In Too Deep Read Online Free PDF Page B

phone. The familiar shiver of awareness and the compulsion to find that which was hidden had only grown more fierce in the past twenty-four hours. Now, looking at the old house, she knew that there was something important inside, something that needed to be found.
    A shiver of awareness ghosted her nerves. She slipped into her other senses. The house was enveloped in screaming cold fog. Ice crystals shimmered in the mist.
    The paranormal light that swirled around the mansion was very different from the fog she had perceived in Scargill Cove a month ago when she had walked into town late on a rainy night. The driver of the truck who had picked her up outside Point Arena had driven her north on Highway One, past Mendocino, had let her out at a gas station. She had walked the rest of the way to the Cove, following the faint sheen of energy.
    It had been a long hike, but the closer she got to the tiny town tucked away in the forgotten little cove, the brighter the eerie fog had become. It told her that she was going in the right direction. It was after midnight when she finally reached the heart of the community.
    The town had been enveloped in the other kind of fog, the damp, gray stuff that rolled in off the ocean. Every window, save one, was dark. The single window that was illuminated was on the second floor of a building directly across from the café. The light in that window glowed with the luminous aura of a computer screen. The paranormal fog that wreathed the upper level of the building was infused with power and heat. It was a place filled with secrets.
    She walked close and aimed her flashlight at the name on the front door. JONES & JONES .
    She switched off the flashlight and stood there in the fogbound street for a long time wondering if she should knock. Before she could make up her mind, a thin, scraggly-looking man strode briskly toward her out of the shadows of a narrow alley. He did not have a flashlight, but he moved as if he had no difficulty seeing in the dark. His hair and beard were long and unkempt. He wore a heavy, black all-weather coat and a pair of hiking boots. Everything about him spelled
homeless man
but the coat and the boots looked surprisingly new.
    Her senses were still heightened. She could see that the man was enveloped in a lot of fog but she did not sense any threat.
    “You’re n-new here,” he said. His voice was hoarse and he stammered a little as if he was not in the habit of speech. “You’ll be w-wanting the inn. They’ll have a room for you. C-come with me. I’ll take you there.”
    “Thank you,” she said.
    She allowed him to lead her to the darkened inn. She rang the bell. A light went on in the hall, and a short time later two women in their midfifties, dressed in robes and slippers, opened the door. They smiled when they saw Isabella standing on the porch.
    “Yes, of course, we’ve got a room,” one of them said.
    “It’s January,” the second one explained. “We rarely have any guests at this time of year. Come on in.”
    Isabella turned to thank the stranger in the long black coat, but he was gone.
    “Something wrong?” the first woman asked, stepping back to let Isabella into the hall.
    “There was a man,” Isabella said. “He brought me here.”
    “Oh, that must have been Walker,” the woman said. “He’s what you might call our night watchman here in the Cove. My name is Violet, by the way. This is Patty. Come on upstairs and I’ll show you to your room. You must be exhausted.”
    “Shouldn’t I register?” Isabella asked.
    “We’re not real big on the formalities here in the Cove,” Patty explained. “You can register in the morning.”
    Half an hour later, Isabella had crawled into a cozy bed and pulled a down quilt up over her shoulders. For the first time in weeks she slept through the night.
    The following day no one remembered to ask her to register as a guest at the inn. She handed over enough cash to cover the first week and then, on