The Curse (Seacliff High Mystery Book 2) (11 page)

Devon scooted the table aside and rolled the rug out of the way. “What do you know? There’s a trap door.” He bent down to examine the handle. “It’s locked.”

“Maybe there are some bolt cutters in the shed. I’ll go check and get the others,” Alyson volunteered. “You look around here to see if you can find a key or something else to use to open it with.”

Several minutes later Alyson returned with bolt cutters in hand and Trevor, Mac, and Eli in tow.

“You don’t think Spyder and V are down there, do you?” Mac asked.

“I hope not,” Devon replied. “I haven’t heard a sound coming from the other side of the trap door since I’ve been in here.”

Devon and Trevor worked on the old lock until it finally gave way. Devon opened the door, looked inside, and then quickly closed it again. “You don’t want to look down there,” Devon cautioned.

“What is it?” Alyson grabbed Mac’s hand.

“A body.” Devon put his hand over his mouth, as if trying not to vomit. “A very dead body.”

“Oh my God; it’s not Spyder or V, is it?” Mac screeched.

“No, it’s someone older. A guy. We need to call the police.”

“I’ll go outside to call the cops,” Trevor volunteered. “The reception’s probably better out there.”

The police showed up less than an hour later, and, after a cursory investigation, bagged the body and took it away.

“It looks like we might have found the second missing convict,” the officer informed them. “When the bank robber broke out there was another man being transported along with him.”

“No one told us that before now,” Alyson shouted furiously. “What if instead of being dead he was still lurking around?”

“Yeah, well, I guess someone should have mentioned it.”

Alyson took several deep breaths to quell her anger and frustration at the way the police were handling things. “Look, what’s done is done, but I need to know what you’re going to do about our missing friends.”

“Friends?”

“Myron Rosenberg and Vanessa Harrison. We reported them missing a week ago.”

“You mean those runaway kids? The initial report I read indicated that there’s no evidence to link them to this particular crime. Have you turned up any new evidence? Anything that definitely indicates they were here?”

“There was the symbolic drawing in the barn. We know they were here at one point. You have to at least look for them or interrogate the guy in custody or something.” A tear of anger and despair ran down Alyson’s cheek. “You have to do
something
.”

“I’ll send a couple of uniforms out to look around again, but without any tangible evidence linking the two cases I doubt there’s much we can do. Those kids were bad news. You can bet they just took off. I suggest you stop worrying. I’m sure they’re fine.”

“I don’t freaking believe this,” Alyson shouted again.

Devon ran his hand through his hair, demonstrating his own frustration with the situation. “Is there anything else you need from us?”

“No, that’s all for now. We’ll be in touch.”

The gang followed the police officers outside.

“What now?” Trevor asked no one in particular after the men drove away.

“I’m not sure there’s anything more we can do at this point,” Devon answered. “The police officer said he’d send a team out to look around. In the meantime, I guess we should go help Caleb and keep our eyes open.”

“It doesn’t seem right to just go about our business when Spyder and V are still missing,” Alyson argued.

“The police officer had a point.” Trevor put his arm around her shoulders. “We’ve done a fairly thorough investigation of the farm and really found no sign that Spyder and V met with any foul play there. Maybe they came out here, did their ritual, and took off afterward.”

“Let’s look around one more time, just in case we missed a clue of some sort,” Alyson said persuasively.

“Okay.” Devon started toward the house.

After a fairly thorough search they were just about to leave when Alyson spotted an old table near the sofa. “My grandmother used to have one of these antique tables. It had a hidden compartment. I used to hide trinkets in it and pretend I was a spy.”

Alyson felt around under the table, and a small drawer popped open. “See.” She pulled it open all the way and lifted out a heavy golden pendant on a gold chain. “Wow. Do you think it’s real gold? It looks old.”

Devon took the pendant from her and examined it more closely. “Let’s show the others.”

Devon and Alyson joined the others, who had opted to wait outside with Tucker. The puppy pulled away from Mac’s side and ran to Alyson as soon as she stepped outside.

“He didn’t appreciate being left behind.” Mac was rubbing her hand where the large animal had pulled the leash free.

“I guess I should have taken him. I just figured he’d want to be out here in the fresh air. Look what we found.” Alyson held out the chain. As she did so, a breeze brushed her hair across her face and a chill crept through her body. It felt like someone was watching her.

“Wow, it’s beautiful. And old. Where did you find it?”

“Hidden in a secret drawer in an antique table. I wouldn’t even have known about the secret compartment except my grandmother had a table exactly like it.”

“Let’s get back and check on the others,” Trevor suggested after putting the necklace around Alyson’s neck. “Looks like it was made for you.”

They found Caleb rigging up a sound system on one of the hay wagons that would carry the guests through the haunted hayride. Alyson doubted Disneyland had more sophisticated electronics. Caleb really was some sort of genius.

“Hey, guys, what’s up?” Caleb asked as he clamped two wires together and tucked them up under the driver’s seat, out of sight.

