Ashes, Ashes, They All Fall Dead

by LENA DIAZ,

  If he wanted to kill her with fire, as he’d done so many victims, what better place than an old, abandoned coal mine? Detective Stephens had warned her and Matt of the dangers—among them natural gas pockets that could explode into a fiery ball around them. Hargrove must know where the dangers were. Was he moving her toward one of those pockets? What about Matt? Had Hargrove left him somewhere dangerous, hoping to come back and burn him alive once he took care of her?

  She cursed her own cowardice. All this time she’d been running away when she should have been doubling back to find Matt. She had to find him, help him, and get him out of here. She wasn’t going to even consider the possibility that he wasn’t alive; that would destroy her.

  A noise sounded from up ahead. She jerked her head up. No light bouncing around the curve in the tunnel this time. Was Hargrove sneaking up on her in the dark? She froze in indecision. The tunnel she’d just come down was long and she hadn’t noticed any side tunnels. If she ran and he came around the curve up ahead, he’d see her with his flashlight. She’d have nowhere to hide, nowhere to go this time.

  She took a gamble that she’d reach a side tunnel before he reached her and started forward—toward the noise instead of away from it.

  Please let there be another tunnel opening off this one. Please let me find it in time.

  She inched forward, trying not to make any noise as she felt along the walls to her left and right, searching for an opening.

  A sob up ahead had Tessa stopping to listen again. That wasn’t Hargrove. And it certainly wasn’t Matt. That was a woman crying. She must be the woman Tessa had heard scream earlier. Was this Hargrove’s game? Trapping women in the mine and leaving them to starve or die of thirst? Or to go out of their minds in the vast, dark emptiness?

  Another sound carried to her, a deep whisper, a whisper of reassurance.

  Matt! That was Matt’s voice.

  “Matt,” Tessa whispered. “Matt?”

  “Tessa?” His voice broke as he said her name. The shuffling noise came closer. “Where are you?” He was much closer now.

  “Here, right here.” She held her hands out in front of her in the dark.

  His searching fingers touched her arms, then wrapped around her and pulled her close. He cradled her against him, hugging her so hard she could barely breathe. This time she didn’t complain. He could squash her, for all she cared. She was just grateful he was alive.

  He kissed the top of her head and hauled her against his side. “Did he hurt you?” he asked, his voice tight.

  “I’m bruised and banged up, but that’s mostly from running into walls. What about you? What happened?”

  He let out a shaky breath, as if relieved by her answer.

  “He must have come in through another entrance into the mine. He shot me with a Taser and grabbed my computer.”

  A sniffle sounded off to his left.

  “Tessa, Tonya Garrett is here with us. She was locked up in what amounted to a jail cell back at the end of the tunnel. Tonya, this is my very special friend, FBI Special Agent Tessa James. She and I are going to get you out of here.”

  “I want to go home.” The young girl’s voice was so full of fear and grief that it nearly broke Tessa’s heart.

  Tessa reached out, touching Matt’s hard chest, then feathered her hands to the right toward the sound of the girl’s cries. She was clinging to Matt’s other hand with a death grip that was probably cutting off his circulation.

  “Nice to meet you, Tonya. Are you hurt?”

  The girl sniffed. “I don’t . . . I don’t think so. He didn’t . . . do anything to me. Not that, at least. He drugged me, I think. And then he left me down here in the dark. I had a tiny flashlight he gave me when he brought me here, but the batteries burned out.” She shuddered, as if being alone in the dark was the worst thing that could happen to her.

  Tessa could think of far worse things.

  “Matt, Hargrove shot at me, more than once. I think he missed on purpose. I think he was driving me through the mine. Now that I know about the cell where he was holding Tonya, I’m thinking maybe he wanted to drive all of us here, to lock us up.”

  “Which means he’s probably close by.”

  “Exactly,” she whispered.

  Tonya let out a little whimper.

  “It’s okay,” Tessa reassured her. “We’ll get out of this.” Somehow.

