“No. It was an accident. You couldn’t have predicted what was going to happen. You hadn’t planned to hurt her.”
“She was trying to take away my home.”
Erin ran her eyes around the walls of the cave. Mr. Ware had lived in the family home since he was born, as far as she knew. He’d probably been completely alone there for twenty to forty years, depending on when his parents had died. But the place he was attached to and considered his home was not the house, but the sanctuary he had discovered as a child. Adverse possession said that a squatter had to occupy the land he claimed for twenty years, but Erin doubted that the law would extend to an underground cave, even if Mr. Ware had used it since childhood.
“I know, Grandpa.”
“The little girl… she was there, in the graveyard. She saw the extra grave. She knew what it meant.”
Erin nodded. She pictured Bella putting the necklace over the headstone, marking the place where she now knew her grandmother was buried as well. “And she knew something was different. That the fence had been moved from where it was when she was little.”
Too close to his secrets.
“I couldn’t let her take it away. I told her… I’d show her…”
“And you brought her in here.” Erin looked at Bella sleeping by the fire. Had he tied her up before or after bringing her inside? Had she been able to put up a fight? Or had he taken her off guard?
“And the car? How did it get back to the house?”
“I drove it.” He shrugged, as if that were obvious. It was a bold move; Cindy could have seen him driving it back or getting out of it at the house. It was in sight of the front door. The dog might have gone after him, or at least sounded the alarm. But he’d gotten cleanly away, so they wouldn’t know where Bella had disappeared from. He was a neighbor, so maybe the dog knew him and didn’t consider him a threat.
“It’s time for us to go,” Erin told him. She pushed herself to her feet and stood there for a moment, waiting for her head rush to settle. Her mouth and face still throbbed, but she felt curiously removed from herself. She didn’t look in the direction of the cave entrance, where she knew Terry was watching for his opportunity. She walked up to Mr. Ware. “Give that to me now,” she told him firmly.
At first, he didn’t respond to her any more than he had obeyed Terry’s commands, but then he raised his eyes to her, frowning.
“Come on,” Erin insisted. “You’re not going to shoot me, so just give it to me before someone gets hurt. We don’t want any accidents.”
Mr. Ware turned the gun around and held it out to her, grip first. Erin hated to touch the weapon, but she swallowed her aversion and took it from him.
“Thank you.”
She turned toward the entrance to show Terry that she had it. He emerged from the shelter of the tunnel where he was hidden by the darkness, giving low instructions to someone behind him. He held his gun in front of him, outstretched, pointing directly at Mr. Ware.
“Step back, Erin. As far away from him as you can.”
Erin shuffled back away from Mr. Ware, her heart pounding again. The big gun was heavy in her hand, and she held it down at her side, worried about the possibility of triggering it accidentally. Vic and Willie had both suggested that she get firearms training and at least keep a gun in the house, but she was too afraid of accidents. She wished she’d humored them and at least held one before. Then maybe it wouldn’t feel so awkward and menacing in her hand.
Terry gave Mr. Ware instructions, pointing the gun at him in a two-handed stance. His voice was sharp, but he wasn’t yelling. Not like some of the cops on TV, always screaming and rushing suspects, trying to be as intimidating as possible. When he had Mr. Ware face-down on the rocky floor, he first patted his pockets and body for a hidden weapon before finally holstering his own gun and doing a thorough pat-down. He arrested Ware with a long litany of charges and the usual spiel about his rights. Others came into the cave, which quickly became crowded with bodies. The sheriff and Tom. K9 was already with Terry, whining and watching the suspect closely in case he became a threat. Willie was there. He was the one who took the gun from Erin’s hand and passed it to the sheriff.
“Are you okay, Erin? You’re bleeding.”
Erin touched her face and drew it back slippery with blood, almost black in the firelight. “It’s fine. I’m okay. Check Bella, he might have given her something.”
Willie gave her arm a comforting squeeze and moved on to check out Bella.
