Pat Ruger Box Set 2, page 10
part #4 of Pat Ruger Series
I braced myself and put my hands together as a step. The kid tried to support himself on the rock wall while stepping upward, but it took three tries before he was standing close to the hole.
“Just hit ‘dial’ …”
He did and got the same result. “Hold on …” he said as he tried to lift himself with his fingertips and tippy-toes like a rock climber. With the thumb on his hand that was still holding the phone, he managed to hit the dial button. This time it didn’t error out, but it didn’t dial either. “Damn.”
“Tory, can you reach the phone outside the opening for a better signal?” Anna asked. “I’ll bet you can.”
“I’m … trying …” he replied as he struggled with his hold on the wall. Just before he reached the hole, he tumbled down and landed on me, then hit on the ground on his back.
“Almost had it,” he said. “I’m going to do this.”
I got up and brushed myself off. “Okay, then, give it another try.”
We repeated the exercise a few more times nearly the same result. Once I had him actually stand on my shoulders, but he just couldn’t get close enough.
“This may be our only hope,” I admitted. “We have to keep trying.”
“John is taller than us,” Tory said. “Let’s go get him and have him try.”
“Okay,” I answered. “You up to going back for him?”
“Yeah, I can find him. Shouldn’t take too long.”
“Take out your phone and hurry back,” Anna told him. “We’ll be right here.”
“Where else would you be?” he said, laughing. “Be back soon.” He left in a jog.
I turned off my phone to save the charge. The light pouring in was sufficient. We sat below the opening and rested.
After a couple of minutes, Lola lamented, “Do you really think we’ll get out of this God-forsaken place?”
“I sure hope so,” Anna replied. “Boss, you remember when we first met? Seems like a decade ago.”
“Yeah, I remember. You girls really turned my life upside-down, didn’t you.” I chuckled just thinking about it.
“You probably saved our lives, you know,” Lola said as she put her head on my shoulder.
Anna leaned in and I raised my arms to wrap them around both their shoulders while their heads rested on my chest.
“I know I would have been a crack whore by now,” Anna said pensively. “Maybe I’d have overdosed and died.”
“I know I would have,” Lola said. “Patty did save our lives.”
Her hand started going for my crotch and I pulled my hand around and stopped her. To her hurt look I answered, “I can’t right now. You know why.”
“Boss, it’s been a while now. You know we can help.”
“Yeah, Boss,” Anna agreed. “Why not let us help you feel better?”
I pulled my other arm from around Anna and they both sat up. “Look, I don’t expect you to understand, but every time I feel a woman’s skin, even a kiss on my cheek, Amanda keeps pouring back. It was two years after Ellie died before I could let you ‘help’ me. Really, I’m just not ready.”
“I’m still going to pout,” Lola said.
“Me, too,” Anna added.
“You know, you guys both deserve better than me. I’ve told you before, you should be in your own relationships, having families …”
“I think I’m in a relationship,” Lola offered. “He’s a couple of years older than me, and is building a tech business. He reminds me a lot of you, Boss. He’s kind, good looking, sort of a man’s man.”
“I hope it works out.” I thought for a moment. “Wait … You don’t know if you’re in a relationship?”
“We’ll, it’s not like he asked me to go steady or anything. We have been spending more time together, and now I think we’re both exclusive.”
“That sounds great. Does he want kids?”
“We haven’t talked about that.”
“You need to, believe me. I’ve seen more marriages fail because of that- whether they wanted children. I was lucky. My priority was Ellie, not kids, and she felt the same way.”
“I’m not in a relationship,” Anna said with an evil smile. “You wanna be in one with me?”
“Very funny.” We all laughed, not sure why.
“I’m hungry,” Lola said. “You really think that food is poisoned?”
“I’m not sure … probably not, but I’d rather wait until we really need to eat it.”
“Yeah, better safe than sorry, I get it. But it’s been quite a while since we’ve had anything.”
“I know. If we don’t get a hold of anyone here, you can eat. I’m going to hold off until tomorrow.”
After a bit, we heard footsteps coming and stood up. Soon, Tory and Fielding reached us.
“I hear you need a little height.” John laughed hard.
“That’s exactly what we need,” I replied. I turned my phone back on and held it out. “Do you think you can stick this through that opening and dial? I’ve got my other partner on speed dial, you’d just have to hit ‘dial.’”
“I can give it a try.” He took the phone and studied it for a minute. “Press here?”
“Yup. It’s already set for speaker phone, so you should hear it ring and be answered.”
“Okay, then. Help me up.”
I set back up to be a prop. Fielding placed his foot on my hands and stepped up. He was much closer to the hole.
“I can’t quite reach it, hold on …”
After a couple of attempts, he said “Dammit.”
“What happened?”
Tory answered, “It looks like he dropped the phone over the edge.”
Fielding dropped back to the ground. “Yeah, that’s what happened. I’m sorry.”
I didn’t comment right away. Should we keep trying? I asked myself. “I wonder if it’s a fool’s errand.”
“What does that mean,” Lola asked.
“It means you’re doing something that can’t work,” Tory answered. “That’s pretty common in video games,” he explained.
