The Watchers

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  What she discovered was nothing like she’d expected.

  Chapter Three

  The scene around the great, gaping hole was almost identical to the panorama Claire had seen when she was pulled out of it. There was a crowd of gawkers ranged along the yellow caution tape, just as there had been that day—although not nearly as large a crowd. There were emergency vehicles, although not the number there had been. There were reporters camped out at strategic positions to catch any news that might emerge.

  The main difference, though, was the mood of the crowd and the workers. There was more a sense of … purpose and … anticipation, she decided, rather than the fear and sorrow and borderline hysteria of before.

  “What the hell?” Claire muttered to herself. She’d seen the news and according to the reports everyone missing had been accounted for—either pulled out as a survivor or recovered or considered unrecoverable. It was a hell of a tourist attraction if that was what had drawn the crowds!

  The half formed notion she’d had of going down to see the spot where she’d been trapped vanished and was replaced by a wash of disappointment.

  Frustration flickered through her. For a moment, she considered turning around and heading back to her apartment, but she decided to see if she could discover if the people were there for something besides purely morbid curiosity.

  When she’d found a place to park her car, she hiked back to the site and moved along the edge of the crowd until she found a place where it thinned and she could move to the front and the hope/possibility of seeing better. After straining for several minutes to see something—even movement—and failing, she looked around at the woman nearest her. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  The woman glanced at her. “Not sure. That’s what I was trying to find out.”

  Great! Did anybody know? Or was everybody just drawn by someone else that didn’t know a damned thing and everybody just thought something was going on? “Oh,” she responded. “You lost me. Why do you think something’s going on?”

  “They recovered the last body three days ago,” a young man a little further responded. “We thought they’d clear out pretty quickly after that, you know. Well, they did—briefly. But there’s actually more activity, now, than there was directly after they wound up the search and rescue. They must have found something down there because I saw the head of the archeology department over at the university going down yesterday. I hung around until he came out a couple of hours later. He looked … I don’t know. Excited, I guess. That’s the van over there.”

  “So …. He’s back again today?”

  “He arrived with about a dozen people around day break,” the woman Claire had first questioned responded.

  And she couldn’t have volunteered that information before? “I can’t see a damned thing,” Claire said irritably.

  The young man shrugged. “I’ve gone all the way around. This is as good a place as any. Actually, the apartments overlooking the hole were better, but they’ve evacuated this entire apartment complex. Said the ground was too unstable for any of the residents to stay. That was my apartment over there—fourth floor.”

  Claire glanced at the building he pointed at and shuddered. She hesitated, struggling with the temptation to admit her apartment was somewhere around the middle of the heap of debris in front of them, and then tamped the urge. They’d want answers she didn’t have or feel like trying to field. “I don’t think I’d want to argue with that … considering.”

  The young man looked angry. “You don’t think it would’ve kept on collapsing if it was going to? I mean, they usually do, don’t they?”

  “Hey! You were one of the lucky ones!” the woman said. “At least you got the chance to get your things out! The people in those buildings there didn’t get out with anything. Some of them not even with their lives!”

  Claire didn’t feel like hanging around for that discussion so she moved away from them, slowly circling the wide perimeter.

  She was nearing the ‘forbidden zone’, the area where all of the emergency people were stationed, when she spotted a tall man dressed entirely in black striding confidently through the group. Almost as if he could feel her attention, he paused as he reached what looked to be a lift system at the edge of the hole and turned, looking directly at her.

  It felt like he was looking directly at her, at any rate. Claire felt her heart jerk painfully in her chest and then begin to gallop when she met his gaze.

  It was the priest—Father Dante Moreno.

  What was he doing here, she wondered, when he’d broken the lock he held on her gaze and headed down in the basket of the makeshift lift?

  Gone down to bless the pile of rubble?

  Or maybe to save the souls of the departed?

  But it was a little late for that, wasn’t it? He would’ve said prayers over the bodies a week ago when they were pulled out—assuming any of them were catholic.

  So what business would a priest have down there?

  She might have speculated a lot longer except she spotted the vehicles from the geology department. Well that explained their huge hurry to leave! She thought it might also explain why they didn’t want her to start work yet. They were still investigating the cave-in that had nearly cost her her life.

  The thought angered her. She thought she had a vested interest in the study all things considered! Of course it might be that they were excluding her because she’d been injured in the collapse and they thought she might be afraid to go down, but they might have asked!

  Because she wanted to face her demons! She wanted to go down and see what had almost been her tomb!

  She had a feeling she wasn’t going to be allowed to study this particular sinkhole, though. She had a feeling they expected to have their investigation concluded before she reported for work.

  Of course, she could wait until all the excitement died down, but she wasn’t inclined to. She felt like if she could just face the bogey man he’d go away and stay out of her dreams.

  * * * *

  Claire felt a little silly once she’d examined her reflection.

