Nothing, large or small, escaped my scrutiny. But nothing was revealed to it. After long minutes I moved into the bedroom.
Flora must have heard my sudden intake of breath, because she was into the room and at my side in seconds, and staring at the chest of drawers before which I stood.
“Something in it?” she inquired, reaching forward, then withdrawing her hand.
“No. Behind it,” I said.
The chest of drawers had been moved in the course of purging the apartment. It used to occupy a space several feet farther to the right. That which I now saw was visible to its left and above it, with more of it obviously blocked to my sight. I took hold of the thing and pushed it back to the right, to the position it had formerly occupied.
“I still don’t see anything,” Flora said.
I reached out and caught hold of her hand, extending the Logrus force so that she, too, saw what I saw.
“Why”-she raised her other hand and traced the faint rectangular outline on the wall-“it looks like a…, doorway,” she said.
I studied it-a dim line of faded fire. The thing was obviously sealed and had been for some time. Eventually it would fade completely and be gone.
“It is a doorway,” I answered.
She pulled me back into the other room to regard the opposite side of the wall.
“Nothing here,” she observed. “It doesn’t go through.”
“Now you’ve got the idea,” I said. “It goes somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“Wherever the thing that killed Julia came from.”
“Can you open it?”
“I am prepared to stand in front of it for as long as I have to,” I told her, “and try.”
I returned to the other room and studied it once again.
“Merlin,” she said, as I released her hand and raised mine before me, “don’t you think this is the point where you should get in touch with Random, tell him exactly what has been happening and perhaps have Gerard standing next to you if you succeed in opening that door?”
“I probably should,” I agreed, “but I’m not going to.”
“Why not?”
“Because he might tell me not to.”
“He might be right, too.”
I lowered my hands and turned toward her. “I have to admit you have a point,” I said. “Random has to be told everything, and I’ve probably put it off too long already. So here is what I would like you to do. Go back to the car and wait. Give me an hour. If I’m not out by then, get in touch with Random, tell him everything I told you and tell him about this, too.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “If you don’t show, Random’s going to be mad at me.”
“Just tell him I insisted and there was nothing you could do. Which is actually the case, if you stop to think about it.”
She pursed her lips. “I don’t like leaving you-though I’m not anxious to stay either. Care to take along a hand grenade?”
She raised her purse and began to open it. “No. Thanks. Why do you have it, anyway?”
She smiled. “I always carry them in this shadow. They sometimes come in handy. But okay, I’ll go wait.”
She kissed me lightly on the cheek and turned away.
“And try to get hold of Fiona,” I said, “if I don’t show. Tell her the whole story, too. She might have a different angle on this.”
She nodded and departed. I waited until I heard the door close, then focused my attention fully upon the bright rectangle. Its outline seemed fairly uniform, with only a few slightly thicker, brighter areas and a few finer, dimmer ones. I traced the lines slowly with the palm of my right hand at a height of about an inch above the wall’s surface. I felt a small prickling, a heatlike sensation as I did this. Predictably, it was greater above the brighter areas. I took this as an indication that the seal was slightly less perfect in these spots. Very well. I would soon discover whether the thing could be forced, and these would be my points of attack.