Free Fatalis by Jeff Rovin Page B

Barbara."
    Hannah smiled. "Professor, we could become great friends. I'm Hannah Hughes-"
    "With the
Coastal Freeway
, I know." Grand took off his glove and offered the young woman his hand. "You wrote some very nice things about Rebecca. Thank you."
    Hannah shook his hand. "She was a terrific lady, she did a lot of good work. But how did you know it was me?"
    "From your photograph."
    "Which photograph?"
    "The one on the editorial page."
    "That tiny one?"
    Grand nodded.
    "Wow, you
do
know how to interpret cave art."
    Grand smiled. "It's not so bad."
    "Not for high school circa nineteen seventy," Hannah said. "It was the Wall's idea of a glamour shot."
    "The Wall?"
    "My photographer." She pointed him out. "Walter. The big guy."
    The Wall saw her and waved.
    "I used the photo because I didn't want to hurt his feelings," Hannah said. "Anyway, speaking of what we do, I have a nasty-wicked deadline. I overheard your conversation with Gearhart and I was wondering if you could tell me more about what you found in that lower cave."
    "The radio, I assume. Not the paintings."
    "Correct."
    "There isn't much more to tell," he said. "The only thing I found in the lower chamber was the radio. There's a lake, but I wasn't able to check it."
    "Where exactly is the cave?"
    "I'd rather not say," he told her. "People might go out there-"
    "-and climb all over the paintings," Hannah said. "I understand."
    "They could also get hurt," Grand said. "Several of the caves have been opened because of rockslides. The ground is still pretty unsteady around the entrances."
    "Say no more," Hannah said. "Professor, you were at that site roughly the same time as the men disappeared. Could anyone have snuck in or out without you knowing it?"
    "Someone might have been able to get in through another entrance or fissure," he said, "but it would have been very difficult to
sneak
in. Even small sounds can carry for miles in those caves."
    "There are miles of caves?" she said.
    "Typically," he said. "The Chumash often used them to move under grazing herds in order to get upwind. And with all the flooding we've had, tunnels are probably being opened that have been blocked for tens of thousands of years."
    "Bet you can't wait to have a look at them," Hannah smiled.
    "I'd be camping there if it weren't for my classes," Grand said. "But there is something we can have a look at right now, if you'd care to join me."
    "Something-
?"
    "A place that may tell us how the radio got underground."
    "I'm there," she said, beaming.
    Grand and Hannah walked down the road, away from the sinkhole. He stopped at a spot past the parked cars. It was only about fifteen feet to the bottom of the ravine here. Large boulders were piled most of the way up, with newly broken tree limbs and soft, rotted logs scattered about Grand started down the jumble of rocks and debris and Hannah right behind him. It was an easy climb.
    The rain-swollen creek coursed swiftly to the west Grand picked his way across the jagged rocks along the bank. It was even cooler down here than up on the road, the thickly leafed branches preventing sunlight from getting through. They created a sense of quiet isolation that was actually enhanced by the rushing waters. As the Chumash described riverbeds, this was the home of the waters. Everything else dwelt here at its pleasure.
    The two sheriff's deputies were walking along the ravine several hundred yards ahead. It was extremely dry there. Grand stopped as they neared the little cove where the waters slid under the creek bed and went underground. He remembered it being a small, natural depression in the center of the creek, covered by two flat rocks that were steepled one against the other.
    He reached the spot and stopped. The depression was there but it wasn't small anymore.
    "Score one for Professor Grand," Hannah said as she stared at the spot.
    Rushing water wasn't the only thing in the opening.

Chapter Twelve
    Grand called to deputies Scott and Bright, who called