Missing in Christmas River: A Christmas Cozy Mystery (Christmas River Cozy Book 9)

by Meg Muldoon

  He had to be here.

  But in what condition? That was the real question now. And with each cry of his name that didn’t get a response, the flicker of hope that I’d felt after seeing the pie shop bag began to fade.

  If Wes was alive somewhere out here, he would have heard us yelling.

  Meaning that the reason we weren’t hearing a response was most likely because he couldn’t respond.

  I felt my stomach drop at the thought of it.

  I’d seen a few dead bodies in my life. There’d been my mother at her funeral. Mason Barstow’s lifeless hand sticking up from the snow drift behind my pie shop a few years earlier. And Rip Lawrence’s body on the cold floor of Geronimo’s Brew Pub.

  But seeing three was seeing three too many. I didn’t ever want to see one again, let alone one that belonged to a friend. And even though I’d tried to prepare myself these past 24 hours for possibly seeing something unpleasant, I didn’t think I was really ready for it.

  How could a person really prepare for seeing something like that?

  As I walked through the forest, I couldn’t stop thinking about what we might find. And that while Kevin had optimism – the math didn’t lie. It’d been almost three days since Angie crawled out of the wilderness. If Wes had been in the fall, and had no water with him during that time, the chances of his survival were dwindling with each passing second. And if he’d been badly hurt, then his chances were much, much worse.

  “Wes!?”

  I paused again, hoping. Unsurprisingly, there was no answer.

  I looked out at the vista ahead of me.

  We’d done somewhat of a loop, and from this vantage point, west of the river, I could see the cottonwood grove and the red obsidian gleaming in the distance.

  I reached in my bag for the water bottle, but stopped when I realized that I’d run out an hour before. I imagined Daniel’s supply wasn’t much better. Soon, we’d have to go back to the river and filter some water if we were going to continue the search.

  I willed my legs to move again, and began heading back up the ridge, away from the river. Crossing a different path on my way back to Daniel.

  My stomach let out a loud, dissatisfied grumble.

  Kevin wasn’t the only one who could have used a slice of pie, I thought.

  Though maybe not Chocolate Pecan, for me. If I had my choice, I’d probably choose a slice of Apple Custard Pie right about now. Cool and creamy, it sounded like pure heaven out here in these dry, sunbaked woods. In fact, when I got back to the pie shop, the first thing I was going to do was to cut a big slice of that pie, add several dollops of brandy-spiked whipped cream, dust it with a good helping of cinnamon, and then—

  I stopped walking abruptly as I came up on a pile of rocks in the middle of the woods.

  My breath caught in my throat at the sight of it.

  The rocks, mostly black obsidian, were clustered together in a big pile, running about 6 by 3 feet long.

  And there was more than just rocks, too.

  Two pieces of wood were nailed together at the head of the rock pile. Grey, rough pine that looked like it had stood out here in the elements for years.

  It was in the shape of a cross.

  A blistering chill passed through me.

  What was this? What the hell was it doing out here in the middle of nowhere? What—

  “Heelllpppp…”

  Chapter 51

  I listened hard, trying to hear over the sound of my own heart beat, which was thundering louder than the sound made by steel beams hitting concrete.

  But there was nothing more.

  Had I imagined the voice? Was the heat of the day getting to me? Was I dehydrated and starting to hear things that weren’t there?

  “Wes?” I said, my voice trembling. “Wes!?”

  Nothing again.

  I wiped away beads of sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand.

  I looked at the grave I’d stumbled upon, feeling another round of chills pass through me. Then I started walking quickly up the hill, back toward Daniel. He needed to know about this –whatever this was. Then we would need to go back and meet up with Kevin. The two hours would be up soon, and he would be—

  “Heeellppp…”

  I stopped dead in my tracks.

  I wasn’t making it up. A person had made that noise.

  Oh my goodness, I thought.

  He’s still alive.

  I hastily scanned the woods in all directions.

