A Kiss in the Dark

by Karen Foley

  “Of course.” His expression didn’t change as he drew the transmitter over his head. “I think we should mount the transmitter to my hard hat, though. That way, if I need to crawl, or if I encounter pooled water, I’m less likely to damage it.”

  Lacey tried to squelch the lurid images she had of Cole, trapped in a narrow tunnel as it filled with torrents of water, struggling to escape. It was just her overactive imagination, she knew, but part of her wondered if she had the strength to watch Cole on the monitor as he made his way through the mines. In the next instant, she knew she had no choice.

  Outside the entrance to the mine, volunteers were setting up canopies and tables for the food and water being brought in from town. Several reporters had also arrived and were talking to the police and the bystanders about what was happening.

  “We’ll set you up over here,” Harlan said, indicating a table and chair on a patch of grass away from the mine’s entrance and away from the distraction of the rescue personnel and townspeople. “I’ll have a canopy brought over so you can sit in the shade.”

  “Thanks.” Lacey set up the receiver and the satellite dish, and hooked everything to the central monitor. Copper flopped down at her feet and put his head on his paws. Sam watched, but let her control the process. It took her several more minutes to key in her location, but she was rewarded when an image of herself seated at the table popped up on the monitor.

  “Hey, that’s pretty neat,” Harlan enthused, bending closer. Immediately, her image filled the small screen and became distorted.

  Lacey laughed in spite of herself, and glanced up at the small unit that had been fastened to his helmet, directly beside the headlamp. “I guess the transmitter is working. Here, don’t stand so close.” She waved Harlan back from where she was sitting, and the image on the monitor shifted into focus again. “Okay, let’s just run a few preliminary tests to ensure the unit is working, and then we can get started.”

  Ten minutes later, when Lacey had verified the equipment was in working order, she turned to Harlan. “We’re all set. The battery in your unit is good for twenty-four hours. After that, I’ll still be able to track your location on the GPS receiver, but I won’t be able to pick up images or recordings.”

  “Okay. Can I hear you if you want to talk with me?”

  Lacey shook her head. “No. It was never designed to be a two-way communication system.”

  “I’ll make a note,” Sam said. “Lacey, I want you to start working on that as soon as we get back.”

  Lacey nodded. She wouldn’t tell Sam that she wasn’t going back to Boston. She’d made a decision in the past hour. If Cole wanted her to stay, then she would.

  “Harlan, wait.”

  Harlan turned back to her.

  “When you find Cole, tell him…tell him I’m not going anywhere. And tell him to be careful.”

  She was aware of Sam’s arched eyebrows, but Harlan grinned then, revealing a row of strong, white teeth. Lacey couldn’t recall him ever smiling before, and for a moment she was taken aback at the way it completely transformed his stern features. “Don’t you worry, ma’am. We’ll bring those boys—and your man—out of there safely.”

  He spoke with such easy confidence that Lacey almost believed he could do it. She watched as Poke joined him. Their leather belts were saddled with canisters of water and oxygen, and they each carried a small bag of tools on their hip. Together they disappeared into the black maw of the mine’s entrance.

  14

  SAM PULLED A chair up next to Lacey as she sat down at the table and placed the headphones over her ears. She watched the monitor as the small camera on Harlan’s hat adjusted to the darkness of the mine, and the image slowly came into focus. Despite sitting outside in the sunshine, with a warm breeze buffeting her skin, she felt chilled by the utter blackness that surrounded the men.

  She watched, enthralled, as they filed into a steel-walled elevator. “Ms. Delaney, if you can hear me, this is what we call ‘the cage.’” Harlan’s voice sounded hollow and disembodied over the speakers. Through the tiny camera mounted on Harlan’s hard hat, Lacey watched as Poke clutched the hand chains over his head. The picture on the monitor lurched sideways as the cage began to descend.

  “Seems like the power was never shut off in these mines, but it’s anyone’s guess as to what kind of condition the equipment is in.” Harlan tipped his head down and on the small television screen, Lacey looked past the toes of his worn boots to the grated floor he was standing on. Even on the monitor, the black abyss they were descending into made her feel slightly ill. The fact that the picture was in black-and-white only added to the creepiness of the scene.