“Not much,” Mac responded casually. “Unless you count the fact that we found a dead body.”

“You what?” Caleb looked up from his task and for the first time since they’d arrived gave them his full attention. “Where? It wasn’t Spyder or V, was it?”

“No, it wasn’t either of them,” Alyson reassured him. “The police think it was a convict who escaped at the same time as the bank robber.”

“We found him in a basement room beneath a trap door in the kitchen of the old farmhouse,” Mac added. “It wasn’t a pretty sight.”

“He’d been shot in the head,” Devon elaborated. “By the looks of the body I’d say he’d been dead at least a couple of days. Maybe even a week.”

Caleb dropped his tools in the bottom of the wagon and hopped over the side, joining his friends. “What did the cops say? Are they going to look around for Spyder and V? Anyone who would kill once wouldn’t think twice about killing again.”

“The police still don’t think this particular crime has anything to do with the disappearance of Spyder and V,” Eli explained. “They’re going to send a team out to look around, but they’re still operating under the assumption that their disappearance has nothing to do this guy and simply ran away.”

“I’m not buying that.” Caleb kicked at a clump of meadow grass.

“We agree with you,” Mac assured Caleb, “but we’re not sure what more we can do at this point. We’ve pretty much explored the entire farm, including all the buildings. Maybe the police will find something more when they look.”

“I’ve been assured that a thorough investigation would be done, including a thorough search of all the buildings,” Devon added.

“In the meantime we’re here to help,” Eli said. “Just point us in the right direction.”

“I’m sure the others need help rigging the electric along the hayride route,” Caleb suggested. “I was planning to go help them myself after I finished hooking up the sound systems on the wagons.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Devon, Trevor, Eli, and Mac stared walking toward the canyon where the hayride would take place.

“You coming, Alyson?” Mac asked her friend, who stood staring into the distance.

“Who’s that girl?” Alyson asked Caleb.

“What girl?”

“The one over there, with the long dark hair.” Alyson pointed into the distance.

“I’m not sure. It might be a friend of one of the drama students. Why?”

“No reason. I just wondered who she was.” Alyson continued to stare at the girl until she disappeared around a bend in the road. “You guys go ahead. I’ll join you in a minute. I need to get something out of the barn.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Mac asked.

“No, I’ll be fine. I’ll catch up with you in a few minutes. Come on, Tucker,” she called to the dog.

Alyson walked down the path toward the spot where she had seen the girl disappear around the bend. She was sure it was the same girl she’d seen that morning. Something was definitely odd about the way she seemed to appear and then disappear.

Alyson caught sight of the girl in the distance again as she entered the barn. She jogged toward the barn door, but by the time she entered the dark building the girl was nowhere to be found. “Hello? Anyone here?”

Alyson continued to look around, but the barn appeared to be empty except for the decorations that had been placed and the makeshift campsite she and her friends had set up the day before.

“It looks like she’s gone.” Alyson reached down to scratch Tucker behind the ear. “Question is, where did she go?”

Tucker barked once, as if understanding her question, and she wandered over to the rope ladder hanging from the rafters.

“I’ll be right back,” she told the puppy as she started up the rickety ladder.

Tucker barked at her as she climbed up to the loft where they’d found the symbol painted on the floor. The loft was empty, and it didn’t look like anything had been disturbed since they’d been up there earlier in the week. Something wasn’t right, though. Alyson felt it in her gut. She examined the symbol again, but she really didn’t understand its meaning or significance so it yielded no clues. She looked through the piles of hay surrounding the symbol, but other than the blood from the knife they’d found on their first visit, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was nothing on the walls and the rafters overhead were clear of debris.

“I guess there’s nothing here,” Alyson called down to the dog waiting patiently at the bottom of the ladder. She stepped down onto the first rung, then stopped. The ladder. When they’d first come to the barn the ladder had been pulled up into the loft. If Spyder and V had been here, how had they gotten down? Alyson stepped back onto the floor of the loft and looked around again. There didn’t appear to be any other way down and the loft was too high to jump from, so how had Spyder and V left?

“Hang on a minute, Tucker,” she called down to the puppy, who had begun to whine. “I want to check something out.”

Remembering the trap door in the floor of the farmhouse, she searched the floor for any sign of a latch or handle. The floor seemed solid enough and the only thing beneath the loft was the open barn, so it seemed unlikely a false bottom could exist.

Alyson scanned the walls for an obvious doorway and found none, but the ceiling in the back corner of the loft seemed off somehow. Like it should have extended further. Alyson climbed over the bales of hay and ran her hands over the rough wood. The wall seemed solid at first, but a thorough investigation uncovered a small latch hidden behind a support beam. Alyson pushed the latch and a small doorway opened in the back wall. Alyson opened the door the rest of the way and looked inside. A set of rickety stairs led down into a dark abyss.

“Well, I’ll be,” Alyson whispered.

