Walker finished his burger and slipped out of the booth. “I want to take another look at the cemetery. If I don’t find anything, I’ll put in a report to the sheriff’s office, persuade him Valdis might be in danger so he’ll organize a searchparty.”
“You’rea good man, Walker. I’m sorry about your father, but if it brought you up here when we need you, Fate has served itspurpose.”
Walker wasn’t any too certain of that, but Sam turned to meet his eyes as he returned to the counter, and he almost started believing in the stars and planets and Fate as well. They were in synch in ways he couldn’t explain. He saw her concern, and it was the sameashis.
“I want to give the cemetery another search,” he told her, keeping his voicelow.
“I’m going that way,” she said, agreeing without saying the words. “Do you want anyoneelse?”
Walker cast a glance over the crowd. He’d like to have Harvey and the mayor, since they hadn’t searched the cemetery earlier, but he didn’t see a good way to extricate them without everyone zoomingin. “One of them could very well be a killer. If they sabotaged the search earlier, I’d rather not have them do itagain.”
That raised her eyebrows. She obviously didn’t have his experience with the criminal mind. And at this point, he feared he was dealing with a killer who planned ahead, not a flake who OD’d. Homicide was not his division, in his real job or this one, but his backgroundand education had developed his instincts fordanger.
Following his example, Sam casually waved at Dinah. “I’m too tired to think. I’ll be down early to clean up, Dinah, so leave everything in thesink.”
Hoots and catcalls followed them out, but Walker didn’t give a damn. He steered Sam to his official vehicle and kept an eye out to see if anyonefollowed.
Monty and a blusteringAlan Gump emerged, arguing vociferously. Both men were large, but Gump was older and carried more fat than muscle. Unless Gump was carrying a gun, the mayor could hold his own. Walker fastened his seatbelt and kept an eye on his rearview mirror. Lance trailed out to the Escalade, looking morose. By the time Walker had his vehicle in gear, half the diner had emptied and some were striding towardthecemetery.
“I don’t think you can keep what we do quiet in Hillvale,” Sam said in amusement, watching the side mirror and following histhoughts.
“I shouldn’t have told Cass I was taking another look around. Damn, when will I learn?” Just in case he might fool anyone, he drove the SUV down Cass’s drive and parked in front of the garage/studio.
Anyone following would mostlikely be on foot and take a while longer to catchup.
“Let me run up and get another flashlight.” She dashed up the stairs and came down in an instant, shoving flashlights in her pockets and dangling a small backpack off her shoulder. “I brought a snakebite kit, just incase.”
Walker was out of the car with his own flashlight in hand. “What’s your hang-up about snakes? They’re moreafraid of you than we are ofthem.”
Swinging her walking stick, she easily fell into stride with him, cutting across Cass’s yard and keeping to the concealment of the shrubbery. “Got bit when I was a kid. The pain was beyond excruciating. Only time I ever saw my parents go into full-scale panic. They were screaming at each other. I was terrified, and I’m sure they must have been out oftheir minds with fear, but it was their screaming that told me I was in trouble. Theyneverargued.”
“So you associate snakes with dying and panic?” he asked, trying to grasp herfear.
“Mostly, I think I associate it with losing the ones I love. I was afraid they were going to divorce and go away like the parents of some of my friends, and that made me panic even more. I know it’san unreasonable phobia, that snakes are good for the environment, but I can’t even look at one long enough to identify it. I just freak andrun.”
“At least you have good reason. Most people freak without thinking.”Like Tess.Walker tried not to compare, but his mind kept wanting to believe Sam was different, that she might be the partner he needed. But that was loneliness speaking. Andgoodsex.
She swung her stick and stayed silent. He supposed not arguing with him was a good sign. When they reached the cemetery, he concentrated on looking for footprints in the dry ground, but too many people had traipsed this path and dust wasn’tpermanent.
“She’s not here,” Sam said abruptly. “I want to check the amphitheater. I’ll meet you back here in half anhour.”
Walker fought the protective urge to follow. Sam was an adult. She didn’t need a babysitter. And she’d just told him Valdis wasn’t in the cemetery as if sheknewsomething he didn’t. As if she heard voices in herhead?
Clenching his molars, Walker stomped up to the cemetery,alone.
An owl hootedand flapped its wings over her head. Samjerked nervously. Walking up to the vortex had been different in daylight, or when she’d been surrounded by people she knew. Out here on the rocks, all alone, was a little intimidating. If she tripped, she’d have to scream loudly for help, and she wasn’t even certain anyone wouldhear.
She tried not to think about snakes and cougars or nasty spiderwebs.
The trees had been loggedlong ago. It was just scattered underbrush and rocks—and forces that drew her staff as if iron to lodestone. She wondered if that was part of the magnetism of the vortex—a layer of magnetite beneath the layers of sandstone and granite. But magnetite wouldn’t draw wood. She could swear the staff twitched fromvibrations, and the crystal eyes possessed an ethereal gleam. Refusing to believe in thesupernatural, she wasn’t afraid, just curious. She followed its direction around the top of the amphitheater, not intoit.
She had to assume twitching staffs were ideomotion. She wanted to find her aunt, therefore her brain provided sympathetic pulses so she imagined she was helping. She should be searching with the others. If Valdis was dead or injured, Sam couldn’t send psychic help messagesto the universe. She needed real live cellreception.
If the Kennedys wanted to build condos out here, they’d have to build cell towers first. How did one go about doingthat?
What if cell towers interfered with the vortex? Not that she believed the vortex had special energy... But someone ought to study any possible energy effects before the vortex was lost. A seismograph mightgive some indication of underground vibrations, but she wished she could use satellites to help find imbalances and measure heat the way climate change was tracked. Differences in heat energy would explain alot.
The stick twitched to a path leading up another hill, away from the amphitheater and the cemetery, in the direction Walker had called the Ingersson land. Which was when Sam hada horrible thought—what if her grandparents weren’t buried in the cemetery? She hadn’t seen a gravestone forthem.
