‘‘There’s a small chimney up here,’’ said MacGregor. ‘‘Are you game to give it a try, Neva?’’
‘‘I don’t think so—not this time. Anyone notice that the lights are acting funny?’’
‘‘What do you mean?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘I don’t know. I think someone’s light is flickering.’’
‘‘It’s not Mike snapping photographs?’’
‘‘Maybe.’’
‘‘We better check out the headlamps,’’ said Diane.
As they walked, the tunnel changed midstream, so to speak, from a rectangular passage to a rounded tunnel.
‘‘Well, this is interesting,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Funny how the shape changes,’’ said Neva.
‘‘The slope too,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Yeah, I’ve always wondered about it,’’ said MacGregor.
Mike was scrutinizing the walls. He took photos of the change.
‘‘What do you make of it?’’ asked Diane.
Mike grinned. ‘‘I think it’s a place that marks the change from phreatic water movement to vadose water movement. This is why I love caving. Where else would you get to see this?’’
‘‘Ooookay,’’ said MacGregor, ‘‘I’m glad we cleared up that little mystery—yes, sir, I’ll sleep well tonight. What the heck does that mean?’’
Mike had started to explain, when Diane heard a sharp crack. The next thing she knew, MacGregor was staring at her, a puzzled look on his face.
Chapter 44
The first thing Diane saw after hearing the noise was blood dripping down MacGregor’s shirtsleeve. He clutched at his arm and looked at the blood on his hand, confusion showing in his eyes.
‘‘What the hell?’’ Mike saw him and took a step toward him.
‘‘Gun!’’ yelled Diane. ‘‘Get out of this tunnel.’’
She grabbed MacGregor and pulled him into a side passage. Mike and Neva followed on her heels. The lights from their headlamps made chaotic swaths of light across the walls and ceiling. But she could see they were in a large chamber strewn with breakdown. Diane shoved MacGregor behind a large boulder.
‘‘I’m bleeding. Is somebody shooting at us?’’
‘‘Who the hell are you?’’ yelled Mike. ‘‘Are you crazy?’’
‘‘Dr. Fallon, you’re a hard woman to find. Good thing you left maps and directions for me.’’
The voice sounded familiar, but it was distorted by the echo effects of the large chamber they were in.
‘‘What do you want?’’ she yelled.
‘‘I want my goddamn fucking diamonds.’’
‘‘Diamonds?’’ MacGregor’s voice was approaching a high-pitched squeak. ‘‘What’s he talking about? There’s no diamonds in this cave,’’ he yelled. ‘‘I’d have found them already.’’
Diane turned off her headlamp and Mike and Neva followed suit. She reached over and turned off MacGregor’s. The eerie glow of a flashlight radiated around the corner from the passage they just left.
‘‘I don’t have your diamonds,’’ said Diane.
‘‘You know where they are, and I’m going to haul your ass back to get them.’’
‘‘You know, it’s not safe to shoot off a gun in a cave,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Then don’t give me any trouble.’’
‘‘Detective LaSalle?’’
‘‘Right on the first try.’’
‘‘How did you get here so fast?’’
‘‘I never left.’’
He walked from around the corner, holding a flash light in his left hand just above his left shoulder. He had a gun in his other hand.
‘‘I’m on vacation. I told them at the station up in Buffalo that I was still working on little Alice Little ton’s case, and to forward any calls about it to me. I figured if you ever ID’d the bodies, you’d call the Buffalo police.’’
Diane could see the faint figures of Neva and Mike slowly moving toward LaSalle, keeping out of the beam of his flashlight. No, she wanted to shout at them. Don’t try anything. But they were moving. Damn.
‘‘So you killed Ashlyn, Justin and Cathy?’’ Diane desperately wanted to keep his attention focused on her.
‘‘No. Everett made that little mess.’’
Without warning, he fired and Mike fell. ‘‘No!’’ yelled Diane. ‘‘Damn you!’’
Diane rushed toward him as Neva jumped for La Salle. He’d seen Neva coming, and with the force of his whole body behind it, met her head-on, knocking her flying across a large slab of sloping rock on the floor of the cave toward a black opening.
