Shenice Stevens lay on the bed, swaddled within sheets. Her mother sat in a bedside chair, her eyes red and puffy. Jackson had seen the mother several hours ago, when he was first summoned to the hospital, and the woman still wore the same clothes. d.a.m.n shame. There was nothing worse in the world than watching your child suffer.

"h.e.l.lo, Mrs. Stevens" Jackson settled into another chair. "How's the girl doing?"

Mrs. Stevens was a slim, attractive lady, a savvy businesswoman who sold real estate and never had a hair out of place. But today, her hair was like a wild plant, and when she looked at Jackson she blinked, confused.

"I'm the chief," Jackson said, helpfully.

Her eyes sharpened. "Chief, have you found out who's responsible for this? The dog that mauled my baby should be decapitated, and the owner should be jailed. What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm working on the case, ma'am." Jackson's lips tightened into a firm line. It was frustrating. The young lady had driven to the hospital last night, bleeding profusely from a dog bite. By the time the staff rushed her to the emergency room, she was unconscious. She had awakened for only brief periods since.

As far as Jackson knew, the diagnosis was rabies, or something like it. He'd called Chester County's animal services, but they hadn't been able to locate the dog that had attacked her, which kept the vet from running rabies tests. The girl had said a rottweiler had bitten her, and a number of folks in town owned that breed and not all of them had bothered to register their pets with the city. It was like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Mrs. Stevens confirmed that the girl and her boyfriend had been out last night. They had not found the boy. He had vanished.

Shenice had driven her boyfriend's car to the hospital. That fact chipped away at Jackson's initial suspicion of foul play.

Intuition told Jackson that the woman had been running from something, something from which she had barely escaped with her life, and that her boyfriend had not been so lucky.

But who was responsible? A dog? It seemed ridiculous that one dog could maul two adults, though there had probably been similar cases of such things. Jackson had never seen such an incident in his time as a cop.

He had no leads. He hoped the girl woke up so she could give him a clue.

The girl's face was like a wax mask, her lips pale and chapped. She was caramel-skinned and quite pretty; Jackson recalled that she had won a recent town beauty pageant. But she was only a distant echo of her healthy self.

The girl's eyes fluttered open. She blinked. Her lips parted.

Mrs. Stevens shot out of her chair.

"Mama's here, baby." She tenderly touched her daughter's face. "You're gonna be okay."

Jackson pressed the b.u.t.ton to summon the nurse. Within seconds, Ruby hurried into the room.

"Girl's waking up," Jackson said.

Shenice mumbled something inaudible.

"What she say?" Jackson said.

Mrs. Stevens shook her head. "I ... I don't know."

"The dogs," Shenice whispered.

Something about how the girl spoke the words, as if she hinted at a deeper meaning, rendered Jackson speechless. An icy chill fell over him.

What's wrong with me? he thought. She didn't say anything that should scare me.

"The man ... the dogs," she said.

Perspiration rolled into Jackson's eyes. He snapped out his handkerchief and blotted the sweat.

"What is she talking about?" Mrs. Stevens said.

The man ... the dogs ...

"Girl's babbling, gotta be delirious," Jackson said. His voice trembled.

"You might be right, Chief," Ruby said. "Please leave now. She's not in a condition to handle any questions. I'm calling the doctor"

Jackson didn't argue with her. He did not want to hear another word out of the girl's mouth. Her words terrified him, and he could not put his finger on why.

He hurried out of the hospital. In the parking lot, he jumped into his cruiser.

"I don't know a d.a.m.n thing about what she said," he said, aloud. "Don't know nothing about it at all."

But why did he feel that he was lying to himself?

Franklin knocked on David's door.

"Are you ready for our cave expedition, my friend?" Franklin said.

It was noon. Franklin was dressed like a man going on an African safari. He wore tall leather boots with thick soles, khakis, a matching shirt, and a wide-brimmed hat. He carried a brown leather bag over his shoulder.

"You look a lot more prepared than I do "" David looked down at his Timberlands, jeans, and T-shirt.

"You'll do," Franklin said.

"We only need to pick up Nia, then we can go," David said. He grabbed his duffel bag.

It was a typical, sweltering Mississippi summer day, with the temperature in the mid-nineties. David was glad that he had thought to pack a few bottles of cold water.

"I must tell you," Franklin said, getting in the Pathfinder, "there have been further, possibly related, developments since last night."

David put the SUV in gear, switched on the air conditioner, and rolled down the street. "What happened?"

"Ruby works at the local hospital a couple days a week. She's the head nurse. She called me this morning about a young lady who had been mauled by a rottweiler."

"d.a.m.n. That's terrible."

"Quite. The woman drove herself to the hospital late last night. Evidently she had been with her boyfriend-who has vanished, by the way. She drove to the medical center in his car and collapsed shortly after the staff took her inside.

"The young lady was unconscious until this morning, when Chief Jackson visited to question her. Ruby was bedside when the woman awoke and muttered about seeing a man, and dogs. Ruby suspects the chief has some knowledge of what she said, because he was visibly disturbed. Unfortunately, the girl has lapsed into sleep again and cannot be roused"

"A man, and dogs?" David said. "I don't get it."

