She could not think of a good argument to counter that observation, so she succumbed to the forces of her curiosity. She walked toward the model and stopped next to Owen and Sebastian.
She shivered when she saw the half-sized lifelike figure of a woman lying on a bed in what looked like an inexpensive motel room. The scene was furnished down to the smallest detail, including a notepad and a pen by the old-fashioned phone. A masked mannequin stood over the victim, syringe in hand.
“He sedated them for the kidnapping,” Owen explained. “And then woke them when he was ready to watch them play his games. Afterward, he dumped the bodies in the Underworld, where he assumed they would never be found. Eight victims were recovered thanks to Dr. Gordon, but the task force never located Yardley’s killing ground.”
“These rooms.”
“In the end, authorities believe he took his own life before they could get the truth out of him.”
“How?”
“A fast-acting poison.”
“Too bad it wasn’t slow-acting.” She paused, thinking about it. “I’m surprised he did it, though. From what you’ve told me, he sounds like the type who would have wanted the publicity he would have gotten if he’d gone to trial and been imprisoned.”
“That,” Owen said softly, “is a very good analysis. I agree with you.So did Dr. Gordon. Which is why she concluded that the Gamer was most likely murdered while he was under observation in the prison para-psych ward.”
She froze. “Do they think he had an accomplice?”
Owen shrugged. “Someone wanted him dead before he could talk.”
She caught her breath. “Rose Ash. His daughter. She wanted to marry Kelbrook, and she knew that if it got out that her father was a serial killer, he would run for the hills.”
“The timing fits.” Owen walked to the next model room and paused to examine it.
“But in the end Kelbrook found out anyway,” Alice mused.
She joined Owen at the next model, took one look at the macabre scene, and hastily turned away. She surveyed the doors in the rear wall.
“How do we choose the right one?” she asked.
Owen abandoned his study of the model and gave his full attention to the problem. “Let’s run a few tests before we make a choice.”
To her shock, he stepped into the model of the hotel room.
“What are you doing?” she gasped. “There could be any number of traps in that room.”
“I don’t think so. Like I said, Yardley intended these scenes to be a tribute to himself.” Owen emerged with a small slip of paper and a pen in one hand. “I found these on the nightstand.”
“Now what?” she asked.
“If one of those doors opens into another room, there should be a slight draft under the bottom edge.”
He crouched in front of the first door on the left and held the slip of paper near the narrow gap between the lower edge and the floor. Sebastian joined him.
They all watched the paper. It did not flutter.
Owen inserted the pen. It went less than a couple of inches before it met a solid obstruction.
He stood, moved to the next door and repeated the test. The pen went only a short distance before it stopped. The paper did not flutter.
Alice realized she was having trouble breathing. She made herself take a couple of steadying breaths.
Owen tested the remaining doors. There was no hint of airflow under any of them, but the pen slid all the way under the sixth door.
Sebastian hustled forward and sniffed under the door.
“What do you think, Sebastian?” Owen asked.
