Hazardous Homecoming

by Dana Mentink

  “Your brother was right about these paths,” Cooper said. “He doesn’t have time to take you here much?”

  “No. He likes to be alone a lot now.”

  “Why? What changed?”

  She sighed. What had changed and taken the light out of her brother’s eyes? It was not something he would ever share, especially with Cooper, but she found herself wanting to tell him. “He was a parole officer and one of his cases went bad. Very bad. He blames himself.” She hoped Cooper would not pry and he didn’t.

  “Nothing weighs heavier than guilt,” he said quietly.

  She believed it.

  When they reached the top, she was panting. Cooper, she noticed, was not even breathing hard. They looked out over the panorama, the lake dotted with hungry birds, the trees so green they looked black and the luxury of a clear, sun-filled sky.

  “Top-notch view,” Cooper said. He took a pair of binoculars from his pack. “Let’s see if we can reconstruct things. Whoever took Alice would have wanted to get off sanctuary property without attracting notice. Only direct route back to the main road was impacted by construction so they were flagging cars through one at a time. No one noticed a child of Alice’s description or any strangers of note.”

  Ruby forced the words out. “He... They could have put her in the trunk and driven right by without anyone knowing.”

  “That’s true. But let’s say the stranger didn’t leave that way. The other route would be to hike to the lake, use a boat or walk around to the other side and connect to the frontage road.”

  “I agree, and the police investigated all that, but who’s to say he drove anyway? Maybe it wasn’t preplanned. Some stranger was in the woods, took Alice and—” she swallowed “—killed her. Left her hidden there.”

  Cooper’s voice was kind. “The woods were searched pretty carefully, but it’s possible. One thing we know is the guy was here, at the lake, and tossed Alice’s locket in the water where it was possibly swallowed by the trout.” He paused and she knew the horrible thought that dawned in his mind.

  She took his hand. “They sent divers in and detection dogs. No sign of Alice in the lake.”

  He heaved out a breath and squeezed her hand. “Just her locket.” He looked through the binoculars again and then handed them to her. “Take a look down there, at the bottom of that big fissure. Does that look like a cave to you?”

  She focused the lenses. “Yes. It’s almost completely eclipsed by the shrubbery. How did you ever spot it?”

  He tapped a solemn finger to his temple. “Old eagle-eyed Cooper. I can spot a wood thrush at fifty paces.”

  “We don’t have wood thrushes here.”

  “Well if one flies in, I’m going to be the first one to spot it.” He put away the binoculars. “I say we hike over there and take a look.” He gave her an uncertain glance. “If you want to stay here, I’ll be right back. Trail is steep and gravelly. Easy to twist an ankle.”

  It wasn’t why he was discouraging her. There was a chance, the slimmest one, that inside the cave they would find the body of her friend. All the horror washed over her again. Had she searched long enough? Called loud enough? Peered under every thicket and behind each tree trunk? Nothing weighs heavier than guilt. The only chance she had to put down that ponderous burden was to find out what had really happened to Alice Walker.

  “I’m going, too. What’s the best way?”

  He gave a slight nod, as if her response had not surprised him. “Single file. I’ll go first. Got your phone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Keep it handy. If you feel yourself start to slip, sit down.”

  “And what if that doesn’t work?”

  He grinned. “I’ll catch you.”

  “As we both careen down the side of the cliff together?”

  “You’re a pessimist.” He edged between two huge boulders into the crevice that served as a path. The ground was littered with broken shards worn away from the parent rock that loomed above them.

  Tree roots curved into view here and there, twisted into arcs like gnarled fingers groping for the light. The rock walls blocked the sun and chilled Ruby.

  “Wait,” she said softly.

  Cooper stopped, some five feet below her on the path. “What?”

  She pointed upward. “I thought I heard something.”

  They both listened, hearing nothing but the breeze rattling the needles of the twisted pine and the faint, faraway sounds of the birds. She shrugged and waved him on, a flush of embarrassment warming her cheeks. Her imagination was running wild again.

