Page 29 of The Shop on Hidden Lane

“Now that you mention it, yes,” Luke said. “But here’s another excellent reason for sticking together. We’re walking into a potentially dangerous situation. We won’t be able to trust anyone except each other.”

“Which we recently concluded is not a natural state of affairs for a Wells and a Harper.”

“We don’t have any choice this time.”

“Because of the pact.”

“And because your aunt and my uncle might be in serious danger.”

He was right. They needed to stop arguing and get to work.

“We have to go back to the shop so that I can pack,” she said. “Also, I want to pick up a few books from the library.”

“I assume you’re not suggesting that we stop by the local public library to pick up some vacation reading.”

“No, I’m talking about Aunt Bea’s private library in the basement of the Shop on Hidden Lane.”

Twelve

“Okay, I’m officially impressed,” Lukesaid. He stopped just inside the doorway and surveyed the interior of the large basement beneath the house on Hidden Lane. “Not sure what I expected, but this isn’t it.”

Sophy sniffed. “You thought my aunt worked with Ouija boards, crystal balls, and astrology charts, didn’t you? Admit it.”

“Let’s just say I wasn’t expecting a serious library.”

She was so accustomed to Bea’s library—she and Chloe had spent many hours in it—that she sometimes forgot how it might look to others. The rows of floor-to-ceiling shelves were crammed with leather-bound tomes, manuscripts, books both very old and very new, long runs of arcane journals, handwritten memoirs, government documents, and reports and papers from various academic institutions and research centers. All of it was devoted to the paranormal.

“I thought you knew that Bea is a librarian and a rare books specialist,” she said. “The psychic consulting is a sideline. She feels a strong obligation to use her talents to help people find answers.”

Luke moved to the nearest shelf and studied the spines ofthe books. “You said your sister is on some island in the South Pacific?”

“A reclusive collector invited her to check out his collection. He said he wants to give her some of his most important items if she will promise to personally escort them back to the U.S. and house them in Bea’s library.”

Luke raised his brows. “He wants togivethem to your aunt?”

“He told my sister that he’s afraid of some of the materials in his collection. That happens. Collectors can be very eccentric and superstitious. He claims to have some documents linked to the old Bluestone Project.”

“Why didn’t he contact the Foundation? They’ll take any Bluestone documents or artifacts with a solid provenance and they’ll pay top dollar.”

“This may come as a shock to you, Mr. Wells, but a lot of us in the paranormal community prefer to avoid dealing with the Foundation.”

He shrugged. “Wells, Inc. has a good working relationship with the organization.”

“How lovely for you. Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to you that most of us in the community lack the muscle and the cash it takes to make sure the Foundation treats us with the same respect that it shows your family. It seems to think it has a right to police those of us who are just trying to make a living with our talents and be productive members of society.”

“Let’s skip this argument and stay focused. What are we doing here in your aunt’s library?”

He had a point. They were on a mission. They had to move forward.

She went to the old-fashioned card catalog and pulled open the drawer markedV–Z. She started thumbing through the subject headings.

“Vanishing Islands,Visions…here we go,Vortex Sites,U.S.”She closed the drawer and headed into the stacks.

Luke followed. So did Bruce.

She turned a corner, went down another aisle, and stopped in front of a large section labeledVortices, Ley Lines, and Natural Power Sites.

“There’s a ton of literature written about vortex sites,” she said. “But surprisingly little about the Fool’s Gold Canyon location.”