  But where was he?

  “Daniel!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Danielll!!!!”

  I heard no response.

  I stood still, not even so much as breathing, trying to hear the small, faint voice again.

  I began walking frantically back down the hill, past the grave, crying out.

  “Wes?!”

  “Hellppmee…”

  “Wes, where are you—?!”

  A moment later, the ground beneath my feet gave way, and I let out a scream loud enough to have been heard all the way at the Oregon Coast.

  Chapter 52

  I landed hard on my shoulder – the one I had injured back in February at the Chocolate Championship while trying to chase down a would-be murderer. The injury had taken a long time to heal, and though I was back to full-strength, it was weaker than my other shoulder and more prone to aches and pains.

  And landing directly on it hurt like a son of a bitch.

  I yelped in pain as a shower of pine needles and forest soil fell around me. I closed my eyes, trying to get a grip on the pain radiating from the left side of my body.

  I lay like that for a long moment, curled up, waiting for the agony to pass. I would have probably stayed that way for much longer if I didn’t hear it again.

  “Help…”

  It was faint and muffled. Barely audible – coming from somewhere in the back of the sloped lava tube I’d found myself in.

  My heart hammered hard in my chest.

  “Wes!?”

  I craned my neck and looked up at the opening where I’d come from.

  Though it had felt like I’d fallen a long ways down, in reality, it had only been a few feet. I wagered that the awkward fall and surprise of tumbling into nothing had been the reason for it feeling like a lot more. And as long as I hadn’t badly reinjured my shoulder, it seemed like I’d be able to crawl out easily.

  I retrieved my phone from the pocket of the backpack, pulling it out and holding it in front of me. The blue light shone upon the slick rock walls – but it was like trying to shine light at the bottom of the ocean. Instead of reflecting it, the walls seemed to absorb the light. It was practically useless in there.

  I stood up, navigating the sharp jagged rocks that littered the floor. I staggered forward, breathing hard.

  “Wes – I’m right here,” I said in a loud voice. “We’re going to get you out of here. We’re going to—”

  “I’m here…”

  His voice sounded faint and as fragile as a spider web in a hurricane.

  I stopped walking when I got to a wall of impenetrable rocks.

  And my blood ran cold when I realized that the voice was coming from somewhere behind them.

  Suddenly, everything made sense. Why an expert Search & Rescue volunteer – someone who had grown up in this area and knew it like the back of his hand – had gone missing without so much as a trace.

  Because while you could be an expert wilderness survivalist, there were still things that you couldn’t prepare for. Elements of Mother Nature that you couldn’t see coming, no matter how much time you spent in the outdoors.

  Things like a cave-in, for example.

  Wes and Angie must have come in here, looking for the Christmas Flynn treasure. The cave-in must have happened then. Angie must have been injured in it, but had been caught on the other side. She’d been able to crawl away for help. Meanwhile, Wes had been trapped for days behind the wall.

  He couldn’t have been far from death �
� and the fact that he’d been alive at all was a miracle unto itself. The only way it could have happened, in fact, was if he’d been trapped with his backpack, which must have contained some food and water.

  I set my phone down on a nearby rock and began clawing at the wall, tossing rocks the size of softballs aside.

  “We’re going to get you out of here!” I shouted, bringing down bigger and bigger pieces. But as I did, it only served to reveal even larger boulders blocking the cave.

  From somewhere above, a familiar voice suddenly sounded.

  “Ciinnn?”

  “Down here, Daniel!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

  My voice was raw and ragged from all the shouting, but I was fueled by some sort of mad adrenaline pumping through my veins. I didn’t even feel the pain in my shoulder anymore. And my heart was beating double-time.

  I turned around for a second, watching as Daniel steadily lowered himself into the sloped cave – in what was a much more graceful entrance than mine had been. He landed gently on the rocky floor bottom, pulling a flashlight out from his bag and shining it in my direction.