  She focused on each step, avoiding the pockets of grit, turning sideways where the path became impossibly steep. Above her, silhouetted against a cornflower-blue sky, was a fringe of jagged rock, fastened together in impossible fashion.

  A sound filtered down into the rocky chute where she stood.

  Rock grating against rock. Her imagination, surely?

  “Cooper?” she said, but her voice came out only as a whisper.

  Her fingers pressed against the sandstone wall and deep down, like an erratic pulse, she felt the tremor of movement.

  “Cooper?” she called, louder.

  He heard her that time and turned, green-gold eyes wide with a question. Framed by the glittering mass around him, arms pressed on either side against rock as if he alone was holding back the crush of stone, her heart registered that he was breathtaking even as her brain screamed at what was about to happen.

  “Cooper!”

  His reply was swallowed up by the groan as the rocks above them let loose.

  EIGHT

  One moment the sun shone in a mellow slice through the crevice and the next, the sky was blotted out by an avalanche of rock and dirt. He heard Ruby’s scream. He tried to get to her but the ground shook, upsetting his balance.

  Rock fragments broke away, smashing against the walls and cracking apart, showering him with sharp pieces. One cut into his arm, as he threw up a hand to shield his face. He fought against the wave of debris, pushing upward, struggling. “Ruby!” he shouted over the roar. Was it her scream he heard or the cliff unloading itself around him?

  The trembling ground knocked him to his knees and he found himself skidding downward, fingers clawing, gravel scraping the skin from his forearms and elbows. Rocks continued to thunder upon him as he slid. Tumbled this way and that, he lost all orientation, the view obliterated by a blanket of billowing dust. Finally, he crashed stomach first into a fixed boulder, which stopped his progress so abruptly that the breath was driven out of him.

  He wasn’t sure if the clamor was the blood rushing through his veins or the continuing rock slide. All he could do was turn his face toward the boulder, sucking in as much air as he could as the mass settled around him, pressing him closer and closer to the unyielding boulder.

  The roar subsided into a softer noise, the slower rumble of smaller fragments and then the shower of tiny pebbles, like stony raindrops pattering down around him. He coughed, choking on air thick with dust, pressing his body against the boulder until the world stopped moving. After a couple of slow breaths, he dared open his eyes. A white-brown wall of rock pressed up against his face.

  You’re alive, Cooper. Time to take stock. Arms, legs, shoulders all seemed to be in the right places, and he was able to wriggle all fingers and toes. An urgent thought pushed through the thudding pain in his head.

  He had to get to Ruby. He tried to shove away from the boulder.

  The relief he’d felt a moment before evaporated as he realized in a rush of horror that he could not move. The falling rocks had piled up, trapping him in the small gap at the base.

  A claustrophobic’s nightmare. He fought down the panic. Deep breath, try again.

  Using all his strength he braced himself and sh
oved his back against the pile. Useless. Heavy stones hemmed him in, and he could not gain the leverage to dislodge himself. Fighting a wave of panic, he prayed that Ruby had not been hurt in the rockfall. Why had he insisted they investigate in spite of Mick’s warnings? He’d gotten himself into a mess. That was par for the course, but what had he done to Ruby? Way to go, Cooper.

  He shouted her name. With his face pressed inches from a half-ton rock, he did not think the sound would carry. Phone. Sweat ran down his face as he squirmed and wriggled. Inch by painful inch, he eased the phone out of the pocket of his jeans and snaked it up his body. Sweaty fingers caused him to lose his grip to the shifting debris.

  “No way. Not now.” Clawing through the mess, he found it again and punched the buttons to summon help. How long would it take for rescuers to find Ruby? His stomach constricted. How much medical attention would she require?

  Straining his neck to the snapping point he realized his phone was displaying a message. No available signal. He groaned.

  Did anyone know they were here? His brother, but he had a long workday ahead. It could be hours before anyone realized Cooper and Ruby were missing.

