by Pamela Clare
Hang on, Lexi.
With a few quiet words, McBride had two of his men move closer to the entrance, one with a flashlight, one with a tricked-out AR-15. They looked inside, clearly suspecting a trap of some sort.
No one opened fire.
They turned back to McBride, shook their heads.
Austin walked over to McBride. “If you need someone to do recon, I volunteer.”
“You do realize Ready could have forced her to say he was dead. He could be sitting back there somewhere with his rifle aimed at the entrance.”
“Is he also forcing her to sing? I think she’s hurt. You heard Trooper Stewart. He heard a gunshot. She could be bleeding out. Let me go in and find out what’s going on. If he is dead, then we can focus on getting her to safety.”
And, God, Austin hoped with all his heart that the bastard was dead.
“Okay, but we have to be smart about this,” McBride said. “I don’t want you just running in there.”
“Running into a mine shaft? Are you crazy?” He turned to Belcourt and Hawke and started removing all non-essentials from his duty belt. “Did anyone bring rope? I need an anchor.”
Belcourt gave him a nod. “On it.”
Hawke reached for his hand mic. “I’m calling for dispatch to tone out the Team.”
Austin shrugged out of his pack, dug out his waist and chest harnesses, and put them on, turning to Hawke for a quick safety check. Then he grabbed his helmet and headlamp and tied into the rope that Belcourt had gotten from someone.
It felt good finally to be able to do something.
By the time he was ready to go, Belcourt had anchored the other end of the rope to a tree, feeding it through his fancy brake plate. “Belay is on.”
Austin moved to the entrance of the mine shaft, his semi-auto in hand. “Lexi, can you hear me? I’m coming in for you.”
She was still singing. “The blackbirds and thrushes sang in the green bushes/The wood doves and larks seemed to mourn for the maid.”
He crouched down and moved carefully through the entrance.
The light from his headlamp illuminated the space, but Austin didn’t see her. He didn’t see Ready for that matter either. Bats, guano, tree roots.
“Lexi?” He moved slowly forward, Belcourt feeding him slack.
Her singing stopped. “Austin? Jack said you were here. I’m down here. There was a cave-in. Jack says Ready’s dead.”
“Who’s Jack?”
“He helped me.”
Austin could tell from her voice that she was in shock. He reached for his hand mic. “Fifty-six-twenty to McBride. Have paramedics standing by.”
He took another step, saw that the ground fell away some twenty feet ahead of him, a collapsed ventilation shaft opening up before him.
But where the hell was Lexi?
She screamed.
“Lexi?” He jerked at the rope, hurried forward, stopping when he saw her.
Jesus God!
His stomach dropped to the ground, his knees almost buckling.
She sat on what was left of a mangled rail line, a few wooden ties and a twisted bit of iron all that kept her from falling into the shaft, which was so deep that the light from Austin’s headlamp didn’t reach the bottom.
He holstered his weapon, jerked his gaze back to Lexi. She looked around, as if she’d only just discovered where she was.
His headlamp.
She’d been in total dark until he’d come along, unable to see the actual extent of the danger she was facing. But if she passed out now, she would die.
He willed the fear out of his voice, tried to calm her. “I’m right here, Lexi. Look at me. Look at me!”
She looked up, the terror on her tear-stained face tugging at him. “Austin?”
There were blood and dirt on her forehead and a bulge on her shin that could only come from a displaced fracture. She was hurt and in shock.
“We’re going to get you out of here, but I need more gear.” He wouldn’t leave her. “Fifty-six-twenty to McBride.”
McBride responded. “Fifty-six-twenty, go ahead.”
“No sign of Ready. Lexi is suspended over a drop that must be at least eighty yards deep. I can’t see the bottom. She’s injured, in shock, and hanging on by a few beams of rotted wood. I’m going to rap down and tie her into the rope.”
He needed to move fast, or Lexi would die.
