Incident At Elder Creek

by Anna Furtado

  Leah stared at Tucker. “Are you kidding me? You think I want to be in here with him?” She pointed at the disembodied arm. “No thanks. I want to go with you.”

  “Then I think we have no alternative but to see where the opening leads. You feel up to it?”

  “I don’t think I have a choice.”

  Tucker looked around at the rubble on the floor and picked up the lengths of rope Notch used to tie Leah. She wound them up into loops and helped Leah place one over her head. She pushed her unhurt arm through it, wearing it like a sash, from one shoulder to the opposite hip. Tucker did the same with hers. Leah lifted the lantern from the floor where it lay. It still gave off light, in spite of the crack in the glass.

  As they set off toward the opening in the rock, Leah stopped and said, “There’s a flashlight. Notch put it in his coat pocket when we got here once he lit the lantern.”

  “Good thinking. If I can get to it, it might extend our light if the battery on the lantern dies.”

  Tucker took a deep breath to steel herself against the thought of having to touch Notch. She used the tip of the pickax to clear some of the rock from around him in order to avoid contact for as long as possible. She estimated where his side pocket might be and found it only a few inches from her initial approximation. While pushing stones from Notch’s side, she noted no movement or sound from him, convincing her he didn’t survive the rockfall. She refused to think any more about his condition. There was nothing she could do and she knew her mission.

  When she exposed the needed portion of his coat and located the pocket, she rocked back on her heels. She hoped he was right handed. If so, this would be the pocket into which he’d have pushed the flashlight. She didn’t think she’d have the courage to keep at it if forced to look for the other pocket. She bent down, took a deep breath and plunged in her hand—and wrapped her fingers around the metal body of the small flashlight. After she extracted it, she faced Leah, a look of triumph on her face, and pushed the switch into the on position. The light sprang to life sending a strong, narrow beam across the room. Leah returned her smile.

  Butterflies buffeted Tucker’s stomach. She looked down at the light and tried to control the feeling as she pushed the switch to the off position. She dropped it into her pocket, attempting to block out the fact that she retrieved it from a dead man’s pocket.

  As she picked up the pickax again, she pointed with her chin toward the opening at the back of the cavity to what Tucker hoped would lead to the outside world. If not, there was only one remaining hope—Jackie, and the phone call Tucker trusted she’d made to the sheriff.

  Chapter Sixteen

  AFTER SQUEEZING THROUGH the narrow opening in the wall, they walked a level, narrow path without too much difficulty. When they reached a fork in the tunnel, they chose the wrong one first. Fortunately, it only spanned a few hundred yards before coming to an abrupt end. Both paths looked as if they might be exploration tunnels. They were so cramped, they needed to walk single file. In some places, they were compelled to inch their way sideways, skimming the walls, as they navigated.

  Tucker wondered if the second fork would dead-end, too, terminating any possibility of escape, but when they backtracked and tried the other opening, they found it wider, and it took them on for quite a way before starting upward at a steep incline. As they labored up the slope, their hopes rose. They might be heading back up to the surface.

  They walked, and sometimes scrambled, over debris. The tunnel widened and they walked side by side. After an hour, they needed to rest and sat on the path, leaning their backs against a small boulder near the jagged surface of the wall.

  Tucker’s mind kept pummeling her with questions, and she broke their silence. “I wonder why that jerk, Notch, thought involving me in this would solve all his problems. Didn’t he realize if something happened to me, they’d only get someone else to take my place and continue on with the project?”

  “You do realize he wasn’t playing with a full deck, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, but it’s still baffling why he wasn’t capable of figuring it out.”

  They sat with their own thoughts for a few seconds, until Leah said, “You know, this is where he put Amy. If you kept going straight instead of veering off into the room we were in, she’s in the other tunnel. He took me there, the bastard. He wanted me to see her. She looked pretty decomposed. He said he put some chemical on her to speed up the process. It was awful. He made me look at her, insisting I looked like her. I thought I’d throw up right there. He laughed and said I acted like her, no stomach, and no brains. I kicked him in the shin. I was trying to aim higher, but I lost my footing. He yelped, but he kept his damn grip on me. Then he retaliated, hitting me. Hard.” She raised her good hand to her cheek, obviously remembering the blow. “It made me even more angry over the whole thing—me, Amy Hammersmith—everything.”

