move men and equipment down into the earth. Now they It was after six now and already growing dark. I passed looked dull and rusty from lack of use. I could see places the binoculars to Donovan Caine, so the detective could where the metal had been torn up and not replaced. I watch the workers climb down off their machines and remembered what Violet Fox had said about the coal in head out of the basin. I kept scanning the area, fixing the the underground mine running out and how it had been overall layout in my mind. It would be easy to lose your idle for some time now. It was easy to tell that the focus sense of direction among the massive machines, especially had shifted to stripping off the mountain one layer at a with the rainy twilight rapidly giving way to full night. time. That’s what all the equipment was here for—to cart
“I don’t see anything much. Just machines,” Donovan coal and dirt away, not bring it up out of the ground. Not Caine said.
anymore.
“Look down to the left at the edge of the basin. Down More tracks curved around the far side of the basin there.” I pointed to a small, white building that gleamed and disappeared from sight. According to Finn’s map, like a dull moon. “That’s where some of the mine offices they led to another area where the coal was stored and are, including Dawson’s, according to the information processed, among other things. I had a lot of knowledge Finn gave me.”
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“What do you expect to find in there?” Caine asked, could, but it still took us almost twenty minutes to reach peering through the binoculars at the structure. “I doubt the bottom.
Tobias Dawson just leaves incriminating evidence lying We crouched behind an outcropping of rock and around.”
peered into the flat area that stretched out before us. The I shrugged and got to my feet. I took a moment to empty, dug-out feel of the mountain reminded me of the swipe the dead, damp leaves from the knees of my jeans. Ashland Rock Quarry not too far from here. The place
“Maybe, maybe not. Dawson’s the big boss around here, where Alexis James had met her death two months ago. remember? This is his mountain. He might be sloppy Donovan looked through the binoculars again. “It enough to leave things out in the open.”
seems like everyone’s gone home already,” he murmured.
“And if not?”
“I don’t even think there are any guards around.”
I shrugged again and tied one end of the rope around
“Why would there be?” I asked. “Nobody around the base of a nearby pine tree. After I made sure it was here’s going to be dumb enough to steal from Tobias securely knotted, I tossed the rest of it down the ridge Dawson. Especially not since he’s such good friends with below us. “Then at least we’ll have gotten our exercise for Mab Monroe. Besides, even if somebody did steal somethe evening.”
thing, he’d look a little conspicuous driving a bulldozer I reached into my back jeans pocket and held out a down into the city, now wouldn’t he?”
pair of gloves to him. They were gardening gloves, white Caine snorted at the image, but he didn’t argue with with brown trowels on them, but they’d keep us from getmy logic. ting rope burn on our hands—or leaving fingerprints in
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get this over with.”
Tobias Dawson’s office.
We eased out from behind the rocks and walked for“Now, are you coming or not?”
ward. The metal equipment cast out all sorts of dark, Donovan Caine let out a low curse. But the detective twisted shadows, made even murkier by the drizzle and took the gloves from me and started pulling them onto thick clouds overhead. A couple of tall, parking lot-style his hands.
lights next to the mine entrance burned like skinny yellow lanterns. The lights made it easy enough to navigate our For whatever reason, the miners hadn’t dug out this way through the equipment maze. But the rain couldn’t side of the mountain yet, which meant the ridge was quite drown out the smell of exhaust and gasoline that still covered with rocks and gnarled vegetation. It was a hung in the air like smog.
