Read Online Infinity Beach by Jack McDevitt - Free Book Online Page A

Gateway’s roof and turned south.
    Snow was falling steadily. The lights of the casinos and clubs were smeared by the storm, and they faded quickly as the Starlight gained altitude. The screen showed almost no air traffic.
    “Do you feel as dumb as I do?” she asked Solly.
    He was relaxed, sipping coffee, letting the AI fly the aircraft. “It was an excuse to come,” he said. “Think how warm your bed’ll feel tonight when you get to it.”
    The sensors picked out the river, running between wide, forest-laden banks. She looked out into the snowswept darkness and saw another set of lights coming from the west. Probably a train, although it was difficult to be sure.
    She took out the town map she’d printed earlier and studied it. “When we get to Severin,” she said, “I think we should do more than just land and hang around for a bit.”
    “In this blizzard? What did you have in mind, Kim?”
    “Take advantage of the opportunity to look at Tripley’s villa.”
    “Why?” asked Solly.
    “Who knows what we might find?”
    “After twenty-seven years?”
    “Nothing to lose by looking.”
    “Okay,” he said. “Whatever you say. But if there’s anything there to connect him with the explosion or the missing women, I’d think the police would have found it a long time ago.”
    “As far as I can tell from the accounts, the police never looked.”
    “They didn’t? Why not?”
    “Nobody raised the question. My guess is that there was no substantive reason to think Tripley had anything to do with either incident, and the family had a lot of influence. There was already enough grief. He was presumed lost in the general disaster. What was to be gained by an investigation? Under the circumstances, maybe nobody wanted to irritate the family.”
    “Okay,” Solly said. “If you want. Do we know where to find it?”
    “As it happens,” she grinned, “I have it marked here.” She tapped her pen on the map.
    “Why stop with Tripley? Why not take a look at Kane’s place while we’re at it?”
    The Starlight was picking up a heavy headwind. “Kane’s place is underwater.” She showed him.
    “I wasn’t serious,” he said.
    “When are you? Serious?”
    “Never on ghost hunts.” It was cold in the cabin. Solly pulled his jacket tighter, and she raised the temperature.
    “If I’d known we were going on an expedition,” he said, “I’d have suggested doing it by daylight.”
    Kim was thinking of what she’d say to Sheyel. We went out to the valley. We spent time in the woods. And we even looked in Tripley’s house. There’s nothing .
    But she wanted to get it done now. Didn’t want to make a second trip in the morning.
    Another aircraft, a patrol flyer, appeared on the edge of the short-range scan, headed in the opposite direction. It passed within two hundred meters, but they never did actually see it.
    Eagle Point had receded into the darkness, and there were now no lights visible anywhere. The AI followed the Severin River south, displaying its winding image on the sensor screen. It narrowed and entered the first of a series of gorges which would take it down to the dam.
    Her preoccupation with the legends increased as they flew deeper into the night. Even Solly seemed affected. They spoke with lowered voices, the way people do in empty churches, and Kim found herself sinking down inside her jacket even though the temperature in the cabin had now reached a comfortable level. The conversation consisted mostly of bravado. Remarks like how no self-respecting spook would be abroad in weather like this. Or how Solly thought he saw something moving out there. Ha-ha.
    Solly’s story of the haunted stateroom came back to trouble her now. At the moment, in the snow, in the glow of the instrument panel, such things seemed possible.
    They were only a few hundred meters off the ground when they broke out of the storm. The remains of the Severin Dam loomed just ahead.
    The structure had not actually been