“So what do we do?” Anna asked.
Again, I thought about my answer. “Lola, your phone has a wrist strap doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, see?” She held it up.
“Let’s try one more time with Lola’s phone. If we can’t get it to work we’ll regroup.”
“Here’s Jimmy’s number,” she said as she dialed it up. “Just hit ‘send’…”
“Got it,” Fielding said as he took the phone from her.
I again helped him up the wall. He never lost the phone but several attempts to dial were unsuccessful.
“I can’t hold you up any more. Let’s stop.”
“Okay, then. I guess we go back the other way?”
“How’s the old guy?” I asked.
“He’s sleeping it off, whatever his problem. I think we can retrieve him if we need to.”
“Good.” I thought about our options. “Why don’t you guys eat some snacks while we’ve got some sunlight and we’ll head back to the other passage in a bit?”
“Works for me,” Tory replied and he sat down with the snack bag.
“I think we should stay here for a while,” Anna stated firmly. “It’s the only place we get sunlight … and we can save our cell phone batteries.”
“Good point,” I replied. “What do you guys think?”
“Works for me,” Tory repeated. He seemed resigned to our predicament.
“Yeah, I do like having a little light,” Lola said. “It creeps me out when we are in pitch black.”
“Doesn’t matter to me,” Fielding said. “Stay or go, whatever you guys want to do.”
“I think we’ll stay, at least until dark. We’re all tired and hungry. Let’s sit a while.”
“Who made you boss?” Tory asked, smiling. “Oh, wait, you are the boss.” The girls laughed.
In a few hours the sunlight began waning. I had been trying on and off to get a phone signal on the off chance that atmospheric conditions improved. No such luck. Everyone seemed comfortable and relaxed, having eaten some snacks and sipped on water through the afternoon. I was starting to get real hungry and I knew at some point I would have to eat. The good news was that no one seemed to have any side effects from the chips and other snacks.
At the peak of dusk a sound began from down the passage and was growing closer. It was a giant shuffling noise, like thousands of birds flapping their wings. Wings, I thought. Shoot.
“Everybody get down and cover your heads!”
“Why?” Lola asked. “What is …”
The bats hit just then. The opening wasn’t wide enough for more than a couple of them to get through at a time, so like a clogged drain, they backed up into our space, flapping and squeaking in a state of royal confusion. The noise was deafening.
“Everyone crawl out that way!” I yelled, hoping to be heard.
I grabbed the backpack and crawled past the girls, pulling on their sleeves to follow. They were in tears but managed to stay behind me. Tory and Fielding were ahead of us and making good time. Lola screamed and I stopped to see what happened. She had three bats crawling on her hair and flapping their wings. I crawled to her and threw each one off. Anna was waving her arms and that seemed to keep any from landing on her.
Lola began crawling at a much greater speed, leaving me behind, sobbing all the way. A couple of hundred feet down the pathway, the bats thinned out and the activity was much less.
“I’m going to have nightmares every night,” Lola whimpered and she and Anna embraced while still on their knees.
“Sorry, I should have thought about that,” I confessed. “I didn’t see any signs of bats, no rat bones, no guano …”
“It’s not your fault,” Fielding said. “Hell, I live here and I didn’t think of it. Here we are in a cave with an opening into the night sky. I used to watch the bats at dusk. It’s an amazing sight.”
“Not so amazing,” Anna said. “No more, please.” She had stopped crying but was still upset.
“Let’s go down a little farther and call it a night.” I stood up with the backpack and helped Lola and Anne to their feet. “We’ll need our strength.”
Chapter 15
“Patty, you know better than to give up.” It was Ellie, dressed up like we were going out on the town. She had on a killer black dress with large white pearls hanging on a long necklace and she wore her favorite red high heels.
“I’m dreaming,” I reminded myself.
“Of course, dear. Where are you taking me for dinner tonight? Harold’s?”
Harold’s was a date night spot in the Springs. It was a dive but had sentimental value as one of the first places I took her to for a one-on-one date.
“Sounds good to me.”
“You never give up, babe. Why now?”
I thought about that question. Was I telling myself that I was giving up? “I’m not.”
“But here you are, hunkering down like it’s all over. People will be looking for you, won’t they?”
She had a point. “I don’t know if anyone knows we’re missing.”
“Just think about it. Your phones are all out of service to the outside world. How many times will Jimmy call you and Lola and Anna …”
“I get it. It’ll go straight to voice mail. Jimmy will start at the last place the towers pinged, which will be the entrance to the mine. But that’s been blasted shut.”
“What would you do next?”
I thought for a minute. In my dreams, Ellie never steered me wrong, or I never did, whatever this meant. “I would assume that they were in the mine and go to the government office for a map of the local mines. I wonder if that would be in the county records building.”
“Bingo. See? Help is coming.”
“But there aren’t any other entrances. At least we haven’t found them yet.”
“One more thing, Patty. You have to let someone in. Someone who will love you, someone who will help you move on, like Lola and Anna did, like Amanda did for you.
“I’m just not ready. I keep seeing her whenever I let myself feel a woman … ”
“Bullshit!” Her profanity was unusual and shocked me. “That’s just not true,” she continued, “and you know it. You’re afraid of losing someone else.”