  The poor girl still wouldn’t let go of her two-handed hold on Matt, so Tessa moved to Tonya’s far side and held on to her forearm. That way, Matt could run one hand along one side of the tunnel to guide them, while Tessa ran her hand on the other side of the tunnel.

  “Let’s go.” Matt started forward, and the three of them headed back down the same tunnel Tessa had come up just moments earlier.

  “WE’RE GOING IN circles.” Tessa dropped Tonya’s hand and slid to the floor to rest.

  “All right. Maybe we are. We need a better system than what we’ve been doing. Here, Tonya, sit down. Let’s rest for a minute.”

  Tonya whimpered, which was all she seemed to be able to do.

  Tessa heard the whisper of fabric against skin as Matt and the young girl sat down.

  “We haven’t heard or seen Hargrove anywhere in quite a while,” Tessa whispered. “Maybe he’s gone. Maybe he left through the same tunnel he came down.”

  “Maybe.” Matt’s voice lacked conviction.

  Tonya whimpered again.

  “It’s okay,” Matt reassured her. “We’ll find a way out of here.”

  Tessa didn’t have the confidence she heard in his voice. And she wasn’t sure he did either, though he was putting on a good face for the nearly hysterical teenager clinging to him. Tessa should have felt sympathy for the girl—and she did, of course—but after spending the past hour or so wandering through the dark tunnels with Tonya clinging to Matt, her sympathy was turning into irritation.

  As soon as that thought went through Tessa’s mind she cringed with guilt. Tonya was seventeen. She’d been abducted from her home hundreds of miles away and suffered who knows what in the past couple of days. If holding Matt’s hand helped her make it through this harrowing experience, Tessa shouldn’t begrudge her that small comfort.

  She sighed. “Okay, counting tunnels and ventilation shafts isn’t helping us find our way out. But I don’t know a better idea.”

  “We know there’s another exit tunnel or Hargrove wouldn’t have gotten inside. Since we haven’t spotted him, he must have gone back out,” Matt said.

  “Or he’s in another section of tunnels we haven’t explored.”

  “The only tunnel we haven’t gone all the way down is the first one, the one that slopes deeper into the mine. We’re going to have to explore that tunnel. That has to be the way out.”

  Tessa shook her head even though he couldn’t see her. “Down is not good. Down means deeper into the mine. There could be pockets of dangerous gas down there. And who knows if the support beams are still reliable? I think it’s too dangerous.”

  His hand touched hers and she felt him lean toward her. “I don’t think Tonya can take much more of this,” he whispered. “We can’t keep going in circles when you and I both know the way out has to be in another part of the mine. We have to go down the main tunnel.”

  Tessa sighed. “All right. I’ll quit complaining. We’ll do it your way.”

  His warm lips pressed against the side of her face. “Thank you.”

  She shoved herself off the floor, wincing as the throbbing started anew in her right foot. “Tonya, Matt thinks he may be able to find a way out of here. Ready to try?”

  A loud sniffle was her only answer.

  Tessa braced her hand against the wall on her left. “Let’s go.”

  “WHAT DO YOU suppose he did with Ginger?” Tessa slumped to the floor underneath another ventilation shaft. The light had faded long ago. It was nighttime outside. The only way she knew she was under a shaft was because of the rush of fresh air, like an air-condi
tioning vent set on low. The mine was getting colder and colder. She had her jacket on again, but Matt had given up his to keep Tonya warm.

  There’d been no sightings of Hargrove, thank God, but Tessa was beginning to wonder if it was because they’d made their way so deep into the mine that they were in an area he’d never consider exploring.

  And she was beginning to wonder if they’d ever find a way out.

  “Who’s Ginger?” Tonya asked. She’d finally quit sniffling. This was the first time she’d said anything coherent since they’d started out.

  “My golden retriever,” Matt said. “She disappeared from my home in Savannah around the same time you were abducted. Tessa and I saw her tied up outside just a few minutes before we were forced into the mine.”

