Lothian emerged into the part of the cave with increased headroom and stood up. Soon, Mead was there too, playing his light all around this new area.
“Look,” Lothian whispered, playing his light on the second low part in the ceiling. “There’s no way to keep going.”
“Then where are they?” Mead whispered back.
Thinking that maybe the two they were chasing had merely ducked under the obstruction ahead, Lothian edged forward. But then he hit the same slippery spot Carl had, and his feet were swept from under him.
Mead’s first reaction at seeing Lothian go under was to let it happen and hope for the worst. But then his obedience to The Brotherhood took over. He put his gun on a ledge he’d seen to his right and reached into the black water, where he caught Lothian by the hair and pulled him to the surface.
Grabbing Mead’s arm with both hands, Lothian dragged himself to solid footing and wiped the water from his face.
“Gotta watch that first step,” Mead said, grinning behind the flashlight he was shining in Lothian’s eyes.
“You think what happened was funny?”
“Was to me. Where’s your flashlight and gun?”
Lothian looked at the water. “Down there somewhere.”
“That’s okay, you can pay for them a little each month. What do you want to do now?”
“That scream we heard earlier was one of them losing their footing like I just did. In fact, I think both of them slipped and were carried under that rock.”
“So they’re dead?”
“I’d bet on it.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
Chapter 19
CARL’S FATHER looked up from his big desk. Spotting Carl in the doorway, he stood, came around the desk, and held his arms out.
“Son. It’s good to see you again. I wasn’t expecting you so soon.”
Confused yet overjoyed, Carl rushed forward to embrace his father, but suddenly without warning, Carl coughed and vomited a flood of dark liquid.
The desk, the bright room, and his father’s image faded, and Carl was swept to another place. But where, he wasn’t sure. Except for a small circle of light in front of him, he was in the dark and it was cold.
“Carl. Can you hear me?” Though there was urgency in the voice, it was also soft and sweet and so close. He turned his head and was blinded by light.
The light shifted. Fighting after-images, he strained to see where the voice had come from. Then, in a rush he saw and knew. “Beth. What happened?”
She put her fingers to her lips. “Not so loud,” she whispered. “They may be listening.”
They? Of course, Carl remembered the two who were chasing them.
“We both almost drowned,” she said softly.
“Where are we?”
“Another cave above the one we were in. There’s the first one.” She briefly pointed the beam of her flashlight to a hole filled with black water. “We were both swept under the low ceiling down there. I think you hit your head on it. The knapsack we brought is so buoyant it flipped me face down in the water and held me against the ceiling so I couldn’t move. I almost didn’t get it off in time. When I did get free of it, the current pushed me forward, and I surfaced in that hole.
“How’d I get here?”
“I went back for you. When I got you up here, I was worried you were gone. But fortunately, CPR works.”
Carl looked up at her with the most admiration he had ever felt for anyone next to his father. “You’re an incredible woman.”
“Hardly.”
Carl moved to sit up, and Beth helped him.
Finding he could do that with no problem, he continued onto his feet. This gave him a slight headache, and he was now aware of a burning sensation in his lungs. He began to shiver from the cold. “How long have we been here?”
“I don’t know,” Beth said. “I wasn’t concerned about the time.”
“Guess.”
“Ten minutes maybe.”
“Long enough for the two who were chasing us to come through that hole if they were going to.”
“Probably.”
Carl felt in his jacket pocket. “I’ve lost the gun and my flashlight.”
“Both down below, I guess.”
“But you kept hold of your light and still managed to save yourself and me.”
“Surprises me, too.”
“Question now is, how do we get out of here?”
“We can’t go back the way we came. They may be waiting for us. But even if they aren’t, I don’t think I could face that water again.”
Carl pointed into the dark. “What’s down that way?”
“I have no idea.”
“Let’s look.”
“Are you up to it?”
Carl rubbed his shoulders with his hands. “I’m freezing. Moving around may help. Aren’t you cold?”
“Now that you mention it, yes.”
“Good thing we brought waterproof flashlights. Hope the batteries hold out.”
“If they don’t, we’ve got more.” Beth stepped past him and picked up the backpack.
“Jesus, you saved that, too.”
“I was just grabbing everything I could find.”
“I’ll carry it.” Carl strapped on the pack, and they set out down the dark passageway, which, like the first one they’d been in, descended deeper into the earth, neither believing this would lead to a way out.
AT THE MOUTH of the first cave, Lothian and Mead stood up and looked at the huge rocks they’d placed over the entrance.
“If by some miracle they aren’t already dead, that should keep them in until they are,” Lothian said. He pulled his radio from the pocket of his wet jacket and tried it. But it was inoperative. He shoved it back in his pocket and looked at Mead. “Try to get Hanson on yours.”
But the water had ruined Mead’s, too.
“We should head down to the bridge and tell him what happened,” Lothian said.