  Tucker didn’t know what to say, how to respond. She thought it better just to let Leah talk.

  “He bound her using duct tape and tossed it off to the side of the body. When I started swearing at him, he didn’t like it very much. He dragged me into the other alcove and used the old ropes to tie me up. I kept haranguing him. He said he liked me when we were in his car. I mean, like, really liked me, so I thought if I acted like a bitch he wouldn’t find me so appealing anymore and he might let me go. No such luck, though. He disappeared out of the cave room after tying me up, and when he came back, he held the last of the tape in his hand and used it over my mouth to shut me up.”

  Tucker noticed her lips were no longer swollen, but they still looked red, raw. Tears streamed down Leah’s cheeks, leaving tracks in her dirt-smudged face.

  “I’m so sorry, Leah.”

  Tucker wrapped her in an embrace. Leah leaned into her and put her head on her shoulder.

  “I know. Thanks,” she sniffed. “But now, we may end up stuck in here. We don’t have any water. We may die like Amy. Not even at the hands of that monster, instead, in the belly of this whale, so to speak.” She looked around in the dim light of the lantern.

  Tucker blew out a breath. “Then we’d better find our way out.”

  She stood up and held out her hand. When Leah reached for her with her injured hand, Tucker didn’t take it. Instead, she pointed to the other hand. Leah understood and changed hands. Tucker pulled her up into her arms. “We’ll find it, Leah. I promise. This has to lead somewhere. It’s gone on too long not to be the way out.”

  Leah tried to smile, unsuccessful in the attempt. Tears welled up in her eyes again. Tucker kissed her forehead then bent to pick up their gear. “Let’s go, shall we?”

  Leah agreed and they started toward the darkness.

  As they trudged on, Leah offered, “Dawson is involved, you know.”

  Tucker stopped. “He is?”

  “Yeah, Notch told me he ordered him to shoot you with enough tranquilizers to bring down a bear. The guy’s certifiable, Tucker. You should have seen his eyes. They glazed over as he bragged about what he did to you. He made Dawson drug you and bring you to his house.”

  Tucker said, “After he told me about tranquilizing me back there, I started to realize it’s how come I recognized the address. I guess I revived from my drug-induced stupor briefly as somebody—Joe Dawson, probably—dragged me onto Notch’s front porch.”

  Leah said, “Then, they took you inside and he hypnotized you so you’d forget about opening the mine and what they did to you.”

  “I’m sure it’s why I kept hearing the word forget over and over, especially when I’d come close to recalling something.”

  “He used the power of suggestion. He’s known—or he used to be known—for his ability to put people into a hypnotic state. It’s how he got Amy to keep coming back to him. He obsessed over her. Look where it got her.” She grew thoughtful.

  “I’m afraid he started to transfer his obsession to me. My fate probably would have ended up the same as Amy’s. He told me he sent Joe to get
me—the first time I heard someone at the back door of the house. And obviously, from what Notch told us back there, he did a little creeping around himself.” She shivered. “Joe might have been our bear. Notch got pretty angry at him for failing. He said Joe was next on his list after he took care of you.”

  Tucker stopped walking and pulled Leah toward her, wrapping her in a tight embrace. “Hey, it’s all over now. Notch’s dead. When we get out of here, we’ll let the sheriff deal with Joe Dawson for his part in all this and I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”

  Leah pulled away a little. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Tucker Stevens.”

  Tucker pulled Leah in closer. They stood embracing for a minute, until Tucker said, “We’d better get going.”

  TUCKER DIDN’T HAVE any idea how much time passed. Leah checked her watch and they estimated they had been walking for a couple of hours.

