There were several doors, all boarded shut, dusty and obviously unused. None that would open. Mai shook her head in frustration. “I told you we already searched down here.”

“There has to be a way.” The dead air of the basement filling his nostrils, Jay shoved a hand through his hair and stared at the doors. He started trying each one again, more slowly and deliberately, but none of them would budge. Bentz was shoving boxes and crates, and Montoya stalked the perimeter of the room.

Had Kristi been wrong?

Jay checked his watch, felt time slipping away. He’d pinned his hopes that he would find her here, but now…what?

“We need to talk to Father Mathias. Kristi seemed to think that he knew something.”

Mai nodded. “He lives just behind the chapel. I’ll go.” She was already heading up the stairs.

Montoya followed after Mai. “I’ll back her up.”

Jay and Rick Bentz looked at each other across the dusty, moldering basement. “If Kristi said something was going on down here, then something was,” Bentz said. He squinted as he eyed the window casements placed high, near the rafters, where spider webs and old nails were exposed in the ancient beams.

Jay, too, was eyeing the perimeter of the building, looking for something they’d missed, something right under their noses. He studied the furnace and began to sweat as the minutes ticked by. Nothing seemed out of place. Bentz moved a stack of crates out of the way to study the floor while Jay made his way to the electrical box. Inside all of the circuit breakers were thrown to the “on” position. He tried a few. Nothing happened except that the basement was thrown into darkness for a second.

“Hey!” Bentz yelled.

Jay flipped the switch. Nothing there. And the old fuse box wasn’t connected, its wires visibly cut. Nonetheless he opened the metal door and stared at the panel of old fuses, a thing of a bygone era, still in place. He pulled out the first and nothing happened. Waste of time. And then he noticed that one tiny wire, a newer wire, ran out the back of the box.

He felt a little spurt of hope just as he heard footsteps overhead. More police no doubt, drawn by the gunshots.

“Hey!” a big voice shouted as feet pounded through Wagner House. “What the fuck’s going on here?”

He pulled another fuse plug. Nothing. Then another. And gears suddenly started grinding. Jay stepped back as a section of the wall, one devoid of doors, began to slide open.

Swearing, Bentz was across the room in a flash.

Without another word he and Jay walked into a tiny room with a narrow staircase. The door shut slowly behind them, plunging them into near total darkness.