by Dale Mayer
Maybe it was just curiosity, but…
Stacy didn’t believe it, and her nervousness made him double question his own assumptions. The footprints added to his concern.
After a moment, he peered in. All he could see was black. He pulled his flashlight out and turned it on. The light shone deep into the cavern. And showed that it was huge. And there were footprints.
Damn.
He puzzled over it.
It wasn’t criminal to have come in here. It wasn’t even abnormal. This was a hugely popular resort for skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, and climbers of all kinds every month of the year.
Yet why the secrecy?
Or was there anything secret about it? He backed up slightly so that he could turn to talk to Stacy, only to rear back as she stood right beside him. In exasperation, he said, “Do you do anything that you are told to do?”
“Sure,” she said with a big grin. “Lots. But only the ones I like.”
“Really?” He shook his head. “I doubt it.”
“Wow.” She bent forward and peered into the blackness. “What is this?”
“It’s a cavern of some kind.” He turned the flashlight on and cast the flare of light across the darkness.
“It’s huge,” she cried.
“It does appear to be.”
He looked at her and then stepped around the snow pile inside the cavern.
“What an amazing space.” She quickly followed him. “Footprints.”
He stopped in front of her and shone the light down on it. “It’s just one set, I think.”
“One set in and one set out,” she said. “Or is he still in here? We saw him jump down a few hours ago if you remember.”
“True. But remember that stack of snow I had to knock down to get in here?”
She didn’t highlight that the stranger would have stacked this pile up to hide his tracks in or out regardless of which way he went. “Hmm. Maybe not. Maybe he found another exit.”
“Maybe,” Royce said. “We don’t know enough at this point. No way to sort out the tracks.” Particularly as they’d just stomped over them, too.
“True. The ground is a bit of a mess.”
Taking a step forward, she realized they would lose all the natural daylight from outside if they carried on any further.
And that was something she wasn’t sure she wanted to do.
“Are we going to go in or going back?” Royce asked.
She winced. “I guess we have to check.” She turned to look back the way they’d come. “We should make sure that others know we are here.”
“Good point.” Royce walked back a couple of steps and kicked the rest of the snow away from the entrance so that it would be open and clean. Then he made an arrow in the snow pointing to the cavern. And a big R.
She laughed. “Well, if this opening isn’t enough of a message, that should do it. We’ll have to remember to remove that so someone doesn’t come upon it later and think we or some other poor person whose name starts with an R is in there.”
He grinned. “Good point.”
As he walked past, she turned to follow him. She didn’t want to go in but couldn’t see any other choice.
Chapter 34
Stacy was damn glad she wasn’t alone.
She followed Royce deeper into the cavern. There was an eerie silence around them punctuated by the crisp staccato noise of Royce’s footsteps on the icy ground. It was creepy. And scary. She’d seen some rough places in her time, but she’d never done any caving. She didn’t like dark places. Or confined spaces. Again, she reminded herself of the joy of having Royce with her. He stopped suddenly and she bumped into him.
“What is it?”
“The pathway splits here.”
“Where do the footprints lead?”
“Both directions.” There was an odd tone in his voice.
There wasn’t room to get past him. She tried to peer around his shoulder but couldn’t see much. “Is there a path more travelled?”
“No. I’m thinking they’re well used.”
“Recently?” she asked incredulously. “Really? How is that possible?” She slipped closer to him. “That is so bizarre.”
“I know.” He hesitated. “I don’t like it.”
Relief flooded her. “Neither do I. I’m just not sure what to do about it.”
The silence lengthened as they considered the ramification of going deeper.
“Leave?” she suggested. “Come back with more people. It just seems a little…” She couldn’t find the word she wanted. “I don’t know how to describe it. But I don’t like it. At all.”
“Back up then, be careful of your steps, and just turn around.”
“I am.” And she was. “Maybe we should tell the others?”
“I’m not sure who to talk to.”
She put out her hand to use the wall for support. And heard something behind her. She spun around. “What was that?”
Royce was already walking toward the noise they’d both heard. “No idea.”
He walked forward with purpose. She followed, her heart in her throat and her pulse pounding. She knew she’d been the one that had pushed to come here but at this point, she’d give a lot to just turn around and go home.
Still, if there was anyone injured here and crying out for help, then they needed to render aid. She’d been in trouble herself more than once and she couldn’t walk away.
But damn, she wanted to.
Royce turned to the left. She winced. She was thinking turning right was the best bet. But he was closer and might have heard the noise better.
He paused and cocked an ear and listened intently. She followed but heard nothing. She waited to see what Royce would do.
At first it seemed like he did nothing, but then he crept forward. Crap. She followed close on his heels. As she took the next step, her foot slipped and she flailed before going down.
“Ohm,” she cried out.
Royce spun around, his arm out to catch her, but it was too late. She fell to the ground, her elbow cracking hard on the rock. She sat on the cold floor and held her arm against her chest.