  When the lantern finally gave out, they abandoned it on the path and took out the flashlight. At one point, they found their path partially blocked by a huge boulder. Tucker climbed up on top of it and shined the flashlight through to the opening down below. It looked like the path continued on, but to her disappointment, it plunged downward now. The light illuminated enough of the way for her to barely make out the path as it leveled off, but it was impossible to tell if it ever started to rise upward again.

  “You’ll need to climb up here, Leah. It’s a steep drop on the other side, so we’ll have to use one of the ropes so I can lower you down.”

  It took Leah a few tries to successfully climb to a level area half-way to the top. The low-heeled dress shoes she wore were now tattered and torn, and the climb proved difficult with only one hand to steady her. Tucker worried Leah’s wrist was more than just bruised, but doing anything about it was impossible until they found their way out.

  When Leah finally stood beside Tucker again, she said, “I’d give a year’s salary for my hiking boots and some water—especially the water. If that idiot let me get my things before he dragged me from the library the way he did, I would have my purse. The one with a full bottle of water in it—and my phone.”

  “Don’t think about the water. It’ll make you thirstier. And your phone probably wouldn’t be any good down here, anyway. No signal.”

  It gave Tucker an idea. She pulled out her phone and pressed the wake-up button. The phone sprang to life. She showed it to Leah. “No Service,” it read. Tucker smiled.

  “No service makes you happy?”

  “No,” Tucker said, “but an eighty-nine percent charge does. If the flashlight gives out, we can use the phone as another light source.” Tucker shut the phone down to conserve the battery. She shoved it in her pocket and waved the flashlight back and forth across the rock on which they were standing, stopping in several places to examine it more closely.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Looking for a place to tie up, so I can get down after I help you.”

  She hit on a potential spot as she skimmed the surface of the rock with the light. A fracture off to one side left a spike-like protrusion sticking up. The large stone barb, about a foot long and almost as wide at the base, might allow her to cinch the rope around it firmly. As long as the protruding piece of stone didn’t prove too brittle, it might hold her weight. She walked over to the spot, put her foot on the outcrop and pushed. It felt stable. Tucker surmised the rest of the rock to be solid. Might work. If not, maybe it will at least break my fall if the spike doesn’t crumble too early.

  Tucker strained to let the rope out slowly as and watched Leah make her way, carefully, to the path below. Leah helped by rappelling off the surface of the rock with her feet, the rope tied under her arms taking most of her weight, as Tucker grasped it from above, feeding it down, trying not to let the rough rope cause a burn.

  When Leah reached the ground, Tucker breathed a sigh of relief. She tugged the rope already cinched around the protrusion, checking it one more time before edging over the side of the rock. As she worked her way down the rope, hand over hand, feet bumping against the rock, the rope slipped in her grasp a little each time she grabbed onto it, and it began to burn her hands. She tried not to think about it. She looked down. With only about seven or eight feet to go, she saw Leah looking up at her, an intense look of concentration on her face. Tucker slid her hand down the rope. A stiff, scratchy strand stabbed her already raw palm. Her brain reacted, sending the message to let go.

  She hit bottom hard, the wind escaping from her lungs as she did. She struggled to get it back, but her lungs refused to expand. Her body wouldn’t allow her to draw in the fresh supply of air she so desperately needed. Everything went black.

  THEY SAT IN the dark to conserve the flashlight. Leah told her she was only out for a few seconds—long enough to scare the crap out of her, in Leah’s words.

  Tucker did a quick self-check.

  “I’m okay, Leah. I just got winded from the fall. Couldn’t take a breath in for a minute there, that’s all. I might have a black and blue mark where I hit the ground. Maybe I’ll have a little stiffness later, but I’m fine. No worries.”

  Most of the tension left Leah’s face.

  Leah said, “Tell you what. You sit here for a few minutes. I’ll check the path to see where it goes.”

  Tucker opened her mouth to protest, but Leah held up her hand to stop her. “I’ll just go a little way, just to get a feel for what’s ahead of us. I won’t be long.”

