The mining methods employed in the district varied with the size, attitude, and shape of the deposit, the nature of the rock, and the equipment available to the miners. Prior to 1942 deposits in soft, weathered rock were worked by pick, shovel, and windlass, chiefly through shallow shafts and short adits and drifts. Few workings were carried below water level. Most of the C5 hard-rock mines were operated in a similar manner, except that short holes were drilled by hand and the rock then blasted. Some mines, however, were worked in hard rock on a larger scale with power drills and hoists as must have been the cases in the mines around Potaucac.
Hours later he stumbled upon an obscure reference to mines in the Potaucac area. He could find no such references in the history documents. As he was about to give up on the search he stumbled on reference to a forty-year-old survey conducted by a group of anthropology students at Powhatan University. Feeling rather stupid for not checking his own departments records earlier he opened the file. There was a notation that this file had been deleted during a records purge ten years earlier, which he remembered being done, but which he had no part in doing. The report had been deleted except for a description of the purpose of the study the names of the students who participated, a note that a paper copy of the report was available under special request in the departments morgue files. As he was about to close he file he noticed an attachment listed on the bottom of the entry. With little hope that an attachment would include other than a bibliography he nevertheless opened the attachment.
To his amazement the attachment was a map showing the location of the various mines the students had been able to locate. There were nine mines shown. One was the one above Tony’s beach they had already explored. A couple of other miner locations surprised him as did some other information shown on the map.
He printed three copies of the map and dialed Tony’s phone.
Tony answered on the third ring. “Hello Thad. What’s up?”
“I know it’s late Tony, but I have found out some information we should discuss.”
“In the morning. Maria is staying at her sister’s house tonight and won’t be here until tomorrow morning. Can we do it in the morning, say about ten o’clock?”
“That will be fine. I thing Maria should hear what I have to say as well.”
Chapter 37
The next morning Thad rang the bell precisely at ten o’clock. He was dressed in his hunting clothes and boots, and had a canvas back pack strapped on.
Maria greeted him at the door. “Coffee?”
“Don’t mind if I do. Tony here?”
“Come on in the family room. Tony will be down in a few minutes. He’s up in the office arguing with his agent.”
“Again?”
“Ongoing. Agent is anxious. Afraid that Tony will not meet the deadline. To tell you the truth, I’m wondering the same thing. This Indian thing has him so tied up he isn’t really working on the novel.”
“Am so. It’s just in my head. Typing is the easy part. Thinking is where it’s really at. Good morning Thad. What can we do for you this morning?” Tony came in from the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.
“Hi Tony. I spent the better part of last evening doing research on the mica mines. I found a map showing locations. There are two mines on the hillside above your beach. The second is about a hundred yards up hill from the one we found, on the other side of the road. There’s another further downhill too. It is under the lake now.”
Maria stood and paced. “So what’s next?”
Thad opened his back pack and started taking out things. “I suggest we go to the uphill mine first, since it is the easiest. If we don’t find anything there, perhaps we need to explore the underwater mine.”
Maria was surprised. “How can that be? Do you think he can actually live underwater?”
“If he can survive underground for several hundred years, I guess he can live anywhere he wishes.”
“Does this mean that we have to fight him underwater?”
Thad continued taking things from his backpack. “I suggest that we assume that he is not staying underwater until we really know, and assume that he is above ground in a cave. If we find out later that we are incorrect, then let’s worry about that eventuality. I have packed a few things we might need if we find him.” He took out three flairs, a large flashlight, a .38 caliber revolver, and three sticks of dynamite.
“Maria looked into the bag.” Is that it? Why the dynamite?”
I have my 12-gauge pump action shotgun in the car and a .45 automatic. As to the explosives, you never know what we may need. In addition, the Medicine Woman said that if we could kill him we should bury him again. If we can seal him in the cave that may solve the whole thing.
Maria went out to her car and when she returned she laid on the kitchen table a Glock G22 Gen4 and four magazines of ammunition, a holster, and a belt magazine pouch. “This is for you Tony. It holds 15 .40 caliber rounds. It should be better than the old .38 revolver you have.”
Maria went out to her car again and came in wearing her Glock and carrying a pump action shotgun with a tactical light mounted on it. “Ok, when do we start?”
Thad was up and walking toward the sliding door. “The Medicine Woman said that we would have more luck finding his den at night when he is most likely to not be there. He knows that his appearance draws attention, which is not desirable for him.”
“What possible difference could it make to him, since he is invulnerable to attack by ordinary people?”
“She said that what he is about is capturing and killing young transgressors. To do that he needs stealth.”
“But if he can look like anyone he wants to, wouldn’t he just change his appearance?”
“That would only work for a lone kid. Besides he doesn’t know who the kid would not be afraid of. She said that he would prefer the dark and surprise. Therefore, we would be more likely to find him out and about at night.”
Tony was not convinced. “But, if we could find him in his hole in the day time, we might be able to surprise him. That might give us an advantage. I say let’s look for him now.”