steep, slippery slope, made more so by the drizzle, and The stone’s murmurs grew louder and sharper the farwe moved with care, using the rope to help us walk our ther I walked into the basin, until the vibrations rang in way down the embankment. We moved as quickly as we my ears like a never-ending death wail. I gritted my teeth Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 204-205
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and blocked out the noise. There was nothing I could do again, the first two i s in Mining had been transformed to help the stone. I just didn’t have that kind of power. into Tobias Dawson’s rune—a lit stick of dynamite. only time could do that now—if the mountain could I wore the same kind of gardening gloves Donovan ever truly recover from being so viciously brutalized. Caine did, so I had no qualms about reaching forward It took us about ten minutes of walking before we and trying the doorknob. Locked. Not a problem. I were within sight of the mine office, a small building pulled off one of my gloves and reached for my Ice magic. made out of sheet metal and fiberglass, covered up with The cold, silver light flickered over my palm, and a few whitewashed wooden boards. A couple of security lights seconds later, I had two long, slender Ice picks. Donovan glowed over the front door. I peered into the darkness, watched me work with a mixture of curiosity and resignabut I didn’t see any guards patrolling around the building. tion. Less than a minute later, the lock slid home, and the If Tobias Dawson did have a night shift, they’d probably door opened.
be farther up around the curve in the basin, stationed at I threw the picks in a nearby puddle so they’d melt, the front entrance to the mined mountain. Not back here pulled my glove back on, and eased into the building. in the bottleneck where access was already restricted. Donovan followed me and closed the door behind him. I Still, I palmed one of my silverstone knives, just in stood still for a moment, letting my eyes adjust to the lack case.
of light. With the darkness and clouds outside, the inteWe crouched behind a bulldozer that was the closest rior of the building was almost pitch-black, as if it were one to the mining office. Nothing moved in the dark already midnight instead of creeping up on seven o’clock. night. The drizzle had picked up and turned into a steady once I was sure no guards were coming to interrupt us, rain. A few damp tendrils had come undone from my I pulled a small flashlight out of my jacket pocket and ponytail. The rain had turned my chocolate locks an even flicked it on. Beside me, Donovan did the same. darker brown, and I used the cold moisture to slick them We stood in a waiting room. Some chairs, a table, back into place.
out-of-date magazines. A desk in the middle probably
“Come on,” I whispered to the detective. “Let’s do belonged to a secretary. Behind it, a corridor led farther this.”
back into the building. That’s where I headed, with the I crept forward. After a moment, I heard Donovan’s detective behind me.
boots squish in a puddle behind me. I smiled. Just like The corridor ended at a closed door with a brass nameold times. If a mere two months ago could be considered plate that read Tobias Dawson. Just whom I was looking old times.
for. I tried the knob. Locked, so I had to form two more I eased over to the front door of the mining office. A Ice picks to open it. After I’d picked the lock, I turned sign on the side read Dawson Mining Company. once the knob and held my breath, waiting. But no alarm Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 206-207
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sounded. Evidently, Dawson just secured his office as a framed photographs, looking for a wall safe. Nothing. I precaution—or to keep his staff from snooping around ran my gloved hands over the cheap wood paneling, tapwhile he was away. I stepped inside the room. The detecping it in several places. Again, nothing. tive foll
owed me.
I curled and uncurled my hands into loose fists, thinkI paused for a few seconds, taking in the view. Tobias ing. Since Tobias Dawson was friends and business partDawson’s office had just as much personality as the dwarf ners with Mab Monroe, I imagined there were quite a few himself did because everything had a Western motif. documents—legal and otherwise—he wouldn’t want his The desk consisted of several old-fashioned wooden barunderlings seeing. Locking his office wouldn’t be secure rels with a sheet of glass stretched over the top of them. enough. He’d need someplace to stash them. There had The art on the walls featured bucking broncos and Nato be some sort of safe in here. A secret cubbyhole, hell, tive American designs, perhaps Navajo, from the looks even a loose floorboard. And I needed to find it—fast. of them. one of the lamps on Dawson’s desk was shaped We’d already been inside more than a minute. I wanted to like a miniature cowboy boot. Another one resembled a be gone before the five-minute mark rolled around, if not curling lasso. I looked up. The dwarf even had a longhorn before. Dawson might not have any obvious security here, mounted over the door to the office—its stuffed head and but it was better not to take any unnecessary chances, eshorns at least. pecially since I was going to come back later and kill him.