“Talking won’t get us there,” Mead replied, still enjoying the memory of Lothian nearly drowning a few minutes earlier.
DEEP IN THE second cave, the beam from Beth’s flashlight bounced back at her from an impenetrable wall of rock signaling the end of the passage. Though both had believed this would be the result, to actually see it was emotionally draining.
Chapter 20
FOR NEARLY FIVE minutes, Hanson watched the lights coming toward him along the edge of the ravine. He’d heard nothing from Lothian and Mead and had no way of knowing who was carrying the flashlights. Concealing himself on the passenger side of the car, he waited, his Beretta ready.
They were very near now and didn’t seem to be in any real hurry. That had to mean it was—
“Hello, there at the car,” a familiar voice rang out. “Don’t fire. It’s us.”
Lothian. Hanson relaxed and showed himself over the top of the car. “Did you get ’em?”
“They’re dead,” Lothian said, as both men stepped up to the driver’s side of the car.
Hanson shined his light in Lothian’s face, making him shield his eyes with his forearm. “How many?”
“Two. Shift that light will you?”
Hanson moved the beam to the side. “Was Corbin one of them?”
“There was a woman,” Mead said, “But we didn’t get a close look at her.”
“I don’t understand. How can you know they’re both dead if you can’t identify the woman?”
“We chased them to a cave on the side of the ravine and then into an underground river that sank out of sight at the end of the cave,” Lothian said. “The floor of the cave was slippery near where the river disappeared. They were there, then they weren’t. They must have lost their foot
ing and been carried away.”
“It almost got him too,” Mead said.
“I don’t like it,” Hanson said. “No bodies, no proof they’re dead.”
“We both think they are,” Lothian said. “But just in case, we blocked the entrance to the cave so they couldn’t get out.”
“I don’t suppose you know what they were up to?”
“Not really, but they sawed two bars out of the door to the mausoleum,” Lothian said.
Hanson could think of only one reason why they would do that, and it was a possibility with dangerous consequences. He mulled over the situation a moment, then said, “We can’t leave this car here. And because you don’t have any bodies, we don’t have the keys. Either of you know how to hot wire it?”
“I do,” Mead said. “But I’ll need a few tools, which I don’t have.”
“Check the trunk,” Hanson suggested.
Mead opened the driver’s door and popped the trunk. He went around to the rear, where after a quick search said, “Nothing in here I can use.”
“Okay,” Hanson said. “Take my cart—it’s over there in the trees across the road—and get the tools you need. Lothian, you ride with him and go to the mausoleum to see if anything’s missing. Especially check the place where we keep the urns containing the ashes of Beth Corbin’s parents. I’ll wait here in case those two bodies you never saw come back for the car.”
“The hole in the mausoleum door is too small for me to get through,” Lothian said. “I’ll need the key.”
Hanson pulled out his keys, removed one from the ring, and handed it across the top of the car. “That’s my master. Don’t lose it.”
The two would-be assassins then headed for the cart on the other side of the road.
Watching them depart a few seconds later, Hanson thought about calling Meggs and telling him to abandon the search for Beth Corbin in Little Rock. But no one had actually seen who the woman with Martin was. Maybe it wasn’t Corbin. Because of this uncertainty he decided to wait awhile to report what had just taken place.
BETH SANK TO a sitting position on a jutting ledge and wilted, forearms resting on the tops of her thighs, fatigue making her immune to the cold stone. “I need to rest a minute.”
Carl slipped out of the backpack and let it drop to the floor. He leaned against the cave wall, folded his arms across his chest, and let his head droop. There was no escape from this place, except the way they had come in. And even if he could somehow summon the strength to swim back to where the ceiling of the other cave had breathing room, they couldn’t risk running into the two who’d nearly killed them.
So it looked like they were going to be there awhile.
“I’m sorry I got you into this,” Beth said.
“Nobody forced me to come. I wanted to do it. Besides, I’m enjoying myself.”
Carl’s lungs still burned and his headache was still throbbing at the back of his head. To make matters worse, there was now a low-pitched humming in his ears.
Beth suddenly raised her head. “Do you hear something?”
“Yeah, a humming noise. I thought it was just in my mind.”
Beth got up and rotated her head from side to side to locate the sound. She turned to the wall bearing the ledge she’d been sitting on. “I think it’s coming from here somewhere.” She pressed her ear to the cold rock. “I’m pretty sure whatever is making that sound is on the other side of this wall.”
Carl came to her. “Let me see the flashlight.” Beth gave it to him, and he began flicking the beam all around the cave.
“What are you doing?” she asked, puzzled.
“Maybe looking for this.” He leaned down and began working a loose flat rock back and forth. Though it appeared to be tenuously attached, it wouldn’t come free. Finally, just before the pounding ache in the back of his head became more than he could bear, the rock came loose and clattered to the floor.
