"Like what?" I asked.
"First off, Doc and Ben went by on their ATVs and I thought they might've gotten word from Coach that something had happened to Maddie but I was relieved when they headed in the other direction, off toward the mine. A few minutes later, one of those big-rigs roared into camp for a load from the machine shop. The truckers don't seem to care that half the camp's asleep. I guess they're on a tight schedule and roll into camp whenever they're good and ready. Anyway, they kick up a ton of dirt and scare the horses half to death. Luckily, they don't come that often — every couple of months is all. Still, it scares the horses, especially the new-borns."
"I can't see why it would affect the horses way down here. The machine shop's a mile away."
"Yeah, but they always make their pick-ups down by the mine where the merchandise is stored. Ben uses the boxcar to transport the finished products to the mine. It's about the only thing the place is good for. A hundred years ago, I guess it gave up some gold. Now it's just a great big, air-tight, waterproof storage shed."
"Hmm. So the truck came through camp a couple hours after dark? What time was that, more or less?"
"Around ten, I'd say. I was out on the porch, keeping my eye out for Maddie when they came through. I was just thinking that it sure was a busy night when it got busier. Next thing I knew, I saw a light on back at the stables and I used my binoculars to see who was there. It's not completely unheard of for some of the staff to take an evening ride, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't one of the kids trying to sneak a horse. It was just Clutch, though. Probably remembered something, like forgetting to turn off one of the sprinklers, I figured. I was gonna offer to go do it for him but he didn't come this way after all. He headed back toward the camp on his horse."
"Why would he do that?" Gracie asked.
"Don't know. Maybe someone radioed him to help out with the gates or something. Since Coach was off looking for Maddie while Ben and Doc were down at the mine supervising the loading, the staff was probably short-handed. I know one thing. Clutch's usually in bed by ten. He's an early riser. So it musta been something important. Anyway, it was about a half-hour after that that Annie Sisson showed up."
"Showed up where?" I asked. Jo got up and went into the cabin, emerging with the bottle of Pinot Noir. As she refilled our glasses, she went on.
"She was at the stables, saddling up Apples, her favorite horse. I figured she'd decided to go for an evening ride, though it was kind of late. She headed off into the pasture and I watched her for a while. Then I went in to get a glass of wine and when I came out, I'd lost her. After that, all sorts of stuff happened. The truck left. Next thing I knew, Clutch was back at the stables, so he was finished with whatever he'd been doing. Pretty soon Doc came by on his ATV Quite a bit later, Ben came by on his. As far as I knew, Annie was still off riding, though I might have missed her come back when I went inside a couple of times. Finally, I decided to call it a night, and went inside for good. Just before I fell asleep, I heard some of the horses whinnying and got up to look. It was Coach, coming back empty-handed. It was the first time, as far as I knew, that he hadn't been able to track a run-away, and it scared me. I was afraid something bad had happened to Maddie out there and I made up my mind to help look for her in the morning, whether Coach liked it or not.
"But sometime in the middle of the night, Maddie must have returned on her own. I guess Coach was so relieved to see her at roll-call, he went easy on her for once. Clutch confided to me that Coach thought he'd finally lost one. Said it was one of the few times he's ever seen Coach sweat something. He even seemed jittery to me, the next few days. But by then, we realized that Annie Sisson had taken off in the middle of the night and the whole camp was upset."
"You tell anyone about seeing Annie ride off?"
"Sure. As soon as I heard she'd left, I mentioned it to Clutch. I thought maybe something had happened to her in the woods. But he said Annie had cleaned out her whole cabin, taken her car and driven away some time before dawn. Her horse was back in the stable, so I didn't give it another thought. Just another weird thing happening on a totally weird night."
"And if Maddie Boone hadn't written a message about Miss Sisson being murdered, I might agree with you," I said.
"Don't like coincidences," Gracie said.
"Me neither," I said. "Did you know Annie Sisson and Coach were having an affair?" I asked Jo.
"Not for sure," she said. "But you see things from here, you know? Like they'd take rides together sometimes. I wondered if once they got out in the woods, they maybe did more than ride."
"You think maybe Annie was going off to catch up with Coach that night? Maybe help him look for Maddie?"
