The Mystery at Sag Bridge

Chapter 31

"How do we fight this? Should we call Officer Rogers?" Cora asked.

"To do what? To arrest Angel-put her behind bars? You think anyone is going to take us seriously? We're on our own here."

"Sshh-" Cora said. "She's hearing us."

"I don't give a damn!" Cisco exclaimed. "She expects us to react-that's what she wanted, and it worked. But she's one fucked-up spirit if she thinks I'm not gonna be pissed off about it! Let her hear me, I don't care!"

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"I'll be damned!" Cisco exclaimed. "It is a tunnel!"

With considerable effort, Cisco and Cora had moved the fragile manikin and heavy printing press away from the wall. They tied the drapery to one side, and Cisco pried the painting off the wall. The picture was mounted on wood surrounded by a sturdy frame. The frame was nailed to a wooden border edging a dark, dank opening.

"You'd think they'd have done a better job of boarding this up," Cora remarked, sliding behind the press and peeking into the darkness. "I bet I know what happened. I bet someone from the church, before the historical society got the building, saw rats or mice coming from the tunnel, and this ugly picture was laying around, so they just nailed it up to keep them out. When the historical society took over, they just left everything in place-no idea a tunnel was back there."

"Why didn't public works board it up?" Cisco countered.

"Maybe they just missed it. I asked at the building department for maps of the tunnels once. No one knew what I was talking about."

"Think the rats and mice are still in there?" Cisco rolled his eyes.

"God, I hope not! Let's use a lot of light and make a lot of noise...I got an idea-hang on!"

Cora ran upstairs while Cisco peered into the opening, using a flashlight, hesitant to step inside.

Cora returned with a small gooseneck lamp and a reel of extension cord, and Cisco plugged it into a fluorescent fixture in the museum ceiling, smiling. "This will be better than flashlights."

"I hope we don't have to go far, just across the street, but we'll see. Are you ready?"

"You want me to go first?" Cisco asked.

"No, I'll go. In case I need you to pull me out!" Cora chuckled but was half serious. She turned on the lamp and held it near her waist, sending a beam of light ahead into the gloom.

Cora expected earth and wooden supports boring through a narrow passageway, but the excavation immediately widened to seven or eight feet, and beyond the doorway it was about six feet high. Most of the walls were rock, with few support beams. What she saw made sense. A tunnel had to be tall enough for dockworkers to walk, wide enough for a cart to pass even with supplies stacked along the walls, and the town was built over massive deposits of limestone, hence the quarry industry.