Crouching in front of her, Royce whispered, “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” She winced as she tried to straighten her arm. “It hurts, but I don’t think it’s broken.”
“Here, grab my hand,” he said. With his help, she stood up slowly. There she made a slow check on the rest of her. Everything was fine. Sore, but not too bad. “I’m fine.”
“Good. Do you want to go onward or shall I take you back outside?”
“You’re not going in any further alone,” she said. “I’ll keep going.”
He stood undecided in front of her. Then he pulled out his cell phone and typed on it. “I’m texting George. And Stevie.”
She brightened. “You might as well text them all.” That was the best idea yet. Then she heard another noise, this time from behind her to the right.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.” Royce stood there and then groaned. “If it wasn’t for the footprints, I’d be concerned it was bears.”
She gasped. “And it still might be.”
“Not likely at this point.” He nudged her toward the cave entrance. “But we’re not going to take the chance.”
“Ok—”
And there was a louder nose and damn it, something that almost sounded like a human moan. But on the right.
“Shit.” She looked at Royce’s undecided face and said, “The others are coming, but we need to see what or who that is. Someone might need our help.”
She walked forward confidently, trying to not nurse her arm. She’d be fine. Someone else wasn’t.
There were no more noises to follow, but she kept stepping forward. “Royce, have you heard from anyone yet? We don’t want to be sending and not have the messages go anywhere.”
“I heard from Stevie. Kevin went back boarding so Stevie is contacting the others
and coming up alone. Maybe a half hour.”
“Good.” Feeling more confident, she turned to go down the right path this time, walking carefully as she went. Royce kept a hand on her shoulder.
“Take it easy.”
She stopped. “Shine your light up ahead, will you?”
He obliged and lit up the pathway a little further down the darkness. She couldn’t see anything up ahead. Taking a chance, she said, “Hello? Is anyone there?”
Silence.
She cast a worried look at Royce but kept on going. “Surely someone would have responded.”
“Unless they can’t.”
She twisted her lips and remembered the footprints that came in but didn’t leave, and she took another step. The ice was treacherous.
“Go slow.” At her look, he grinned. “I know, you are. We can also wait for the others to get here.”
At that, she turned away and kept moving forward. And heard the noise from straight ahead. She had no idea what it was, but she was determined to go and find out. She turned another corner, amazed and worried at the depth they were travelling.
Royce grabbed her shoulder and pulled her to a stop. “Wait.”
She stopped in place. He shone the light ahead from one side to the other, showing her they were approaching an antechamber of some kind. She marveled at the beauty of what she could see. And the chill that had settled into her bones. It was so damn cold in here. The light couldn’t reach this far, and there didn’t appear to be any opening up top. Although there likely were some – but covered in ice.
She walked up to the entrance to the larger room and stopped. In front of her, lying on the ground…
Kathleen.
“Oh my God! Royce, look.” She ran forward and dropped to Kathleen’s side. “Oh no. She’s in rough shape.”
Royce was already taking off his coat and wrapping it around the injured woman’s shoulders. “She needs medical help and fast.”
“I’ll make the calls.” Taking the flashlight, she returned as close to the entrance as she could go, mindful of the treacherous footing, making sure she went far enough to get through on her phone.
“Emergency, we’ve found an injured woman. She’s in rough shape. We’ll need a rescue team here immediately.” She quickly explained the location, adding, “The others from our group are supposed to be on their way up here, too.”
After hanging up, she looked for Stevie but as she was under the rock overhang, there was no way to know how close he was. She returned to Royce’s side as carefully as she could. Stacy couldn’t begin to understand how or why Kathleen was here. She was also damn lucky to be found.
Back at Royce’s side, she dropped to her knees. “I got through. They are sending a team.”
“Good. Let’s hope they get here soon.”
He was busy rubbing Kathleen’s arms and legs, trying to get the circulation going. Stacy took off her coat and they rolled her on top of it. Kathleen opened her eyes and tried to open her mouth.
Stacy said, “Shh. We’ve found you now. A team is coming to help. Stay strong. Keep fighting.” She rubbed Kathleen’s cheeks. “Don’t give up.”
Her head rolled to the side and she closed her eyes.
“No!” snapped Stacy. Kathleen opened her eyes and tried to focus on Stacy’s face. Then struggled to move.
“Good, she’s still got some movement.”
Stacy said, “Don’t try to move. You’ll burn through too much energy. You need to conserve your strength and try to warm up.”
Her mind churned. Why was Kathleen here? There was no reason for it. She and George had headed out early this morning to go boarding. That they hadn’t returned yet was no biggie. They were still well within normal times. She hadn’t texted or spoken to her brother at all today, but again, that was not unusual.
Besides, she’d been with Royce. She hadn’t wanted anyone – or anything – to intrude on their private time.
Now as she stared down at the one girlfriend she thought her brother loved, a woman who Stacy admired and liked and would be quite happy to join the family. She couldn’t help but worry that something had happened to her brother.
