“Absolutely.”
“Why are we taking my gun?”
“Because I think someone is trying to kill us.”
Chapter 29
This is my fault, Adelaide thought. She had brought this danger down on Jake.
Later there would be time enough to contemplate the enormity of her guilt. First, she had to keep them both alive and safe.
“Don’t worry,” Jake said. He came to a halt in the sand. “If someone tries to hurt you, I’ll kill him.”
She was relieved to see that her words had succeeded in penetrating some of Jake’s drug-induced delirium. But if he had been poisoned with Daydream, as she suspected, the hallucinatory effects were nothing if not unpredictable. His mood was already undergoing a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. He was switching from goofy but harmless to potentially dangerous and uncontrollable. If he turned on her, he would easily overpower her.
“You can kill him some other time,” she promised.
“Now would be better,” he insisted. “Then we can follow the moonlight to the answers.”
“Jake, you must listen to me very carefully. You’ve been drugged.”
He shook his head, as if trying to clear it. “I’m not drunk. I didn’t have even one martini.”
“Not drunk, drugged. Never mind. Follow me and stay very close.”
The drug had hypnotic properties and, heaven help her, she’d had enough experience with it to know that anyone under the influence was highly suggestible. The trick was to get inside the person’s delirium dream and try to shape the otherworldly reality of the visions.
“Can you see the moonlight highway now?” Jake asked.
“Yes,” she said. “It will take us someplace where we’ll both be safe. But we must hurry.”
“I’ll take you to the safe place, and then I’ll come back here and kill anyone who tries to hurt you.”
“We’ll talk about that plan later.”
“Sure,” Jake said.
She was familiar with the beach and the path that led down to it. During her time in Burning Cove she had walked most of the local beaches.
“The moonlight highway leads this way,” she said.
Jake concentrated for a beat and then became riveted by something only he could perceive.
“Oh, yeah,” he whispered. “It’s beautiful.”
“I’ve been here before,” she said. “When the tide is out like it is now, there are some caves above the waterline. We can hide in one of those if someone decides to look for us.”
Fortunately, Jake did not seem inclined to argue. He shook his head again, as if trying to clear it.
“Caves at the edge of midnight,” he said.
“What? Never mind.”
“I’m hallucinating, aren’t I?”
She was astonished that some part of his rational brain had managed to break through the delirium. But that was exactly how she had survived, she reminded herself. The trick was to cope with the real world and the hallucinations simultaneously. It took an enormous amount of willpower. The experience was disorienting. It was also exhausting. Ultimately the desperate attempt to steer a logical path through the strange inner cosmos of the Daydream-drugged mind led to a growing sense of panic that could easily slide into full-scale paranoia.
“Yes,” she said. “Just remember that nothing you see is real.”
“Except you.”
It was not a question.
“Except me,” she agreed. “Concentrate on sensations you can feel. Rely on your sense of touch because you won’t be able to trust your eyes.”
She switched on the flashlight. The descent to the beach wasn’t very steep, but it was a tricky maneuver at night because of the loose pebbles and rocks. When they reached the bottom, they would have to move carefully to avoid the tide pools.
Jake followed close behind her. Even in his delirium he had no trouble keeping his balance.
Adelaide heard the roar of a car engine in the distance just as she and Jake reached the rocky beach.
“The person who drugged you might be in that car,” she warned.
“There’s still time for me to kill him.”
“It might also be an innocent motorist who will stop to try to help. You don’t want to kill an innocent person, do you?”
“Nope. Just the bastard who wants to hurt you.”
“Right, so we will stay out of sight until whoever it is gives up and goes away.”
“You look like a fairy-tale princess,” Jake said matter-of-factly.
“It’s the shoes.”
“I like the shoes. They’re made of moonlight.”
“They’ll never be the same again after this little hike.” She aimed the flashlight toward the far end of the beach. “The caves are in that direction. Hurry. Whoever is driving that car might stop, and if he does, I’ll have to turn off this light.”
They wouldn’t be able to trust any stranger who stopped, she thought. She was still trying to come to grips with the fact that Conrad Massey was in Burning Cove. If he was there, maybe Gill was, too.
With his easy, natural coordination and sensible masculine footwear, Jake did not have any problem navigating around the tide pools. She was the one who was in constant danger of slipping and falling. The silver dancing shoes and the turquoise evening gown were not made for beachcombing.
Jake caught her twice when the heels of her sandals skidded on wet, seaweed-draped rocks. When it happened a third time, he scooped her up in his arms and tossed her over his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” she yelped, startled.
“Faster this way,” he explained.
There was no time to argue. He was moving much faster now that he no longer had to steer her around the treacherous tide pool rocks.
“The caves,” she said. “That’s where we want to go.”
“Right. The midnight tunnels.”
She realized she was still gripping the flashlight and that the beam was aimed straight down.