After securing Mr. Ware, Terry passed him on to Tom with instructions, then turned to Erin. He enveloped her in a big hug, holding her close against his warm body. “Erin, I was so scared. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I let him hurt you and bring you down here. I wanted so badly to help you, but I didn’t want to escalate him. I needed to get Cindy out of there and to give him a chance to calm down…”
“I know, I know,” Erin assured him while the words flowed out in a torrent. “I know. And we needed to find Bella. All of these tunnels… we might not have found her in time if he hadn’t brought me here to her.”
She remembered her own ordeal, lying hurt and alone in the pitch black, afraid that no one would ever find her. A shudder went through her. Terry felt it and squeezed her more tightly.
“It’s okay, Erin. It’s all over. You’re safe. And Bella is going to be okay. Nobody else got hurt.”
“I know.” Tears were running down Erin’s cheeks. She didn’t know why. She hadn’t cried while Ware had been holding her. She didn’t cry until she was rescued, and then there she was, bawling like a baby.
Terry just kept holding her, rocking back and forth, waiting for her to calm down. “You’re probably in shock. We need to get you out of here.”
“I can walk.” She didn’t want to be taken out of there on a stretcher. Not again. She wanted to be able to get out under her own steam, her hands and feet free.
“Let’s go, then. Come on.”
With a supportive arm around her, he led her to the tunnel she and Ware had entered through. Erin hung onto him, glad to have something to hold on to.
“What if we can’t find our way out? What if we get lost?”
“Do you think Willie would let us get lost? Do you think he let me just run in here following your voice and get all turned around? He’s too much of a professional for that. I call him in as a consultant, and then he takes charge and I have to listen to what he tells me!”
Erin couldn’t help but laugh at his aggrieved tone. “You did the right thing,” she assured him. “I’m glad you didn’t get lost.”
She saw that there were small glow sticks dropped at regular intervals, guiding their way all the way back to the entrance.
Cindy was waiting with other townspeople outside. She pulled away from Lottie, almost tackling Erin in her anxiety. “Where is Bella? Was she in there? Is she okay? They won’t let me go in!”
Erin tried to pat Cindy’s arm comfortingly. “She’s there. She’s alive. They’ll bring her out in just a minute.”
Cindy collapsed. Erin could do nothing to catch her, but Lottie was there and another of the ladies from the town, and they kept her from landing on the ground.
“It’s okay, Cind. She’s okay,” Lottie repeated. “Just hang on. She’ll be right out.”
“My baby. My baby girl…”
Her earlier fortitude and her anger at Mr. Ware were gone. Just like Erin breaking down once she knew she was safe, Cindy finally gave herself permission to express her anguish over Bella’s disappearance. She cried and wailed, her friends doing the best they could to comfort her.
Terry led Erin away from them. He took her to a quiet patch of grass where they sat down and took a breath.
“Did he tell you anything?” he asked. “Why he took Bella and what happened to her grandma?”
Erin nodded and told him about Mr. Ware’s emotional claim on the caves and the confrontation with Martha Prost that had led to her accidental death. She told him about the
gardening tools in the cave, and he said he’d look after them later.
“We’ll need to have a look at everything in that cave. There may be more to the story than he is telling us.”
Erin nodded. The feeling she’d had that Ware might not be telling her the full story was validated by Terry’s words. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but at least we know one thing—it wasn’t Ezekiel Prost who killed his wife. He’s been blamed for it all these years, but it wasn’t him.”
They turned toward the cave entrance as a hush fell over the group gathered in the glade. Willie came out first, turned around backward. He was holding on to Bella’s arms and helped to pull her up. She leaned on him for support and looked around in a daze. Cindy fell on her, crying and cuddling her daughter to her. Willie hovered close by, hands out to catch Bella, but Cindy held on tightly and didn’t let her go.
“She’s dehydrated,” Willie said. “I don’t think she’s had anything to drink since she disappeared, and she’s been lying by the fire. Give her some water, and we should probably get her to the hospital where they can put her on an IV for a few hours.”
