by Mary Alford
“Oh, no.” She clasped her hand over her mouth at what she saw on Paxton’s office chair—what looked like more bloodstains in several spots. Coupled with what they’d found at her house, Jamie was almost certain something terrible had happened to Uncle Paxton.
Gavin spotted the blood, too, and came to her side. “We don’t know that it’s Paxton’s.”
She managed a nod. “What were they searching for in here?”
He looked around at the chaos and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
She scanned the interior of the trailer. Half of the file folders were empty of paperwork.
“What was in the files?” Gavin asked, evidently noticing the same thing.
Jamie shook her head. “In the past, it was just purchase orders for supplies and such and employee information, but as far as I know, the mine hasn’t been working in months. Besides Terry, there are no other employees.”
“Why would they care about a few purchase orders or employee records?” Gavin asked.
She shook her head. “What happened to make them leave like that before they searched the mine?” Had they found Uncle Paxton?
Gavin pulled her closer. “It could be anything. The sooner we get inside the mine, the sooner we have answers.”
While he was right, she dreaded going down in there again. The last time stood out in her mind. She’d come here after they’d found her father standing next to Charles’s lifeless body. She’d stared at the bloodstained ground and couldn’t believe what was happening.
“Are you okay?” Gavin asked. The concern in his eyes told her he’d read her thoughts.
She managed a nod and he let her go. Jamie watched him kneel down and pick up several of the files lying on the floor.
“This one’s marked revenue.” He grabbed another one. “Purchase orders.” Several papers were in the file. “There’s certainly nothing of any importance here. Why take the files...unless...”
“They were looking for something else. Maybe they thought they’d find a clue as to where whatever they’re missing might be found. Maybe that’s why they took some of the file contents,” Jamie reasoned.
“I don’t think Paxton would take the chance of leaving anything important here, where he knew they could gain access easily enough.” Gavin said, unconvinced.
Jamie lifted her shoulders. “You’re right, it sounds silly. Knowing Uncle Paxton the way I do, I can’t see it, either.”
Gavin got to his feet and tossed the file folders down on the floor once more. “We’re not going to get any answers here. Let’s get to the mine.”
They left the trailer, and Gavin flipped on his flashlight. “Hopefully, those men are far enough away that they won’t see the light. We’re going to need it down there.”
She sensed his reluctance to enter the mine, and she certainly understood. He’d come to the mine and seen his father lying dead. Going back down there would bring back the ugly memories of that day.
As they headed to the gaping black void that was the entrance, Jamie couldn’t help but feel as if the truth behind the decade-old murder that had been hidden for so long was about to rise, finally, to the surface. One way or another.
* * *
Gavin hadn’t been inside the mine since they’d found his father. After what happened to Charles, he’d sworn never to go down there again. Yet here he was. He had to put aside the devastating memories of that day, and help Jamie find Paxton.
Still, it was hard to push aside all that he’d lost. He stopped at the entrance, stuck in place. Unable to put one foot in front of the other.
Jamie turned back to him. “I know it’s hard,” she said gently.
He managed a smile. “It is. I haven’t been here since...that day.”
She took his hand. “Me, either. You can do this, Gavin. I know you can.”
The fear in her eyes urged him on. She needed him. He’d do it for Jamie.
He squeezed her hand and then aimed the flashlight through the entrance. Drawing in deep breaths, together they went inside to purge old memories once and for all.
The temperature dropped by degrees the farther down they went. The place was just as dark and dank as he remembered.
Right away, it became clear it hadn’t been a working coal mine in quite some time. The road used to access the mine was showing signs of lack of use. There were more pot holes than road left, which seemed to indicate the mine hadn’t been in use much longer than what Paxton had indicated to Jamie. So, what had her uncle been doing down here, if not mining, and why did Terry have to lose his life?
The ceiling was so low that they had to bend over to walk. They reached the spot where the single mine shaft divided into two separate tunnels.
“Which way?” Gavin asked. The one to the right was where they’d found his father. He didn’t want to go that way.
Gavin couldn’t hide his unease from her. “There’s nothing much going on to the left. That’s just where the supplies are stored, if I remember correctly.”
He drew in a breath. “Okay, right it is.”
Gavin flashed the light down the tunnel. The narrow entrance did little to reassure him.
They started walking, their steps echoing off the walls. Maintaining a bent-over position was hard on the back. Gavin could feel the stress on his injured side, too. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t shake the bad feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. What if they were walking into a trap? He didn’t understand why the men had suddenly backed away from hunting them. They knew he and Jamie were still out here. The mine was the only logical place for them to go. So why let them get away?
They reached another fork. A similarly narrow shaft veered off to the right and looked as if it was ready to collapse. He didn’t like the looks of it.
Jamie shook her head. “This part of the tunnel wasn’t there the last time I was here.”
“You’re right, but I feel we have to check it out.” He flashed the light down the passageway. It seemed to go on for a long way.