“Make sense to me,” Maria said.”
Thad started putting his paraphernalia back into his backpack. “Ok. Let’s go.”
Tony and Maria changed into outdoor clothing and boots, put the holsters and magazine pouches on their belts, inserted a magazine into each Glock, and put a spare magazine into each pouch.
Thad pulled his backpack on and clicked the Velcro strap clips in front, picked up his shotgun and started toward the basement door.
Tony picked up his big flashlight and followed.
Maria, with her shotgun followed.
They went through the basement out onto the beach, climbed over the downed oak tree and went up the beach to the spot where Tony had seen the Indian go into the underbrush.
As they approached that point, Clay Barker came down the beach toward them. “Hey Mr. Hunter, Doctor Goodfellow, Officer Chavez. What are you all decked out for?”
Tony hesitated. Should he tell young Clay what they were doing or not?
Thad had the answer. “Well, hello Clay. We are on an Indian search. Would you like to join us?”
Maria stepped up to Thad and faced him with her back to Clay. “This might be dangerous, Thad. I don’t think Clay should join us.”
“Clay may know where the second mine is. We are looking for two mica mines up there Clay. We have been in the first one but we don’t know where the second one is. Do you?”
“I don’t know if it is the one you are looking for but there is another mine up there on the other side of the road. I have been up there but not into it.”
“If we allow you to accompany us and show us where it is, will you promise to stay behind us all the way and run away fast if we tell you to?”
“I will, but why? What do you expect to run into up there?
“Maybe the Indian everybody has been looking for.”
Five minutes later, they entered the lower mine with Maria in the lead with her light on. Clay stayed outside. They went to the far back of the mine wall to the stone back and found no sign of anything except a little stone dust and some animal droppings.
Back out in the light they climbed the hill through the brush and into the pine forest near the top of the hill. Fifty yards later they crossed the road.
Thad turned to Clay. “Now, where is the second mine?”
“Can I lead?”
“Only until we come within sight of the mine.”
They followed him fifty more yards into the woods, pushing aside underbrush as they went, before they came upon the second mine. They almost missed it. The entrance was overgrown with bushes and vines.
Tony was surprised. “I have lived here for years and I never knew this was here.”
“Nor did I.” Thad was just as surprised. “Goes to show you that we need to be more observant about out surroundings. Of course, I never had reason to come into these woods, though I have lived here for thirty years. Makes me wonder what else is hidden around here.”
Tony started to tear away the vines.
“Hold on a second, Tony. Let’s see if we can find anything disturbed before we charge in there. We want to surprise him, not the other way around.” Thad began to examine the vines and underbrush carefully.
Chapter 38
Satisfied that it was all right to proceed, Thad pushed aside some of the ivy blocking the cave entrance.
Maria stepped in front of him. “I think I should go first here, Thad. I’m better trained for this that either of you.” She pushed her way through the vines.
Thad said to Clay, “Stay out here Clay. Yell out if you see anything that disturbs you?”
“Yes Sir. I sure will do that.”
Thad followed Maria into the mine and Tony brought up the rear.
Maria’s light filed the cave with brightness, but Tony still felt uneasy. “Slow down Maria. We don’t know what may be in here.”
She did and soon they came to a bend in the cave. She turned to Thad. “Is this in the description of these things?”
“The reports I have read said that when a vein of mica turned they would blast the tunnel in the direction toward which it curved. So, yes, it is a normal incident. Matter of fact, if you look at the mica outcropping along here you can see that it was petering out along the first drilling and picks up again around the bend.”
“I can hardly see any mica here at all.”
“You won’t see it in sheet form here. Most of that would have been near the ground level. What you have in here is mostly small particles that they would have ground into powder.”
“I thought mica comes in big sheets that are used for isinglass.”
“That’s only one form. I’ll show you the reports about mica after we get out of here. Right now, I think we need to hold the noise down. We don’t want him to know we are here until the last minute. Surprise may be very important, if we are going to get close enough to use these Indian weapons we have.”
“I’m still not convinced that they will work.”
Tony was having his doubts too, but he knew that conventional firearms would not kill it. They would just have to assume that the Indian woman was correct and plug on with that assumption.
They were coming to another bend in the tunnel. Tony guessed that they were at least a hundred yards into the tunnel. It couldn’t be much farther to the termination of it. Keeping his voice to a whisper he said, “How much deeper can this thing be, Thad?”
“Not far now. Keep your eyes open and step carefully.”
Maria stopped short and gasped loud enough for Tony to hear her. “Stay back behind me, now. We apparently have a crime scene here. Don’t do anything to disturb it. Stay right here. She stepped forward enough for Tony to see the reason for her gasp.
The tunnel ended abruptly against a solid rock wall. He switched on his light to see better what lay at its base. “Maria, are we alone here?”
“We are at the end of the cave. I see no openings or fissures in the wall. I think we are alone. Keep a watch behind us though.”