Neva started sliding. Diane switched on her headlamp as she ran for her. Neva grabbed and scratched at the rocks as she slid over the edge of . . . of what?
Neva screamed. Diane ignored LaSalle shouting for her to stop. She scrambled across the rock and looked over the edge.
Her heart lurched in her chest. Neva had fallen into a narrow slit between vertical rock walls. She was slowly sinking, becoming more tightly wedged in the gap. Below her dangling feet lay only black ness. She was hanging in the opening above a cavern so large that the light from Diane’s lamp did not penetrate it. Diane reached down and grabbed her hand.
‘‘Help me,’’ Diane yelled at LaSalle.
‘‘Leave her and get over here.’’
‘‘Hold on to the crack in the wall.’’ Diane pulled Neva’s hand toward a fissure to use as a handhold.
Neva’s eyes were wide, frightened and panicstricken. Diane pulled Neva’s other hand upward until Neva’s fingers grabbed into the fissure.
‘‘Hold on.’’
Neva’s fingers slipped out and she fell farther into the crack. Diane grabbed her wrist and pulled hard. She felt herself slowly sliding forward toward the edge. If she slipped into the opening headfirst, it would be over for all of them.
‘‘Help me, damn you! You can’t leave her like this!’’
‘‘I work for people who are going to cut me in two with a chain saw—before they kill me. Don’t tell me what I can’t do. I’m trying to survive here.’’
‘‘I have to get some rope,’’ she said to Neva. ‘‘Hold on.’’
Diane pushed back against the rock to keep from sliding.
‘‘Please don’t let me go,’’ Neva pleaded
‘‘Neva, you can do this. Hold on for just a couple of minutes while I get some rope. I’m letting go. Hold on to the rocks.’’
‘‘I’m slipping. There’s no place to hold on to.’’
‘‘I have to get some rope.’’
‘‘I am so scared. Oh, God.’’
‘‘I’m going to get you out of this.’’
She let go of Neva’s hand and scrambled off the huge slab lying on the edge of the crevice. She turned and faced LaSalle.
‘‘We’re going to get my diamonds,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m going to get her out of there.’’
‘‘You get the hell over here, or so help me God, I’m going to shoot you.’’
‘‘Okay, you win. Shoot me.’’
‘‘You stupid . . .’’ LaSalle raised his gun at her and held it there for several seconds. He wavered, then dropped it to hip level. ‘‘Dammit, go ahead, get her out.’’
‘‘I need help,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Well, you don’t have any.’’
Diane glanced at Mike lying on the cave floor. He was trying to move. There was a growing dark stain on his shirt. It looked as if the bullet hit him in his side.
MacGregor was huddled against a rock, whispering a mantra of ‘‘Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God.’’
Diane ran for her backpack.
‘‘Don’t for a second think of trying anything,’’ La Salle said.
‘‘With what? We have no weapons. Just rope and candy bars.’’
‘‘Dick,’’ she called at MacGregor. ‘‘Help Mike.’’ He didn’t move. ‘‘MacGregor!’’ That got his attention. ‘‘Mike needs he
lp.’’
Dick MacGregor looked at her a moment, switched on his headlamp and crawled over to Mike.
‘‘He’s bleeding.’’
‘‘Take off your shirt and apply pressure to his wound. Do it.’’
‘‘Will you hurry up?’’ said LaSalle.
Diane didn’t say anything, but pulled a tough, al most new nylon rope from her backpack. She uncoiled it and began tying foot slings on one end using a bow line on a bight, creating two nooses. She dressed and set the knot so the parts were properly aligned and very tight. Neva was about five feet six, and she needed several more feet for a harness. Diane tied handhold loops higher up on the rope.
‘‘My patience is wearing thin.’’
‘‘I’m hurrying as fast as I can. Your diamonds aren’t going anywhere. You didn’t call the Canadians, did you? Just didn’t want me to call and alert them.’’
Diane fished candy out of her pack. ‘‘I’m throwing you a candy bar. Snack on that while you wait.’’ She threw it toward his feet.
He actually said thanks.
Diane secured the other end of the rope around a boulder with a figure eight bend, tying it off with an overhand knot to keep the rope from slipping.