As they made their way farther into the bowels of the mountain, the shaft suddenly ended. Gavin examined the wall closely, then tapped it with the flashlight. “It’s fake,” he exclaimed in disbelief.
Jamie came up beside him. “Why would my uncle build a fake wall?” Their eyes met as they both realized. Something valuable was hidden behind it.
“Let’s find out.” Gavin slammed the end of the flashlight against the wall, and pieces easily crumbled away. In no time, he’d made a hole large enough to crawl through.
Behind it, they found something alarming.
“Oh, no.” Jamie stared in shock. “Gavin, is that...”
“Yes, heroin, and lots of it.” Gavin couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Had Ava been right all along and everything that had happened to them so far, his father’s death, even, came down to a bunch of drugs? If so, how did Paxton fit into what they’d uncovered?
Jamie went over to the stacks of drugs. “But why is it here?” she wondered aloud.
Gavin didn’t want to voice the obvious, but she must have seen the look on his face.
“No way. No matter how bad it looks, Uncle Paxton’s not involved in these drugs.”
He wanted to believe her, but someone had obviously brought the drugs in and gone to great lengths to keep them hidden. Paxton was the obvious choice.
Gavin didn’t voice his thought aloud. “Whatever is really going on here, we need help now, because this thing has gotten way out of hand.” He knew getting anyone from law enforcement involved wasn’t something she wanted to do, but in his opinion, they were all out of choices.
Before she could answer, a noise echoed through the mine.
“What was that?” Jamie asked.
Gavin turned. He could hear voices coming from behind them. “Miller’s men. They’re coming after us. We ha
ve to hurry.”
He grabbed her hand, and still in a doubled-over position, they made their way back to the main tunnel. Once they were back on track, they raced down the narrow passage and deeper into the mine.
“I see them up ahead.” Miller! He and his men were closing in.
“The drugs are here as well,” one of Miller’s men yelled.
“Leave the heroin where it is for now. Hurry up. They’re getting away,” Miller ordered.
Shots rang out behind them, bouncing off the walls and dislodging rocks.
Was Miller crazy or just that desperate? One false shot and the whole place could come down. “Hurry, Jamie. This place is unsteady. It could collapse at any moment.” As they continued running down the narrow passage, Gavin pulled Jamie in front of him. “Keep going,” he told her when she turned back to him, confused. He wasn’t going to let one of those stray bullets strike her. He’d die first.
They moved as fast as they could. Up ahead, the passage suddenly split into two separate directions.
“Which way?” Jamie said in a tense whisper.
Gavin had no idea. “Just pick one.” Before they could choose a passage, the world around them rumbled and shook.
“Get down!” Gavin grabbed Jamie and ducked as low as he could as huge chunks of rock splintered from the crumbling walls inches from them. The mine was caving in around them. Close by, the ceiling rained to the floor beneath the compromised walls, and immediately the world was plunged into darkness as dust and debris became so thick that he could taste it.
The flashlight fell from his hand. Gavin could feel the grit from the blanket of dust covering both him and Jamie, instantly filling his lungs. He coughed violently and wiped tears from his eyes. Jamie buried her face against his chest. It felt as if the world would never be steady again. And then an eerie silence replaced the noise.
Gavin tried to collect his thoughts. They were trapped inside the mine with their outside air supply cut off and surrounded by dense black. And Miller and his men now had access to the drugs. They didn’t need Gavin and Jamie any longer. They’d let them die down here, and no one would ever be the wiser.
Jamie coughed and tried to clear her lungs of the dust while Gavin searched around for the flashlight and found it. He tried the switch. Nothing. The flashlight had broken in the collapse.
Near the place where the tunnel had caved in, Gavin heard footsteps. Someone was coming close.
“Let’s get out of here,” Miller said. “There’s no way they’re getting out alive. Come on, we need to move the drugs to a safe place.”
Footsteps faded. Miller and his men had entombed them down here. Would it prove to be their final resting place?
ELEVEN
The pitch blackness surrounding them was terrifying. The air was clogged with coal dust. Jamie fought back fear. She didn’t want to die here without knowing what had happened to her uncle. With no idea where the two shafts would lead, they had to keep moving. Keep fighting. “Gavin, we can’t let them win. We can’t die down here.”
In the darkness, he gently framed her face. He was so close, and she needed him so much. “I’m not going to let that happen. We are not going to die down here. We’ll locate Paxton and find out what’s really going on with the drugs,” he assured her with so much confidence that she almost believed him.
Gavin got to his feet and pulled her up beside him. For a moment, she clung to his strength.
“I’m right here. I’ll always be right here,” he said and held her close.
“I’m so glad you are. I can’t imagine going through this without you.”
His lips brushed across her forehead. “I’m glad I’m here, too.” He took out his phone and flipped on the flashlight app, illuminating the rubble surrounding them.
Jamie looked around at the destruction. “If we’d been standing closer to the collapsed side, we might both be dead.”
“Don’t think about that now,” Gavin told her. Even covered in dust, he’d never looked more handsome.
