Dead Secret (3 page)

“Find anything interesting down the tunnel?” asked Mike.

Diane stopped. “Several things.”

“Why don’t you show me while we wait for Jin to get here?”

“I really need to get back and help Neva search the cavern for any dead-caver clues.”

“Will it take long to show me?” Mike nodded his head in the direction Diane had just investigated.

“No, but . . .”

“I’ll help with the search when we get back.”

“All right, but let me check in first.” Diane put the button back in her pack and shifted the pack so that the walkie-talkie clipped to it was near her shoulder. “Neva, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” she replied. “I kind of like this cavern. And I have someone here to keep me company. He’s a little old for me, but he’s a great listener, lets me do all the talking.”

“That’s my girl,” Mike said, mostly to himself.

Diane grinned. “Take a break. I’m going to show Mike a couple of things and I’ll be there to help you finish.”

“I don’t need a break. I’m fine.”

“All right but don’t tire yourself out. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“No problem.”

She turned to Mike. “When we finish here, would you go to the entrance to meet Jin? I don’t want him coming into the cave. He’s never done any caving that I’m aware of.”

Mike nodded, and Diane watched the light from his duel headlamps dance up and down on the walls.

She led the way, backtracking to the first offshoot tunnel. They picked their way through the rubble to the opening.

“Here.” She pointed at the mark above the entrance. “There’s no way to know who made it, but it could have been made by our guy to find his way back.”

“You’re thinking there has to be another entry point,” said Mike, leaning forward to get a close look at the faint X over the entrance.

“Maybe. Until we made the new hole in the roof of the cavern this may have been a separate cave with its own entrance, unconnected to the cave we came in—unless, of course, one of the passages connects them up somewhere else.”

Mike squatted and examined the rocks around the mouth of the entrance, moving some of the rock, touching the silt and sand with his fingers. Then he stood and stepped through the opening. Diane followed directly behind him, the passage so narrow that they fit only single file. The tunnel was filled with tight meanders between huge boulders and uneroded protrusions from the wall of the cave. Some of the boulders were caught between other rocks as if they had tumbled down the passage.

“I don’t like this,” said Mike. “I’m thinking they marked the opening to tell them not to go here. It looks too unstable. Some of the rocks at the entrance have been thrown out from a recent rock slide. Be easy to get trapped if one of these big guys shifts—”

His voice was cut off by a grinding rumble above them.

Chapter 4

Mike turned and put a hand on Diane’s back just as she sprang toward the tunnel entrance. A cloud of dust and pebbles suddenly surrounded them, blinding them. Diane kept running, hoping her feet would hit solid ground and not the rocks littering the floor. She sensed Mike right behind her. Her next footfall landed on an angular rock and she started falling. She put her arms in front of her to break the impact but was caught by Mike’s arm around her waist. He carried her for one step; then she regained her footing. They ran out of the tunnel entrance veering sharply away from the path of the rocks. The change of direction and uneven rocky floor threw them both off balance, and the momentum sent them sprawling to the cave floor. By good fortune, they landed mainly on silt and missed the sharp, jagged rocks. Dust bellowed from the opening, followed by a small avalanche of rocks. Mike still held her around the waist.

“Glad to see I’ve still got adrenaline left; how about you?” said Mike, sliding his arm away.

“I’m good for another scare or two.” Diane struggled to her hands and knees. Mike rose, pulling her up with him, and they moved away from the dust.

“Okay, so X means keep out,” he said.

“It does now.” Diane bent over, coughing the dust out of her lungs.

“You okay?” Mike choked as he spoke, and he started coughing too.

“A little beat up, but otherwise fine.” Diane examined the fresh scrapes on the heel of her hands and rubbed her shoulder where it hit a rock. “I’ve never had two close calls in one outing. I don’t have
one
close call very often.”

“Sometimes things happen. That’s why we don’t cave alone.”

“What happened here, do you think?”

Mike shrugged. “One of the boulders lost its foundation for some reason and gravity took over, sending it crashing into another boulder, and suddenly we had an avalanche.” He shrugged again. “Could have been caused by small seismic activity, sonic boom, who knows . . . like I said, it looked unstable. Wouldn’t have taken much. Judging by the rocks around the entrance, I’m guessing this has happened before.”

“The entrance looks blocked now,” Diane said, staring at the mouth of the offshoot tunnel still shrouded in a thin fog of dust.

Mike’s light flickered. He tapped it with his finger. “We’d better do a lamp check.”

They checked out each other’s headlamps to make sure nothing was broken or loose. During the check, Diane noticed for the first time with some alarm that there was blood on Mike’s face.

“You’re bleeding,” she said, pointing to the corresponding spot on her own face. “You sure you’re okay?”