She tried to look down the stairs but couldn’t see anything in the darkness. Climbing back down the rope ladder and onto the barn floor, she went to the makeshift campsite in search of a flashlight. Grabbing the first one she came to, she hugged Tucker and told him to wait for her, then climbed back up the ladder and into the loft. She made her way to the narrow doorway and started down the even narrower staircase. The wooden steps were old and badly decayed, and they moaned and groaned with each step she took.

At the bottom of the stairs was a small passage, a tunnel of sorts supported by ancient wooden rafters. There were several piles of dirt on the floor where small cave-ins must have occurred over the years. Alyson hesitated. This felt familiar. Suddenly she remembered her dream. Maybe she should get help. The tunnel was claustrophobic and the beams supporting it didn’t look any too sturdy.

Alyson could hear Tucker barking in the distance. He’d have a fit if she didn’t get back soon. Tucker was her gallant protector and he didn’t like to be separated from her.

Alyson shone her light into the dark tunnel but couldn’t see anything beyond the endless passageway. Who knew how far it extended? She really should get help. She started forward slowly, picking her way through the debris littered on the uneven floor. Even as she walked forward she felt compelled to return to safety. Yet she continued on, as if her legs had a mind of their own. It felt like she had walked for about ten minutes, but all she could see ahead of her was more of the seemingly endless tunnel. She was about to turn to go back the way she had come when she heard something. It was faint, but it sounded like someone banging on the wall.

Alyson stopped and listened. She paused for several minutes, then heard the banging again. Alyson started ahead, continuing to listen for the source of the sound. A shower of dirt rained down on her from above when she bumped into one of the timbers that supported the sides of the tunnel, and she covered her head and screamed. Panic was beginning to engulf her as flashes of the images from her dream returned to her.

Alyson stopped, wiping the dirt from her eyes. She really should go back to get help. It was the smart thing to do. She felt frozen, unable to move. Time seemed to stand still as she contemplated her next move. Then she found herself moving forward again, almost against her will. The sound seemed to be coming from somewhere up ahead. The farther she traveled into the tunnel the louder the pounding got.

After several more minutes of making her way through the crumbling tunnel she came to a dead end. The pounding had stopped, but there was a doorway at the end much like the one she had come through. She tried the handle, but it was securely locked. A thick chain and an equally thick lock secured the door. Alyson stood for a minute in indecision. There was probably something back at the campsite that could be used to cut the chain. She really should get help. She rattled the chain once before turning to walk back the way she’d come.

Alyson heard the pounding again. It seemed to be coming from the other side of the doorway.

“Is anyone there?” she called out.

“We’re here. Behind the door,” someone called out.

“Spyder, is that you?” Alyson said.

“Yeah. Who’s out there?”

“It’s me, Alyson Prescott. Is V in there with you? Are you guys hurt?”

“I’m hanging on, but V’s hurt bad. You need to get us out of here.”

“I’m trying, but the door is chained shut. I’ll have to get help. Where are you?”

“In some sort of a room. It’s mostly dark, but there’s a small opening near the top that must lead to the outside. I can see the light.”

And then she remembered.

They were locked behind the door. She could sense their fear, their pain. She had to get to them before it was too late. Time was running out. With each minute that ticked by they were one minute closer to death. She knew the darkness would engulf her, drown her, but still she continued forward. It was her destiny to save them. She knew that now. Her own fear was meaningless in the face of her duty.

Her dream. The man at the occult shop had said the answer was hers to know. She should have realized. And then she remembered the rest of the dream.

The passageway was dark and narrow. She could feel the walls closing in on her as trickles of dirt rained down. She could hardly breathe as panic threatened to choke her.
Alyson hoped death would come quickly. Each moment her lungs labored for breath in the airless chamber seemed like an eternity. Rivers of dirt flowed all around her. Soon her burial would be complete. Her friends would look for her, but they’d never find her. No one knew she was here. Her lungs burned as they screamed for oxygen. She felt her mind drifting toward peaceful darkness. She’d come to save the others. If she died, they’d all die.

Alyson felt her breath quicken as the dream came back to her. She had to fight the panic. She had to save them. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Hang in there. I’m going for help. I’ll be right back.”

“Hurry. I don’t think V has much time.”

Alyson took off running back through the passageway. It didn’t have to end this way. It had only been a dream. She had to save them. She had to hurry.

In her haste she fell into one of the side supports and more dirt came raining down. She screamed as images of dying in the collapsed cave came back to her. She tried to get up, but a loud rumbling from behind her caused her to pause to look back. The entire ceiling appeared to be coming down on top of her. She struggled to her feet and stumbled forward. Just as she was nearing the stairs leading back up into the loft, a large beam fell across the path in front of her, blocking her passage. Alyson covered her head with her arms as debris continued to fall. After what seemed like hours but was probably only a few minutes, the rumbling stopped and the air began to clear. She could breathe. She wasn’t buried alive yet.

Alyson coughed and tried to clear the dirt from her face. She didn’t seem to be hurt, but the tunnel both in front and behind her appeared to be blocked. She could hear Tucker barking frantically in the distance.

“Tucker,” she called as loud as she could. “Go get help. Get Devon.”