She managed a smile for his sake. “We both look like we’ve survived a war.”
He chuckled at her description. “Yeah, but we’re alive, and that’s all that matters. Let’s keep moving. We need to find another way out of here and fast.” She knew he didn’t want to say it, but their air supply would only last so long.
“I’m not sure which path to take.”
Gavin shone the light both ways. “I don’t think these passages were here the last time we were in the mine. Your uncle added them for a reason. Maybe he was expecting something like this to happen, and he wanted to be prepared for it.”
Jamie prayed that in the process of digging out the extra passages, Uncle Paxton had found another way out of the mine.
“Let’s go right,” Jamie said and he nodded. It was as good a choice as any. While they came prepared to go into the mine, their resources would sustain them for only so long.
They headed down the passage with no idea where the path would lead them. What if they ran into another dead end? They’d be trapped inside their own tomb.
Her mind kept going back to the heroin they’d found and what Miller had said about it. “Do you think the sheriff’s department is involved in smuggling drugs?” Until recently, the thought would have been unimaginable.
“It’s looking more like they are. What I don’t understand is why.”
Was it just her imagination, or was it getting harder to breathe? “I can’t help but believe, we’re missing something important that will tie everything together.”
Gavin shook his head, helpless. “I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with something that would shed some light on the situation. There has to be more going on here than Miller and his men smuggling drugs. Something bigger...” He stopped, his gaze latching onto hers. “I remember something my grandmother told me shortly after my father died. She mentioned that a corporation had started buying up lots of the old mines across Kentucky. They approached my dad about buying the Darlan Mountain Mine. My dad had refused their offer flat out. Ava said Dad mentioned that he felt threatened by the man who came to see him.” Gavin shook his head, frustrated. “I’m not sure what that has to do with anything, though.”
She thought about what he’d said. “Maybe nothing, but it’s certainly curious and the same thing happened to Uncle Paxton not too long ago. He said some people offered to buy the mine from Ava. She still had controlling rights, but she’d turned over the management of the mine to Paxton. When he told Ava about the offer, she refused to sell out right.” Jamie stopped walking and faced him. “Did Ava tell Sheriff Lawson about the threat at the time? It certainly would indicate someone else might have had a reason to harm your father.”
Gavin shook his head. “She tried. But the sheriff wouldn’t listen. He felt he had enough evidence to convict Noah for killing Charles. The case was closed.”
Jamie couldn’t believe she’d never heard the story from Ava. “As far as I know, she never mentioned the previous offer to Uncle Paxton. Still, it’s strange. Do you think it was the same person who offered to buy the mine before?” She hesitated. “Gavin, maybe the people trying to buy the mine are the ones who really killed your father.”
The disbelief in his eyes hurt like crazy. He still believed Noah was capable of killing his father. Nothing had changed.
“As much as I want to believe you, Noah was convicted of the murder and there was never any evidence to prove someone else was involved,” he said quietly. His answer was not what she wanted to hear and she struggled to keep it together. “I’m sorry, but I’m not ready to go there yet.”
What little hope she held on to evaporated. Would he ever believe her? She lifted her chin. “You may not be, but there’s no doubt in my mind my father didn’t kill yours.” Yet arguing this point again wasn’t getting them anywhere and they were running out of
time.
Jamie drew in a steadying breath, then let the resentment go. “There’s plenty of abandoned mines around. Why not use them instead of calling attention to themselves by trying to buy out the Darlan Mountain Mine?” She shook her head. “And how do these people fit in the heroin trade, if at all? What does any of this have to do with the sheriff’s office?” she said in a frustrated tone.
“For one, most of the abandoned mines around have collapsed. They’d have to dig them out to store anything there. Still, it would make more sense than buying an active mine and shutting it down. Something’s off here, I just don’t know what.” He shrugged helplessly. “Maybe I’m being naïve, but I can’t help but believe that Andy Lawson isn’t involved in this thing.”
Jamie couldn’t share his belief. “How can he not be? He’s the sheriff. Those are his men.”
Gavin stood his ground. “I know, but I remember Andy from school. He was a punk and he got himself into a lot of trouble growing up, but I don’t think he’s capable of murder.”
While she didn’t share his opinion of Andy’s innocence, Gavin was a trained officer. He’d faced this kind of thing more times than she had. “You think Dan Miller is the mastermind behind it all?” Jamie knew the man somewhat from the past. He was intelligent, but she didn’t believe he would have come up with the plan to smuggle drugs through the county on his own.
“It’s possible, I guess. Miller is certainly cunning enough, but I think this is beyond his scope. There’s a bigger player involved here.”
Jamie couldn’t imagine who that might be. Right now, however, she was just terrified they would run out of air before they could get out of the mine alive.
Gavin tried the phone. “There’s no service. I’m not surprised. We’re pretty far under the mountain, but we’re heading north.”
“That means we’re heading in the direction of the wilderness. Gavin, there are miles and miles of woods out there. If we make it out of here alive, we’ll have to hike out.”