Erin watched the ministrations over Bella, grateful that she wasn’t the one who had been languishing underground this time. She’d only been there for a few hours and didn’t need to go to the hospital. Terry got back to his feet to talk to Cindy about interviewing Bella as soon as she was settled at the hospital.
“I don’t want you talking to her about it,” he warned. “Don’t ask questions and taint her memories. Just be supportive. Leave the questioning to me.”
Cindy nodded. She and her friends walked Bella back toward the car so they could take her to the hospital. Bella walked slowly but seemed to be unharmed.
“How about you?” Willie asked Erin. “Are you okay?”
Erin dabbed at her sore mouth. “I’ll be fine. Thanks for coming to our rescue—again.”
“Any time you get stuck underground, you can expect me to come looking for you.” Willie looked around and motioned to someone in the crowd. It wasn’t until then that Erin saw Vic.
“Oh, Vicky! Come on over. It’s okay,” Erin told her.
Vic separated from the crowd and hurried over to Erin. She sat down beside Erin and gave her a hug around the shoulders. “You gotta stop doing this,” she said. “It just kills me to stand around waiting for someone to find you and bring you up.”
“It wasn’t planned,” Erin assured her. “I didn’t come here to go caving.”
“Spelunking,” Vic corrected, smiling because she knew Erin had said it just to tease her.
“Spelunking. I just came to look at the graveyard again. I had no plans to go into any cave.”
“But it doesn’t seem to stop you.” Vic shook her head. “Now y’all been down in that cave and I haven’t! Is it at least a good one?”
Erin rolled her eyes. She turned her head to get Willie’s opinion. “It’s big, lots bigger than you’d ever guess by the entrance. I don’t know how many tunnels there are; Mr. Ware said they run all over Tennessee.”
“That’s an exaggeration,” Willie said with a wry smile. “But there are definitely a few miles of passages.”
“And Mr. Ware said there was gold,” Erin said, keeping her voice very low so that the other spectators nearby wouldn’t overhear her. “He said that was pretty rare in these parts.”
“Almost unheard of,” Willie agreed. “In fact, I’d be surprised if it was true.” He cracked open a water bottle and took a sip, then offered it to Erin. “Just don’t get blood in it.”
“You don’t think there’s any gold?” Erin asked.
“Probably not. I don’t see any sign of a vein or that he’s been moving any ore out of there. If he was doing any actual mining, there would be rock to be taken out. But you’d have trouble even getting a small wheelbarrow through that opening, let alone anything that could move large amounts of rock.”
“There could be another entrance, something where it’s easier to get out.”
“Could be. But I didn’t see any indication of any real work going on. Or any mineral deposits that would lead me to think there was gold in there. Or anything else valuable.”
“Just his memories,” Erin decided. “He said he found it when he was a little boy. It’s where he used to go to escape his father.”
Willie nodded. “That, I can believe. Most miners don’t actually have any desire to live underground, but he had a lot of personal stuff down there. Mementos. Things to make him more comfortable. It makes sense that it was sort of his private clubhouse.”
“A refuge.”
“Well… his daddy died a long time ago. Time for him to face life.”
“I hope he isn’t facing life,” Erin said, twisting the meaning of his words. “If Martha Prost died by accident… then what sentence is he looking at? For kidnapping and whatever else…?”
“I’m not the expert. Terry might have an idea, but neither of us is a lawyer.”
Willie motioned for Terry to join them to talk. Terry looked at his watch, then walked back over. “I have to head over to the hospital before too long. Sheriff and Tom can take care of the scene. What’s up?”
“Just wondering what kind of time Ware is looking at. What is he being charged with?”
“Two kidnappings, weapons charges, resisting, maybe Mrs. Prost’s murder. He’ll probably spend the rest of his life behind bars. Don’t know if he’ll actually make it to trial or not. He’s not a young man and jail conditions are not exactly conducive to good health.”
“He’s afraid of how he’ll be treated by the other prisoners,” Erin told him.