“Her cheeks blushed like roses, her arms full of posies/She strayed in the meadows and, weeping, she said/My heart it is aching, my poor heart is breaking/For Jimmy will be slain in the wars I’m afraid.”
Lexi kept singing like Jack had told her, but it was getting harder—harder to think, to concentrate. Her fingers were numb from holding so tightly to the iron rail. Sometimes, she was sure she was dreaming, her thoughts detached, as if all of this were happening to someone else.
“Stay with me, Lexi.”
Lexi’s head snapped up at the sound of Austin’s voice. But where was Jack? “You scared Jack away.”
“Talk to her, Hawke,” Austin said, standing near the edge now, about to step off. “Don’t let her drift off.”
He started down.
“Scared who away?” Eric asked.
“Cousin Jack. He told me to keep singing.”
“Oh. Right. Well, we’re here now. The whole town is out there.” Eric’s head appeared above her. He was lying on his belly, looking down at her. “They’ve gathered along the road. They made it hard for the ambulance to get through. They’re all pulling for you.”
Lexi swallowed. “Really?”
Had she been dreaming? How long had she been here?
“Your dad is giving the cops hell. He’s shouting at everyone, asking them why no one is doing anything to help his little girl.”
“My father is here?” That put a lump in her throat.
“Yes, he is. Kendra’s there with him, yelling at him to calm down.”
Lexi could just imagine that.
“How do you feel?”
“My leg hurts.” That was an understatement. “I feel … strange.”
“I need you to stay awake, okay? Sing if you have to. It looks like you have a nasty break, but we’re going to take good care of you.”
She started singing again, watching as Austin rappelled toward her. A few more minutes, and he was even with her, just beyond her feet.
“Stay where you are, Lexi. Don’t try to get to me. I’ll come to you.”
She kept singing, the words helping her to hold on. “As I was a-walking for my recreation/A-down by the gardens I silently strayed.”
Austin moved quickly across the rock, avoiding any contact with the mangled shelf of wood and iron that had saved her life.
“Hang on just a little longer.” Eric’s voice was soothing. “Taylor, the rope is getting caught on—”
“I see it.”
And then Austin was there, hanging from the rope beside her, his headlamp blinding her. “I’m here, Lexi, but don’t move just yet. I’m going to get you out of here, but I need to get you into a harness first and get your weight on the rope. Just sit still. You’re doing great.”
She started to tell him there was no way she could put on a climbing harness, but then he took out a long strip of nylon webbing.
“I’m making an emergency webbing harness.” He sounded so calm as he went to work, wrapping the strap around each thigh, passing it between her legs twice, then encircling her waist several times.
“That’s a fancy trick,” she heard herself say.
He clipped it off with a carabiner, attached her to the D-ring of his harness, then reached up and peeled her hands from the iron rail. “I’ve got you now, sweetheart.”
Eric’s voice came from above him. “Scarlet FD to McBride. He’s got her harnessed and clipped in.”
“You came for me.” Still, she didn’t dare move.
“Of course, I did. We’re going to stay here for now.” He pulled a small square of shiny silve
r something from his gear belt, unfolding what turned out to be an emergency blanket and wrapping it around her shoulders and head as best he could. “Rescue One is here. The Team will set up ropes and send down a litter. I’ll ride up with you.”
“I thought … I thought I was going to die here.”
Warm lips pressed a kiss against her cheek. “No way.”
She sank against him, her head resting against his chest, and drifted off until pain jerked her awake again. She knew when Megs got there, heard Austin ask someone to send down a med kit with morphine, saw Eric and Megs lowering a litter down to her.
“This is going to help with the pain,” Austin said.
She felt the prick of a needle, warmth sliding into her, pain and fear melting away.
When she opened her eyes again, she was lying in the litter, immobilized by an inflatable body cast, Eric and Megs at her head and feet, Austin perched above her on the litter. “Let’s get her out of here.”
And then they were moving upward, the litter swinging slightly.