She looked over at Royce.
In a low voice, she said, “Any idea what happened to her? Why she’d be here?”
Royce shook his head. “Tuck up against her back, will you?” He’d pulled Kathleen close to his body, but one side of Kathleen was open to the cold. Stacy sat down on the ground and wrapped her arms around them both. “Did you bring a thermal blanket in that pocket of yours?” she asked. “I left my pack behind.” Of course it had emergency weather gear, but they’d only planned to be out for an hour or so.
Best laid plans and all those other mistakes people made on a regular basis.
“And where’s George?” she asked fiercely.
“No idea,” he whispered quietly, letting his warm breath bathe Kathleen’s icy face. “He hasn’t answered my text.”
“Oh God.” Stacy was torn between trying to help save Kathleen and going to search for her brother. It was likely that if one was here then the other was as well. She glanced into the dark shadows around them.
“You aren’t leaving,” he said in a low voice. “We don’t know what happened to Kathleen. If she was attacked, then he could still be here.”
“Does she have any injuries?”
“Head wound.”
Stacy frowned. “I need to see it.”
He shifted slightly and turned on the flashlight. Stacy moved so she could examine the injury. No longer bleeding, but it had bled originally. She explored the injury carefully. A definite skull fracture. She studied the angle and depression. “From what I can see, she was hit from behind by someone taller than her,” she said quietly, her stomach knotting and her heart sinking. “This is so not good.”
“There’s no chance she could have fallen and hit a rock on her way down?”
“I’d have to see in better light, but the blow came from above. If a rock came down from the ceiling, then maybe.”
“It only matters in that we might be looking for someone who wanted her dead.”
“You think this was deliberate?” She kept her voice light. She couldn’t see any other scenario herself but hoped there was one. “Her attacker might not have known the damage the blow caused.”
“Or he might be coming back to make sure it had done exactly what he’d planned.”
“Good,” Stacy said in a hard voice. “Let him. We have lots of people coming, too.”
There was a long silence. She sighed. “What now?”
She stared at him in the gloomy darkness, the flashlight pointed toward the entrance to help guide the others to the right place. He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close, Kathleen sandwiched between them. After a moment he said, “You do realize that we may have sent out the SOS call to the very person who attacked her in the first place?”
She hesitated, hating the suspicion. The doubts. She knew everyone there. They were close to Royce as well. It was tough to glance at people you’ve known for a long time and wonder if they were trying to kill you.
She whispered, “I know.”
*
Royce watched Stacy carefully. The last thing he wanted was to have Stacy go off half-cocked and decide she wanted to search for her brother.
His phone jangled in his pocket. He reached down and pulled it out. “Stevie is at the top of the pit.”
“Maybe I should guide him down here,” she said quietly, staring in the direction where the light shone toward the entrance.
“He should be able to find the rope down.” Royce was busy texting him directions. The next text came in. “He found the rope and he heard from Geoffrey. Him and George are boarding together.”
“Thank God.” Stacy could feel some of the tension in her shoulders ease back now that she knew her brother was okay. “Stevie should be here in no time.”
Royce studied Kathleen’s face, hating the pallor. “Damn i
t, I wish I’d just picked her up and carried her out of here.”
“She’s better off here and being taken out on a stretcher. We’re doing the best we can do for her. The rescuers will be here in minutes.”
“We could have her halfway down to the cabin by now.”
“And cause her more harm in the process. Here we’re warming her as much as we can.”
He knew she was right. The cavalry was on its way. He needed to keep her still and warm. And safe.
The icy floor was starting to creep into his bones. He welcomed it. It kept the raging anger that had heated his blood to the boiling point in check.
There was no point in losing his head. He had to figure this out. It occurred to him that someone just might be picking them off one by one.
He knew that the biggest group of suspects was his own friend group. That choked him, but he was trying to stay cool and collected. There were many people who knew the group was staying here. And many more that were finding out every day. That opened up the suspect pool.
“What are you thinking?” Stacy asked.
“Trying to figure out who did this. And why.”
“The why is particularly disturbing,” Stacy said. “I can’t see that all of us could possibly have done something to piss one person off.”
He gazed at her. “It wouldn’t have to be all of us involved. I’m not sure this person cares about there being roadkill. People that got in the way would be secondary. Like in the drugging.”
“You think it was the same person?”
His lopsided grin slipped out. “Could you imagine that we’ve pissed off more than one person during the last while?”
“Not likely.”
“Then again…” Royce frowned. “I’m trying to remember if there was any major dissension about this trip. Some people weren’t impressed that you were coming. The timing was also an issue.”
Stacy gasped. “Really? I could have stayed behind.”
“No,” he said sharply. “Don’t ever think that. The concerns were more that you might be depressing to the group if you weren’t handling life well on your first time back.”
Even in the dim light, he saw the wince ripple across her face. He was sorry for that, but they needed to get to the bottom of the truth here.
