Chapter 17 #2
“The one where if anything happened to you that I’d find Chance a good home?”
Emotion clamped hold of her throat. “I remember.”
“You have my word. Even though nothing is going to happen to you, you have my word.”
She lifted her gaze to his. The loss of him stabbed her in the heart. This man she’d never really had a chance with, but for once, wished she could have. “Thank you.”
She slithered backward down the trail, and then chose a steeper path higher up the hill before cutting down again toward the mine entrance to give Sebastian the clearest view of the door.
She slipped out of the snowshoes and left them wedged between two rocks.
She came out only a few feet on the right side of the mine door, sliding down the last boulder.
The stainless steel of the padlock gleamed.
No visible weathering. It hadn’t been out in the elements for long.
The chain was thick and old with rust between the links.
She reached out, careful to keep her body away from the door.
Tested the lock, but the mechanism was closed tight. Pulled the chain, but it was secure.
No way Eastman could have locked himself inside, but Summer…
She waved Sebastian toward her, and he brought Chance with him.
“Can you pick a lock?”
He nodded. “Yep, but it’ll take too long. Stand back.”
She and Chance stood out of range while he used his pistol to fire at the padlock. His urgency was contagious. He was also worried Summer might be behind that door.
Her mouth went dry as he removed the chain and dumped it aside. She joined him with her sidearm drawn. Her dog held a “down” position off to one side.
She could hear her own breathing but not Sebastian’s. He was alert but calm.
He went inside with a burst of energy, she was a step behind him, but there was no one there.
A cot stood against one wall, and some supplies sat on a shelf that didn’t look that old. A ring of stones enclosed a pile of cold ashes over to one side beneath a natural vent in the rock.
Was this Eastman? Or was it someone else camping out?
She went outside and whistled to her dog, who came bounding up to her like he hadn’t seen her in days. She caught his leash.
“Can I get the scent article again?”
Sebastian came outside with a grim look on his face. He turned his back so she could dig inside his pack for the plastic bag that held Summer’s shoe. Let Chance sniff deeply.
“Find.” She took him into the cave, keeping his leash short. He wagged his tail and went to the cot, jumping onto it and snuffling madly. He scratched at the edge of the wafer-thin mattress.
She leaned over and pulled up the edge of the pad and stared at an incongruous pink hair bobble.
Chance sat on the floor, and she gave him an entire pepperoni sausage as a reward. “Good boy. Good boy. Hey, Sebastian, come take a look at this.”
He came over and stared down at the hair tie.
Their eyes met. “They were here.”
Frustration filled her. “If I hadn’t fallen in the river yesterday, we might have found them already.”
Sebastian shook his head. “They might have left before then. And, without your input, we wouldn’t have known to even check here. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
His words made her feel a little better, but not much.
“I’ll call it in. Then I want to check out more of the mine shaft.”
She photographed everything and found an evidence bag for the hair bobble. They’d see if anyone remembered whether or not Summer was wearing a similar one at school the day she’d disappeared.
She fed Chance outside while Sebastian called Novak. She went back inside and was examining the main tunnel with a flashlight.
Sebastian ended the call and went to move past her. “Wait here for me—”
“Stop!” She grabbed his arm.
He froze as her shout echoed off the stone. She crouched, dragging him down with her to their haunches. She ran her beam of light over a thin line of filament.
They looked at one another.
“Sonofabitch.”
Sebastian felt his heart go thud against his chest. “That fucker booby-trapped the place.”
He should have known better. Hadn’t Scotty died in a similar way on the first day of the year? He pulled out his own flashlight and followed the line down the length of the tunnel. Stepped over the first filament.
“What are you doing?” Nora’s voice rose with what he hoped was concern.
He looked back. “Investigating.”
Her eyes bugged. “Wouldn’t it be wiser to wait for the bomb squad?”
Her concern for him was heartening. Maybe she didn’t hate him. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Oh, sure.” She crossed her arms. “But you’d have already triggered it if I hadn’t been here to warn you.”