  Okay, Cooper. No help coming, it’s just you, wise guy. What’s your big plan now?

  He wasn’t going to have the strength to bust out of the rock pile in superhero fashion. Somewhere above his head, light filtered through the pile of rubble. In that direction was the sun. In that direction, he prayed, Ruby was alive and well.

  The one thing Cooper had left at his disposal was tenacity. His father always told him strength was mental, not physical. Time to put that theory to the test. Letting out his breath to make himself as skinny as possible, he began to wriggle toward the light.

  * * *

  Ruby pressed herself into the smallest bundle she could manage, sheltering under a network of exposed roots that jutted from the cliff wall. She felt as if she was at the epicenter of a violent explosion. The tide of earth careened over her until what seemed like an eternity later, the cascade slowed. Gingerly she extricated herself from underneath the roots. Head spinning, she got to her feet, peering through the settling dust. Most of the rock flow had passed right on by, leaving the path looking much as it had before except for one thing—Cooper was gone.

  Scrambling down the path, she screamed for him. Again and again, her voice rose in pitch. “Answer me, Cooper Stokes, right now.”

  “Here,” a voice called. It was Heather’s father, Hank.

  His shocked face appeared, looking down from the rocks above. Heather joined him a moment later, eyes round as silver dollars.

  “Are you hurt?” Hank called out.

  “N-no.” Ruby tried to force her mouth into motion. “But Cooper was farther down the trail.” She pointed.

  Heather’s cheeks went white. “We’ll try to get down to you. Don’t move.”

  They vanished, and she could hear scrambling feet. The oddity of it struck her then. Hank and Heather. Where had they come from? It didn’t penetrate past her fear of what had happened to Cooper. She moved forward toward the bend in the trail where a giant boulder protruded from a pile of debris. Some of the rocks at the base were smashed into jagged bits by the force of the rockfall. They would have wrought the same damage on bones and flesh. Her heart hammered a frantic tempo against her ribcage.

  The path ended abruptly at the foot of the boulder, choked off by the debris that had collected in the bottleneck. Hank and Heather loosed a small shower of gravel as they approached.

  “I don’t see him,” Ruby said, her voice wobbling. “Wouldn’t he answer, if he could?”

  Hank held up a hand. “Let’s spread out, a few feet apart. Everyone listen for any kind of sound. I assume you’ve tried your phone?”

  Ruby started, incredulous that it had not occurred to her before. She grabbed her phone and found there was no signal, so she crouched down and strained to listen, calling again and again for Cooper.

  “Wait,” Heather whispered. “I thought I heard something.”

  The three of them froze. Something moved in the pile, a subtle shifting in the debris.

  “There.” Ruby scrambled around the bigger rocks and began to dig with her hands, hoisting the larger fragments aside with Hank’s help. Sweat beaded on her forehead and her torn fingernails stung.

  Heather gasped. “Movement.”

  With an explosion of rock and dust, Cooper sat up, coughing and caked with dirt.

  Ruby hastened to him, grabbing his hand and wiping the grime from his face with her sleeve while Hank and Heather worked on freeing his legs. Desperately she tried to convince herself that Cooper really had just risen from underneath pounds of rubble, living, breathing and coughing.

  Tears spilled from her eyes, and she dashed them away. “Are you all right?”

  He groaned. “Now I know how a grape feels when it’s juiced.”

  She squeezed his fingers, holding in hysterical laughter, reassuring herself that she was not imagining his reappearance. “Seriously, can you move your legs?”

  “Yes, he can,” Heather said, rubbing her shoulder. “He just kicked me.”

  “Sorry,” Cooper said, blinking. “Reflex. What are you two doing here?”

  “Let’s get you out of this junk pile, before we have that conversation. I’m not sure about the stability of the situation at the moment.” Hank cleared away the last heavy rock. “Can you stand?”

  Cooper did, with Ruby holding on to one arm and Heather supporting the other. Slowly they clambered away from the fall and farther up the path where they found a place to rest. Ruby helped Cooper ease down on an exposed root. His arms and legs were scraped raw, and a trickle of blood snaked a muddy path down his forehead.

