Epilogue

The next day, Cal and Deme met with Lieutenant Warner and Dustin Zoeller at the trapdoor in the basement of the Colyer-Fenton College student commons.

A welder stood by to seal the metal door for good. No student or campus employee would ever descend into the maze of tunnels below the city from this entrance again.

The door stood open for the last time as the welder inspected the hinges and prepared his equipment.

"Deme tell you that she accepted the job?" Lieutenant Warner rocked back on his heels, a grin spreading across his wrinkled face.

"I told him," Deme responded.

Marty patted her on the back. "I think you'll make a great asset to the team."

Cal grinned. "Yeah, she has great assets."

Deme swatted him playfully.

Cal had spent the entire night making love to her. She definitely had assets, every one of which he intended to explore more thoroughly tonight.

"What about the Gamma Omegas?"

"They've had their sorority charter revoked and Zoe Adams was expelled from campus." Deme smiled grimly. "I confiscated the Book of Spells from Zoe's room and, since Rachel stole all of their vials of potion, almost all of the girls have reverted back to normal coeds."

"What about Rachel and her boyfriend?" Cal asked.

"Brigid visited Mike in the hospital. He's out of the coma and Rachel was with him." Deme stared at the welder's back, her mind miles ahead. "Both of them are transferring to a community college to complete their core courses and will probably go on to the University of Illinois to complete their bachelor's degrees."

The lieutenant nodded toward the vertical tunnel leading down into the bowels of the city. "Think we've seen the last of the trouble from the tunnels?"

Deme shook her head. "No."

"What makes you say that? The Chimera is dead."

"Gut feel."

Cal nodded. "I get that feeling, too. I think Chicago has its share of trouble brewing. Will sealing the tunnel stop it?" He shook his head. "Probably not. But then we wouldn't have a job, now would we?"

The lieutenant sighed. "I was looking forward to coasting into a peaceful retirement in a few years."

Cal laughed. "Not a chance. This city has a life of its own."

"You think Dr. Masterson meant anything by what she said about her baby?"

"If it's a monster, I hope she killed the thing. Otherwise, what happened to it?" Cal stared into the darkness of the tunnel.

"I had Brigid do a search on public records of births and had her check hospital records in and around Chicago. No one by the name of Diane Masterson delivered during the year following the rape. If she had a baby, she delivered it somewhere else or at home."

"Think it survived?" Deme asked.

Lieutenant Warner grimaced. "I don't even want to speculate."

The welder closed the trapdoor and set his tools out to begin the welding.

"I think that's our cue to leave." Lieutenant Warner turned. "By the way, good work on getting this case closed and cleaned up."

Despite their vow to act professional in front of the boss, Deme slipped her hand into Cal's. "We had a little help from some sisters."

"See if you can get some more help from them on your next case. I have a file waiting on Cal's desk. Don't wait too long to get started. We've had a number of attacks reported in the past forty-eight hours in downtown Chicago. One in particular stood out."

"What's special about this one?" Deme asked.

"One woman survived long enough to tell the paramedics it was a beast with a man's body and lion's head that attacked her. Maybe this lion creature is Diane Baker's missing son."

Cal looked at Deme. "Let's get to work."