Mike pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped his chin and looked at the small smear of blood. “This is nothing. I’ve had worse spills. . . . Hell, I’ve had worse cuts shaving. You said you found some more tunnels at the end of this main one? Why don’t we have a look before we go back?”

Diane hesitated. “Sure, it won’t take long.” She led the way toward the end of the main tunnel.

“It’s not dangerous, is it?” Mike quipped.

Diane’s radio squawked.

“I heard a noise; is everything all right?” It was Neva.

“We’re fine,” said Diane. “Just a little rockfall in one of the offshoot tunnels. No damage done. Is everything okay there?”

“Yup. I’m almost done.”

Diane felt a pang of guilt. She’d left Neva to search the entire chamber by herself.

As if sensing her guilt, Mike laughed and said, “Neva’s really having a good time. Nothing like a nice big cavern to knock around in for a while to get your confidence back. Neva loves caves but is still a little scared of them, with good reason—she had a really close call.”

Diane winced as she thought of how close Neva came to dying in this very cave system.

“I think having something focused to do is helping her get over her fears,” said Mike. “Her eye for detail is amazing. The girl must have been a killer on an Easter-egg hunt. Of course, if you found that tiny button among all these rocks, you weren’t too shabby either. What is it about you crime scene types? Got some kind of locator gene?”

“It’s all in knowing how to look—and also luck.” Diane pointed to the split end of the tunnel. “I’d like to explore those passages the next time we come,” she said. The two openings looked like huge dark eyes staring unblinkingly at them as they approached.

“The high road and the low road,” said Mike as they stood next to the openings.

Diane noticed that, like her, he was drawn to the one that led down. He stepped through the entrance and looked down. Diane stood behind him, very still, listening.

“You hear that?” said Mike.

“I thought I heard something when I was here before. You hear it too?”

“Like flowing water, maybe? It’s hard to say.” He grinned at her. “Interesting.”

“I’d like to investigate, but I don’t want to leave Neva alone any longer.”

“No. But we can come back next weekend,” said Mike. “What do you say?”

“I’m leaving for a two-week vacation in the mountains tomorrow. How about in three weeks? Can you wait that long?”

“Doc, I can wait for you forever.” Mike grinned. “But we’re going to have a little problem with MacGregor. He can’t get though the squeeze, and right now I can’t see an alternate route to the cavern.”

Diane stepped back out into the main passage. “We’ll figure something out. Maybe more members of the caving club can join us and we can split up and look for another entrance to the cave system.”

“Good idea. There must be another way in.”

As they walked back to the cavern, Diane kept an eye out along the way for any clue that might have been left behind by their mummy friend. She saw nothing. But it was only luck that she had found the button. There were thousands of rocks littering the tunnel from one end to the other that could be hiding something.

They rounded the last bend and came in sight of the cavern. Neva’s lights illuminated the cavern, casting the large stalagmites and stalactites in a dim, shadowy golden glow. Diane stopped a moment to look.

“Breathtaking,” said Mike.

“It’s one of the reasons I love caves,” said Diane. “So many gorgeous views.”

They walked to the opening, and Diane climbed down the wall first. It took her several minutes to get back down. Mike, more experienced at rock climbing, made the descent in less than half the time.

“A button,” said Neva, holding the bag and peering at the silver disk. “David will be happy with this. Did you know he’s constructing a button-recognition database?”

Mike raised his eyebrows. The expression on his face was obvious: He was wondering if maybe David had too much time on his hands.

“David lives for databases,” Diane said.

“And recognition algorithms,” added Neva.

“But buttons?” said Mike.

“Well, we have a button that needs recognition,” said Diane.

“I found a rope among the rocks by the wall over there.” Neva pointed to a pile of rubble not far from where Diane and Mike had climbed in and out of the opening. “It’s pretty rotten. Our guy here ate Moon Pies.” She held up two wrappers, then dropped them in an evidence bag.

“Early energy bars, I guess,” said Mike. “Jin ought to be here by now. I’ll go meet him.” Mike made his way across the rubble to the rope hanging from the chamber above, ready to climb up.

“Hi, guys!” The voice came from above them, and they all looked up to see Jin peering down from the hole in the ceiling.

Dammit,
Diane thought as the image flashed through her head of him traipsing over rocks and across ledges, oblivious to the dangers. “Jin, you were supposed to stay outside,” she yelled up at him. “How did you get here?”

“Dick MacGregor brought me as far as that really narrow tunnel. You guys do this all the time?”

“You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing here? This is not a cave for a novice. You’ve never been in a cave.”

“Come on now, Boss. You don’t expect me to hear a story about you finding mummified remains in a cave and just stay outside the door. I got my hiking backpack, extra flashlights and batteries, a bota bag of water, and a hard hat. I’m good to go.”

