“What if I call the cops and they just laugh at me or, worse, tell me to mind my own business?”
“Call a cop you know, then. Call Joe.”
Leslie hesitated. “He’s with Brad right now. If we just slip behind the boards and check out what’s down that alley…Come on. Let’s just take a quick look. And then we’ll call someone.”
Nikki took a look around. There were people everywhere. “I guess we’re safe. But it’s pretty dark back there.”
Leslie grinned. “Hey, you forget what I do for a living. I always have a flashlight.” She reached into her purse, producing her slim but powerful flashlight.
“Okay, we take a quick look and then we call someone else.”
“You heard the crying,” Leslie reminded her firmly.
“Yes,” Nikki admitted. “And I think we should call the cops.”
Leslie grinned at her and ducked behind the barricade. Nikki swore, looked around, then followed her quickly.
A few feet along the alley, they hit what looked as if it had once been a shaft.
“Look,” Leslie said excitedly to Nikki.
They could see where the opening had been covered and the cover nailed shut. “I think,” Leslie said thoughtfully, “that this is an old subway entrance. In use sometime around 1915. See, you can just see a hint of tile there….”
“Possibly,” Nikki agreed.
Leslie started pulling at one of the boards that covered the opening. To her amazement, it came free instantly, so easily that she staggered backward. “Someone has pulled up that board before,” she said.
“Leslie, we really need to call the police,” Nikki said.
“Wait…just let me be sure.”
She trained her flashlight into the opening. “There are stairs!” she said excitedly. “It is an abandoned subway entrance.”
“Great, now let’s go.”
“Just let me get a better view,” Leslie implored.
She knelt down and rested her left hand on one of the boards that was still in place, leaning down to get a better view. The board gave way, and she gasped and went careening forward.
“Leslie!” Nikki yelled as she made a grab to save her.
Too late. Leslie hit the stairs and began to roll. When she reached the bottom, she bumped up against something that broke her fall.
“Leslie!” Nikki yelled again.
“I’m all right!” she shouted back. “I’m at the bottom of the stairs.”
She trained her light over the wall. This area had been boarded up, as well, in an effort to keep anyone from getting onto the unused tracks. There were weeds growing here and there, and at some point people had managed to throw empty bottles and trash down the opening.
She trained her light on the barrier. It was old. She was sure that it had been put up decades ago. Shops, houses, the street itself, must have changed time and time again since the entrance had originally been abandoned and covered. Beyond the boards, she knew, there would be darkness. An old tunnel, dangerous, unused. She closed her eyes for a minute, trying to remember the old subway maps she had copied at the library. The tunnel was right where it should have been—and very close to the basement under the servants’ pantry at Hastings House.
She started to rise, then remembered that her fall had been broken by something at the bottom of the steps.
Curious, she trained her light downward.
It appeared to be a bundle of old clothing.
Suddenly she realized that there was an unpleasant scent in the air.
The scent of decay…
She reached down, her light still trained on the bundle of clothing.
It was then that she realized she was looking at the body of a dead woman.
18
Joe’s heart was in his throat when he arrived on the scene.
The street was crowded with police cars, the coroner’s wagon and a dozen detectives. He arrived with Robert Adair, who immediately took charge. At first, Joe couldn’t even find Leslie, there was so much commotion.
Then he saw her.
She was standing by one of the police cars, with Nikki beside her. She didn’t appear to be hurt or even fazed. In fact, she looked incredibly calm.
He went over to her immediately, taking her by the arms, searching her eyes. “Okay,” he said, and he cast a reproachful glance toward Nikki. “Explain to me how you happened to be down at the bottom of an abandoned subway entrance.”
She stared at him, opened her mouth to speak, then paused as if to rephrase her answer. “I just…found it. The boards were loose, so I took a peek.”
“Like hell,” Joe muttered. “Excuse me. I need to see if they’ll let me see the body.”
Luckily, one of the cops guarding the entrance to the alley happened to be the guy Joe had talked to a few nights earlier. He sent Joe through to Robert Adair, who was down at the foot of the stairs. One of the detectives tried to stop him, but Robert shouted up that it was all right for Joe to come down.