  Footsteps sounded behind them. Matt whirled around. A light bounced off the wall of the nearest side tunnel.

  “He’s back. Let’s get out of here,” he whispered.

  Tonya whimpered again.

  Tessa and Matt both reached for her and pulled her along with them away from the light.

  The footsteps were closer, louder, moving much faster than Hargrove had moved before. The light bounced crazily, almost to the tunnel entrance.

  “Run,” Matt whispered.

  He and Tessa took off, pulling Tonya between them, running their hands down the sides to guide them forward.

  “Hey, wait, stop!” a voice called out behind them.

  “We’re here to help you,” another voice called out.

  A bright light, much brighter than Hargrove’s flashlight, shined down the length of the tunnel, illuminating the three of them.

  “Tessa, Matt, stop!”

  Matt and Tessa both skidded to a halt, pulling Tonya to a stop between them. They turned around.

  Tonya’s eyes widened in terror, blinking against the bright light. “We have to run!”

  Tessa blinked back the tears that threatened to fall as she shared a smile with Matt. She pulled Tonya against her in a tight hug.

  “It’s okay, sweetie. You’re safe. That isn’t the man who abducted you. Those are miners, and the man in the middle is an FBI agent, my boss.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  * * *

  Day Seven

  THE EMT TENDED Tonya Garrett in the back of the ambulance as the sun began to spread its first rays through the woods around them. Since Tonya’s physical injuries were mainly bumps and bruises, Casey had asked her if she could stay for a few minutes to answer questions before going to the hospital for a more thorough evaluation. She’d reluctantly agreed. So, while Casey waited for the EMT to finish, he questioned Tessa about everything that had happened.

  Matt sat on a fallen log watching the controlled chaos going on around the opening to the mine, while Tessa sat a few feet away. Another EMT had already cleaned and bandaged her side where the bullet had grazed her, and he was currently bandaging her foot.

  She spoke in low tones to Casey, answering question after question in spite of the exhaustion evident by the dark circles under her eyes. If Casey didn’t leave her alone soon, Matt was determined to set him straight about letting Tessa get the rest she needed and deserved.

  The cops who’d found Matt and Tessa’s car had quickly realized exactly what had happened by following their trail through the woods to the collapsed mine shaft opening. But it had apparently been a huge and lengthy ordeal to track down the mine’s previous owners and find maps from over two decades ago to figure out where other openings might be. And then it had taken even more time to get the vehicles, miners, and equipment in place for a rescue.

  Casey clasped Tessa on the shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll find Hargrove soon, or Hoffman, whatever name he’s using these days.” He looked over at Matt. “I suspect you’re right about them being the same person. Seems obvious. I’ve got a BOLO out on both names. Every law- enforcement officer in the Tri-State area will be on the lookout for him. You did a great job, both of you.”

  “Thanks, Casey.” Tessa winced as the EMT put the last piece of tape in place to hold a temporary splint on her bruised and sprained foot.

  Since Casey didn’t look like he was going to stop grilling Tessa any time soon, Matt decided to put some much needed distance between them. It was either that or slug Casey for his complete lack of concern over his agent’s welfare. Couldn’t the man see how tightly wound she was? She wasn’t just exhausted. She was still reeling from the shock of finding out about her biological mother and father and everything else that had happened. Matt didn’t need to be a shrink to know she needed some downtime, alone, to absorb it all.

  He decided to check on how everything was going down in the mine. He strode toward the police officer stationed at the mine’s entrance, writing on a clipboard to document everyone going into and out of the shaft. But just as Matt reached the opening, one of the miners ran out, his eyes wide with excitement.

  “We’ve got a body,” he said.

  Casey cut off his conversation with Tessa and ran toward the entrance. He and the miner disappeared inside.

  Tessa hobbled over, apparently intent on following her boss.