‘‘I see you’re good with knots,’’ said LaSalle. ‘‘Ever ett Littleton was good with knots. His knots never got loose. He was one pissed-off son of a bitch. I told him I didn’t have anything to do with his sister Alice’s death. That was all Ashlyn and Justin trying their to bacco scam on the wrong people.’’
Diane didn’t say anything. She remained focused on what she was doing. If the knots were tied incorrectly, they would reduce the strength of the rope or slip loose. With the rope anchored to the boulder, she went back to Neva, who was literally hanging on by her fingernails.
Neva was stuck at hip level. So far there was room around her chest for her to breathe. Diane had wanted to make a harness around Neva’s chest, but she was too far down for Diane to reach safely without help, and LaSalle wasn’t willing to help. Damn. She untied the handhold loop she had made and tied another one lower on the rope.
‘‘Okay, Neva. I’m lowering the rope beside you, down through the opening. I want you to find the loops with your feet. There are two of them. If you can, put a foot in each loop. If not, put at least one foot in.’’
‘‘I think maybe I broke my right leg.’’ Neva’s voice was very high-pitched and soft. ‘‘Please don’t leave me hanging by my hands again.’’
‘‘I’m going to get you out of this. The rope is going to support you.’’
Diane dropped the end of the rope down through the crevice in the rocks, stopping it with the end loop near Neva’s left foot. Diane took off her flannel shirt and used it as a pad to protect the rope from being cut by the edge of the rock.
‘‘Okay, Neva, find the loop. You need to raise your foot slightly.’’
Neva tried and missed the loop. She whimpered. ‘‘I don’t want to die here.’’
‘‘You’re not going to. Concentrate on putting your foot in the loop.’’
Neva tried again. On the third try her foot found the loop.
‘‘Now you can put your weight on the rope. Hold on to the handholds on the rope.’’
Neva pushed against the rope. ‘‘That’s better. Maybe I can climb out.’’
She strained, pulling on the rope. Diane pulled as hard as she could on her end.
‘‘I’m stuck.’’ Neva started to cry. ‘‘It hurts.’’
‘‘Okay, Neva, I want you to listen to me. Right now you are a cave creature and your only purpose in life is to hang on to this rope. No matter what happens, no matter how tired you get, no matter how much you hurt, the only thing you have to do is to hang on to this rope. You understand?’’
‘‘Yes.’’ Her voice was barely a squeak.
‘‘I will come back with help for you and for Mike and Dick. Trust me. I will.’’
Diane took a space blanket from her pack and tucked it around Neva as best she could without going over the edge herself.
‘‘Okay, now let’s go.’’ LaSalle was insistent.
‘‘I’m going to see about Mike, and then we’ll go get your damn diamonds. I’ll even give you some extra from the museum if you’ll be a little patient. We have some fine gems.’’
‘‘Well, a woman who knows how to bargain. I like that. Look at him, then. After that, we go.’’
Diane rushed to Mike. He was conscious and pale. His skin was cool to the touch, but the cave was cool. She looked at his side. MacGregor started to lift his shirt from the wound.
‘‘No. Keep it there. If you move it, you’ll pull the clotted blood loose and start the bleeding again. It looks like it’s slowed.’’
Diane folded parts of the shirt over the area to soak up more blood. She put a hand on Mike’s back. He was bleeding from the exit wound. Damn. She fished out her first aid kit and tore open the gauze pads, stacked them up and pressed them against the wound. ‘‘Hold this,’’ she told MacGregor. ‘‘When I finish, I’ll look at your arm.’’
‘‘Dammit, this isn’t a hospital,’’ LaSalle said angrily.
‘‘You’re the one shooting people. Just one of our stones at the museum is worth ten thousand dollars and we have lots of them. That’s a lot of money when all you have to do is stand there and wait a minute or two.’’
Diane wrapped an Ace bandage tight around Mike’s midsection. He had been silent so far. Now he looked at her as if he were trying to telegraph thoughts.
‘‘He’s going to kill you,’’ he whispered so silently Diane had to read his lips, ‘‘and us.’’