  She glanced at the GPS, noting their rapid rate of descent. Two minutes later, when the cage came to a grinding halt, they had descended nearly five hundred feet beneath the earth’s surface.

  “How’s it going?”

  Lacey looked up into Sheriff Hathaway’s face. She quickly removed her headphones. “They just reached the bottom of the shaft. Harlan is going to meet up with Cole and the rescue team, and we should be able to see everything they see from up here.” She indicated the monitor, which showed Poke exiting the cage, and then Harlan’s hand as he closed the grated door of the elevator behind them.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” the sheriff muttered. “The miracles of modern technology never cease to amaze me.” He tapped a finger against the monitor. “You’ll be able to watch them the entire time?”

  “Well, provided the camera isn’t damaged or the batteries don’t die.”

  As Harlan made a complete sweep of the area they stood in, Lacey could see the two men had come out of the cage into a cathedral of chiseled rock. The walls and high ceilings glowed eerily white in the darkness.

  “What is that?” Lacey murmured.

  “They coat the walls with fire-retardant limestone powder,” Sheriff Hathaway answered. He dragged a chair over to the table and sat down, his eyes glued to the monitor.

  Lacey could see ancient, truck-sized power generators covered in dust. Rail-car tracks disappeared into dark portals, and a dizzying network of tunnels twisted outward from where they stood.

  She put the headphones back on, wishing she could communicate with Harlan. They had already determined that the ancient telephone system installed in the mines was no longer operational.

  “See this mark on the wall?” Harlan’s headlamp swept over the entrance to one of the tunnels. “That was put there by the rescue team to indicate which way they went. We’ll be able to move fast by following these signs.”

  Lacey peered at the encircled arrow that had been drawn on the wall. But despite Harlan’s predictions that it wouldn’t take long to catch up with Cole, she spent nearly two hours watching Poke’s back as he negotiated the maze of intersecting tunnels, before he gave a whooping shout.

  “Ms. Delaney, if you can still hear me, we’ve found the rest of the team.”

  Lacey leaned forward, only vaguely aware of the small crowd of people who had gathered around her equipment and watched with equal fascination. In the distance, barely visible on the monitor, she could see a series of bobbing lights. As Harlan drew closer, she realized they were the headlamps of the rescue team.

  “Hey, Carr! That you?” Harlan’s voice echoed eerily through the headphones as he shouted down the length of the tunnel. “It’s Harlan and Poke and Ms. Delaney!”

  Lacey heard the amusement in Harlan’s voice as he called out to the others, and she smiled. Then there was Cole, sprinting out of the darkness of the tunnel into the light of Harlan’s headlamp, his eyes searching the darkness beyond the two men.

  Lacey’s heart constricted and she felt weak with relief. He was safe. His face was so close to Harlan’s that she could see the coal dust streaking his lean features, see the brilliance of his eyes as he glared at the other man.

  “Goddammit, I told her not to come into these mines.” He looked furious. “Where the hell is she? I swear, if you left her
back there—”

  “Easy, man. She’s right here.” Lacey saw Harlan’s hand as he reached up and tapped the small transmitter. “She’s safe aboveground, watching and listening to every dumb-ass thing you do and say.” Harlan laughed aloud as Cole narrowed his eyes, and then looked directly into the camera.

  Directly at her.

  Lacey’s breath caught. She couldn’t help herself. She reached out and traced his image with her fingertips, uncaring of who watched. “Tell him what I said,” she whispered urgently.

  “She said to tell you she wasn’t going anywhere,” Harlan added, as if he could hear her talking to him. “Oh, yeah, and to be careful.”

  Right then, as she watched, Cole’s face twisted and he swiftly looked away for a moment. When he finally turned back to the camera, he was smiling, but Lacey could have sworn there was a suspicious sheen to his eyes.

  “Sweetheart,” he said, “I know we have a lot to work out, but we’ll get there. I’m going to help get these boys back home, and then you and I are going to figure this thing out, okay?”

