Cemetery Dance

Chapter 79

Esteban released the gun. It fell to the ground with a thud. "Now if you will slowly raise your hands and take two steps back, then lean against the wall."

Esteban took the two required steps and did as he was told. Pendergast reached down, picked up the Browning, and slipped it into his jacket pocket, then searched through Esteban's pockets and removed his flashlight. He stepped back and switched it on.

"Listen—" Esteban began.

"No talking, please, except to answer my questions. Now you will lead me to Nora Kelly. Nod if you understand."

Esteban nodded. All was not lost… It was always possible to be too intelligent. He moved slowly backward, in the direction of the house.

"She's not that way," said Pendergast. "I've already explored those areas. You've used up your only chit — next time you try to pull something off, I'll conclude you are unhelpful, kill you without further ado, and find Ms. Kelly myself. Nod if you understand."

Esteban nodded.

"She's in the basement of the barn?"

Esteban shook his head.

"Where is she? You may speak."

"She's in a room hidden in the tunnel, under the plaster. Not far from Smithback's body."

"There was no fresh plaster in the tunnel."

"The door is under a section of old wired — up plaster I can move and replace at will."

Pendergast seemed to ponder this. Then he waved his gun. "You first. Remember what will happen if you are unhelpful."

Once again, Esteban began walking back down the tunnel toward Smithback, keeping to the right wall. Pendergast followed about ten feet behind. Esteban stepped over a tiny penlight — clearly the agent's — lying on the floor of the tunnel. As he passed the lever, he pretended to stagger and fall, striking it on his way down.

The shot rang out but it was high, ruffling Esteban's hair. A grinding crash burst from the ceiling of the tunnel as the lever of his mechanism released a fake landslide. It wasn't a real cave — in, of course, but rather one consisting of Styrofoam boulders, pre — broken and stained plywood timbers, and sand and gravel mixed with painted popcorn filler. It wasn't as deadly as a true landslide, but it nevertheless dropped fast and furiously. Pendergast leapt aside, but as quick as he was, he wasn't able to escape the ton of material that had been unleashed directly on top of him. With a long, rumbling roar of timbers and popcorn and Styrofoam, he was knocked down and buried. Esteban scrambled forward, just escaping the leading edge of the avalanche himself.

All was pitch — dark — the lights had been buried with the agent. Esteban could hear the last bits and pieces of gravel rain down. Then he laughed out loud. This was the avalanche that had appeared to bury the pursuing prison guards in the climactic scene ofBreakout Sing Sing, as the hero leapt from the tunnel mouth to safety. And here he had re — created it — for real!

Pendergast evidently was not a moviegoer. If he were, he might have recognized the tunnel and guessed what was coming. Too bad for him.

Esteban waded into the phony landslide, kicking the filler away, looking for Pendergast. After five minutes of forcing aside rubble, he spied the gleam of his flashlight, still lit, and next to it the agent's body, bloody and dust — covered, stunned by the sudden cascade. The Browning he had taken lay beside him. The agent's own gun was in his hand, cell phone lying nearby. He had been hit hard by the debris and might even be dead, but Esteban had to be sure. He first grabbed both of the guns. Next, he brought his foot down on the cell phone, smashing it. Then he raised the Browning, checked the magazine, aimed it at Pendergast's breastbone, and fired two rounds point — blank into the detective, a double tap to the heart, followed by a third to make sure, the body jumping with each impact, dust billowing upward from his chest and shoulders.

A spreading stain of blood appeared on the ground underneath.

Esteban stood there, amid the dust, and allowed himself a small smile. Pity that this little scene would never make the silver screen. Now it was time for the final act in his private epic: kill the girl and get rid of the bodies.

All four of them.