"Yeah. I expect you're right. The thing is... once she finds out about Missy, once she understands that part of it, she'll probably try anyway. And maybe she's supposed to."
"Maybe?"
"Well, I don't know for sure." Becca frowned. "Maybe that's what's needed. So she can fight it. Face it the way nobody else has ever been able to do. So it can be destroyed once and for all."
"That's where it is? On the other side? You didn't tell me it was dead, Becca."
"Part of it died. Part of it is still alive. And that's the part they can't see, the part we have to fight. We've waited a long time, until we were strong enough. And until we had the one thing we needed most. Somebody to help us fight it. Somebody strong enough to open the right door."
"Diana?"
"Diana. If she can. If he can help her."
"I've sent for a forensic anthropological team," Nate told Stephanie, sounding as tired as he felt. "God knows how long some of those bones have been down there, but we have to find out as much as we can about them."
She pushed his coffee cup across the desk to him and poured one for herself, surprised that her hands were steady. "And you have no idea how extensive the caves and tunnels might be?"
"Not a clue. When Diana collapsed, the priority was to get her out of there, so we didn't keep exploring. I did point my flashlight through a couple of other openings, and it looked like they led to longer passageways, but there's no way to know for sure without going back down there." He shook his head. "Frankly, I'd rather not."
"I don't blame you," Stephanie murmured.
With a sigh, he said, "I don't know that it's a place for cops anyway. When I called Quentin's cell a few minutes ago, he said there was an FBI unit that specialized in exploring and mapping underground passageways. Said he'd get in touch with them." Nate paused, adding wryly, "I decided not to ask him why such a unit even existed."
Stephanie thought about that, then said, "It does seem odd, doesn't it?"
"Yeah."
"Umm. How's Diana?"
"Asleep, he said. Closer to unconscious, I gather. But apparently normal after an experience like that. Normal. Jesus."
"What happened to her down there?"
"Beats the hell out of me. All I can tell you is that I had the creepy feeling somebody else was using Diana to talk to us."
"Somebody else? Who?"
"I have no idea. But it sounded an awful lot like a kid."
Stephanie picked up her coffee cup and took a quick sip. "Okay, now you're creeping me out."
"I'm not surprised." He sighed. "Quentin was shaken by it, I can tell you that. And I'm pretty sure not much shakes that guy. I think he's seen things that would give you and me nightmares for years."
They drank their coffee in silence for several minutes, both thoughtful, and then Stephanie spoke slowly.
"Part of my job is to worry about the reputation of The Lodge. But in all honesty, I think whatever is down in those caves needs to see the light of day — no matter what happens afterward."
Nate was both relieved and somewhat impressed. "You could lose your job," he pointed out. "I mean, your bosses aren't apt to be at all happy to find cops and feds crawling all through those caves, especially once they start bringing up the bones we found down there. We don't have a hope in hell of keeping this quiet then."
Stephanie grimaced. "You know, I don't much care. After what I've learned about this place in the last few days, I'm beginning to think I'd rather work somewhere else anyway."
"Don't go too far," Nate heard himself say. And felt his ears get warm when she smiled at him.
"We'll see," she said, adding briskly, "In the meantime, you might as well take advantage of my authority here while I still have it. I'll okay, in writing, the forensics team and Quentin's FBI spelunker people to do whatever they deem necessary in those caves. I'll also put in writing my permission, speaking as manager of The Lodge, for a thorough search of all historical documents and records stored here."
"Thanks." He was trying not to wonder whether his not-so-veiled interest in her was returned. "I've already got some of my people back at the station looking into whatever public historical documents we can find on The Lodge and this general area. Plus they're pulling every scrap of paper we have on all the unsolved disappearances and questionable deaths here. Copies of everything will go to Quentin as well as to me."
"You really believe all this is connected? That there's some mysterious... something... at work here?"
"Christ, I don't know what to think. We know at least two murders were committed here. We've got what may be a network of passages and caves, one of which contains human skeletal remains. I don't know if Quentin was right to be obsessed all these years. I don't know if he's psychic, if Diana is."
He scowled. "For all I know, there's a bear or pack of wolves responsible for all those bones down in that cave, and the murderer of those two kids is long gone."
"Except you don't really believe that."
He met her steady gaze and sighed. "No. No, I don't really believe that. I've never been a fanciful man, but I can tell you that what I felt down there was something unnatural. Even the smell was both strange and oddly familiar, like something I've only been aware of in dreams. Nightmares. As if my conscious mind couldn't identify it, but some much deeper part of me could."
"Your instincts, maybe."
"Maybe. I had the feeling I knew what was down there, but didn't want to know — if that makes any sense."
"I don't know if any of this makes sense, but, yeah, I think I know what you mean." She sighed. "So far, everything we've found or think we've found suggests a killer of some kind operating in the past."
"Yeah."
"So is there any reason I should warn my guests? Any reason to believe there's a danger in the present?"
Nate hesitated. "Honestly, I don't know. My training and experience say no."
"But?"
"But... a lot of old crimes seem to be coming to light, and my experience also tells me that means something has changed. Maybe it's a simple matter of Quentin being here again, pushing for answers, just when Diana shows up with the ability to somehow uncover what's been hidden all these years. Maybe it's just... perfect timing."
"But?" Stephanie repeated.
Nate remembered the bone-deep cold he had felt down in the caves, and shook his head. "It's nothing I can put my finger on. Certainly nothing concrete enough to make me offer a warning to your guests, or even to suggest that you warn them."
Stephanie worried her bottom lip with her teeth, frowning a little. "And I don't want to cause a panic — or an exodus. But I think I'll increase our security on the grounds. Can't hurt."
"No," Nate agreed. "It can't hurt."
Quentin stood in the doorway to Diana's bedroom and watched her a moment, reassuring himself that she was still sleeping deeply. He had removed only her shoes and covered her with a light afghan, and she lay on her bed just as he had left her more than two hours before.
He reminded himself that it wasn't unusual, after an extreme or prolonged use of any psychic ability, for the psychic to need sleep and lots of it, and common sense told him that channeling the spirit of a little girl murdered twenty-five years before certainly qualified.
Still, it was difficult for Quentin to make himself move away from the door. He didn't want to leave her, even to step into the next room. She was certainly getting a baptism by fire when it came to her abilities, and he wanted to make it easier for her; knowing he couldn't was frustrating and curiously painful.