  “He’s in here, Daniel!” I said in a frantic tone. “I can hear him.”

  “Wes?” he shouted.

  “Here…”

  For a split second, Daniel looked back at me right after hearing his friend’s voice.

  And in the dim light spilling down from the forest above, I saw a look of profound relief in his eyes.

  A second later, we were working side by side at the rock wall, tearing it down little by little as fast as our hands would let us.

  Chapter 53

  I leaned over, resting my hands on my knees and sucking in wind.

  My back ached badly and my muscles were so tense, I thought one wrong move might make them all snap like a rubber band.

  I was beyond drained.

  But I wasn’t going to let Wes down – I wasn’t going to let Daniel down either.

  “One more, Cin,” Daniel said, equally out of breath. “We move that last boulder, and I’m sure we can pull him out of there.”

  “Okay,” I said, breathing in deeply. “Okay.”

  I didn’t know whether Daniel really thought that was true, or whether he was just trying to motivate me to keep going. But either way, I was going to do everything in my power to get Wes out of there. Even if it meant breaking my back.

  I willed my legs to step forward. Then I wedged myself between the large rock and the rest of the wall. Daniel did the same on the other side.

  “Ready?” he said.

  I nodded.

  “One, two…” Daniel started the countdown – the way he had for the past ten minutes.

  “Three!” I shouted.

  I pushed with all my might, closing my eyes tight and putting everything I had left in the tank into my biceps. At first, the big rock didn’t budge. But then, slowly, it started inching forward.

  A minute later, we had pushed it aside, revealing a small opening. Just large enough to slip through.

  Daniel quickly abandoned the boulder, grabbing the flashlight from off the cave floor and shining it into the compartment.

  “Wes—”

  He stopped suddenly as the flashlight zeroed in on something I couldn’t see from where I stood.

  Daniel gazed back at me, smiling.

  Chapter 54

  “Everything’s going to be all right,” I said, gently propping him up on my legs. “We’re going to get you out of here and back home. Okay? Back home to Angie.”

  He looked up at me with those big blue eyes of his. Eyes that usually held such merriment and happiness. Eyes that now looked tired and scared and frightened.

  His hair was greasy and matted, and his face was dark with dirt and dust. There was a startling listlessness in his eyes that reminded me of the way Angie had looked in the hospital room. A product of dehydration and pain and fear.

  I didn’t know the full-scale of the damage. When we had pulled Wes out from behind the rock wall, he’d howled out in pain. His right leg was twisted at an unnatural angle, and he had cuts and abrasions all up and down his right side – something that must have happened in the cave-in.

  However, despite being in bad shape, the fact remained that Wes Dulany was alive.

  But we needed to get him out of here. And soon, to keep it that way.

  “Daniel’s giving Search & Rescue and Life Flight directions right now,” I said to him, nodding to the cave opening where Daniel had gone out a few moments earlier to help guide the helicopter to a landing spot. “They’ll be here soon and we’ll get you to a hospital. Everything’s going to be okay, Wes.”

  He didn’t answer or look at me. Instead, his eyes drifted toward the back of the cave. I followed his gaze, the flashlight on the floor next to us illuminating the back wall.

  And that’s when I saw it.

  I squinted, sure that my eyes were playing tricks on me.

  But when I blinked hard and reopened them again, the faded, aged leather saddlebag was still there, leaning against the cave wall.

  A leather bag that didn’t look to be from this century.

  It looked full of something, too. Practically bulging.

  Was that it? The legendary treasure? The thing Wes and Angie had almost died for?

  Wes reached up suddenly, bringing a dusty hand to my shoulder. He struggled to sit up further, and motioned for me to come in close.

  He raised his cracked lips up to my ear.

  “Don’t… trust… him,” he said in a ragged voice.

  Goosebumps ruptured across my arms.

  But then I realized what must have happened.

  The days trapped in here must have made him delusional. He was seeing things. Not making any sense. Probably hallucinating, too.

