فصل 20 - بخش 11

20

The trail of faintly luminous droplets continued. Ralph had come to think of them as the thing’s sweat. Fear-sweat, like theirs? He hoped so. He hoped the fucker had been terrified, and still was.

There were more fissures, but no more spray-paint; these were little more than cracks, too small even for a child to fit into. Or escape from. Holly was able to walk beside him again, although it was a tight fit. They could hear water dripping somewhere far away, and once Ralph felt a new breeze, this one against his left cheek. It was like being caressed with ghost fingers. It was coming from one of those cracks, producing a hollow, almost glassy moan, like the sound of breath blown over the top of a beer bottle. A horrible place, all right. He found it all but impossible to believe people had paid money to explore this stone crypt, but of course they didn’t know what he knew, and now believed. It was sort of amazing how being in the guts of the ground helped a person to believe what had previously seemed not just impossible but downright laughable.

‘Careful,’ Holly said. ‘There’s more.’

This time it was a couple of gophers that had been torn to pieces. Beyond them was the remains of another rattler, all of it gone except for tatters of its diamondback skin.

A little further on, they came to the top of a steep downward slope, its surface polished as smooth as a dancefloor. Ralph thought it had probably been created by some ancient underground river that had flowed during the age of the dinosaurs and dried up before Jesus walked the earth. To one side was a steel railing, now spotted with florets of rust. Holly ran the light along it, and they saw not just scattered droplets of luminescence, but palm prints and fingerprints. Prints that would match Claude Bolton’s, Ralph had no doubt.

‘Sonofabitch was careful, wasn’t he? Didn’t want to take a spill.’

Holly nodded. ‘I think this is the passageway Lovie called the Devil’s Slide. Watch your ste—’

From somewhere behind and below them came a brief squall of rock, followed by a barely perceptible thud that went through their feet. It reminded Ralph of how even solid ice could sometimes shift. Holly looked at him, wide-eyed.

‘I think we’re okay. This old cave’s been talking to itself for a long time.’

‘Yes, but I bet the conversation’s been livelier since the ground-shaker Lovie told us about. The one that happened in ’07.’

‘You can always—’

‘Don’t ask me again. I have to see this through.’

He supposed she did.

They went down the incline, holding the railing but being careful to avoid the handprints left by the one who had gone before them. At the bottom there was a sign:

WELCOME TO THE DEVIL’S SLIDE BE SAFE USE HANDRAIL

Beyond the Slide, the passage widened still more. There was another of those arched entryways, but part of the wooden facing had fallen away, disclosing what nature had left here: nothing but a ragged maw.

Holly cupped her hands around her mouth and called softly, ‘Hello?’

Her voice came back to them perfectly, in a series of overlapping echoes: Hello … ello … ello …

‘I thought so,’ she said. ‘It’s the Chamber of Sound. It’s the big one that Lovie—’

‘Hello.’

Ello … lo … lo …

Spoken quietly, but stopping Ralph in the middle of drawing a breath. He felt Holly seize his forearm with a hand that felt like a claw.

‘Now that you’re here …’

You’re … you … here … ere …

‘… and gone to so much trouble to find me, why don’t you come in?’