He gave her a smile that felt as cold and deadly as the river. “And I owe you one.”
She blinked. “You don’t owe me anything.”
“Then we’re even.”
She bit her lip.
“I’ll be okay. You reminded me who we’re dealing with—a ruthless killer who used to be in the military. I won’t forget again.”
“It’s not safe.”
“I’m aware.” Was a little faith too much to ask? He wasn’t an idiot. “I have explosives training. I don’t plan to explore the entire mine system. Just the main tunnel—see where this tripwire leads and what kind of surprise he set up.”
Her chin mutinied. She still looked upset. “I want to check out the other mine entrance, see if Chance can locate Summer’s scent again so we can find a direction of travel before it blows away.”
“As soon as I’m finished here,” he ordered. “We’ll go together. It’s going to be about an hour until the others arrive anyway.”
She looked away in frustration. “Fine.”
She didn’t like that.
“Ten minutes, I promise.” He swallowed the knot in his throat. “I need to see whether or not…” His greatest fear was that Summer lay dead somewhere in this tomb.
Her lip wobbled. “Whether or not Summer is down there.”
He squeezed his hand into a fist. “It’s a possibility.”
She nodded. “I’ll come with you.”
“No. That’s a direct order. I need my full concentration, and you have a tendency to distract me.”
She looked startled by his admission, but he didn’t give her time to argue. “Plus, we can’t take the risk Chance will come after you and set something off.”
He knew her dog was her weakness. Worse, she knew he knew. Her gaze narrowed, but all she said was, “Don’t get lost, and do not blow yourself up.”
“Yes, ma’am. Now go keep watch.”
He took the fact she was worried about him to heart. She did care. A little at least.
But he needed to focus. He pushed Nora firmly out of his mind and got his head in the game. The fucker could have set up more than one ugly surprise.
He followed the line of the first filament into the darkness, but scanned every inch of the wall from ceiling to floor before moving forward.
A side room had him glancing inside. The bucket and the stench told him it had been used as a latrine. The FBI’s Evidence Response Team would collect DNA and see who’d been here. A shitty job, but someone had to do it.
He traced the filament another ten feet and found the explosives—a bundle of TNT that looked like it had been around for decades. As unstable as fuck.
Imagine setting that up near your own kid?
The good news was that it was a simple device, easily dealt with.
Sebastian removed the detonator and made the IED as safe as possible until the bomb squad could come in and dispose of the explosive material.
He then moved carefully into the dark abyss, aware that Eastman was exactly the sort of mean fucker to have a secondary device set up in case the first one failed.
Not only would it maim or kill law enforcement, it would slow down the search process and investigation until any dead or injured people were rescued, debris cleared, evidence logged, and the area made safe again.
Sure enough, he found the next tripwire at chest height. His eyes followed the line, and he froze when he saw it connected to a sweating heap of dynamite.
“Motherfucker.”
He removed the detonator and shone his light further into the darkness, but couldn’t see more than ten feet ahead.
A shiver raced over him, and the hair rose on the back of his neck. The resident ghost? Or something much, much newer? He didn’t know but didn’t want to explore farther and risk Nora getting impatient and following him in here.
He retraced his steps and found her pacing outside.
Relief rushed over her features when she spotted him, but she schooled her expression as if reminding herself she didn’t have feelings for him.
He suppressed a smile. Her reaction gave him a sliver of hope that maybe what had happened between them meant something to her. Something real and meaningful. He could work with that.
“No sign of anyone back there, but the latrine sure smells fresh.”
Her shoulders sagged as tension released.
“I deactivated two IEDs, but we’ll need to get the bomb squad in there before we can do a thorough search of all the tunnels.
I’m going to update the team and Novak so no one wanders inside until it’s cleared.
Let’s check out the other entrance and then see if your brilliant dog can tell us which direction they went. ”