“Well …”
“Well, nothing. Next time you have that feeling, power through it. Get on the other side of it. How sad if you did die in this old mine … never finding love again.”
“Boss? You okay?”
I was gently shaken awake. My eyes slowly regained focus and I was looking into Anna’s eyes surrounded by her blond hair, which was a bit matted and falling into her face. She was holding her cell phone for light.
“Yeah … What time is it?”
“Morning now. The bats have all come back, a few at a time. They all went that way.” She pointed down the corridor. “What should we do?”
We should explore the other tunnel and make sure there isn’t another entrance down there, then circle back here and wait for help.
We heard a shuffling sound from the darkness. It was coming from the main mine corridor.
“Anyone here?” It was Sammy.
“Hold it right there!” I yelled and everyone woke up and sprung to their feet.
“I’m better now. I’m sorry if I hurt anyone.”
“Come closer,” I commanded. “Let us see you.”
Anna took out the flashlight and directed it down the path. Sure enough, the old hippie was up against the wall, struggling to walk. He got to us in a few minutes.
“I feel better now. Can I stay here with you guys?”
“You choked me,” Anna said. “You might do it again.”
“I’m really sorry. I was going in and out … I have this problem … ”
“You definitely have a problem,” she interrupted. “I’ll kick your ass if you do something like that again.”
“Believe me,” I added. “She can do it, too.”
“It won’t happen again. If I start blubbering gibberish, it’s a sign something’s going sideways. I really hate that feeling.”
“You said you killed a girl,” Fielding said. “When was that?”
Sammy struggled visibly to remember. “You know, I’m just not clear on time. Too many drugs, too many head injuries … Seems like it was years ago.”
I asked, “What do you remember about it?”
“I think … a voice in my head … said that she was trying to control my mind. I know how silly that sounds now, but I really believed it. Anyway, I was compelled to stop her, and I did.”
He actually sounded intelligent, at least for now. “Let us know if things do start going ‘sideways,’ will you?”
“I will.”
We all headed down the passage and we reached the fork with the tunnel sloping down. Tory shined the flashlight down the way and we couldn’t see the end of it. We headed that direction.
After several hours in the corridor, we began to circle back. It was a grueling hike and the girls in particular were getting worn out.
Before we got very far, several explosions were heard in the distance. They seem to come from the darkness in the lower tunnel.
“Are they still trying to kill us?” Lola grabbed me in fear. “Why won’t they leave us alone?”
Before I could calm her, a voice was heard, sounding like a megaphone. It was very muffled and the echoes were terrible.
I held up my hands to my mouth to yell. “We’re in here! We’re here!”
After a minute of silence, we heard the voice again, this time a little closer and less muffled. It sounded like it was calling our names. I yelled back again, but this time I was joined by all the others.
“Pat! Lola! It’s Jimmy! Pat!” The voice was much closer.
“Jimmy! We’re right here!”
Soon we could see three or four flashlights and we rushed to meet them, leaving Sammy behind.
When we reached them, I grabbed Jimmy’s arm and said, “You’re a sight for sore eyes! What took you so long?”
Jimmy was grinning. “We tracked your wallet to the mine. It was in a bag in a trash can outside the entrance and the GPS was still working. We went to the mining office for the county and they had old maps of the mines in the area. This one was a big one. We tracked you to the mine but the entrance was caved in. We looked and looked for the rear entrance, and the maps we picked up weren’t very clear. We were ready to pull back and regroup when we saw your cell phone ping the towers. Throwing that phone into the open was pure genius.”
“Yeah, genius,” I repeated with a smile.
“Knowing you were still here, we kept looking for the mine’s back door, and when we found it, it was sealed off with a few yards of rock. It took a little time to get some TNT. I’m glad you guys are all okay.”
“Well, I’m starving,” I said. “Can we go get some food?”
“I’ve got half a candy bar in the glove compartment … well, it’s been there a while …” He laughed loudly. When he calmed back down, he said, “Sure, let’s go eat. Who’s this?”
“Jimmy, Deputy John Fielding. He was caught with us and is familiar with the Children.” Fielding came forward. “John, one of my partners, Jimmy Stewart.” I waited for a question about the actor, but it didn’t come. “He and I were partners for years as detectives,” I added as they shook hands.
Jimmy was still laughing. He flipped his thumb toward me and said to Fielding, “He didn’t cause you any trouble did he?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle. But, he did pretty well in there for an old guy.”
“I had to for the kids,” I replied. “I couldn’t let my reputation suffer.”
“As if it could,” Jimmy popped back.
“There’s another guy back in the mine somewhere. He’s older and he’s … well, he’s had a hard time. A few too many drugs in the past.”
“When the cavalry gets here, we’ll let ‘em know to look for him.”
Jimmy and I helped the girls and Tory down the mountain trail away from the mine. In the distance you could see a public parking area and Jimmy’s old white pickup truck.
“You call your wife?” I asked Fielding.
“I tried, but no answer. I don’t have many bars, but … hopefully she’ll call back.”
