His breath was hot and angry, and the look in his eyes said he would like to cut her heart out. He put the gun to her head.
‘‘Don’t think you can bargain your way out of this. Let me tell you what’s going to happen. We are going to get out of this cave. I’m going to stuff you in the trunk of my car and drive to the museum, and when it’s dark you are going to get my diamonds. You know what happened to little Kacie. That’s nothing com pared to what I have planned for you. You’ll lick my shoes like a dog and beg me to kill you. Then I’m going back and shoot your friends in the head—if they’re not dead already. That is what is going to hap pen, and I’m going to enjoy every second.’’
He held the gun barrel so hard against her temple it was digging into her flesh. Diane said nothing. Oddly, all her fear had vanished. The rock wall at her back was cold and she felt frozen to it. Her legs were too weak to carry her weight. She wanted just to sit down and wait.... Wait for what?
He put his key light back in his pocket, grabbed the flashlight sticking from her pocket and switched it on. It flickered a moment, then went out.
‘‘Damn, you fucking bitch. Look what you’ve done.’’
Her body was on some automatic will of its own. It knew what he was going to do before her brain did. She collapsed on her shaking legs just as he rammed his fist against the wall where her head had been. He yelled in pain. She grabbed the chin strap on her hel met, pulled it off her head, struck it hard against the rocks and heard the tinkling of her electric headlamp breaking.
Diane grabbed the pant leg of his left ankle and stood up, using the power of her legs to lift with all her strength. As his foot came off the ground, he fell backward, grabbing her as he went down. The gunshot exploded loud near her ear and she felt the heat on her cheek. She tried to scramble away, but he pulled her legs out from under her. She felt a hand on her neck, squeezing fingers working their way to her throat. For all his previous grumbling, he was silent now, and that frightened her more. Diane reached out her hand, searching for a rock. They were all over the place—why couldn’t her hand find one?
She grasped a sharp rock the size of a baseball and clutched it tight, trying to resist his efforts to force her on her back. He flipped her over and she struck with all her strength. He cried out and dropped the gun. She scrambled backwards walking crablike, trying to escape, still holding the rock. He’d let go of her throat, but he held on to her leg. He fished the key light from his pocket and flicked it on, illuminating a tiny area around them. She struck again hard on his temple and grabbed at the light as he fell over.
Diane squeezed the tiny light to turn it on. He was stunned, but still trying to rise. She turned around, searching for the gun. She saw it, nose down between two rocks. She went for it at the same time LaSalle came around enough to realize he needed to act. He scrambled across the rocks toward her and the gun. Diane put out the light and grabbed the gun. LaSalle swore at the darkness—and Diane.
‘‘Okay, you got me,’’ he began, but Diane could hear him moving, trying to regain the advantage.
She stepped back and squeezed the tiny key light. In the dim glow she could just make out LaSalle rising from the rocks like an evil demon that wouldn’t die. She aimed the gun and shot once—not in the foot, where he had shot MacGregor. She shot him in the ankle where the tibia and fibula joined with the tarsal bones and where several important tendons were bun dled together. He screamed and collapsed. She shot his other ankle, and his cries echoed throughout the chamber. She stood in the darkness listening, without emotion. When his cries died down to curses, she spoke.
‘‘Now, let me tell you what’s going to happen. You are going to sit here in the dark and wait for the police to come and haul you to jail. I suggest you don’t try to crawl anywhere, but wrap yourself into a fetal posi tion and stay until they arrive.’’
‘‘Don’t leave me here like this.’’
‘‘I have no choice. Even if I could carry you, I can’t trust you. I’ll tell them where you are. It shouldn’t be more than a few hours.’’
Diane retrieved her damaged helmet and picked up the flashlight. She shook it and tried the switch. It came on, shining a beam of light on LaSalle.
‘‘Let that be a lesson to you.’’
She left him there calling after her and worked her way through the passages to the mouth of the cave. She retrieved her phone from beneath her driver’s seat and punched in 911.
Mike looked pale against the white hospital pillow. The bullet had nicked his intestines, but luckily did no organ or spinal damage.
‘‘You were caving in the dark? God. What were you thinking—that you could feel your way through the cave?’’ He grinned at her. ‘‘You got guts.’’
‘‘I thought I could negotiate in the dark better than he could,’’ Diane said. ‘‘It barely worked.’’
‘‘We could hear the gunshots. Didn’t know what to think.’’ He touched the bruise on her face left by the flashlight. ‘‘So how about it, Doc, willing to take care of a wounded friend?’’
Diane grabbed his hand and held it. ‘‘I think the hospital’s doing a fine job.’’ She paused a moment. ‘‘Mike, I’m sorry.’’
He put a finger on her lips. ‘‘Not your fault, Doc. It’ll make a good chapter in my caving journal.’’
MacGregor wheeled in in his wheelchair. Both feet were immobilized in casts and his arm was bandaged. La Salle had shot him in the metatarsal portion of both feet. Bad enough, but they were injuries that were easier to deal with than had he hit the closely packed tarsal bones. Diane had expected MacGregor to be angry and never want to see them again. Instead, he’d bonded. He sat there and grinned at Diane, showing off the autographs on his casts.
‘‘The doctor says I’ll be in walking casts real soon. I’ll be ready to go caving with you again in no time.’’
‘‘We’ll keep a guard at the entrance next time,’’ said Diane. MacGregor cackled. ‘‘Take care,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m going to check on Neva.’’
‘‘She was a real trouper,’’ said Mike. ‘‘Hung on to that rope like you told her to, didn’t complain. That had to be scary.’’
‘‘I hope it hasn’t put her off caves,’’ said Diane.
‘‘We’ll get her back out there as soon as our wounds heal.’’
Diane was silent for a moment watching Mike. ‘‘I’m glad you followed my instructions and stayed alive.’’
‘‘You were pretty firm about that,’’ he said.
Diane left them and walked down the hall to Neva’s room. She was dozing. Jin and David were sitting in