“You’ll need the flashlight,” she said.
“No. The moonlight from your shoes is all I need to see where I’m going.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Hush. The monster will hear you. We’re supposed to hide.”
He was right. The vehicle she had heard a moment ago was coming to a halt up on Cliff Road. She switched off the flashlight. Sure enough, the beach was flooded with moonlight, although none of it was coming from her shoes.
“Here,” Jake declared. “The tunnel of midnight is the secret entrance to the moonlight highway. The monster can’t find you there.”
He lowered her to her feet, steadying her. She saw the black mouth of a cave. There was a pale glow of moonlight emanating from inside. But that was impossible.
It took her a couple of seconds to realize she was looking through a narrow tunnel that had been carved into the rocks by the sea. The light she saw was the moon splashing on the beach on the far side of the passage.
“Right,” she said. “Let’s go find the answers.”
Jake was already moving inside the tunnel, turning sideways so that his broad shoulders would fit. She could tell that he was transfixed by the moonlight on the other end.
She was small enough to slip easily through the entrance. Once inside, she could see that the passage widened. The rocky walls dripped with moisture and the pounding of the surf reverberated through the tunnel. When the tide was in, the cave would be flooded.
She fought the claustrophobia that threatened to engulf her. Not much farther, she told herself. Just a few more feet.
“We’re going down under the sea,” Jake announced. “It’s all right. We can breathe there.”
“That’s good to know,” Adelaide muttered.
It was a relief to reach the exit
of the cave tunnel but the patch of sand on the other side was very small, almost nonexistent. A jumble of large rocks littered the beach. They would provide cover if anyone came looking for them, Adelaide thought.
Jake had stopped at the water’s edge. He stood looking out at the moonlit ocean, once again mesmerized by something only he could see.
Afraid that in his delirium he might decide to wade into the water, she put the flashlight on a nearby rock and grabbed Jake’s arm.
“It’s all right,” she said. “We’re safe now.”
“I can’t see the answers yet,” he said.
“You will,” she said.
“No answers, but I can see the monsters now.” Jake’s voice hardened abruptly. “They’re hiding behind the rocks. Give me my gun.”
There was no fear in his voice. He was the hunter who had spotted prey.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said.
She did not dare give him his gun, not when he was in the grip of the drug. He was already seeing things in the shadows. The hallucinations were getting worse.
“All right,” he said, agreeably enough. “You keep the gun. I’ll use this.”
He reached inside his dinner jacket and took out his fountain pen. She realized that to his hallucinating mind it probably appeared to be a knife.
“Excellent choice of a weapon to use against monsters,” she said, trying to sound enthusiastic.
She tightened her grip on the pistol. She knew how to use the weapon, thanks to Raina, but she had never shot any living creature in her life, let alone a human. The thing that scared her the most was that she might kill some hapless individual who had stopped to help. But unless the new arrival was Conrad Massey or Dr. Gill, how could she tell the difference between an innocent passerby and one of the real monsters? And what about Paxton? How did he fit into the situation? She decided that, for now, at least, she would have to classify him as a bad guy.
With luck, an innocent person would be easily frightened off. Who, in his or her right mind, wouldn’t run from a certifiably crazy woman holding a gun?
She listened closely, hoping to hear the muffled rumble of an accelerating car engine telling her that whoever had stopped had left the scene. A Good Samaritan would likely take off once he realized the occupants of the car were gone. But if the driver of the car was the person who had drugged Jake, he might decide to conduct a search of the beach.
A searcher looking for a hallucinating man and an escaped mental patient would probably use a flashlight, she thought.
She peered back through the narrow tunnel. She glimpsed the weak beam of a flashlight sweeping back and forth. The searcher was still up on Cliff Road.
She knew the roar of the surf would drown out the sound of their voices; nevertheless, she went up on tiptoe and spoke directly into Jake’s ear.
“The person who drugged you is searching the beach. He’s looking for us.”
“For you,” Jake said with great certainty. “The monster is looking for you, isn’t he?”
“Yes, I think so. I’m hoping he won’t come down to the beach. If he does, we must be prepared. He might have a gun.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jake said, blithely unconcerned now.
He held up the fountain pen. The handsome barrel gleamed in the moonlight.
“Let’s hide behind those rocks,” she whispered.
The boulders offered some concealment, she thought. They were the only hope if the searcher came through the tunnel.
“No,” Jake said.
“Jake, please, this is important.”
“I’ll take care of you,” he said.
Without another word he turned and walked to the mouth of the rock tunnel.
“Jake, where are you going?” she hissed.
“Stay here,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to kill the monster.”
“Jake, no. We can talk about killing the monster later. Right now we have to stay here on this side of the tunnel. You might get hurt.”
“Nope,” he said. “The monster can’t see me. The moonlight makes me invisible.”
