Williams found that Norwood was bound with the kind of flexible three-conductor wire that extension cords were typically made of. At each location, the knots in the wire were set so tightly he didn’t think they could be undone. Nonetheless they had been carefully located out of Norwood’s reach.
Fortunately, the girl had a pair of wire cutting pliers.
***
Morgan parked in his usual spot in front of the house before he noticed the red and blue flashing lights up by the mine entrance. What now? he wondered.
He locked the car and took the big suitcase in the house so he could get out his boots. After changing into jeans and boots, he headed up the road to the mine entrance. After threading his way through the police cars and past an ambulance he found Lindl standing there talking to a deputy. Lindl was saying, “Our guardian, my Uncle Morgan, should be here any moment. Would you like me to call his cell?”
The cop said, “Why isn’t he here?”
Morgan said, “I just arrived. What’s happened?”
“The guy that killed our dad came back,” Lindl said. “He chased Kiri pretty deep into the mine, but apparently she Maced him and tied him up.” Lindl waved at the ambulance, “They’ve got him over there, washing out his eyes right now.”
Astonished by the description, Morgan started toward the ambulance. The deputy who’d been speaking to Lindl grabbed him by the elbow. “Don’t go over there.”
Surprised, Morgan said, “Why not?”
“The guy attacked your niece. We don’t want you going over there and confronting or attacking him. Let the police and the courts deal with him.”
Though he really wanted to know what the guy looked like, Morgan decided that made sense. He turned and asked, “Where’s Kiri?”
Lindl pointed and Morgan saw Kiri talking to Chatfield over on the other side. He started that way, angry but restraining himself. As he approached, he said, “Hey, you shouldn’t be talking to her without my permission and without her lawyer present.”
Chatfield put his hands out palms outward, “She’s just a victim and a witness Mr. Djai. She’s not under suspicion or arrest. Nothing to worry about here.”
Morgan turned to Kiri, “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
She didn’t look upset and Morgan couldn’t see any evidence of injuries. “Has he asked you any uncomfortable questions?”
Kiri shook her head, “He’s been very nice this time, Uncle Morgan. Thank you for your concern.”
At this surprising politeness Morgan’s eyes jumped back to Kiri. Her eyes were twinkling…
Chapter Five
Wednesday morning
Lindl and Kiri were off to school. Morgan was drinking tea on the porch, looking out over the valley, and thinking. After the police had finished last night, Morgan had asked Kiri what she’d been doing up at the mine. She’d confessed that she’d gone up there to check on her dad’s equipment in the hidden rooms—which Morgan still hadn’t seen. She also admitted that she’d continued to keep the existence of the hidden chambers a secret from the police.
As far as they knew, she’d simply gone up to the mine to think about what’d happened to her dad. In fact, she’d Maced and tied up Norwood on the very spot where he’d grabbed her back on Thursday. She’d told the police she’d been carrying the wire with the thought of stringing power back to the spot where her father’d been murdered. She’d claimed she wanted to create a memorial for him.
To Morgan she admitted she’d seen Norwood coming into the mine on the security cameras. She’d specifically taken the wire and the wire cutting pliers so she’d be able to tie him up. Morgan wasn’t quite sure what to make of a fifteen-year-old girl who expected to be able to take down a large, unscrupulous man and, therefore, planned ahead for his immobilization.
“Why the hell didn’t you just stay in those hidden rooms? You’d have been perfectly safe in there.”
She’d narrowed her eyes, “I called the police so they’d come arrest that bastard.”
Morgan had nodded, “Sure. But you still could have stayed safe in those rooms.”
She lifted an eyebrow, “And when the cops showed up and asked where I was?”
Exasperated, he’d said, “Your safety’s more important than keeping the rooms a secret!”
She’d shaken her head, “I wasn’t in any danger.”
He wasn’t sure whether she was delusional or just unreasonably brave. He’d opened his mouth to point out the flaws in her argument, but then decided it wasn’t worth fighting about.
After all, All’s well that ends well.
But, he thought, taking another sip of tea, I’ve got to insist that she take me up to look through those secret rooms.
Thirty minutes later, Morgan realized he’d stopped thinking about Kiri and started daydreaming about Tilly Arvind. What’s my deal? It’s like I’m some kind of infatuated school kid. I barely know the woman. Sure, she’s attractive, but…
At 11:30, Morgan was driving to Arvind’s office. He had some kind of half-baked plan that he’d show up and say he’d wanted to pay his bill.
He couldn’t think of a good reason why he wanted to pay his bill before it arrived.
Or, why he felt compelled to pay it in person rather than mailing a check or providing a credit card number like any sane person would.
Or, how he was going to ask her to lunch. I’ll just have to wing it, he decided.
Like winging it’s something I’m good at, he thought derisively.
The entire drive to her office, he thought of more and more reasons why he shouldn’t be doing what he was doing. He pulled up in front of her building, parked, then sat leaning his forehead on the steering wheel. You can still go home without making an ass out of yourself— His train of thought was derailed by a tapping on his window. Did I park badly? he wondered, as he raised his head and turned to see who was tapping.
