At that moment, following a burst of static, the dead man’s radio went on again.

“Drake, you big baboon, where in the hell are you? Drake, it’s Ronnie. Did you find Collins?”

“As a matter of fact,” Vaill said as he and Lou raced across the expansive lawn, giving the melancholy castle a wide berth, “he did.”

The west side of Red Cliff was also the main entrance. There was a circular gravel driveway abutting islands of lawn adorned with stone fountains, concrete planters shaped like Grecian urns, flower gardens, and even a topiary. Several high-end luxury cars were parked along the drive. Wealth was clearly consistent with the Society of One Hundred Neighbors’ philosophy. Graduated income taxes, on the other hand, almost certainly were not.

Linking the driveway to the castle was another raised drawbridge, with a narrow footbridge crossing the moat next to where the main bridge would lie. The oversized rusting portcullis looked capable of withstanding the sort of battering ram featured in Hollywood films. Vaill examined the massive door with a small pair of field glasses and verbally confirmed that impression.

“We’re too exposed out here to cross the footbridge and set up a detonation,” he said. “Even if we manage to blow that monster without killing ourselves, we might as well announce our arrival with a bullhorn. I say we move north.”

The moat essentially turned Red Cliff into an island, with the east face resting atop the imposing cliff for which the place was probably named. Though he took pride in his ability to solve complex problems, Lou was as yet unable to connect with an idea for getting the two of them inside. Meanwhile, the darkening evening sky was becoming their ally.

At the edge of the north woods, their luck continued. Lou discovered a small building with a single window on the west side nestled ten feet or so inside the tree line.

“A guardhouse,” he said, leading Vaill around the fieldstone structure. “The matted brush and these broken branches suggest it gets used. No idea what for. And look, right here, headed back toward the castle, tire tracks.”

He shined a flashlight through the window and Vaill came over to look with him. The place was dusty and a little cobwebby, but there were sconces on the wall, a coffeemaker and cups on a low shelf, a small wooden table with two chairs, some cookie tins, a hot plate, and a boom box.

“What in the hell do you think this place is for?” Vaill asked.

“It doesn’t really make sense just standing here like this, disconnected from the castle.”

“Maybe it was there in the sixteenth century or whenever it was built, and the inventor just brought it over.”

“Maybe,” Lou said, “but that explanation sounds a little thin and … Bingo! Tim, look there in the floor behind that chair.”