He came to a heap on the floor and paused, ducking down to look.
Bones.
Bones caught in fragments of cloth, with the remnants of feet in ancient boots.
This was no new murder victim. He couldn’t really tell what he was seeing, the remains had been there for so long. They’d almost returned to ashes and dust, as the saying went. But the fact that they were here was interesting; this was clearly a pathway someone had used at some time. There was little he could tell from the stained bits of fabric and crumbling bone, but he had a feeling this dead man had been here at least two hundred years. Had he been abandoned where he lay as a warning to others?
He tried to imagine the days of the Civil War lieutenant and the slaves who would have been led through the tunnels to escape. Perhaps, at that time, these bones had been left so that if the tunnel was discovered, it wouldn’t be considered an escape route, and those who tried to use it would face the law—or worse.
He straightened and kept walking.
His light revealed something else ahead of him, something white, like a woman’s gown, an elegant nightgown. He hurried toward it.
Then, a grunt of astonishment burst through his lips. He took a step—but there was no ground. He crashed down into a deep hole. His body slammed hard on the earth and rock below.
Abby slowly walked the tunnel to the river; she saw nothing. It didn’t seem anyone had been down recently. But of course they’d kept the grate locked with a new combination lock since last week. She, Malachi and Jackson Crow were the only people who knew the combination to the new lock.
But she’d learned that the tunnel from the Wulf and Whistle connected to this one. There’d been a guard on at the Wulf and Whistle, though. No one could have used these tunnels since the situation was discovered—not without being seen. And if she looked at it the way the police and Malachi and Jackson’s Krewe were looking at it, all the suspects were currently accounted for. Aldous was at the station; the others were in the Dragonslayer.
It took her a few minutes to work the catch on the false or pocket door that led from tunnel to tunnel. She wished she’d paid more attention when Malachi had opened it. But, eventually, she heard the catch give and then the pocket door gave, as well.
She moved farther, running her light carefully over the walls. First, she retraced the steps they’d taken when she came down with Malachi.
When she reached the junction, where the second tunnel branched off, she hesitated, casting her light to either side. She saw nothing. Then she heard a cry. Ragged, throaty.
“Help...help.”
The sound was weak, but it seemed to ricochet off the tunnel walls.
“Malachi?” she called.
No response.
She instantly took out her phone to call for help. Of course, there was no signal. She was so angry she nearly threw the phone against the wall but refrained, sliding it back into her pocket. “I’m here!” she shouted. “Where are you?”
Still no response. She was sure the sound hadn’t come from behind her, so she started forward, into the second tunnel, calling out, “Malachi!”
“Abby, stop!” she heard him call back, but it wasn’t with the same voice she’d heard before.
“Where are you?” she cried.
“Don’t move any farther. I’m in some floor trap in the tunnel.”
“I’ll get you out,” she said, moving carefully, step by step.
“It’s a trap in the floor. I walked right into it,” he said with disgust. “There aren’t any holds here, anywhere. Get help. Go get Jackson. I’m okay.”
His voice had become clearer, louder. She must be almost on top of him. She fell to her knees and crawled ahead, carefully covering the distance, feeling the ground as she did so. She’d just about reached him when she heard something behind her.
It wasn’t a tap, tap, tap...
It was a thump, thump, thump.
“Abby!” she heard Malachi yell.
She started to turn, started to reach for her Glock.
That was when the object slammed into her head, and only then did it register exactly what the sound was.
“Abby!”
Malachi heard the thud. Abby made a sound—not a scream but a gasp of surprise and pain. He pulled out his gun but he was afraid to fire; he couldn’t see from the depths of the hole and he was afraid he’d hurt her.
He shouted out instead. “Let her be. We all know who you are now. It’s over!”
“Ah, me hearty young lad! No, no, I think not. They’ll hang old Aldous for my sins, and it’s a shame, but that’s the fate of seamen such as ourselves!” came the answer.
Malachi began to scrabble at the earth. The killer had her. He heard the soft thunk, thunk, thunk, as the killer moved away with Abby.
And Abby...
Abby hadn’t let out another sound.
Swearing, Malachi scratched and clawed at the earth, desperate to find a handhold.
At some point while she was being jostled, Abby started to come to.
Bootsie had used the hard end of an old blunderbuss to strike her. She was astonished that she had come to, although her awareness was dulled by the sharp pain in her head.
Thump, thump, thump turned to tap, tap, tap, and then she felt herself thrown down. She was in a boat. Yes. Thump, thump, thump. The sound of Bootsie’s peg leg. The sound she’d been told about.
And now...a rowboat.
Blue had said something about a rowboat. When the rowboats were out...
She could hear laughter and conversation but it seemed to come from far away. She heard another sound—the splash of oars. She was on the water.
She tried to open her eyes without betraying that she was awake. Raising her eyelids slightly, she could see the riverfront easing away from her. Bootsie was facing her as he rowed. She realized that he’d tied her wrists together. He’d used sailor’s knots. Struggling would only tighten her bonds.
Police were all over the riverfront! Why hadn’t they seen her?
She tried to calculate where she was. South on the river—south, and that was why the sounds of life were so distant. They’d come up well below the customary tourist area and she thought he must have kept the tiny boat beneath one of the docks. It wouldn’t have been obvious, and therefore probably hadn’t been searched. It was a rowboat, and there was nowhere to hide a woman in a rowboat.
He’d easily eluded the police time and time again.
Not now, she told herself. Not now. He was caught. He hadn’t stopped to kill Malachi. Maybe he thought Malachi would die in the hold. That no one knew he’d gone below the earth. But Jackson and the Krewe did, and they’d find him.
Before he killed her?
Bootsie. Her grandfather’s old and dear friend. Bootsie.
A man she’d known most of her life.
The killer...the River Rat...was Bootsie. Robert Lanigan.
Impossible. Bootsie was nearly seventy. He didn’t fit any profile. What had suddenly turned him into a murderer? And when?
The questions that seemed to arise in a flurry didn’t matter. Her life was at stake. Bootsie wasn’t stupid; she was sure he’d taken her Glock and her cell phone. What he’d done with them, she had no idea.
That particular question was quickly answered. She heard two splashes in the water and knew her phone and Glock were about to meet the river bottom.
She feigned unconsciousness.
Which didn’t bother Bootsie. He began to talk. “Ah, pretty girl, pretty girl! You always were the best wench, Abigail. I have been searching and searching, but I didn’t see, didn’t realize. You were the real beauty, the prize of the river—of the whole vast sea. You’re the one I’ve searched for, Abigail. Aye, we’ve only now to chuck the other. She wasn’t worthy, so we’ll toss her into the water. It will be a fitting end for such a one! Women, you see, can be evil. Protect the women and the children! Bah, vicious little bastards—that be the children! And wicked, horrid creatures—that be women. Most of them, anywise. But now, perhaps, we’ll sail the seas together, eh, Abby? As it should be.”