  Maybe the getup she’d decided to wear was a little overboard? Unnecessary? It was the weekend and she knew it wasn’t likely that the state of Florida was going to fork out overtime without a damned good reason. She doubted the crews had worked at all that day, but even if they had they would long since have left. The likelihood was that there would be nothing more than a guard or two at the sinkhole now if even that.

  And she was liable to be arrested as a cat burglar, dressed as she was.

  She studied the black shirt and jeans a little doubtfully for several moments and finally went back to her box of clothing and dug around until she found a dark ball cap. Her hair was dark blond, nearly brown, but she thought it might be light enough to reflect moonlight—assuming there was moonlight after mid-night. She didn’t know if there would be or not, but she decided she’d rather not take the chance since there would certainly be street lights to take into consideration.

  She wanted to be ‘hands free’ so she picked up the fanny pack she’d bought at the secondhand shop where she’d acquired a few changes of clothing and checked the contents one last time before she secured it at her waist and then left the apartment.

  She didn’t particularly like the idea of walking to the site so late at night. It seemed like a fairly safe neighborhood. She’d thought so when she’d settled on this area before she’d moved, but it was always risky being out at night, especially if you were a woman and alone.

  On the other hand, she didn’t think announcing her arrival with a car engine and lights would be a good idea if she wanted to succeed in her quest and since the site was barely a mile away it hardly seemed worth the effort to drive halfway and park.

  She was a little breathless by the time the fluttering yellow tape around the disaster area came into view, partly from the brisk walk, but mostly from nerves. She hadn’t seen anyone, but several damned dogs h
ad barked at her and pretty thoroughly rattled her.

  She stopped far enough back, she hoped, to spot whoever was guarding the site and not be seen herself. Thirty minutes later, she had assured herself that there were only two guards and that both of them seemed to be focused on the equipment that had been left on the side opposite the debris field and her.

  She didn’t especially like the idea of climbing down over the rubble, but she’d already decided that was probably the only way she was getting to the bottom. An elevator of sorts had been rigged up on the open side of the hole to carry scientists and equipment up and down but she’d thought her chances of using that were pretty much nil and it looked like she’d been right because both guards were watching that entrance.

  Thankfully, she’d also been right about the moonlight. The moon was full and it was almost directly overhead when she reached the site, illuminating the great pit almost as if her decision to explore it was sanctioned and not the worst idea she’d ever had.

  She almost lost her nerve while she stood waiting for an opportunity to reach the edge and start down. Fortunately, or unfortunately, one of the guards decided to take a piss break—or something—and disappeared about the time she was hovering on turning around and heading back and the other watched his departure just long enough for her to race to the edge, go over it and drop to a large piece of roof that was shadowed by the edge of the pit. She had to pause and catch her breath and shore up her shaky nerves before she could go any further, but her nerves seemed to steady once she focused on climbing down. She thought that was mostly because the task was too physically demanding to allow her mind to wander to things that would have worried her. She was breathing hard before she was much more than a quarter of the way down and had begun to worry that she might have some trouble climbing back up if she was having this much trouble climbing down! When she’d paused to rest for a moment and examined the distance she’d come as opposed to what she still had to overcome, she decided she could do it. She might have to stop and rest—many times!—to manage it, but she was reasonably confident she could make it down and back up again without having to be rescued.

  Assuming she didn’t manage to break something in the attempt and nothing shifted and fell on her.

  Those thoughts brought Dominic to mind naturally enough.

  He was going to have a total cow if he found out what she’d done.

  Which meant she couldn’t talk to him about anything she might discover.

  She was surprised at how much that realization disappointed her, but she was certain it was true. Dominic absolutely wouldn’t approve of her doing anything like this—which was her job, actually. Not that she often had to put herself in harm’s way, and certainly not something as dangerous as she was doing at the moment, but the thing was her job had been traditionally a man’s job before the status quo yielded enough to allow women into other fields of interest not considered traditional ‘women’s work’.

  And Dominic was a bit of a throwback.

  That was what made her uneasy about relaxing her guard around Dominic! It wasn’t the age gap that was the problem. It was the mindset.

  Not that she didn’t appreciate the concept of being ‘taken care of’. She was also drawn to the fact that he was such a manly man—tough as nails, good at all the ‘manly’ things, and still a gentleman and thoughtful—besides being hot, hot, hot physically!

  She needed her head examined, she thought in disgust. He seemed interested. She should be ready to jump on it! She was a geek! She didn’t think she was particularly hard on the eyes and she kept in shape so she had a decent figure, but she was definitely no beauty queen! And most men were intimidated/turned off by her brains and her competence.

  She should at least be trying to pull him in and catch him since he appeared to be nibbling the hook!