Hands reached out, guided the litter over the edge and onto solid ground. Megs, Eric, and Austin stepped off one at a time, the confined space illuminated by a half-dozen headlamps.
“The bats,” she heard herself say.
“What about them?” Austin asked.
“They’re gone.”
“I believe they’ve flown off to more private accommodations,” Megs said.
“Jack is gone, too.”
“Who?” Megs asked.
“He taught me that song. He had a funny hat with a candle on it.”
Then Conrad, Jesse, and Sasha appeared. Together with Megs, Eric, and Austin, they lifted the litter and carried her out of the mine and into twilight.
It was the most beautiful thing Lexi had ever seen—the forest, the fresh air, the sunset turning the sky above the pine trees a bright shade of pink.
Cheers went up all around her.
“Let’s construct the evac anchor and let the paramedics work on her,” Megs said.
They set the litter down, Austin staying beside her, taking her hand in his.
“You’ll be at the hospital soon,” he said.
She turned her head, saw a crowd gathered on the mountainside below. She recognized most of them. Rose was there. Cheyenne was there, too, with Austin’s parents. Rain and Lark. Mrs. Beech. Sandrine and her husband. Frank from the gas station. Izzy from the sandwich shop. The rest of the Team. The guy with the bushy beard who ran the marijuana store.
The whole town really had turned out.
“I want to see her!” Her father appeared at her side, knelt down next to her, reached out to touch her cheek. “Damn, Lexi girl, you gave me a fright.”
Why were there tears in his eyes?
“I’m okay,” she managed to say.
She started to sing again, her mind drifting.
From far away, she heard her father’s voice.
“Her mother sang that song to her when she was a baby. I didn’t know she remembered it.” He bent down, kissed her forehead—the first time he’d ever done that. “Where are those damned paramedics?”
But it wasn’t her mother who’d taught her the song.
“Cousin Jack…” She couldn’t keep her eyes open. “He taught me the song.”
Eric spoke somewhere nearby. “She keeps talking about Jack. From the way she describes him, he sounds like a knocker.”
A knocker? Of course! Jack was a knocker.
The last thing Lexi heard before she lost consciousness was her father thanking Austin and Megs and the rest of the Team.
Chapter 23
Austin helped paramedics load Lexi in the ambulance, stepping aside so that her father could ride with her. “I’ll see you at the hospital.”
Her father nodded. “Thanks.”
The doors closed, and the ambulance headed down the access road, passing dozens of parked cars.
Megs walked over to him, still wearing her helmet and harness.
“She’s going to be okay—thanks to you.” She patted him on the arm in a grandmotherly way, then hiked back up the hillside.
Austin followed her to where McBride and the rest of the Team had gathered, discussing what to do next—how best to retrieve Ready’s body and whether they should do it now or wait until morning.
McBride saw him and stuck out his hand. “Good work. Thanks for your help. What’s this about the other person she saw in there?”
“I think she hallucinated a knocker.”
“A knocker?”
Austin did not have time for this. He needed to get to the hospital. Still, McBride had let him go after her, so he bit back his impatience and explained.
“Most of the people who live in Scarlet Springs are descended from Cornish miners. They brought the legend of the tommyknockers with them. Some people say knockers are the spirits of dead miners. Others think they’re like fairies or leprechauns. In the old days, miners used to toss them their crusts, believing that the knockers would warn them if there was going to be a cave-in.”
McBride’s brow furrowed. “She says she saw one?”
“She was in shock in total darkness. I think her mind must have conjured this Jack fellow up to help her stay awake. She grew up with the legend, so…”
What other explanation could there be?
The boss man came up behind Austin. “Your shift is over, Taylor. Get yourself cleaned up, get something to eat, and go be with Lexi.”
Relieved, Austin reached for his hand mic. “Fifty-six-twenty, end of shift.”
“Fifty-six-twenty, good night. Twenty-forty-eight.”
Eight-forty-eight PM already.