  “Wait,” Matt said. “You should sit and rest. Or better yet, go with Tonya to the hospital. I still think you need that foot x-rayed.”

  “I’m fine. And I’m going inside.” She sounded indignant, as if he was questioning her abilities.

  He sighed. So they were back to that: her playing the experienced FBI agent to his low-born private investigator. The closer they’d gotten to the surface as the miners had led them out, the more distant and formal she’d become. It was as if she was an entirely different person whenever her co-workers or other law-enforcement personnel were around her. Especially Casey.

  Tessa gave her name to the officer with the clipboard and was about to step inside when a miner ran out.

  “They’re coming out,” he exclaimed.

  Tessa was forced to back out of the way. A moment later a group of four miners carried a rescue basket out of the mine with a body lying inside, covered with a sheet.

  The EMT who’d worked on Tessa’s foot flipped the sheet back and felt for a pulse in the man’s neck. He shook his head.

  Tessa gasped when she saw the man’s face. “That’s the man who sealed us in the mine and shot at us. I assume he’s Hargrove, but he never admitted his name.” She frowned and shook her head. “I don’t understand. What happened? This doesn’t make sense.”

  Casey held a mining badge ID next to the man in the basket. “The picture the mining company gave us of Hargrove is old, but I don’t have any doubts. This is definitely Don Hargrove.”

  “But how?” Tessa asked, seemingly incapable of accepting Hargrove’s death. “What happened to him?”

  Matt joined the group surrounding the body.

  “He’s got a dent in his right temple,” the EMT said. “He must have fallen and hit his head on a rock. I’m no expert, but I’d estimate he’s been dead for several hours. He probably died sometime during the night or very early this morning.”

  Tessa shook her head, as if she still couldn’t believe what was right in front of her. Matt imagined it was hard for her to accept that someone she’d thought of for months, years, while consumed with the Ashes letters, could be as vulnerable as anyone else. The monster in her dreams had been vanquished too easily for her to feel like he was really defeated, like he was really dead and could never hurt her again.

  “He’s just a man,” Matt whispered. “He’s human, even if he’s a monster. He really is dead.”

  She briefly closed her eyes and nodded. The sun finally made its way through the trees, and Tessa blinked at the light. “Game over,” she whispered, sounding on the verge of laughter.

  Matt gave her a sharp look. “Are you sure you’re okay? What are you talking about?”

  She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “Casey gave me a week to work with you to find the killer. He told me, ‘Day seven, game over.’” She shivered and loo
ked down at Hargrove’s body again. “Game over.”

  She stepped away just as Matt was about to put his arm around her shoulders.

  Casey called out to Tonya, sitting in the back of the ambulance.

  “Miss Garrett, is this the man who abducted you and locked you up in the mine?”

  The crowd backed up, giving her a clear view.

  She turned away. “That’s him.”

  A cheer went up around the clearing.

  Casey grinned and shook the hands of the agents and officers surrounding him. “We got him. It’s over.”

  He waved one of the female FBI agents over to the ambulance and joined her at the opening.

  “Miss Garrett, this is Special Agent Kent. She’ll accompany you to the hospital. We’ve already called your parents and they’re on their way. Agent Kent will stay with you until they arrive.”

  The EMT started to close the doors.

  Tonya’s eyes got big and round. “Wait!”

  Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at Tessa and Matt. She climbed down from the ambulance, ignoring the EMT’s efforts to stop her.

  Matt and Tessa hurried to her, Tessa limping but refusing Matt’s offer of an arm to lean on.

  “Thank you,” Tonya whispered in a tear-clogged voice. “Thank you for saving me.” She wrapped her arms around both of them and gave in to deep, wracking sobs.

  It took several minutes before Tessa and the EMT could coax Tonya back into the ambulance and send her on her way.

  Matt leaned against one of the police cars. “Tessa, if you’re ready to leave, I’ll get an officer to take you back to the hotel. They’re still processing our rental car as part of the crime scene. And you need to get off that foot and get some rest.”