  “It’s okay, Wes,” I said. “Just hold on a few more minutes and they’ll be here—”

  “You don’t… understand,” he said, each word seemingly a painful undertaking.

  He squeezed my arm.

  “Don’t trust HIM.”

  “Who?” I said.

  His eyes flashed with fear.

  “Kevin,” he whispered. “Don’t trust that bastard for one second.”

  Chapter 55

  Daniel had told me to stay there with Wes while he talked to dispatch.

  But I had no choice but to ignore those instructions and leave him in the lava cave.

  I didn’t even have time to think it through or understand the why or how of it. All I knew was that I had to find Daniel and give him Wes’s message.

  I had a bad feeling that our very lives depended on it.

  I climbed up out of the cave, looking around in all directions. I thought about yelling, but something told me to keep as quiet as possible.

  I hurried up the hill and caught sight of Daniel’s cranberry-colored plaid shirt through the trees in the distance. His back was to me, and he was holding something out in front of him – the radio, probably, in an attempt to get a signal.

  I ran toward him, my tired muscles screaming at me as I hobbled up to the ridge. I sucked in air, breathing hard like I was on the last leg of a marathon.

  “Daniel, I—”

  He waved his hand toward me without looking back.

  “Stay there, Cin! Stay there!”

  But I didn’t hear the warning in time.

  A second later, I became another player in the showdown.

  Chapter 56

  “Now this makes things interesting,” he said, his eyes crawling up and down me like a bedbug. “Very interesting indeed.”

  Kevin spoke nonchalantly. Not as if he was pointing a gun at the Sheriff. And not as if the Sheriff was pointing a gun at him.

  The large man’s face looked different, somehow. The mask was now off, and all trace of that good-natured, easy-going Search & Rescue volunteer had fallen away. What was left was something dark and dangerous. Something wild and cruel that had been bubbling under the surface this whole time.
/>   Only no one had been able to see it.

  “Lower your weapon, Sheriff,” Kevin said in that same amused tone.

  My eyes traveled from his face to the shiny silver barrel in his hands.

  I glanced over at Daniel, who was standing at the wrong end of that barrel. He held up his own service weapon, aiming it at Kevin with a steady, sure arm. His eyes narrowed like those of a hawk watching for any bit of movement from its prey.

  Daniel could handle danger. Plenty of it.

  But you didn’t have to be a law enforcement agent to see that this situation we’d found ourselves in wasn’t offering much in the way of an exit strategy.

  “You think I’m kidding, Sheriff? You want to know what’s going to happen to your wife after I shoot you?”

  There was nothing but sheer venom in the man’s voice, and it made my stomach turn to hear it.

  Daniel’s aim remained steady.

  “Just tell me how this happened, Kevin,” Daniel said in a strong, yet compassionate, voice. “Tell me why you’re doing this.”

  “Do you really have to ask?” Kevin said, raising his eyebrows. “You think I’m so stupid, I’d let an opportunity like this pass me by? You think I want to live in Tacoma the rest of my life working graveyard shifts at the hospital?”

  He shook his head.

  “Nu-uh,” he said. “No way. I’ve put in my time and I’m getting my share. Wes might have been the one who couldn’t ever shut up about the treasure, but I’m the one who did the work here. That bag in the cave belongs to me.”

  Daniel fell silent, studying Kevin’s red face for a long moment. The large man noticed, and suddenly looked angry.

  “What?”

  “You planned all of this, didn’t you?” Daniel said. “You followed Wes and Angie out here. You got her out of the way somehow. And then you made Wes lead you here… to the treasure.”

  Kevin’s lips curled up into a psychopathic smile.

  “Well, I wasn’t responsible for that cave-in,” he said. “That was all on Wes. Everything would have been simple if Wes hadn’t been a fool and kicked those rocks like the little bitch that he is. I’d have taken the treasure and left him in peace if he hadn’t done that.”