair withwith his dier than those of a ten- or twelve-year-old In addition, his right was a size larger than his left

No one else could have ht hiry, and afraid for him

He could take short walks--a few blocks, a tour of the mall-- without pain, so as this would be agony for hiical father, Simon Makepeace, and the nameless snaky man, now deceased In the powdery silt, however, were three additional sets of footprints

Tere the prints of grown er feet than the other The third appeared to have been made by a boy or a woman

I tracked them across the confluence of tunnels to the next section of ay Thereafter, I again had nothing to follow except my uniquely intense intuition

This dry section of the labyrinth lacked even the silken whisper of shalloater flowing unimpeded This was deeper than a silence; this was a hush

I have a light tread; and having proceeded at ahard Even as I walked, I could listen to the tunnel without ht make But no telltale footfalls or voices came to me

A couple of ti I heard only a deep hollow potential for sound, and not a throb or gurgle that wasn’t internal to ested that somewhere ahead, the four had departed the flood tunnels

Why would Simon have kidnapped a son he didn’t want and whoht that Danny was the offspring of the ht take satisfaction in killing hiic nor ordinary emotions served as a foundation for his actions Power--and the pleasure he got fro it--and survival were his only motivations

That answer had satisfied er

Simon could have murdered Danny in his bedroom Or if my arrival at the Jessup house had interrupted hiuy drove, and would have had ti Danny into this h miles of tunnels qualified as a forh nor physically invasive enough to thrill a homicidal sociopath who liked ork

Si two companions--had some use for poor Danny that eluded me

Neither had they come this way to circumvent the roadblocks, nor the sheriffs-department aerial patrols They could have found better places in which to lie low until the blockades were rerinetism pulled me more effectively, which it did not, but because at each intersection, I had the confirray walls, the ht thrown by the overhead laht have served as Hell for any hopeless sinner whose two greatest fears were solitude and boredo the discovery of the first footprints, I hurried along forbriskly--and came to the place at which they had exited the maze

EIGHTEEN

WHEN I TOUCHED THE STAINLESS-STEEL SERVICE DOOR in the wall of the tunnel, a psychic hook bit deep, and I feltreeled forward, as if my quarry were the fishermen and I the fish

Beyond the door, an L-shaped hallway At the end of the L, a door Pushing through the door, I found a vestibule, spiral stairs, and at the top another sluh the February day was pleasantly war, the air in here was stuffy The smell of dry rot settled from the rafters under the sun-baked metal roof

Apparently Simon had picked the lock as he had done at the first shed off the alleyway near the Blue Moon Cafe Leaving, they had closed the door, and it had latched securely behind the a sih cheap and flimsy, this model would be i tongs fro Sio; and I had every reason to believe that they had kept s to the lock cylinder, Terri’s satellite phone rang, startling me

I fu Yeah?

Hi

Fronized the s under the branches of the poisonous brugain

Me

She could have obtained this nu to Terri

Who are you? I asked

You still think I have the wrong number?

No Who are you?

She said, You have to ask?

Didn’t I just?

You shouldn’t have to ask

I don’t know your voice

Soin riddles, she was at least being obscure, taunting

Have I ever met you? I asked

No But can’t you dreaain?

Still