Mike looked over at Diane. “I’ll go up and help him down.”

Mike climbed the rope and lowered Jin’s duffel bag, a crime scene kit, and a large backpack on a frame. Diane noticed a spray of dust come down with the equipment. She looked up at the ceiling but didn’t see any loose rocks. Must be dust and rocks left over from her fall, she thought. She heard Mike warn Jin of the instability of the rocks around the hole as Jin climbed down after his equipment.

Close to the bottom, Jin jumped off the rope and dusted off his hands. Diane and Neva gawked at him. He sported a construction hard hat and a shirt and jeans that were several sizes too big for his thin frame.

“What do you have on?” said Neva. Diane tried to suppress laughter.

Jin grinned and looked down at his pants, lifting them up by the pockets and turning them loose, letting the rolled-up cuffs fall around his running shoes.

“Well, see, when I got here, I was wearing shorts and a tee. Your guy Dick told me that I would get cold down here in the cave, and he loaned me some clothes he had in his car.”

“Make sure you don’t trip on the cuffs,” said Neva. “There’s a lot of rocks around here to fall over.”

“Jin,” said Diane. “Since you are here, you are to do everything we tell you. We’ll be carrying a lot of stuff getting out of here, and it won’t be easy.”

“Sure thing, Boss.”

Jin didn’t look the least contrite to Diane. He shined a flashlight around the cavern with a happy-to-be-here look on his face.

Mike climbed down the rope. More dust fell from the hole.

“Jin make it okay?” It was Dick MacGregor calling on the walkie-talkie. “He had a lot of stuff with him.”

“He’s here in fine shape,” Diane replied, using her radio. “The equipment looks pretty good too.”

“I told him I didn’t think he could drag all that stuff through that tunnel.”

“It’s all here,” said Diane. She glanced at the pile of stuff Jin brought with him and was surprised he managed to get it through the narrow tunnel.

“I gotta go wait for the deputy outside the cave,” said Dick. “He’s got some kind of paper for you to sign.”

“Thanks, Dick. I appreciate your help.”

“Sure. Always fun to go caving with you guys. You never know what we’ll run into. Went caving all my life and never had near the adventures I’ve had with you guys.”

“Glad we’ve been able to provide you with new experiences,” said Mike into his walkie-talkie, grinning at Diane. “You think the deputy has had time to get up there yet?”

“Probably waiting for me outside now. I’ll go see.”

Jin’s duffel bag carried several battery-powered lanterns that he had padded with bubble wrap. They positioned them around the chamber. The duffel also contained a body bag. Jin grabbed his crime scene kit and walked with them to the mummified remains.

“I wonder what happened. Fall through that hole, you think?” asked Jin.

“No,” said Mike. “Diane made that hole when she fell through the ceiling.”

Jin looked at the two of them, wide-eyed.

“I managed to hang on to the ledge until Mike rescued me,” said Diane.

“Jeez, Boss, you could have broken something.”

“Fortunately, I didn’t. Our guy may have been trying to descend a rope from that opening over there.” Diane pointed to the high opening in the cavern wall. “And the railroad spike the rope was anchored to came loose and sent him crashing to the cavern floor.”

“Bet he broke something,” said Jin.

“I’m sure he did,” said Diane. “Jin, you and Neva process his body. Neva, pack the evidence and take pictures. I’m going to move some of these rocks that I dislodged from that hole in the ceiling and look at the floor. Work as fast as you comfortably can.”

Jin and Neva busied themselves while Diane surveyed the rock pile. Mike had moved some of them from around the bottom of the rope to give them a place to stand. Diane didn’t know if there might be anything under the fallen rocks, but prudence dictated that she have a look.

“You want some help?” asked Mike.

“I hate to ask you to do this.”

“That’s all right. Helping with a crime scene makes my résumé look more interesting. No one has to know that all I did was move rocks.”

It was a bigger job than Diane had anticipated, but they cleared a good portion of the fallen rocks, stacking them to the side.

Diane stood tall and stretched her muscles, she looked up and scanned the ceiling. “I’m a little concerned about the ceiling,” she said.

“I saw the dust falling,” said Mike. “I believe it’s from the newly opened hole. I haven’t seen any larger rocks breaking away. Before everyone climbs back up, I’ll reposition the rope so that it doesn’t put pressure on the rim of the hole.”

She took a flashlight and examined the newly revealed floor. She found nothing.

“That was a lot of work with nothing to show for it,” she said.

“Maybe this will show something interesting,” said Jin. He stood next to the cave wall beneath the tunnel opening with a squirt bottle in one hand. “I’ll need to turn off all the lights in a minute.”

“No!” yelled Diane and Mike simultaneously.