Silver Master (29 page)

“Just a feeling,” she said evenly.

Fulton exhaled slowly. “Don't tell me, let me guess. You think you're psychic, just like your aunt, right?”

She flashed him her special smile.

“My aunt
was
psychic,” she said.

Fulton's bushy brows shot up. “Heard she ended up in a psychiatric hospital in Oriana.”

“She did, mostly because no one believed her. Please open the locker, Officer. If it's empty I will apologize for wasting your time.”

“You understand that if I do find a body in that locker you're going to have to answer a lot of questions down at the station.”

“Trust me, I am well aware of that.”

He searched her face. For a few seconds she thought he was going to argue further but whatever he saw in her expression silenced him. Without a word he turned to the storage locker and hoisted the bolt cutter.

There was a sharp, metallic crunch when the hasp of the padlock severed. Fulton put down the tool and gripped the flashlight in his left hand. He reached for the latch with gloved fingers.

The door opened on a groan of rusty hinges. Raine stopped breathing, afraid to look and equally afraid not to. She made herself look.

A naked woman lay on the cold concrete floor. The one item of clothing in the vicinity was the heavy leather belt coiled like a snake beside her.

The woman was bound hand and foot. Duct tape sealed her mouth. She appeared to be young, no more than eighteen or nineteen, and painfully thin. Tangled dark hair partially obscured her features.

The only real surprise was that she was still alive.