The Diamond Dragon (Kip Keene Book 4) Read Online Free

blew it off and placed it back.
    “Anything pop out at you guys?” Keene said.
    “It’s somewhere over here,” Linus said, heading two rows over, “generally speaking.” He walked to the far right corner of the room and gestured in a wide circle.
    “Very specific, kid,” Strike said. “Only about two thousand bottles in this section.” Even the far right corner of the massive cellar contained more vintages and variety than the average distributor.
    “Maybe we should move the racks, see what’s along the wall,” Linus said.
    “Oh, you think brown-eyed beauty did that between riding you, do you?” Strike shook her head and winced. “Unless she’s the Flash, I doubt it.”
    “What flash?” Keene said.
    “You’re hopeless. Totally hopeless,” Strike said.
    “We all knew that anyway,” Keene said. His eyes scanned the tile floor, searching the grout for cracks or imperfections. No secret trap doors presented themselves.
    “He couldn’t have just told you where to stick the key, could he?”
    “I guess there’d be no fun in that. Check out the dust,” Keene nodded towards the necks of the bottles. Most of them hadn’t been touched in years.
    “It’s a basement. It’s dusty. Yippee.”
    “One of the bottles has to be a switch,” Keene said. “Pull it, and—”
    “And maybe a rabbit pops out of a hat floating down from the ceiling?” Strike yanked one of the bottles from its cubbyhole, causing the entire rack to wobble and clink. Then she chucked it across the cellar, a streak of dark purple exploding against the wall with a loud crash.
    “That was probably three thousand dollars you just ruined,” Linus said.
    “Shove it,” Strike said.
    Keene’s fingers fell over bottle after bottle as he searched for clues. The one that had significant dust displacement, presumably, would be the switch that revealed this secret compartment. Or maybe they were just in the middle of a normal wine cellar, surrounded by alcoholic beverages worth millions of dollars, and Carmen had come down here for some totally unrelated reason.
    Like she really dug a good Pinot.
    He went up and down the corner, his eyes scanning the shelves. Keene’s heart jumped as he passed over a label. Newer than the others, a bright white that almost glowed in the soft light.
    The relief of a handprint stood in the middle of the dust.
    But that wasn’t what caught his attention the most.
    As he pulled the bottle out, the name and vintage stood out far more.
    The Diamond Dragon. 2001. Tillus, IA.
    A series of gears and pulleys creaked after the bottle cleared the rack. Keene watched as the shelves in front of him disappeared, the wall spinning around to reveal a passage to a small room. Bottles rumbled and quaked, then, as suddenly as the disturbance had begun, it stopped.
    A muted click indicated that the production was over.
    Keene glanced at the bottle, placed it down, then walked through the narrow doorway.
    When he stepped across the threshold, he was hit by a slight dampness in the air and the scent of unfinished dirt floors. The room was dark, but from the dim light trickling in from the wine cellar, he could make out some unlit lanterns hanging from the walls.
    “You got a lighter, Linus?”
    “Sure.”
    He felt Strike and Linus slip by him. With all three of them present, the room seemed even more cramped, no larger than a walk-in closet. The kid lit the lamps. A single wooden lectern stood in the center. The rest of the room was bare.
    “Killer secret room,” Strike said. “Maybe our new friend took all the good stuff.”
    Keene walked up to the lectern and touched the surface. His fingertips traced over the dust to an empty circular spot. He gestured towards Linus.
    “Give me the watch.”
    Linus handed it over.
    Keene lined up the chain with the outline. Perfect match.
    Keene bent over, his nose only a few inches from the dark stained oak. There were no other disturbances in the thick dust that suggested anything