And her empty boat might already have left Hell Gate. Even if she got out unscathed, she’d still have to deal with Horace. She crouched as low as she could, trying to figure out what to do next. Return the way she came, and take her chances with Moe?

She looked over her shoulder at the seemingly endless dark passage, the dim outlines of rocks and stalagmites and stalactites, shapeless white forms dangling from hooks in the ceiling. Fake or not, the sight filled her with dread. She decided to continue.

As she turned, another flash pot exploded, illuminating something on the ledge a few yards ahead of her. A skull balloon that drooped over the edge, just inches above the water. From behind her came the sound of laughter as the next boat approached.

“Stop it, Walter!”

“You started it, honey!”

“I mean it! Make him quit, Rudy!”

Pin squatted as the boat floated by. When it slid out of sight, she straightened. The flash pot blazed again, brighter than before. She took a step toward the skull balloon and looked down.

It wasn’t a balloon but a large doll, one of the fancier prizes from the shooting gallery: a toy the size of the triumphant girl who’d tote it home.

This doll had a stained yellow bow caught in its matted curls. It didn’t wear a dress, only a shimmy, discolored with ruddy blotches. The blotches extended to its neck, like a port-wine stain. Its eyes bulged, its lashes like spiders. An ugly toy, the ugliest doll she’d ever seen.

Only she knew it wasn’t a doll. It was a girl, a dead girl, staring up at Pin with eyes that had burst like grapes. She smelled like pee but also of something Pin couldn’t quite place, lemons and a vaguely medicinal odor.

Pin gazed at her, unable to move. Finally she stretched out her hand and let her fingertips graze the girl’s cheek, then the bedraggled yellow hair ribbon. Slowly the head turned, mouth lolling open so she could see a blackened tongue and gums, a glistening sliver like a shard of glass in the back of her throat.

Pin snatched her hand back, the ribbon tight between her fingers. She watched in horror as the body began to move, sliding slowly across the ledge until with a soft splash it fell into the water and floated, facedown, drawn inexorably by the current through the tunnel.

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

FOR A FEW seconds she thought she’d be sick. She dropped onto her hands and knees, waited till the spasm passed before forcing herself to turn her head.