“Somebody really needs to move to Texas,” I murSince I’d crapped out with the walls, I dropped to my mured.
hands and knees and scoured the floor, looking for lines
“Forget that,” Donovan said. “What are we looking cut into the thick rugs. Nothing. Not so much as a single for?”
fiber out of place.
“Anything that might tell us why Tobias Dawson wants
“This is weird,” Donovan murmured, shining his the Foxes’ land so badly.” I moved off to the right. “So see flashlight across several sheets of paper. what you can find in his desk and in the filing cabinets.”
“What?” I asked, still crawling around on the floor. Donovan did as I asked. But before he started pulling
“It looks like Dawson’s hired several gemologists in the open drawers, the detective stared at me. “And what are last few weeks from a variety of firms,” the detective reyou going to do?”
plied. “There are receipts here made out to Jeweltones,
“See if he has a safe stashed in here somewhere.”
Gems, Inc., and Grayson Enterprises, among others.”
Donovan shook his head, but he sat down in Dawson’s I frowned. “What would Dawson need with gemolooversize chair and went to work, methodically opening, gists? He’s mining coal, not precious stones.”
scanning, and closing all the files on the glass desk.
“I don’t know.” Donovan pulled out his cell phone and I went around the room and checked behind all the snapped copies of the receipts to examine later. Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 208-209
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By this time, I’d made a complete circuit of the office rocks, but I rather suspected that was the point. Still, it on my hands and knees, and I still hadn’t found anything only took me a second to attune myself to the stone. And useful. Besides Dawson’s obsession with the old West, I realized its vibrations sounded . . . hollow. As though the only other thing interesting or noteworthy, at least the stone was only a thin layer covering something else—
to me, was the dwarf’s rock collection. Such collections like a secret chamber.
weren’t uncommon among Stone elementals. Even I’d
“I think I’ve found Dawson’s safe—so to speak,” I had one as a kid, before my family had been murdered. murmured to Caine.
A tall, wide glass case against the back wall of the office He looked up from the papers. “Can you open it?”
housed the collection. Three shelves full of rocks perched Picking a door lock was one thing. I had a tougher above a large block of black granite shot through with time getting into a traditional metal safe without Finn’s silverstone. Some of the stones were worthless. Polished help—or some explosives. But Tobias Dawson didn’t have quartz you could find just about anywhere. odd bits of a traditional safe. His was made of stone—my element, fool’s gold. others had some serious value. A sapphire my specialty. Still, we’d been inside more than three minalmost as big as an egg. A teardrop-shaped ruby. A lovely utes now. No time to be subtle.
square-cut emerald. I could hear the stones, of course. So I pulled off my glove, put my hand on the granThe soft, pretty murmur of the quartz. The sly whisper ite, and listened to its vibrations. Slow, steady, solid, just of the fool’s gold. The flashy elegance of the gemstones. like the rock itself. There was also a sense it was guarding My eyes dropped to the bottom shelf, and I focused something, protecting something important, valuable. on the slab of granite. It was nothing compared to the Tobias Dawson’s secrets, whatever they might be. gemstones, but still, I wondered why Dawson would I drew in a breath and focused my magic on the graneven have it in his collection to start with. The others ite. Peering at the rock, into the rock. And I realized the rocks varied in value, but they were all uniquely shaped stone was only a couple inches deep. Any thicker than or interesting in some way. The granite was just a slab of that, and Dawson wouldn’t have been able to put much granite. Black and rather boxlike in its appearance. I knelt of anything inside. Also, the silverstone I’d noticed earlier down and peered at the stone even closer. Hmm. formed a wide, circular shape in the middle of the granThere was a lock on the glass case, but I took care of ite, roughly marking the size of the hollow space inside. that with a well-crafted Ice pick. Behind me, Donovan The dwarf probably had the metal triggered to his magic, kept sorting through papers. I opened the door on the so that no one could open it but him. Since silverstone case. The stones’ various murmurs washed over me, but I could absorb magic, anyone who tried to force their way forced the melodies aside and focused on the granite. Its inside like that would probably spin their wheels for quite vibration was low and muted in comparison to the other a while.
