"Because that might be the other way into the old mine," she said. "Or maybe even the back of the original cave."
"Then one of us has to go down that rope," I said.
"Or we go down our own rope," Tony said. "Or maybe even use two ropes, so you have backup at the bottom."
"Or," Pardee said, "we send down a video camera and some portable lights, have a look around at the bottom before anyone goes down a rope."
"Now we're talking," I said.
"You guys going to cut the sheriff in on all this?" Carol asked.
Of course we were.
"Before you go jumping into the void?"
"I really want this sumbitch," I said, "but I guess you're right. If they've got a rope team, all the better."
Tony and Pardee said they needed to get back to Triboro and spend a day in the office, catching up on the things they'd dropped to come help me. I told them I'd get up with Sheriff Walker. If the county guys did take over, we might have to wait for them to get their plans in order.
"And?" said Tony.
It took me a moment. They were both looking at me. So was Carol.
"And," I said, "no Lone Ranger stuff on my part."
"There you go."
We went our separate ways. I took the mutts and my tired ass back to the stone cottage. I fed them, as they'd only managed to cajole Carol out of one piece of pizza between them. Then I got a glass of single malt, my cell, and a hat against the rising gnats and went out to the pond swing to call the sheriff. Pardee had assured me that the house was clear of listening devices, but I wanted to be damned sure that whatever the sheriff and I set up remained secret.
I dialed the nonemergency number for the sheriff's office. The sheriff was busy and would call back, which he did. I told him I needed face time with him, tomorrow if possible, and described what I'd found up on the eastern ridge. I also described the second escape tunnel in the house and the bits of wire. He said he'd drop by the cottage when he was done with his next phone call. He showed up thirty minutes later and said yes to a Scotch, and then we went back out to the pond. The shepherds followed.
"I didn't mean tonight, Sheriff," I said. "Tomorrow would be just as good."
"No matter," he said. "It's not like I have any reason to go home at night these days."
"No lady in your life?"
"Lost her to cervical cancer a year ago," he said with a sigh. "Took the fun right out of this job, if you really want to know."
"Damn," I said, remembering Bobby Lee Baggett's comment. "My ex and I had gotten back together after a lot of years, and then some bastard put a bomb in her vehicle. I know precisely what you mean about the juice going out of life."
"She refused to get an annual physical," he said. "All the women in her family went out relatively early, and she said she wasn't going to mess with God's will."
"Wow," I said. "What will you do?"
"I'm thinking of hanging it up when my term's over next year," he said. "Maybe go somewhere else. I don't know. You ever thought about being sheriff of a county?"
"Me?" I said, surprised. "I guess I could be sheriff, but I could never get elected. For one thing, I can't stand the thought of kissing babies."
He laughed. "What's wrong with kissing babies?"
"They emit noxious fluids at both ends, usually when you get near them."
"Think about it," he said. "You're going to be a prominent landowner, you've got the background, and you've run a company."
"There's no one at the House ready to step up?"
"One or two," he said, sipping his whiskey, "but if I campaigned for you, they'd back off. Plus, I can bring you the black community vote. Sine qua non, if you get my drift. Think about it."
I didn't say yes or no. The idea was much too sudden. I decided to get back to business. "First I have to get this spider off my back," I said.
"Our spider," he reminded me. "So tell me: You think you were supposed to find this mysterious rope rig?"
"Entirely possible," I admitted. "If it was my only escape rope, I'd have hidden it in the bushes."
"Me, too," he said. "I keep coming back to it: If this guy wants you dead, why hasn't he just used a long gun, taken you out on the front porch?"
"He wants me to 'pay' for something I supposedly did that involved his wife."
"Pay, as in blackmail?"
"No, as in mental anguish. Fear of stepping out the door. Always watching my back. He does shit. Pasting the scary mask to the window. The screaming woman trick in the empty house over there. Rifle rounds into my house. He wants to get me so rattled that I can't function. He wants me sitting in bed at night, waiting for him to come. Then he'll use the long gun."
"Is that how you feel right now? Fearful?"
"Right now I'm mostly pissed off. I'll take precautions, but I'd sure like to hunt him for a change."
"He might have anticipated that," the sheriff said.
"Put something like a climbing rig out in full view, in the hopes that I'd lunge at the chance to get him."
"Unh-hunh," he said. "That's how I'd read it."
"You keep saying I need to go on offense here."
"Why don't you set a trap or two?"
"Like where?"
"How's about that second tunnel? You said you found bits of wire and footprints that weren't yours. I can get you a real concussion grenade, not a flashbang. Hell, paint glue all over it, cover it in bird-shot or finishing nails, rig it to a trip wire. Then you and your guys stay the hell out of that tunnel."
"I like the way you think," I said. "Can you get me two?"
He laughed. "You never heard that idea from me," he said. "Now, as for the rope: Go back there, with your helpers. Cut through the rope, maybe one-third of the way. Do it right where he'd see it as he was coming up, but not enough to make it break. Let him know you found it, and that you, too, can play fuck-fuck."
"It's a start," I said, "but what I want is a finish."
"What'd your people find out in Charlotte?"
I told him. Then I asked him what he'd found out about the biker woman.
"We added some depth to the ID," he said, "but nothing about who may have hired her. Her name was Elizabeth Craney. The bikers called her Betty Boobs. The Charlotte metro cops had never heard of her other than for the Doberman assault case, and Mecklenburg County hasn't had any trouble with her other than a couple of misdemeanors. Her biker buddies, of course, told my guys to pound sand."
I finished my Scotch. "So we're nowhere, really," I said. "I know he exists and that he's serious; you guys know the dead woman's name."
"As long as he wants to make a game of it," he said, "you still have a chance at him."
"I feel so much better."
"Like I said, set some traps. Vary your routine. Use these dogs. Walk over to that crack in the hill at two in the morning and drop five sticks of dynamite down there. Throw some shit in the game."
After the sheriff left I continued to sit out by the pond with the dogs. Maybe Valeria would come out to dance for me again, or even the major. It was so peaceful out here on these big tracts of land. No neighbors in sight, no traffic, no sirens. It was exactly what I wanted, but I couldn't have it until I took care of this wee little problem.
Where was he now? Holed up in some cave, waiting for us to come do something about the climbing rope? Over in my house next door, planting the next nightmare? Or was he up at the big house behind me, having a drink with the Lees and telling them about his adventures? I looked over my shoulder and saw the dim glow of candlelight on the second floor. I'd promised the guys no Lone Ranger stuff, but going over to my own house couldn't be that dangerous. What could go wrong?
Thirty minutes later the mutts and I were pushing through the pine plantation on the western side of the house, headed for the back barns. I'd left a message on Tony's cell phone that I was going to hole up at Glory's End tonight. I'd brought a short-barreled, semiauto twelve-gauge along with my SIG. The night was clear and cool with sufficient moonlight to see where I was going in the trees. I had no specific plan other than to go over to Glory's End, set up in a place where I could watch the house, and hope that my stalker decided to do something similar. I knew there was a fifty-fifty chance that he might do the same thing over at the stone cottage. Maybe we'd meet on the road in the morning and do a rerun of the OK Corral. The Earps had used shotguns, hadn't they?