Tilly Arvind was looking in his window, concern writ large on her face. Another woman stood behind her. Feeling totally humiliated, he rolled down the window and brilliantly essayed, “Hello Ms. Arvind.”
She tilted her head worriedly, “What’s wrong?”
“Um, I was just thinking. A lot going on, you know?”
“Oh, good,” she said, but now she looked quite puzzled. “What are you doing here? Are the police causing more troubles for your niece?”
“Um, no. Though, the guy that shot Daryn showed back up at the mine and she had a little run-in with him.”
Arvind’s eyes widened, “Oh my goodness. Is she okay?”
Morgan nodded, not knowing what else to say.
Arvind said, “Are you here because… you… or Kiri need some kind of legal representation?”
“I… I was thinking I should pay my bill,” Morgan said, immediately realizing just how ridiculous that sounded.
The woman behind Arvind was getting fidgety. Arvind turned to her and said, “Margaret, why don’t you go on. I’ll finish up with Mr. Djai and see you back at the office after lunch, okay?”
The other woman nodded and moved away. Morgan seized on the fact they’d just talked about lunch as if it’d justify… “Could I take you to lunch? We could talk about…” He ran down when he realized he couldn’t think of anything they had any need to talk about.
Arvind gave him a grin, “Sure, that’d be nice. Where did you have in mind?”
Morgan thought about protesting that he’d just had the idea and didn’t have anything in mind, then realized he had an out. “I don’t know much about Asheville. Can you suggest a place?”
“Sure,” she said with a brilliantly white smile, walking around his car to the passenger door. Belatedly, he wondered if he should be getting out to open the door for her. He settled for leaning across and opening the door from the inside. She slipped in, making the process look elegant. “Exit the lot down to the left,” she said, waving that direction.
She directed him to a little café. It had an outdoor patio under a
trellis draped in vines. As they walked in, she led the way, letting Morgan admire her slender waist. I’m really in deep, he thought to himself. His devil’s advocate reminded him, You barely know her.
The hostess gave them a table for two and Tilly waved Morgan into the seat that looked out over the city. It immediately reminded him of looking out over the valley from Daryn’s porch, though here he was looking at Asheville’s architecture, rather than trees. “The view’s amazing,” he said. “You should sit over here.”
She casually waved the suggestion away, “I’ve seen the view plenty of times. You should be the one to enjoy it.”
After they ordered drinks and perused the menu, she leaned forward and asked conspiratorially, “Okay, what did you want to talk about?”
Morgan desperately tried to think of something. Preferably something related to Kiri’s case. As he realized he couldn’t think of a single damned thing, he hoped his nervousness didn’t show.
Tilly frowned a moment, then broke into a broad smile that highlighted her white teeth against her olive skin. She said, “If you’re going to invite a lady to lunch, you probably should plan out at least one topic of conversation.”
Morgan realized she was fully aware that he was much more interested in her than any legal issue. As pretty as she was, she must have to fend off man’s attentions all the time. He felt his cheeks heating. I’m blushing like a schoolboy, he thought with dismay. “Um…”
She reached out and rested a hand on his, “It’s okay. Vic told me you were just starting the divorce process.” She arched an eyebrow, “Since Adam looks like he’s about seventeen, I’d venture that you haven’t invited a woman out to lunch for a decade or two.”
Morgan produced a jerky nod. With a twinkle in her eye, Tilly promptly started their conversation by beginning to extract his life history. Shortly she’d learned all about the breakdown between himself and Daryn, what’d happened to his relationship with Arlette and how they’d come to adopt Adam.
“So,” she said, “Kiri’s the only woman left in your family?”
With some surprise, Morgan realized he’d never thought of it that way. “That’s true…” he said slowly, “but really, there’s only the four of us, total. She and Lindl have a grandfather on their mother’s side, but he hasn’t seen them for years.”
“What’s his issue?”
Morgan shrugged helplessly, “I have no idea. I’m embarrassed to admit I haven’t even tried to reach him. I’d better put that on my ‘to do’ list.”
Tilly gave him a gentle nod, “Poor Kiri. She really is the only woman in your family.”
Morgan mustered a weak grin, “Are you giving me grief for ignoring the social graces a woman would’ve already attended to?”
“No, no.” She patted his hand gently, “You’re already dealing with too much grief.” After a moment’s pause, she gave him a little grin and said, “I’m giving you shit.”
The waiter brought their food right then, which gave Morgan an opportunity to muster his thoughts. When the waiter had departed, Morgan said, “I can’t believe you’re giving shit to a man in mourning.”
Her eyes crinkled, “We all need a little laughter, even when we’re in mourning.”
Morgan sniffed and lifted his chin, “Well then, you ought to try saying something funny.”
Tilly laughed so hard she had to wipe at her eyes. Morgan decided he really liked her. Not just for her looks but…
Wednesday afternoon
As they hiked up the road to the mine, Kiri looked over at her uncle. He’s in pretty good shape for someone his age, she thought. Despite all her suspicions—lingering from the fact that her father and her uncle hadn’t gotten along—she was finding she really liked Morgan. She thought he genuinely had her best interests at heart. Lindl’s too, of course.