“He’s not a child molester or murderer, so he won’t be segregated. I doubt if anyone will really care about an old man who’s not associated with any cartels or gangs. They have more important things to worry about.”
“So you think he’ll be left alone?”
Terry looked at her and couldn’t come up with an answer. Eventually, he just shook his head. He looked at his watch again and said he needed to get to the hospital.
“I’ll catch up with you tonight, okay? You’ll be okay? I can get your statement tonight or tomorrow, you don’t need to hang around here.”
“Okay,” Erin said with a nod of relief. “I think I’d just like to go home and relax for the rest of the day.”
“Go ahead. You deserve it. Especially after the way you handled Mr. Ware and got him to give you his gun. I was really worried about gunfire and hostages in an enclosed chamber. It could have turned out very differently.”
“Was it loaded? He said he’d never used it.”
“It was loaded,” Willie said. “But I believe the part about him never having used it before.”
“Why? Was it… loaded the wrong way?” Erin asked uncertainly.
Willie smiled. “No firing pin. He couldn’t have shot anything if he’d wanted to.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
R
eg was home when Erin got there. She seemed surprised to see Erin and Vic.
“I thought you’d be at the bakery. What are you doing home already?”
“Things have been a little crazy today,” Erin said, shaking her head. “Didn’t your powers of divination tell you that?”
“My…?” She actually looked at Erin. “Holy heck. What happened to you? You didn’t have a fight with that boyfriend of yours, did you? Cops always think they can get away with it, especially in small towns like this. Don’t you put up with it!”
“It wasn’t Terry! That’s two strikes,” Vic said in delight. “One more, and you’re out. I thought you were so good at reading people.”
“It’s different with Erin,” Reg excused herself. “She’s known me for so long, she can block me. And I wasn’t ready to do a cold reading. I just got up from a nap, and I haven’t had a chance to get my motor running yet…”
“Erin has been busy catching Martha Prost’s murderer. You know, the ghost you talked to?”
&
nbsp; “Really?” Reg’s eyes got big. “You solved the ghost case? I’ll bet she was somewhere cold, wasn’t she? I’ve been getting chills all afternoon, I knew something was happening on the case… You should have taken me with you. I could have helped you to figure it out faster.”
Erin rolled her eyes. She remembered when Reg had been the big sister, someone Erin looked up to, so much more sophisticated and knowledgeable than Erin. Reg had known everything, and Erin had idolized her. Wanted to do everything like her. How many stupid schemes had she participated in and how many times had she gotten in trouble, because she’d been stupid enough to buy into Reg’s nonsense?
Reg was still stuck in the same place, still trying to scheme and talk her way into wealth or a reputation, but Erin had grown up.
Erin gave her a little smile, though it made her cut lip crack again, causing a flash of pain.
“It’s all done, now, Reg. You missed out on it.”
“You should have called me,” Reg complained. “You should have let me come with you. If it was me, I would have included you.”
“Have you found somewhere else to stay yet?” Erin changed the subject. “You said you’d have somewhere inside a week.”
Reg looked uncomfortable. “I didn’t count on how small this town is. No one has anything.”
“Maybe you’d better find another town, then,” Erin said unsympathetically. “You’ve about worn out my hospitality.”
Reg looked at her sullenly, then shrugged. “Fine. I’ll get out of your way. Tomorrow.”
“Thanks. Sorry things didn’t work out for you here.”
Reg stared at Erin for a few long moments. “You’ve changed,” she said finally. “I thought you were still the same old Erin underneath all of this professional baker stuff. But you’re different.”
“It’s called growing up. Finding your place in the world. What is it you actually want to do with your life, Reg? You want to keep acting like a carnival fortune teller? Or is there something else you’d actually like to do with your life?”
“I don’t know, but I can tell you I don’t want to be tied down to a place like this. If I had inherited the bakery and this house, you can bet I would have liquidated it. I wouldn’t be tied to all of this.”
Coup de Glace Page 18