“If anything had come in behind us, Clay would have let us know.”
“This far in we might not have heard him shout.”
Thad turned and walked a few yards back up the tunnel toward the beginning of it.
Tony turned back toward the end wall of the tunnel. Maria was bending over what looked like a human body on the floor. “It looks like we have found the last victim.”
“You mean the girl who disappeared last night. Is he dead?”
“Definitely dead. I can’t be sure if it’s her of not. She has no head. Wait a minute, here it is. No, I’m wrong. I think this is the head of Carla Smyth. There are also four more heads back here. Some are so damaged as that I can’t identify them at all. There are also three skulls.”
Tony stepped forward so that he could see better and wished that he hadn’t. Along the wall stood four heads carefully placed on the floor so that they were upright. Three had empty eye sockets, but the fourth still held her blue eyes.
Tony stepped back turned and lost his breakfast on the cave wall.
Maria moved past him walking fast. “We need to get out of here. We have already damaged this scene too much.”
When they pushed their way through the vines and emerged into the sunlight, Maria already had her radio out and was calling in the scene, requesting backup and a forensics team.
Clay approached Thad. “Doctor Goodfellow, what’s all the uproar. What did you find down there?”
Before he though it out, Thad answered. “All the heads and the body of the girl that disappeared yesterday?”
Without a word, Clay turned away, placed his hands over his mouth and began to cry.
Realizing his insensitive mistake, Thad put his arm around the boy’s shoulders. “I’m sorry Clay, I should have found a gentler way to tell you that.”
“Clay pulled away from him, his tears stopped. He stepped to Maria and put his hand on her arm. “Detective Chavez, I’m going home now but want you to know that if there’s anything I can do help you catch this bastard, excuse the language, please let me know.” He turned and disappeared into the woods.
Seven minutes later, Tony heard the first of many sirens coming up the road. The three of them went down the hill through the woods to the road and waited for the first response team. When it arrived, Maria went back up the hill with the two officers to show then where the mine was. She returned shortly. “Tony, there’s no need for you and Thad to stay here. I’ll let you know what happens up here.” She waited for the next crew to arrive and Thad and Tony went to Tony’s house.
Chapter 39
A half hour later, Maria came home and filled them in on what had happened at the mine after they left. They started discussing what they should do next but did not arrive at a plan. After more discussion, they decided to call Shirley James and see if she had any suggestions about how they should proceed. Thad did so and when she was on the line, Thad put the phone in the speaker mode.
“Good afternoon, Professor. What can I do for you this afternoon?”
“I have Mr. Hunter and Detective Chavez here with me. We have a few questions for you. We have found the Indian’s lair and been inside. There we found the body of one victim and the heads and skulls of eight others, but Matchitehew was not there. There are no other mines in the vicinity that we know of except one that is under the lake. Can he survive underwater?”
“I suppose that if you are actually dealing with Matchitehew, he could survive almost anywhere.”
“Well, we certainly don’t want to fight him there. It would be hard to even swing a knife or tomahawk and the bolo would be useless. Question is how to entice him into the open.”
“You m
ight have to use bait,”
“What kind of bait?”
“A person.”
“Would I do? Tony said. He has tried to kill me twice already.”
“Perhaps, But I would think that since he seems to attack mostly young people that a young person would work best. Also, I think you might have greater success if you try to entice him out after dark.”
Both Tony and Maria started to argue, both talking at once.
Thad cut them off with a wave of his hand. “Thank you Mrs. James. We will let you know what happens.”
“Please do. Good luck, folks.”
“I cannot agree to put a young person in jeopardy in this way.” Maria was obviously agitated.
Tony was equally agitated. “Me neither. I think we should try with me first.”
They decide to try that very night. Two hours after dark Tony walked out onto the beach. He had the stone knife stuck into his belt from which he had hung the stone tomahawk on a leather strap. He had the Glock Maria had given him in a holster around his waist. He felt as ready as he could get.
Thad and Maria crouched behind the big oak tree that lay across the beach and into the water a result of the hurricane the year earlier. They were armed with flashlights, Maria’s Glock, the riot gun from Maria’s car with an attached flashlight and a laser sight, and Thad’s 12-gauge shotgun. In his backpack Thad had four flairs and three sticks of dynamite and in his pocket a cigarette lighter. Around her neck, Maria had the bolo the woman in Richmond had given them. She had been practicing with it on the rifle range and thought that she had a grasp of the thing and could sometimes hit what she aimed at. The bolo consisted of two mesh bags, one sewn into one end of the eighteen-inch-long leather strap and each containing a round two-pound rock. It could be a formidable weapon.
After two hours of Tony walking slowly up and down the beach from one end to the other with no sign of the Indian. Maria came out onto the beach and walked to where he was standing. “I don’t think we are going to see Matchitehew this night Tony. Maybe we should go in now and try again tomorrow night.”
The Watcher: A Tony Hunter Novel Page 14
