got to get aboveground as fast as possible so that we can claim the most important underground discovery made since the First Generation settlers found the catacombs.'
Elly pushed herself slightly away from Cooper. 'You know something? You're right.'
'Yep. And there's another thing here.' Doreen winked one bruised eye. 'At this point, as far as anyone knows, you, my friend, are the only person who can open and close that gate over there. If we play our cards right, this rain forest is going to make us all very, very rich. I suggest we hustle.'
Elly laughed. 'You do realize that we're going to have to share this find with Bertha Newell?'
'No problem,' Doreen said, urging them toward the opening. 'There will be plenty of money to go around. Elly, you'd better close up that opening in the wall after we leave. Don't want to take the chance that some other ruin rats will stumble into this jungle before we file our claim.'
'All right,' Elly agreed. She caught Cooper's hand.
Cooper looked at both of them. 'Hate to rain on your parade, seeing that you're both already soaked and all, but we're going to have to deal with the cops before you can start in on the paperwork you'll need to file your claim on the jungle. We've got a dead body here.'
Elly made a face. 'And a famous detective who is sort of passed out on my kitchen floor. That will probably take a little explaining.'
'No problem,' Cooper said. 'I'm a Guild boss, remember? I handle stuff like this.'
Doreen frowned, suddenly looking distinctly wary. 'That was quite a light show you put on in there. I'm guessing you probably melted amber.'
'Mmm,' Cooper said.
'Are you going to go out of control and turn weird on us before we get to the surface?' Doreen asked.
'Don't be silly,' Elly said. Her hand tightened around Cooper's. 'Guild bosses don't go out of control and turn weird.'
'Not unless we're provoked,' Cooper said.
Chapter 40
AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER, DETECTIVE ALICE Martinez stood in Elly's kitchen watching two uniformed officers hoist a snoring Grayson DeWitt onto a stretcher.
Elly thought she detected amusement in Alice's dark eyes. There was no doubt but that the detective's mouth was twitching at the corners.
'He actually drank the tea you made for him?' Alice asked a little too neutrally.
'I didn't force him to drink it,' Elly said quickly. 'I made it, and I poured some for Doreen and me. He helped himself. Honest.' She looked at Doreen, who was hovering nearby. 'Isn't that right?'
'Absolutely,' Doreen said earnestly. 'Elly even warned him not to drink it.'
Alice's brows climbed. 'You warned him, Miss St. Clair?'
Elly cleared her throat. 'I did say that if I were him, I wouldn't drink anything that had been brewed up by a person who was under suspicion for manufacturing drugs.'
On the other side of the kitchen Cooper paused in his restless pacing. Elly noticed that the intense heat of his afterburn was starting to fade from his eyes, but now he was slipping into the inevitable exhaustion.
'Sounds like full disclosure to me, Detective,' he said.
'It certainly does.' Alice started to smile. 'And yet our ace detective, Mr. Special Task Force, went right ahead and drank the tea.' She was grinning widely now. 'Oh, man, this is good. This is so rich. I can't wait until they hear about this down at headquarters.'
Elly watched her closely. 'Does this mean that you aren't going to arrest me?'
'For what? Making a pot of tea in your own kitchen and then telling Detective DeWitt that he shouldn't drink any?' Alice chuckled. 'Don't worry, Miss St. Clair, no one's going to arrest you. In fact, on behalf of the rest of the detectives of the Cadence City Police Department, allow me to extend our thanks and appreciation. You don't know what a pain in the ass DeWitt has been in the past few months.'
'In fairness, he had a little help along the way.' Cooper gestured toward the journal he had found in Frazier's duffel bag. 'I had a chance to glance at some of the notes he made. Looks like after resigning from the Aurora Springs Guild Council, Palmer Frazier went underground for a while and concocted a plan.'
'Back home everyone believed he had moved to Frequency City,' Elly explained.
'Frazier created that impression on purpose,' Cooper said. 'After Elly moved to Cadence, he followed, using a new identity. He did some research here in the Old Quarter and stumbled onto the very small-time drug operation that Stuart Griggs was running out of his shop.'
Alice folded her arms and looked thoughtful. 'Let me hazard a guess. Frazier saw the potential of the enchantment dust business and made Griggs an offer he couldn't refuse, right?'
Cooper nodded. 'In his journal Frazier says he put things on a production basis and set up a small network of dealers. He wasn't giving Griggs anything resembling a fifty-fifty split, but whatever his cut was, the florist was suddenly looking at more ready cash than he had ever seen in his life. Obviously he used the windfall to buy the Jordan herbal hoping it would help him pursue his search for the jungle.'
'Because that was all Stuart Griggs really cared about,' Elly added quietly. 'But a few nights ago, my friend, Bertha Newell, accidentally discovered his underground drug lab.'
'Frazier states in the journal that Newell not only saw the lab, she also saw and recognized Stuart Griggs,' Cooper said. 'Griggs hit her on the head and left her lying unconscious in the tunnels while he went aboveground to call for help. By the time Frazier arrived on the scene, however, Newell had recovered enough to flee in her sled. Frazier had the sled's frequency and tracked her through the catacombs.'
'Bertha can't recall the details,' Elly added, 'but it appears that at some point she realized that he was using the sled's locator device to follow her. She evidently abandoned the sled and hid in one of the nearby chambers. Frazier gave up searching for her and, uh, disabled the sled by attaching a ghost to it.'
Actually, he'd done it with blue ghost light but she wasn't about to say that. Everyone would freak.
'When Newell tried to retrieve the sled, she must have gotten zapped,' Cooper explained. 'She made it as far as the nearest chamber and collapsed.'
'That's where you found her?' Alice asked.
'Yes,' he said.
'It's clear that Frazier was DeWitt's mysterious informant,' Alice said. 'What was the connection to The Road?'
'Frazier got a job there a few months ago,' Cooper said. 'He had planned to set Ripley up as the first major bust for DeWitt.'
'Would have created a lot of media attention for DeWitt,' Alice acknowledged. 'But what was in it for Frazier? If he was making a fortune with the drugs, why arrange to have the operation uncovered and destroyed? And why kill Griggs?'
Cooper looked at her. 'The drugs were only a stepping-stone to his real goal. When he was ready for the next step in his plan, he got rid of Griggs to cover his tracks. He didn't want to leave any loose ends.'
Alice cocked a brow. 'So what was Frazier's ultimate goal?'
'Getting rid of me,' Cooper said quietly. 'And getting his hands on Elly.'
Doreen's eyes widened. 'He wanted Elly that bad?'
'No,' Elly said flatly. 'What he wanted was to be boss of the Aurora Springs Guild. He only wanted me because I would have made him the perfect Guild boss wife.'
'Marrying Elly would have cemented an alliance with her father.' Cooper yawned. 'John St. Clair is the most powerful man on the Aurora Springs Guild Council. Frazier figured that if he controlled Elly, he could control her father. He badly underestimated the St. Clairs, of course. Knowing what I do about the clan, I think it's safe to assume that Frazier would have turned up missing shortly after he got the job he wanted so badly. But that was always one of Frazier's big problems.'
'Underestimating people?' Alice asked.
Cooper smiled his dangerous smile. 'The guy just didn't grasp the nuances of Guild politics.'