These three hours had taken a dozen years off his life.
He hiked down the hill to his vehicle and found Hawke waiting for him.
“Can I catch a ride back to town with you?”
They headed down the highway, neither of them speaking for a time.
“What do you think?” Hawke asked at last. “Do you think she saw a knocker?”
Austin glared at him. “Have you heard anything about Bear or Winona?”
Hawke nodded. “Bear is conscious. It looks like Ready quit living in that cave after his encounter with you and moved in with Bear, forcing Bear to help him. The bastard had burned his hand on the dye pack and was having trouble taking care of himself. Bear didn’t know he was a fugitive.”
“Does Bear even understand what a fugitive is?” Austin doubted it.
“No clue.” Hawke went on. “Bear said he saw Ready kill that doe. He took the fawn back to his cabin. When Ready threatened to kill and eat the fawn, too, Bear brought it to town.”
“That’s when Lexi and I ran into him.”
These are bad times, dark times. The End Times.
Bear had been trying in his own weird and completely ineffective way to let Austin know that something was wrong. If he’d just come out and told Austin…
Damn it.
“Why did Ready go to the wildlife sanctuary?”
“His burns got infected. He told Bear he needed medicine but couldn’t go to a hospital and asked him where he could get help.”
“So Bear took him to Winona.” That sounded like Bear.
“Ready forced Winona to treat him, then drew up a syringe of ketamine for her and Bear. He didn’t want anyone to call the police until he’d gotten far away, so he injected them.”
“That’s when Lexi walked in.”
“Ready probably thought he needed a hostage to ensure his getaway, thanks to that call. So he took her. But he didn’t check to make sure there was gas in Winona’s car. He’d have been hell and gone with Lexi if not for that.”
Jesus.
“Thanks for backing me up and helping me get down to her. If she’d lost consciousness… If I had lost her...”
“I was glad to help.” Hawke glanced over at him, the two of them making eye contact for a moment. “Seeing her down there scared the shit out of me, to
o.”
Lexi awoke in the recovery room, sound and light crashing in on her. There was an oxygen tube beneath her nose and a couple of IVs dripping into her arm.
What had happened?
“Hey, there. I’m Janice. I’m your nurse. Are you feeling any pain?”
“No.”
“You were in surgery for about two hours. The doctor had to put a plate and some screws in your tibia. They gave you a nerve block, so that will help keep your discomfort under control for a while.”
She’d broken her leg?
And then she remembered.
Ready. The cave-in. The oppressive darkness. The chasm below her.
Adrenaline brought her fully awake, chased the sluggishness from her mind.
But she remembered other things, too. Austin risking himself to come for her, clipping her to his harness, holding her in the dark. The Team working as fast as they could, lifting her out on the litter, carrying her out of the mine. The crowd on the hillside cheering to see she was safe. So many people.
And her father…
Tears gathered in her eyes, blurred her vision.
“We’re also treating you for rabies—something we do anytime a person comes as close as you did to bats. You’ve had the first injections already, so there are just three to go.” The nurse bent over her, patted her arm. “You sure had a rough day.”
Yes, she had. But Austin, her friends on the Team, the people of Scarlet, even her father—they’d been there for her.
And Cousin Jack…
Who was he? Where had he come from?
From the way she described him, he sounds like a knocker.
Had she seen a real knocker?
“Your dad and stepmom are in the waiting room. Once we get a room assignment for you, we’ll move you upstairs, and you can see them. The doc wants to keep you overnight.”
“Okay.” Not that it was really up to Lexi at this point.
She drifted off again and awoke in a hospital room.
Her father was sitting beside her. He hadn’t shaved. His hair was a mess, his eyes bloodshot, but, damn, was she ever glad to see him. “How’s my girl?”
Just those words put a lump in her throat. “I’m okay.”
“The doctor says you’re going to be just fine once this heals. You’re going to be stuck with that boot for six weeks or so. That’s not too bad, is it?”