  “But the sooner we get up the trail, the sooner we might find the exit.”

  “No. Taking these few minutes for you to rest won’t make that much difference, Tucker. Make sure you sit here until I get back. Promise me.”

  Tucker harrumphed and raised her right hand. “I promise. But don’t you go too far.”

  “I told you I won’t.” Before she left, she made Tucker promise not to move. Tucker repeated the oath, her tone grudging. Leah took the flashlight and marched up the path to see if it would make its way upward again.

  Tucker estimated Leah to be gone about five minutes. When she returned, she wore a smile on her dirt-soiled face. She plopped down beside Tucker and quenched the light again.

  “The path stays level for a while, but then ascends again. I didn’t go too far once it started back up. There’s lots of debris on the path in that area, so I thought I’d better conserve energy for the climb with you.”

  “Smart. Let’s go.”

  She saw Leah’s look of concern when she switched the light back on. She put a hand on Tucker’s arm. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” She stood up, grunting against her body’s protest. “We need to get moving.”

  They climbed at a steady rate. When the path leveled off for a short time, they stopped to rest. As they sat, their backs against the tunnel wall, Leah said, “I’m so thirsty, my tongue is sticking to the roof of my mouth. I so wish I had that bottle of water.”

  Tucker grasped her good hand and intertwined her fingers in Leah’s. “It won’t be long. Just hang on.”

  Leah said, “Give me a couple more minutes, then I’ll be ready to go.”

  “No problem.”

  They sat in silence.

  Tucker felt her shirt, drenched with perspiration, clinging to her back. Now, she felt cold. She said nothing at first because she wasn’t sure what she perceived was real. When a slight breeze rippled across her skin, causing her to shiver, she knew without a doubt what it was.

  She didn’t have much energy left, but she mustered what she could and said, “Air.”

  “What?”

  “Air,” Tucker said, her excitement growing.

  “Tucker, what are you talking about?”

  “Shhh. Listen.”

  They quieted. Tucker heard a faint whistling sound.

  “Hear that? The whistle?”

  They listened again.

  “Air,” Leah said, her voice filled with awe. “From outside?”

  Chapter Seventeen

&n
bsp; THEY TRAVERSED THE remainder of their difficult trek toward freedom, made tougher by their physical condition. Lack of water and the strenuous activity took its toll. Tucker took the brunt of the rockfall back in the storage cavern and her free fall on the path left her feeling sore. Leah’s shoes were in shreds, and her feet were blistered and bloodied. She finally admitted her wrist ached constantly now.

  The last few yards proved to be a near vertical climb. Tucker heard voices in the distance and wondered if people were out looking for them. The sounds propelled them up and out of a hole only slightly larger than an average sized adult. Tucker emerged first, adrenalin allowing her to ignore the pain in her hands as she pulled herself up by scrub bush branches near the opening. Then she reached down and grasped Leah around her uninjured forearm and pulled. She popped out of the hole as if shot from a cannon and came to rest in Tucker’s arms.

  “Sorry,” Tucker said when Leah made contact with the ground. “I think a final burst of adrenaline made me a little out of control.”

  Leah and Tucker stood together, taking in the clear, cool night air, listening to the faint sounds of a police radio and shouts from people in the distance, a search party Tucker now realized. Tucker felt as if she’d never clear the dirt and dust from her lungs, but they were free—and Leah stood safely by her side.

  Tucker looked down at Leah’s battered footwear. “Can you walk?”

  Leah smiled weakly. “If it will take me to a drink of water, I’ll walk anywhere.”

  They picked their way through some heavy overgrowth toward the direction of the voices echoing through the night. When they reached a clearing, they found themselves at the top of a hill overlooking a thin grove of trees.

  Below her, Tucker saw Sheriff Baker and a group of people gathered in a tight knot. Tucker identified Jackie among them. Tucker waved the flashlight, now dim, its dying battery giving up the last of its energy.