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But I was a Stone elemental, just like the dwarf. I Black foam filled the inside of the vial, cradling a diadidn’t have to go through the silverstone—only around mond. The gemstone was small, not much bigger than it. I held my bare index finger in front of the granite and one of my fingernails, and rough around the edges, but reached for my magic. A silver light sparked on the tip it still sparkled with an inner crimson fire. Definitely a of my finger like it was a tiny blowtorch. I leaned forhigh-quality stone. one that would polish up quite nicely. ward and pressed my finger against the granite, forcing But its sound—oh, its sound. That’s what held my atmy magic into the stone, deeper and deeper until I broke tention. The diamond practically sang with its own puthrough the rock shell to the hollow space inside. once I rity. The gemstone’s inherent vibration was beautiful, made the initial break, it was easy enough to drag my finbreathtaking, enchanting, even. Like a Bach composition ger around the perimeter of the block, forming a square played by the master himself. I could have sat there listenshape much bigger than the circle of silverstone at the ing to the diamond’s clear, pure song for hours. heart of the granite.
Too bad an alarm blared out and cut into its lilting Less than a minute later, I made the last cut in the melody.
stone. The rock creaked, and I used my magic to form a small groove in one side so I could hook my finger inside and pull it out. The granite was heavier than I’d expected, and it took me a moment to lug it out of the case and set it on the floor.
Donovan looked up at the sound of my grunts and did a double-take. “How the hell did you do that?”
I flashed him a smile. “I have many talents, detective.”
I turned my back on him and stared inside the safe. It was an even smaller space than I’d expected, and it was curiously empty, except for a few she
ets of paper.
“Here.” I plucked out the papers and handing them to Donovan. “Photograph these.”
The detective spread the documents on the desk and used his cell phone to snap off some pictures. I reached back into the safe, wondering what other secrets it held. My fingers closed around a small plastic vial, which I pulled out. I played my flashlight over the container. Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 212-213
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Donovan Caine wasn’t an elemental, wasn’t a Stone, so he couldn’t hear the alarm, couldn’t see the rune. But I could, and I knew what they both meant—trouble 19
headed this way.
“Fuck,” I cursed out loud this time. “Give me the papers. Now.”
“What? Why?” Donovan asked in a distracted tone.
“There’s some interesting stuff here—”
“Because I’ve tripped some kind of silent alarm,” I interrupted him. “So give me the papers right now.”
To his credit, the detective didn’t ask any questions. Instead, he shoved the documents over to me. I stuffed them back into the hollow space inside the granite, wiped my fingerprints off the diamond vial, then put it inside as For a moment I froze, crouched there on the floor, the well. Although I wanted to, I didn’t take the stone. The diamond vial in my hand. The alarm continued to blare cowboy dwarf might not pursue us so hard if he still had like a police siren wailing in my head. Donovan Caine the diamond. Big, big maybe, but it was the only hope I kept sorting through the papers, as if he couldn’t hear the had.
unending, violent shrieking. He’d have to be deaf not to I hastily wiped down the granite slab and safe with my hear it.
jacket sleeve, then hefted the stone slab I’d cut out back I frowned and stared at the granite safe. The stone’s low into its original place. There was no time to be subtle, so murmur had transformed into a sharp, piercing alarm. A I blasted the rock back in place with my magic, sealing rune flashed to life on the front of the safe, on the slab I’d it up tight once more. With his Stone magic, Dawson cut out of the rest of the block. A tight, spiral curl burned would be able to sense what I’d done immediately, but he a cold gray in the middle of the black granite like some shouldn’t be able to trace it back to me—or more imporsort of all-seeing eye. A spiral curl—the rune for protectantly, the Foxes. tion. Tobias Dawson had used his Stone magic to ward Donovan held out a hand and helped me to my feet. his safe with a protection rune, one that would alert him
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