"I called the police station and spoke to Jackson," Franklin said. "He denied that the woman said anything of importance. He was agitated and abrupt with me. I must say, such behavior is out of character for Jackson. He's ordinarily a cool customer."

"I remember thinking the same thing when he visited me after I moved here. Seemed to be a laid-back guy."

"Anything that upsets the chief is worth investigating," Franklin said. "Being an indefatigable researcher, I made some calls to various resources. I learned that a young woman was reported missing, two days ago. She was baby-sitting for a family when she disappeared. No trace of her has been found"

"Two disappearances, in two days," David said. "The woman's boyfriend, and the baby-sitter. In a town this small, that has to be pretty d.a.m.n rare"

"It's unprecedented here," Franklin said. "Include Junior's unearthly experience at the cave, and the strange happenings that you've seen-"

"Everything has to be connected," David said.

"Precisely."

"But how?"

"That, my friend," Franklin said, "is why we are going to the cave. To discover answers to our questions."

Chapter 11.

Franklin, Nia, and David approached the dark mouth of the L cave.

Using Franklin's map, they had navigated a route to the forest that formed the southern fringe of the Mason property. They'd parked on the shoulder of a quiet road that outlined the edge of the woods. A steep hill led from the roadway to the forest wall. They had hiked through the woods for about a quarter of a mile before they reached a clearingand the cave.

David was drenched in sweat by the time they stopped walking. He withdrew a water bottle from his bag.

"Only take a few sips, David," Nia said. She wore Bermuda shorts, a tank top, and Nike running shoes, and she didn't appear to be half as wrung out as he was. Light perspiration gleamed on her skin, like polish.

"Still haven't gotten used to this heat," David said. He put his hand against a tree to support himself while he drank.

He looked at the cave. A jagged black maw, perhaps seven feet high and five feet wide, gave access to the cavern. Mounds of rocks and dirt covered the ground outside the pa.s.sageway.

The area was preternaturally still and silent.

Franklin's camera hung around his neck. He took a photo of the entrance.

"David, take out the Bible, please," he said.

David did as he asked. Franklin stood beside him and turned the pages, stopping at one of the ill.u.s.trations: the drawing of the large dogs gathered outside the cave's doorway, and a group of men crouched in the woods, watching as if waiting to attack.

"The men huddled back there," Franklin said. He indicated the wall of trees and shrubbery behind them.

"You're right," Nia said, peering over David's shoulder at the ill.u.s.tration.

"It's a good thing these dogs aren't here," David said.

"Not yet," Franklin said in a low voice. He looked around warily. Due to the trees, cool shadows dwelled around them.

"I know what you're thinking," David said. "The girl in the hospital was mauled by a dog, and mentioned something about a man who used dogs to do ... something. Attack, maybe ""

"You and I are on the same wavelength," Franklin said.

"We better hurry up, guys," Nia said. "Let's get inside there and do what we came to do ""

"One moment," Franklin said. He raised his camera and snapped another shot of the cave entrance.

"Now, let's proceed," Franklin said.

The first and only time David had ventured into a cave, he had been eleven years old. They had been taking a family trip to Chicago to visit relatives, and on the way they had stopped in Cave City, Kentucky, to do some sight-seeing. On their way down into the cavern depths, he'd seen a spider on the wall as big as his face. The memory had stayed with him ever since.

This cave was much smaller than the one in Kentucky, but it was no less forbidding. When they stepped inside the pa.s.sageway, cool air swirled around them, like disturbed spirits. The sound of their breathing was amplified, as if they were shut inside a tomb.

David swept a flashlight across the limestone walls. Thank G.o.d, he didn't see any giant spiders clinging to the rocks.

As they moved deeper within, a foul smell a.s.saulted his nostrils.

Nia wrinkled her nose, too. "What's that awful smell? It can't just be old dirt."

"Death" Franklin came up behind them. "When I was in graduate school, I worked part-time in a crematory. This is the malodor of incinerated corpses."

David didn't need to ask why the stench of death polluted the air. The guy who'd told Franklin about this place claimed to have seen a heap of skeletons.

"Can we please hurry up and do what we have to do?" Nia said. "I don't like the feeling this place gives me "

"Give me light, please," Franklin said. "I will commence with my photographs."

They crept farther inside. As David and Nia shone the flashlights around the area, Franklin snapped photos.

Ahead, a bend in the cavern awaited.

"This looks like the ill.u.s.tration in the Bible," David said. He fumbled out the book. He found the representation of the four remaining men, armed with weapons, walking deeper into an earthen tunnel.

"Unlike those valiant men, we didn't have the foresight to arm ourselves," Franklin said. "Let us hope that it won't be necessary."

They walked around the corner. Nia gagged. David covered his mouth with the edge of his shirt.

"We've discovered the source of the stench," Franklin said. He took a picture.

A brownish-gray mixture of dirt and ashes covered the cavern floor. Walking through it was like stepping through a sandbox.

"Junior said he saw bodies back here," Nia said. She coughed. "Someone must have burned them"

"To hide evidence," David said.

"But whose bodies were here?" Nia said. "G.o.d, I'm going to have nightmares for a week after this."

David turned to another drawing in the Bible. It depicted a swarm of savage-looking people, dressed in rags, crowded inside the cave.