“What’s with the blackout windows?” he asked.
“Evelyn was convinced that natural daylight and light in general from the visible end of the spectrum interfered with psi, making it harder to detect and measure,” Gwen said.
“She was right. Sam and his lab techs have come to the same conclusion. So you are now the proud owner of this old firetrap as well as her house?”
“Yep, property taxes, utilities and all.” Gwen fished a piece of paper out of her tote. “I didn’t want the lab and I have absolutely no use for the equipment inside, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell Evelyn. Just about everything in there—all of the instruments and machines that she designed to study the paranormal—is a one-of a-kind device, designed and built by her.”
“What did she expect you to do with the stuff?”
“She hoped that I would find a good home for her precious instruments and test equipment. There aren’t a lot of people doing serious research into the paranormal, but there are a few.”
He smiled faintly. “Like Coppersmith, Inc.”
Gwen brightened. “Do you think that Sam and his R-and-D techs would be interested in some of her devices?”
“I think I can safely predict that Sam and his people would jump at the opportunity to examine whatever is inside that lodge. Can’t guarantee they’ll take every piece of equipment, though.”
“I understand. But I know Evelyn would have been thrilled to have some genuine paranormal researchers give her inventions serious attention. Unfortunately, she never even knew that the Coppersmith lab existed.”
“And Coppersmith was never aware of her work.” He unfastened his seat belt. “Damn shame. You know, this isn’t the first time that it has occurred to me that those of us with real talent need to come up with a way to find each other and communicate. It’s like we’re all working in the dark.”
“Evelyn used to say that a lot, too.”
“Did she spend a lot of her time here at the lab?”
“Are you kidding?” Gwen smiled. “This place was her life. She invested just about every dime she ever got into it. The security system is state-of-the-art because she wanted to protect the things she designed and built.”
“Not like you can buy good quality paranormal instruments and monitors online. Believe me, Sam and his lab techs have tried.” Judson opened the door and got out. “Let’s take a look.”
Gwen jumped out and walked around the front of the SUV to join him. He saw the gritty determination in her eyes and knew that going back into Ballinger’s lab would not be easy for her. She had found the bodies of two friends there and nearly been murdered herself.
“When was the last time you were in there?” he asked.
“The day after Taylor attacked me.”
“When you and Ballinger came here to search for the weapon.”
“Yes.”
She went up the steps to the heavy metal door. He followed her and stopped beside her. The numbers on the lock’s keypad were illuminated in red. He recognized the manufacturer’s logo on the small, square panel.
“I’m impressed,” he said. “Ballinger really did spring for good security. Must have cost her a fortune to install this system.”
“I told you, the stuff inside this place was important to her,” Gwen said.
She keyed in the code. The red lights on the panel turned green.
“Does anyone else besides you have access to this place?” Judson asked.
“No, Evelyn changed the code after the murders. As far as I know, I’m the only one who has it now that she’s gone.”
He glanced at the paper in her hand. “She might have jotted it down someplace, just like you did, or stored it on her computer.”
“Yes, that’s quite possible. Evelyn was very focused when it came to her research, but she could be absentminded about other things. The code is not an easy one to remember. That’s why I wrote it down.” Gwen frowned. “Are you thinking that the killer was after the code to this lab the night he murdered Evelyn?”
“Maybe, but murder seems a little over-the-top if that’s all he wanted. It would be easier to break the code on this door or take a crowbar to one of the windows. Those metal shutters are designed to keep out light and the average burglar, but they’re not armor plate.”
“True.”
Gwen opened the door. Judson looked into a cavernous, echoing space filled with deep shadows and the kind of heat that was the hallmark of paranormal energy.
Heavy currents of psi swirled and seethed inside the lodge, much of it similar to the kind that circulated in Sam’s crystal vault and in the company’s R&D facility. The atmosphere got downright electric when a lot of paranormal artifacts, crystals or other psi-infused objects were housed in a confined space.
But beneath the hot energy, he sensed something else—the unmistakable miasma of death and violence.
“You were right,” he said, “The people who died here didn’t die of natural causes.”
“I can still feel it, too,” Gwen said.
She pressed a glowing switch on a wall panel. A strip of low-level floor lights winked on, illuminating a small area around their feet. The rest of the lab remained drenched in deep gloom.
Judson closed the door, shutting off the weak daylight. “No fluorescent overheads?”
“No,” Gwen said. “There are task lamps at the various workstations, but most of the lab is lit with this kind of strip lighting. It’s all on automatic sensors. Once we pass through a section, the lights will go off behind us.”
“Ballinger really had a problem with visible light, didn’t she?” he said.
“Evelyn found almost all light a distraction. Something to do with her talent, I think. She was very sensitive to ultra-light energy.”
Gwen moved along the concrete floor. Another strip of lights winked on, revealing a few more feet of flooring.
“The mirror engine is at the back,” she said, leading the way. “It takes up the entire rear wall.”
He raised his other vision, increasingly intrigued as he followed Gwen through a maze of workbenches, cabinets and display cases. In addition to a vast array of odd tools and machines, there was a large collection of crystals and stones that he knew would fascinate Sam.
He eased his talent higher, opening himself to the energy-infused atmosphere. There was a lot of ambient psi around, but it was the dark currents of violence that riveted his senses.
He had recovered from the nightmare in the cave, but Gwen was right—as long as he had his talent, he would be compelled to hunt. She was the only woman he had ever met who got that part of him—got it and was not repelled or unnaturally attracted to it. She simply understood and accepted his nature.
And she had made it clear last night that she was not looking for a forever commitment any more than he was. By all logic and reason, that made her the perfect woman for him, the woman of his dreams.
Now, if he could just get her to stop insisting that he needed therapy.
Gwen came to a halt. “That’s the entrance to the mirror engine.”
But he had already sensed a heightening in the energy level as they neared the back of the lab. Hot psi cracked and snapped in the atmosphere, raising the fine hair on his neck and arms. His palms prickled.
“Whatever it is, it’s powerful,” he said. “I’m impressed.”
“The engine was Evelyn’s greatest creation.” Gwen skirted a workbench. “She told me that originally she had envisioned it as just another small experiment. The first version was about the size of a walk-in shower. But the results were so extraordinary that she kept expanding the surface area dedicated to the mirrors. Eventually the engine grew to the size you see now.”
The dark mirrored walls that formed the outside of the engine extended halfway to the vaulted ceiling. Judson estimated they were fifteen feet high. There was energy infused into every inch of the thick glass. Flashes of ultra-light appeared and disappeared in the depths of the reflective surfaces. He looked through the entrance and saw a hall of mirrors.