"If so, it's a sure bet he didn't invite her. Coach doesn't like company when he's tracking. Won't even let Clutch tag along. Says other people make too much noise."
"But maybe Annie went after him anyway," Gracie said. "Maybe to help find Maddie, or maybe just to be alone with him."
"Lacy Godfrey told me that Annie thought Coach was seeing someone else," I said. "Maybe she went to confront him. Maybe she didn't really believe he was off looking for Maddie. You ever see Coach ride off with anyone else?"
"Seen him flirt, a little. Nothing serious."
"How about with the students?" I told them what I'd heard Dean Dobberteen mutter under his breath about Coach after Belinda Pitt had bitten his lip.
"I know the one you mean. Hell, I've seen her come on to Clutch, even. She's given me the eye a time or two, too." She giggled. "Probably die if she could've seen me earlier today. My camouflage works both ways, I guess. Keeps the cowhands and hard-ass boys away, but sometimes attracts the Belindas." Jo laughed, and I got the feeling it was as liberating as it was embarrassing. Gracie and I joined her. We weren't just thinking of Belinda Pitt's surprise, though. We were thinking of our own and I was pretty sure Jo knew it. Somehow, being able to laugh about it, made us all relax a little more. Or maybe it was the wine. "Anyway," she said, "I wouldn't put it past Coach, but I haven't actually seen them together."
"Lacy says there's no way Coach would mess with a student, that Doc would fire him on the spot."
"Yeah, I'd say generally that would be true. But like I said, Coach gets away with things here that no one else would even think of doing. Like that stupid cattle prod he carries with him. Doc and Clutch just put up with that. And the whole Isolation thing. That was Coach's idea from the start. Back when I was here as a student, Isolation didn't exist."
"What exactly is Isolation?" I asked.
Jo frowned, twirling her fruit glass between her palms.
"Best way to describe it, I guess, is mental torture. Coach's way of breaking a kid down. I don't agree with it at all, but I guess you can't argue with the results. Once a kid's been inside, he pretty much does whatever it takes to make sure he doesn't go again."
"Where is Isolation?" I asked.
Jo frowned again. "I guess that's the other thing the old mine is good for. From what I understand, Isolation's deep down in the belly of the mine."
Chapter Twelve
Madeline
Maddie was trying not to tremble, but on top of being afraid, she was cold. Though she'd tried to wipe it off, bits of Jello still clung to her face and hair.
"You ain't gonna cry, are you?" Coach said. "I hate crybabies. 'Specially when they think they're tough enough to go around bloodying other people's noses."
He'd driven the ATV right past the boxcar and Danger signs, through an electronic gate into the mine opening which looked to Maddie like a gaping, toothless mouth in the side of the mountain. The dank smell assaulted her nostrils the moment they entered. Coach's voice echoed off the walls.
"Careful, now. Watch your step. We've got a ways to go, yet." He helped her out of the wagon and led her across the cold rock floor of the cavernous vault.
She blinked at the sudden darkness. It was as if the light had been sucked out of the air, and she wheeled around to assure h
erself that there was daylight behind her. Coach chuckled and used the cattle prod to nudge her forward. She knew with one touch of a switch, that prod could send an electric current through her that would knock her out cold. Just feeling the tip of the thing against her back made her skin go clammy.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked in a tiny voice. Her words echoed mockingly back at her.
"Someplace where you'll have plenty of time to think things over, Madeline. Sometimes a person just needs a little peace and quiet to get her thinking straight."
"I know what I did was wrong but she was being mean to the new girl," Maddie stammered. Coach wasn't even listening. He'd walked on ahead of her into an even larger, darker room. Maddie could see wooden beams running along the rock walls. Some of them were bowed and she wondered how long they could be expected to hold up the weight of the ceiling, if that was what they were there for. Coach was leaning over a coffin-shaped wooden chest against one wall, fumbling with a latch. "What are you doing?" she asked, starting to cry. Terror ripped through her chest at the thought that Coach might lock her inside the chest. He opened the lid and reached inside, pulling out a green wool blanket. "Catch," he said, tossing the blanket to her. She nearly tumbled backwards with relief. Coach reached into the chest and pulled out a few other items that Maddie couldn't quite make out in the dark.