  Cooper took her hand. “I couldn’t hear a thing under that pile. I was worried about you.”

  She shook her head. “You were worried about me? You’re the one that got pancaked.”

  “Juiced, I believe, is the metaphor we’re going with.”

  He was so completely ridiculous, talking of metaphors and worrying about her, his eyes and teeth stark white against the grime of his face. She hugged him close and squeezed him. The thud of the pulse in his throat beat strong against her cheek. She pulled away, shaky. “Sure you’re not hurt?”

  He let out a breath. “I was just going to ask you that.”

  Heather perched on a rock next to him. “All right. I think we’ve established that neither one of you are seriously injured so let’s move on. Confession time. I heard that you were headed to the lake to poke around. It piqued my interest, and I thought I’d follow in case you found anything noteworthy. Dad refused to let me go hiking alone, so he came with me. My phone fell out of my pocket somewhere along the way so Dad and I split up to try and find it. While I was crawling around, I heard the mountain come loose.”

  “Where’d you happen to hear about our plans?” Cooper shook his head. “Ah, let me guess. From Peter. I forgot, you’re buddies.”

  Heather shrugged. “Good thing he mentioned it. We parked on the main road, and Dad and I saw you take this path so we hiked after you. Got here just in time to see the rocks come down.”

  Hank lifted an eyebrow. “What exactly are you looking for at the lake? I didn’t get the particulars from Peter.”

  Cooper shot Ruby a look. There was no way she wanted to tell a reporter about her wild theory regarding the fish that swallowed the locket.

  “We’re the outdoorsy types,” Cooper broke in, gingerly moving his arms and legs. “Don’t need a reason to hike, do we?”

  “I don’t believe you’re out here for fun,” Heather said.

  “Neither do I,” came a deep voice. Sheriff Pickford eased his way over to them, wearing civilian clothes.

  Ruby stared.

  He took in her surprise. “Was out
on my dock. Heard the rockfall and a scream. Boated over.”

  “After you heard the scream?” Cooper repeated.

  “Yeah. That’s what I said.”

  Ruby caught Cooper’s eye, but they kept quiet about the engine noise they’d heard before they’d started the disastrous exploration and Pickford made no mention of the angry scene they’d witnessed between him and Molly.

  “A nosey reporter and two careless hikers,” Pickford said, ignoring Hank’s presence. “Typical. Do I need to get a rescue crew here, or can you manage to get off this cliff by yourself? I can take one of you at a time in my boat, if you need it.”

  Cooper straightened. “I’m fine. Just a little banged up.”

  “Uh-huh.” Pickford shook his head. “So if your memory isn’t too muddled, why don’t you tell me why you’re really hiking here, since Miss Bradford and her sidekick already opened up that can of worms?”

  Cooper opened his mouth to answer, but Pickford held up a beefy hand. “Don’t bother lying, kid. I’ve been lied to by the best.”

  Ruby thought Pickford’s eyes flickered to Hank for a fraction of a second.

  Cooper cleared his throat. “Okay. We saw a cave, partially covered over by foliage. There.” He pointed. “Figured it was worth exploring.”

  “To see if there was something we missed in our investigation all those years ago?” Pickford’s eyes narrowed.

  “To see if there was anything we could find to help,” Ruby insisted. “We’re not looking to blame anyone.”

  “It’s been twenty years,” Pickford said, eyes on the cave. “Why look here? Why now?”

  Ruby swallowed. “I believe someone threw Alice’s locket in the lake.” She told the rest of her theory.

  Heather’s eyes popped and she patted her pockets for a pencil. “This is incredible.”

  “And none of it’s going in the paper,” Pickford growled.

  Heather didn’t answer.

  “Ruby’s theory may be just that, a theory,” Hank said. “There will have to be some proof found that whoever took Alice came here.” He frowned. “And will it do any good? That’s the big question. Will it change anything at all?”