CHAPTER 31
Frost clattered down the stairs into the dark cavern below, filled with equal parts dread and curiosity. The chief’s voice calling his name had sounded so strangled, like the gasp of a drowning man going down for the last time. Frost found his own breathing felt strained and painful, but he was bursting to know what was down there.
A putrid odor permeated the walls, and shadows writhed and danced under the bouncing beam of his flashlight, causing objects in the darkened basement to leer out at him like Hitchcockian special effects. Frost caught a glimpse of rusty tools hung on pegs above a stained and battered work table. He tripped over a bucket and knocked the mop from its mooring to smack against the concrete floor. As he reached the far end of the room, Steadman grabbed hi