"You won't starve to death or die of dehydration," he said, strapping a plastic miner's helmet onto his head. He dropped a plastic bottle of water, a roll of toilet paper, and a package of peanut butter crackers on top of her blanket. Then he urged her into a narrow tunnel with the prod.
"Follow the tracks," he said. Maddie looked down at the metal rails grooved into the rock leading into the mine. She looked back at Coach, her eyes wide with fear.
"Do it!" he said. She knew his finger was on the trigger of the cattle prod and she stepped forward into the growing darkness, barely able to see her own feet over the bundle in her arms. Suddenly, the tunnel before her was ablaze with light, startling her so badly she leaped backwards and stumbled. It took a moment to realize that Coach had turned on the light atop his miner's hat.
"Better?" he asked. Maddie nodded, though she wasn't at all sure that seeing was preferable to the darkness. The walls of the cave were steep, and the tunnel before her seemed to go on forever, far beyond the light emitted from the beam. Suddenly, a terrible moan rumbled up from the darkness ahead. Maddie stood stock still, frozen with fear.
"Don't worry kid. This old mine hasn't collapsed yet. Just tread lightly."
He nudged her again and she inched forward on wobbly legs, dreading each step as if it were her last.
"Oh, come on! We'll never get anywhere at this pace." Coach pushed past her and took the lead. Maddie glanced back the way they'd come and stared into pitch blackness. If she thought she'd survive a run for it, she'd have tried. But the entrance was too far away. She turned and saw that Coach was already ten paces ahead of her, taking his light with him. She hurried forward, more afraid to be left behind in the dark than to follow.
The slope grew steeper as they made their way deeper into the mine. Suddenly, the tunnel forked, one opening veering off to the left, the other curving to the right. The metal tracks took the right path and Coach followed them. Soon there were other openings, each one as dark and uninviting as the previous. Each time, Coach veered to the right, staying with the tracks, his beam bouncing along the dark, dank sides of the mine's tunnel.
Once again, a rumbling moan rolled through the tunnel, coming from somewhere below them, shaking Maddie to the bone.
"What is that?" she managed in a weak voice.
Coach turned around and faced her, the beam on his hard hat blinding her. "Any time you get to thinking you're pretty hot shit, Madeline, I want you to remember that sound. This mountain could swallow you up in one second. You're nothing to this mountain. Less than a gnat. Less than the shit of a gnat. You understand?"
She nodded, shutting her eyes to the light.
"You think you've had it rough, I know. You feel misunderstood. Get over it, Madeline. Until you do, you're nothing but a pathetic crybaby. This experience is gonna help you get over yourself. Understand?"
She didn't, but she nodded anyway, tears starting to slide down her cheeks. Coach turned away, leaving her to blink at the sudden darkness and she followed after him blindly, using the scratchy blanket to rub at her tears.
Finally, just as the slope seemed to level out, Coach stepped away from the tracks and entered a side tunnel. What differentiated this one from all the others, Maddie noticed, was that the opening had been framed for a door. Her heart pounded. On the knob of the door was a chain about ten feet in length. At the end of the chain, was a handcuff. Maddie backed away and nearly tripped over the track in the main tunnel.
"Might as well get it over with," Coach said. He'd taken off the cap and set it on the floor so that the light illuminated the small cave. The room was about ten feet wide and fifteen feet deep. The rock ceiling was low and in one corner she could hear the sound of dripping water. It wasn't so bad with the light on, though. If he'd leave her the light, she might be okay.
"You can set your stuff there," he said, pointing to the floor on the far side of the room. "Toilet's on the other side there. Go look now while you can see. It'll make it easier in the dark."
Maddie looked at him, wide-eyed. "You're not going to leave me the light?" Her voice boomed off the walls, mocking her again.
Coach laughed. "No, Madeline. Now check out the hole so you'll know where to go. There's a wooden lid."