  Lacey pressed a hand against her mouth to prevent a small sob from escaping, but she couldn’t stop the swift flow of tears that his words caused.

  “Oh, Christ, this is embarrassing,” she heard Harlan mutter. “Very touching, of course, but completely embarrassing.”

  Lacey gave a snort of laughter, even as she swiped at her damp cheeks, her gaze clinging to Cole’s.

  Beside her, Sheriff Hathaway chuckled. “He’s a good boy, that MacKinnon. Like his daddy. Recognized true love as soon as it looked him in the eye, I guess.”

  Lacey nodded, sniffling. “Thank goodness he recognized it. I was too blinded by my own prejudices.”

  “Well, we all got our faults, I suppose. I just wonder how your boss feels about the fact that you’re not going back.” He shot her a sharply questioning look. “You are staying, aren’t you?”

  She nodded mutely, still watching the monitor.

  Sam gave an exaggerated sigh. “Damn it. I guess I’m going to have start looking for a new design engineer.” But he was smiling, and Lacey knew he approved.

  “Okay. Lacey, darlin’, I’ll see you on top.” Cole grinned at her in the camera, and then turned away.

  Harlan and Poke followed him along the tunnel to where the rest of the rescue team were standing at the intersection of a bisecting tunnel, staring at something. Lacey tensed.

  Harlan’s headlamp swept into the adjoining tunnel, and Lacey frowned, peering at the image. For a moment, she wasn’t certain what she was looking at, then realized the connecting tunnel was illuminated by a series of overhead industrial lights. In the middle of the tunnel was an enormous piece of machinery that even to Lacey’s inexperienced eye didn’t appear to be a relic from five decades earlier.

  “Son of a bitch,” she heard Harlan mutter. “You were right, MacKinnon.”

  “Yep. Looks like somebody has broken through from the Black River Mine No. 6 into Rogan’s Run Mine No. 5.”

  Lacey watched as the rescue team continued to make their way down the tunnel. It was supported along the sides by evenly spaced old timbers. Cole looked at the ceiling, and when Harlan tipped his own head back, she could see a series of bolts embedded in the overhead rock.

  “No question about it,” Cole said grimly. “Somebody is mining where they have no business mining. These tunnels have been closed for fifty years, but here I see ceiling bolts that look brand-new. Although—” he took several more steps, still staring upward “—it appears he’s cut corners here. Even if this mine were in any condition to be worked—which it’s not—I count one roof bolt for an area that should have a minimum of three.” He angled his gaze at the camera, looking directly at Lacey. His expression was somber. “I’ll give you one guess as to who it could be.”

  Lacey risked a peek at Sheriff Hathaway, whose own expression was darkening with each passing minute as he peered over Lacey’s shoulder at the monitor.

  He yanked out his radio and pressed the button. “I want Buck Rogan up here just as soon as you can find him. He has some answering to do. And tell Wendall Riggs to get his ass out here.” He glanced down at Lacey. “This ain’t going to be pretty. MacKinnon suspected this was going on, he just couldn’t prove it.”

  Lacey recalled her own doubtful reaction to Cole’s suspicions. She saw Wendall Riggs approach them, and from the expression of weary resignation on his face, she knew Cole was right. Wendall was one of the foremen in the Black River Mines. If anyone knew anything about Buck’s illegal mining practices, it would be him.

  Sheriff Hathaway gave a long-suffering sigh and pushed himself to his feet. He laid a friendly hand on Lacey’s shoulder. “You keep up the good work, and let me know as soon as they find those boys. I got to take care of some unpleasant business.”

  Lacey watched him go, and then turned back to the monitor, adjusting the volume upward in order not to overhear the sheriff’s conversation with Riggs.

  “Hey, Ms. Delaney.” Harlan’s voice was sharp. “We found something up ahead. Looks like a rockfall.”

  Lacey’s heart hitched as Harlan approached what looked to be a dead end. As he got closer, however, she saw it was actually a jumbled pile of rock and debris that effectively sealed off the tunnel and prevented them from going any farther.

  “Okay, I think we’ve found our cave-in.”