‘‘No,’’ whispered Diane. ‘‘Trust me.’’
Mike’s stare had an urgency as he looked at her. ‘‘He won’t let you...’’
‘‘What are you two cooking up?’’
‘‘Nothing. I’m trying to comfort Mike. What could we possibly be cooking up? You have a gun, and three-quarters of us are incapacitated. I’m almost finished.’’
She looked deep into Mike’s eyes. ‘‘Trust me and trust my love of caves.’’ He looked at her, puzzled. ‘‘It’s your job to stay alive.’’
Diane looked at MacGregor’s wound. It wasn’t bad, she was relieved to see. She put a bandage on it. She took another space blanket and draped it over Mike and MacGregor.
‘‘Watch the others. I’ll come back with help. Don’t let Mike move. Talk to Neva occasionally. Tell some jokes. You have a captive audience.’’ He gave her a weak smile. ‘‘I’m counting on you,’’ she added.
Diane stood up. ‘‘I’m ready to go.’’
Chapter 45
‘‘Well, finally. We can get out of this damn place.’’ LaSalle worked his way around the rocks to Diane. ‘‘Move.’’ He waved his pistol in the general direction from which he had entered the chamber.
Diane had walked in front of him for several steps when two shots went off behind her. MacGregor began screaming. Diane whirled around, dread filling her chest. Mike was halfway up, leaning toward MacGregor, who was screaming and sobbing. Blood was flowing from both his boots.
‘‘You son of a bitch,’’ Diane yelled at LaSalle.
Diane rushed to MacGregor and kneeled down be side him, but LaSalle pulled her up and began drag ging her from the chamber. He dropped his flashlight and it clattered on the floor.
‘‘See what you made me do.’’ He shoved her to the ground.
Her hands stung as she broke her fall.
‘‘I ought to just shoot you and cut my losses. Pick that up and hand it to me.’’
Diane picked up the light and handed it to LaSalle.
‘‘Why did you have to shoot him? He was no threat to you.’’
‘‘The hell he wasn’t. He was just winged. After we left, what was to stop him from walking out and calling the police? He can wait and suffer with the rest of your group. Now, listen and understand this. I showed compassion by not putting a bullet in their heads. That’s my s
how of good faith. Now it’s your turn. We’re going to get out of this fucking cave and get my diamonds. No more delays, no more problems. You got that?’’
Diane turned to Mike and MacGregor. ‘‘Dick, don’t take your boots off. Put pressure on your wounds. Stay warm and still. Keep that space blanket around the two of you. Talk to Neva occasionally, but don’t strain yourself. I’ll come back with help.’’
‘‘Aren’t you just the sweet little mother.’’
For the first time, Diane got a good look at LaSalle. His good looks were ruined by a mean expression. He had dark hair, sharp, well-defined features, muscular build. She thought she understood what the story was with Ashlyn and Justin. Two arrogant kids caught smuggling contraband, probably caught by him—a cor rupt cop. He offered them a deal—working for him for a much bigger prize than cigarettes. Ashlyn proba bly fell for him.
Diane walked slowly out of the chamber and started up the passage. She remembered Everett’s last words about not trusting policemen. At the time, she thought he was talking about the policeman who shot him. He had meant LaSalle.
‘‘Did Everett find you out and think you were in volved in his sister’s death?’’ she said.
‘‘Yeah, you figured that out, huh? I tried to explain to him all that happened before I met the little twits, but he wouldn’t listen. Caught me off guard one night with this electric cattle prod. Damn thing hurt like hell. Before I could recover, he had me tied up like a pig and I was riding in a truck from New York to Georgia with those three sniffling kids. All of them tied tight like me. Cried and moaned the whole way. The worst thing was, he stole our diamonds. Stuffed three of them down the kids’ throats before he hung them. He cut off their fingers while they were alive. God, he was a maniac.’’
He was a maniac, thought Diane. You’re doing a good impression of one. She listened to him talking and kept walking and checking her compass.
‘‘Can’t you speed up?’’
‘‘This is a cave. As you witnessed, caves are danger ous. You walk at a slow pace in a cave. Why didn’t you just wait for us to come out?’’
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