Maddie moved cautiously across the cold floor toward the pit toilet. Even with the lid closed, she could smell the rank odor. She felt the edge of the toilet lid with her hands, but did not lift it up. She did not want to see inside. She did not want to breathe the foul odor. She'd just hold it as long as she could. She wiped her palms on her pants and backed away bumping smack into Coach.
"Okay, now here we go." Before she knew what was happening, he'd slapped the metal cuff over her left wrist and clicked it shut.
"That's so you don't get any ideas and try to break out of here. You'll be safe enough inside. You get out into the mine, you could get lost forever. You got everything you need?"
Like she had a choice. Like he would bring her milk and cookies if she requested them. "How long?" she asked, her voice breaking. She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.
"We'll see," he said. "I'll check on you in a couple of days and we'll talk about it then. Watch that corner back there. Could be bats."
With that, he picked up his miner's cap and took the light with him as he walked to the door.
"I'm not gonna lock this, okay? But keep it shut. Sometimes whole colonies of bats fly through the mine. You don't want them coming in."
He pulled the door closed and disappeared completely. Maddie stood in the center of the room, huge tears rolling down her cheeks.
"No!!!" she wailed in the utter darkness.
"Noooooo!!!" her echo wailed back, rolling around the rocky walls, surrounding her with the sounds of her own desolate terror. Maddie got down on her knees and crawled to the mound of scratchy blanket, threw herself on top of it and began to sob.
Chapter Thirteen
This time there was no doubt about it. I was dying. There was no light, little air and less hope. And this time, I knew exactly where I was. Down inside the mine at Camp Turnaround. I was suffocating. I knew I had to get out, to do something, to move! But my feet were plastered in place, it seemed, and all I could do was wait for death to take me.
I awoke with a start, my heart racing, feeling the now-familiar fear grip me. I gulped air, trying to clear my head. Was this some kind of premonition? Or had something happened to make me suddenly vulnerable to long-suppressed fears?
I got up and paced the tiny cabin, trying to understand.
Even before Diane had died, I'd spent a fair amount of time contemplating life after death. After she died, I
thought of little else. I read everything I could get my hands on, devouring volumes of information on religion, reincarnation, angels, spirit guides, souls and eternity. In the end, I wasn't sure what I believed. I only knew that Diane was no longer in this life, and I was. And from that point on, I decided to put all thoughts of death aside and live my life while I could.
And it had worked for a long time. I'd lived with reckless abandon at times, developing a reputation for, if not bravery, at least risk-taking. But now, for no reason that I could ascertain, fear and doubt were rearing their ugly heads and I found myself questioning everything I thought I knew about myself.
I pulled on a pair of sweats and made a cup of coffee, trying to bolster my confidence. I couldn't afford this identity-crisis right now. I didn't have time to dwell on my own problems. If I could just focus on Maddie, maybe I'd be able to get back home unscathed. Then I could work on my sudden, unwanted vulnerabilities in private.
So I sipped coffee and thought about what to do next. One thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to check out the machine shop. That late-night transaction in the mine really bothered me and I didn't think it was just because of the dream. Why did the trucker wait until dark to pick up the merchandise? Was it really a matter of being on a tight schedule? Or was there some reason for not wanting to make the exchange in daylight?
Determined to stay focused, I made myself rehash the facts. Maddie Boone had run away on a Thursday night. Coach waited until Friday night to go after her — a fact that chilled me as much as his using a cattle prod on the kids. The more I learned about Coach, the less I liked him, and the more I thought I understood why Ida and Doc didn't push to make Camp Turnaround an accredited institution. The less outsiders knew about his behavior modification methods, the better. At any rate, soon after Coach took off on horseback, Ben and Doc drove their ATVs to the mine and a while later the semi met them there for a pick-up. A little later, Clutch showed up at the stables, saddled his horse and headed back toward the camp. Then Annie Sisson showed up, saddled her horse and headed off into the meadows, presumably never to be seen again. A little later the truck left, Clutch returned from wherever he'd gone, Doc rode his ATV back to the camp, and finally Ben followed on his. Not too long after that, Coach came back empty-handed and called it quits for the night. Some time in the night, Maddie Boone sneaked back into the camp, unseen, and returned to her bunk. Only the next morning at roll-call did they discover that Maddie had returned on her own.
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