  Lacey tore the headphones off and shouted to Sheriff Hathaway. She was immediately surrounded by a dozen or more people, all of them clamoring for a view of the monitor and demanding to know the precise location of the cave-in. She checked their position on the GPS unit, and swiftly gave the coordinates to Sheriff Hathaway. “If the boys are, in fact, on the other side of that cave-in, they’re about 550 feet below the surface.”

  “Okay, let’s see what Carr’s team wants to do,” the sheriff said, gesturing for silence.

  Lacey sat down again and replaced the headphones, wishing fervently that the system was equipped with a two-way speaker.

  “Okay, folks,” Carr said, “we’ll need to drag some timbers over here to shore up the roof, but I think we can get to the boys from this side.” Carr was examining the rockfall and the roof above it with a critical eye. “It doesn’t look like a major fall—more debris than anything else. I don’t see any slabs that’ve come down. We should be able to get through.”

  Lacey repeated what Carr had said to the people who were crowded around her chair, and a jubilant cheer went up.

  “I want five more men in that mine helping move that rock,” shouted Sheriff Hathaway. “I want three stretchers and four paramedics down there with them.”

  He hadn’t even finished talking before men were scrambling to obey. If she’d been impressed with the speed and efficiency of the search-and-rescue team, Lacey was equally impressed by the determination and fearlessness exhibited by these people as they hastened to help.

  On the monitor, she watched as the rescue team in the tunnel shored up the exposed portions of the roof, and began methodically removing the rock and debris that blocked the tunnel. It was backbreaking work and the process was agonizingly slow. Sheriff Hathaway sat beside her as she watched the monitor, occasionally stepping away to update the townspeople and the increasing number of reporters on the progress they were making.

  Two hours later, Lacey was beginning to wonder if the rockfall might not be more extensive than they originally realized. The team continued to work tirelessly to remove the debris, but even she could see they were beginning to flag.

  She was massaging her aching eyes when a loud cheer came through the headphones. Lacey’s eyes snapped open and she stared at the monitor, expecting to see they had finally broken through the barrier. Instead, she realized that the reinforcements sent in by Sheriff Hathaway had succeeded in reaching the first teams.

  Lacey sighed in relief, and turned to announce the news to those gathered nearby. They smiled and embraced each other, cautiously optimistic. During the past sev
eral hours, the townspeople had moved away from the entrance of the mine and had instead congregated around Lacey and Sam, taking turns peering over their shoulders at the small screen. Sympathizing with their hunger for news, Lacey kept up a steady narrative of what was happening down in those dark depths. Now, with nearly a dozen additional men, Carr and his crew set back to work with renewed vigor.

  “Lacey, we’re through,” called Harlan.

  At first, Lacey didn’t understand. They were through? As in done? But when she peered at the activity on the monitor, she realized they had actually succeeded in breaking through the obstruction.

  “They’re through!” she cried. Hardly aware of her actions, she leaped to her feet and snatched the headphones off. Wheeling around, she grabbed the portly sheriff in an exuberant hug. “They’re through!”

  Sheriff Hathaway grinned, and then gently disentangled himself from her arms. “That’s fine news. Now let’s see if the boys are okay.”

  Replacing the headphones, Lacey watched as a small opening appeared at the top of the rockfall. Carr and Skeeter worked to enlarge the hole until finally it was wide enough for Carr to poke his head and shoulders through.

  “I can see two boys,” he called back to the rescue team. “They’re not moving.”

  Lacey bit her lip, and looked over at the sheriff.

  “Well, what is it?”

  “They can see two of the boys,” she said quietly, “but they’re not moving.”

  He leaned back in his chair and blew out a breath. “Okay. They could be knocked out from the rockfall, or unconscious as a result of the air quality. Not much oxygen down there. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

  “Do you want to tell the others?”

  The sheriff sighed. “Guess I better get them prepared.” He heaved himself to his feet, and Lacey watched, her heart in her throat, as he slowly gathered the family members away from the rest of the crowd.

  “Ms. Delaney.” Harlan’s voice echoed through the headphones. “Carr and Cole and the medics are going in to check on the boys. I’ll go in so you can see for yourself what’s happening.”