Chapter Thirty-Nine
The muffled thunder of the explosion reverberated across the rugged cliffs.
Alice yelped, startled, even though Owen had kind of told her to expect it.
She turned in the seat and looked back through the rear window.
There was nothing to see at first. For a strange moment the hotel on Cape Midnight was silhouetted against the night sky.
Seconds later the hotel collapsed in on itself. Flames shot high into the night.
“You were right,” Alice said. She settled back into her seat. “Rose destroyed the house. How did you know she would do something so drastic?”
“It was all there in her psi profile. She had lived with a dream of revenge for too long. The belief that you were locked up at Serenity Gardens gave her some satisfaction and kept her going. When she discovered that you had escaped months ago and that her former lover, Kelbrook, had lied about the circumstances of her son’s death, she was enraged.
Hell hath no fury, et cetera, et cetera. ”
Alice went cold. “I wonder if she was inside the hotel when the explosion occurred.”
“She isn’t the type to deliberately take her own life, but I do think there’s a high probability that she didn’t make it out alive.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“That house had a hole-in-the-wall in the basement that leaked paranormal energy like a sieve, and the concealed hallways were filled with tanks of hallucinogenic vapors. And then there was the poisonous vapor in the underground game rooms and the chemicals in the lab. The whole place was a ticking time bomb. I doubt if Rose was in a mood to consider the risks she was taking when she lit that match.”