She knew that good people lost their jobs for reasons beyond their control, but she hadn’t been able to avoid the feeling that a “software developer” who’d been laid off couldn’t be all that sharp. Just the fact that he called himself a software developer, rather than a programmer, suggested to her that he wasn’t even a good programmer. “Developer” suggested someone who “managed” real programmers.
But, she’d been quite impressed with his intelligence when they’d started talking about transmutation. He’d immediately seemed to know—in general terms—what they were talking about. Admittedly, he probably read up on the principles when Adam had called a break so Adam could study them, but she knew a lot of people wouldn’t have been able to gain his level of understanding even after taking a lot of time to do some reading.
In fact, she was impressed with how he’d come into an admittedly chaotic, situation, gotten to grips with it and dealt with issues logically. Maybe if he’s been managing programmers as a developer, he’s acquired some useful crisis management skills in the process, she thought.
As they arrived at the entrance to the mine, she glanced at him and said, “You know the combination?”
“1-0-3-1,” he replied promptly.
Not too shabby, she thought, then immediately wondered if he’d realized it was the date for Halloween. Which, if he did, she decided, wouldn’t be too shabby either.
As they walked down the tunnel into the mine, Morgan wondered just how deep in the mountains the hidden rooms were. And, of course, just where they were located that the police hadn’t found them after extensively searching the mine for perps.
He started to ask Kiri, but she had out her phone and was tapping on the screen. He found her distraction a little irritating, but had accepted that it was a generational thing. Kiri’s generation spent a lot of time buried in their phones. His generation thought focusing on your phone around others was rude. Her generation thought it was normal and that it was rude to complain about somebody being on their phone.
They’d gotten a little way past the gentle bend in the main tunnel when Morgan noted an opening in the right wall. “What the hell? There wasn’t an opening there when we came up here to look around on Saturday.”
He strode ahead, then slowed and leaned out into the main tunnel to peer around the edge into the opening. A large, irregular section of the wall had pulled back about three feet. The irregularity of its shape probably makes it hard to notice once it’s been fitted back into the wall of the tunnel, he thought. The opening exposed a large, though not tall chamber. Some rock pillars had been left in place here and there to support the roof. As he looked around, he noticed that, off to one side, the big chamber contained an entire little building set up on blocks. He glanced back at Kiri. She was watching him gape around with an amused expression on her face.
Stepping into the opening, Morgan walked around to the back of the withdrawn wall section. It was mounted on the front of a railcar that rode sloped rails down to the wall opening. A winch and cable arrangement had evidently pulled it up the slope to where it stood at present. From the length of the rails and cable, it could pull the wall section much further back if they needed a larger opening so they could move equipment in and out. He glanced at Kiri, “Why’s it open now?”
She held up her phone and waggled it. “I sent it a command over Wi-Fi.”
Glad he hadn’t bitched about her being distracted by her phone, he said, “That’s really cool!” Morgan noticed the building had three doors and made a deduction about what it contained. He waved at it, “Can you take me on a tour?”
She nodded and led him to the first door. Opening it, she waved him in. Morgan immediately recognized the room in the upper left security camera image. There was some equipment on the far side of the room, but the near side had shelves and tool chests. She said, “We mostly use this room to store supplies and tools.”
A few minutes later she had him in the third room—the one that’d shown in the upper right image from the security cameras. In person, it looked even more like a machine shop. Kiri indicated the equipment with a wave of her hand, “CNC machining, milling machines, lathes, EDM,
metal printing, welding… You name it, Dad has…” she frowned, “…Dad had it. You wanted some exotic part, he could make it.”
Morgan looked around, “The basement workshop has a lot of the same stuff, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, the newer, more high-end stuff is up here.”
“Does Lindl know how to use this stuff?”
Kiri snorted, “Not a clue.”
Morgan looked at her, “Do you?”
She pursed her lips and looked around, “Some of it.” She gave a small sharp shake of her head, but made no further comment. “You want to see the middle room?”
Morgan nodded, “That’s where the alpha capture stuff is?”
With a small smile that looked like it contained a big dollop of pride, she waved and said, “Right this way.” She opened the door.
As Morgan had remembered from the security cam video, the middle room contained impressive looking equipment that he couldn’t even begin to identify. “What is all this stuff?”
Kiri patted a boxy structure, “Helium ionizer.” Touching a long, large diameter tube, she said, “This was Dad’s pride and joy. It’s where the alpha particles accelerate and come into register. Sometimes he called it the ‘alpha laser’ but mostly he called it a ‘iasar’ for ‘Ion Acceleration with Simultaneous ARrival.’” She pronounced it “yayser.” In an admiring tone, she said, “You can adjust the velocity, the wave frequency and density as well as the focal point.” She glanced at Morgan, “All of which are important adjustments if you’re going to hit the sweet spot for quantum tunneling.”
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