Gripping the slab by the edge, Carl walked over to where Beth had heard the humming sound and he began tapping the rock against the wall.
The first clack of contact resounded through the cave, providing no doubt the wall in that spot was thick and solid. Carl moved to his right and tried again.
More evidence of impenetrable and unyielding walls.
He tried a third spot. This time, the sound was distinctly different.
“That sounded hollow,” Beth said, excitement evident in her voice.
“Take the light.”
Able now to hold the rock in both hands, Carl struck the wall a stout blow. Nothing happened, but the sound now had a dull quality. Ignoring the stinging sensation in his hands from the first blow, Carl struck again, and part of the wall gave way, leaving a fist-sized hole.
Chapter 21
“SEE WHAT’S IN there,” Carl said, stepping away from the hole he’d made.
Beth moved forward and held her flashlight behind her ear as she tried to peer into the dark opening. “Can’t tell for sure, but I think it’s another cave.”
Energized by the prospect that they’d found more than just a small air pocket, Carl said, “Let me work on it some more.”
Beth moved aside, and Carl took her place. Focusing on the edges of the hole, he made good progress at chipping out more rock until he’d tripled the size of the opening. He stepped back. “Look again.”
When Beth peered through the hole now, she could see exactly what lay beyond. “It’s some sort of mineshaft. I can see timbers supporting the walls and ceiling.”
This was such good news Carl momentarily forgot all his physical discomforts. If it was a mineshaft, there had to be a way out.
He attacked the opening more fiercely, escalating the ache in the back of his head to where it pushed through his excitement, throbbing in synchrony with each blow he struck. But it was a trade-off willingly accepted.
The rock partition between them and the mine on the other side was uneven in thickness, so he couldn’t shape the hole as he wished, but had to go where the wall was weakest. In a little under five minutes, he created an irregular opening about three feet long and a little wider than the breach they’d made in the mausoleum door. Unable to fit through such a narrow space, he chipped away at the right margin until he added another couple of inches to the width.
Breathing hard, his lungs now feeling raw and dry, he stepped back and threw his chipping stone to the floor with a clatter. “I’m sure you can get through that,” he said. “Don’t know if I can.” He shucked off his jacket, handed it to Beth, then proceeded to find out.
Turning sideways, he edged himself into the opening and pushed, immediately catching two shirt buttons on the hole’s irregular margin. With his fingers, he pressed the buttons into his chest and was able to slide an inch deeper into the cleft. But now his belt buckle was caught. A little more manipulation with his fingers freed that obstruction, and he scraped through into another dark world where the humming sound was distinctly louder.
Beth handed Carl’s jacket and backpack through the hole, then easily followed them. While Carl donned the items she’d passed to him, Beth played her light around the new passageway, which was wider by several feet and a few inches taller than the one they’d left. On the far wall, her light reflected off a glistening seam of something black.
“That looks like coal,” Carl said.
“I had no idea there was coal around here,” Beth replied.
Near that same wall, suspended from above so it would clear the occasional heavy wooden beams supporting the ceiling, was a pair of metal ducts that snaked off into the darkness in both directions. A few feet down to the left, one of the ducts had a vent in it. Farther down, Beth saw a vent in the other one.
“Those must be an exhaust system,” Carl said. “Coal mines usually have methane gas in them. If it accumulates and the
re’s any kind of spark, it could explode . . . or just suffocate anyone down here.”
“Which direction should we go?”
Carl listened hard, but couldn’t tell from the sound which way would be best. “Shine your light flat along the floor and see if we can determine which way it slopes.”
Beth crouched and did as he suggested, but the floor didn’t appear to have any particular pitch to it.
“So we guess,” Carl said. “You pick.”
Beth stood up. “This way,” she said, heading off in the direction they were facing.
Unlike the clean cave they’d left, the mine shaft was littered with rubble. In coal mines depicted in movies, there was usually a track on the floor for rail cars to carry out the coal. But this mine didn’t have one. When they passed the first vent they’d seen, Carl put his hand against it and felt a gentle flow of air being sucked into the duct. A little farther along, when he touched the next duct, he sensed air coming out.
After they’d walked for a minute or so, the beam from the flashlight began to dim. “Batteries are going,” Carl said. “Hope we didn’t lose the extras we brought.”
Fearing what he might find, Carl peeled off the backpack and dropped it to the floor. With relief he saw that the pouch where he’d stored the batteries was still snapped shut. He fished out a fresh pair and closed the pocket.
Beth unscrewed the cap of the flashlight, sending them into a darkness so profound both felt a spasm of claustrophobia. They now realized in a way they hadn’t fully appreciated earlier that without light, they might never find their way out. Now it even seemed harder to breathe.
In the dark, the simple act of replacing batteries became a carefully choreographed event. Beth put the cap of the flashlight in her right jacket pocket. She shucked out the used batteries and put them in her other pocket. She then held out her free hand. “Give me the first new one.”
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