  She supposed she needed to think long and hard about the situation—whether she should or should not try to take advantage, whether she was going to be more sorry if she did or didn’t. The chances were probably high that if she did set her sights on him he’d take off, never to be seen or heard from again, but that was a test she should probably consider before she unbent enough to allow her emotions to come into play. If he was actually a ‘love ‘em and leave ‘em’ sort of guy, she wanted to steer clear of him. She didn’t want or need a partner badly enough to risk heartbreak.

  She supposed she should be desperate, given the fact that she was breathing on thirty and still hadn’t settled, but she wasn’t. She was used to being a loner and focused on her career and the truth was she thought she would be just as content devoting her life to her comfort, happiness, and interests as she would be sacrificing all of those things for someone she loved—if she found someone worthy of that sort of devotion.

  Her thoughts kept her occupied enough that she was almost surprised when she discovered she’d reached the bottom. Pausing to catch her breath, she looked back up the mountain she’d just climbed down to study the distance and then began scanning the debris to see if she could determine where she’d been trapped. Luckily, although the moonlight barely reached the bottom—either because of the depth and angle or because it had moved sufficiently in the time it took her to climb down that the sides blocked the light now—a string of lights had been set up along the ceiling of the cavern uncovered by the cave-in/sinkhole. The dim bulbs produced a pathetically weak amount of light at this time of night, casting as many deep shadows, or more, than they illuminated, but there was at least enough light to make it possible to see even if she couldn’t see really well.

  After a few minutes, she decided she’d pinpointed the spot where she’d been trapped and she moved toward it. Lining up with it, she turned to peer into the cavern that had been exposed by the collapse. She didn’t see a damned thing she could have mistaken for a statue of any kind, though—certainly not one even roughly shaped like an angel!

  Frowning, she checked the debris and her position again and then studied the rock formations.

  There had to be something! Beyond the fact that she was sure she’d seen a statue, according to that woman, a team of archeologists had come down. Something had brought them!

  She just didn’t have enough light, she decided, but after scanning the upper ridge, she also decided she was too exposed to bring out her flashlight. That might attract the attention of the guards. In fact, a moving light seemed almost guaranteed to attract notice.

  She debated, briefly, whether or not to leave at that point, but dismissed it. She’d gone to a hell of a lot of trouble—sneaking around at night dressed like an idiot/ninja/cat burglar and climbing down a dangerously unstable debris field. She wasn’t leaving until she’d figured out what had everyone so fascinated about the place!

  And hopefully also figured out why she thought she’d seen an angel!

  It was as she made that decision and began to move deeper into the cave that she literally fell over what she’d been looking for. She was too focused on her scrapes and bruises and her fear that she’d attracted the attention of the guards to realize what she’d stumbled over at first, though.

  She held completely still for several moments, even held her breath to listen. In a moment, she saw flashes of light crawling over the rubble as the guard or guards moved closer to the edge and shone their flashlights into the hole, searching for the source of the noise they’d heard. Apparently, they decided after a few moments that it was just some of the rubble shifting because the lights disappeared and, although she waited tensely for about fifteen minutes, she didn’t hear the motor for the lift kick on, heralding their determination to make a closer inspection.

  Sighing in relief, she examined the throbbing scrapes on her hands and knees and finally turned to see what she’d tripped over. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the regular edge. Fishing her small flashlight out, she glanced up to make sure neither of the guards were in view and flicked the light on. Shielding the beam with one hand, she directed the light at the gro
und and studied the disk-shaped void where something round or cylindrical had been removed. From the two to four inches of limestone crusting around the edge it was clear that whatever it was had been there a very long time.

  This had to be where the statue had been! It wasn’t just where she’d thought it would be, but then she couldn’t be sure considering the circumstances and this was certainly in the general area!

  She’d known damned well she hadn’t been hallucinating!

  It had been man-sized, though. How in the world could they have gotten something that huge and that heavy out without a great deal of effort that would’ve been seen by the media and reported? It should’ve been splashed all over the TV and internet by now—pictures and video!

  She dismissed the puzzle after a few moments. Maybe she would eventually get a chance to have a look at it. She couldn’t imagine that it wouldn’t end up on display. The important thing, though, was that she’d proven to herself that she hadn’t simply imagined it. There had most definitely been something down here. It might not actually look like what she thought she’d seen, but she’d seen something tangible. It hadn’t been her mind, or light and shadows, playing tricks on her.

  It might have been light and shadows that had made it seem to move.

  She shook that thought. It had to have been the light and shadows. There was no ‘maybe’ about that part.

  Getting to her feet, she dusted herself off the best she could and turned to study the cavern, contemplating exploring a little further. It was seriously dangerous—caverns were—especially exploring one alone. But it was easy to tell what had already been examined to some degree because of the lights strung up so that the people could see to work. She hesitated and then decided to see if she could see anything that would give her an idea of what had caught the interest of the local scientific community.