“Damn it, Jake, come back here.”
She rushed forward and grabbed his arm again, but he gently pried off her fingers and disappeared into the tunnel. She reminded herself that she was the one with the gun. All Jake had was a fountain pen.
Unable to think of anything else to do, she followed him.
When they reached the far side of the opening in the rock, there was no sign of a flashlight beam. She heard the rumble of an accelerating car engine. Up on Cliff Road headlights lanced the darkness. The vehicle drove off in the direction of Burning Cove. Relief left her feeling oddly weak.
“It’s all right, Jake,” she said. “The monster is gone.”
“Good.” He put the fountain pen back inside his jacket. “Now we can follow the moonlight road and find the answers.”
“The answers are at home,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m sure.”
He didn’t argue. She took his hand and led him up to the road. Jake’s speedster was the only vehicle in sight.
He contemplated the car with a thoughtful air.
“You should drive,” he said.
“That is a very good idea.”
Chapter 30
The most dangerous time in a blackmail operation was the moment when the transaction took place, Thelma Leggett thought.
It was two o’clock in the morning. She stood inside a deserted hot dog stand, Zolanda’s pistol in one hand, and watched the darkened ticket booth at the entrance of the old seaside amusement park.
The park had closed a few years earlier, one more victim of the lousy economy. It had never been as grand as the boardwalk amusement park farther up the coast in Santa Cruz, but when she was a kid, it had seemed like a magical place. Tonight the moonlight shone down on the hulking skeletons of the great wheel and the roller coaster. The rides and arcades that lined the old midway were now deserted ruins. The wooden boardwalk was rotting into the sand.
She had chosen the ticket booth for the drop point because she knew the territory. When she was a little girl, her mother had often taken her to the amusement park in the summer when they came to the small town to visit her uncle. Tonight she had left her car parked a couple of blocks away on a dark side street where it was unlikely to be noticed. She had spotted the opening in the fence at the back of the park that morning when she had set out to choose a safe location for the payoff.
She and Zolanda had developed a variety of secure payoff strategies. The ticket booth had the single most important advantage that they had considered necessary for success in the extortion business—it could be observed from a safe distance. The old hot dog stand in which she stood was just one of a sprawling jumble of tumbledown shacks and arcades that littered the grounds of the amusement park.
A car cruised slowly past the sagging gates at the front of the park. It was the first vehicle to drive down the street in the nearly two hours that she had been waiting. Arriving early to ensure that there were no surprises was another important element of the payoff procedure.
Her nerves, already strained to the breaking point, threatened to shatter. She had collected blackmail payments before but always in Los Angeles, a city that was big enough to allow her to remain hidden.
Tonight was different. It was very possible that tonight she was doing business with a killer.
She could have used a couple of cups of the Enlightenment tea that Adelaide Brockton had concocted for Zolanda. Luckily she had a bottle of whiskey waiting back at the cabin.
A sedan stopped at the end of the street, did a U-turn, and drove back to the entrance of the amusement park. The dri
ver brought the vehicle to a halt a short distance away. A figure wearing a trench coat with the collar pulled up and a hat angled low to conceal the profile got out from behind the wheel.
Thelma’s pulse skittered with excitement. Her first solo extortion payoff was going like clockwork. She didn’t count the deal that she had done with Conrad Massey yesterday. That had been a straightforward financial transaction.
She had been careful to conceal herself behind a large pair of sunglasses and a big hat when she met Massey at the gas station, but there was no reason to fear him. All he wanted was the information she had to sell—the location of the woman who was currently calling herself Adelaide Brockton—and he had been willing to pay for it. Massey had burned rubber when he floored the accelerator of his speedster and headed off down the highway toward Burning Cove.
But tonight’s business was very different and a lot more dangerous.
The figure in the trench coat and hat pushed open the rusty gates and stopped briefly. A flashlight sparked. Thelma realized the target was looking for the ticket booth that she had described on the phone. She had made certain that it could be easily spotted.
The target hurried toward the ticket booth and pushed a bulky package over the counter. It fell inside the small structure and disappeared.
It was all over in less than two minutes. The target rushed back to the sedan and drove off down the street.
Thelma waited until the rumble of the vehicle’s engine had faded into the distance. And then she waited a little longer, just to be sure. The thrill of success threatened to steal her breath. Her pulse was kicking up like crazy now.
Hardly daring to believe how easy it had been, she left the shadows of the hot dog stand and went quickly to the ticket booth. She opened the rear door. The interior of the small structure was steeped in darkness. She couldn’t see a thing and she didn’t dare use her flashlight for fear that a passerby might notice it.
She took two cautious steps inside. The toe of her shoe nudged an object on the floor. She reached down and grabbed the envelope. It was thick and reassuringly heavy. Small bills bound up in large quantities weighed more than most people expected.