“I was saving it.”
“For a special occasion?” I asked, popping the seal on the cap. “I could shake it up and spray it all over you, if that would be more festive.”
A thin smile spread across her face as she took a sip, then handed it back to me.
“Did your husband know you were here?”
She tried to shrug but gave up. “I explore this area all the time, but I didn’t tell him I was checking out the mine again. I come here pretty often, though.”
“So, he wasn’t here with you at any time?”
She squinted her eyes, trying to figure out what I was getting at, then shook her head. “No. I left early Saturday morning, before he got up.”
Then someone had to have done something to sabotage the mine before Teresa got here or while she was deep inside. But what? Those beams hadn’t been cut. It literally looked like they’d slipped and shifted somehow.
Hardy knelt beside me, a grim expression on his face as though he knew exactly what I was trying to figure out. “She did it,” he said, shaking his head.
Startled, I furrowed my brows in a question.
He nodded. “Loosened the beams herself.” His gaze drifted about the walls. “Been working on it awhile now.”
My heart fell. “Why?” I whispered.
With a shrug, he said, “Not quite sure, ma’am. But I don’t think she was planning on being here when it gave.”
I took a deep breath and forced the questions from my mind. “Are you ready, hon?” I asked Teresa.
“I think so.”
“We’ll take this slow.” With infinite care, I wrapped one of her arms around my neck and hiked her farther up the incline. The miner did the same for me, boosting me inch by inch. After about two minutes of work, we were only about a foot farther. “Okay, not that slow.”
She laughed softly, then grabbed her side.
“Are they broken?” I asked, gesturing toward her ribs with a nod.
“No, just bruised, I think.”
With a little more effort, we were able to get her to the opening and scoot her through it. But Teresa paid a heavy price. She groaned through gritted teeth as she slid to the other side. Well, not
“Your friend’s coming back,” Hardy said.
Without hesitation, I chanced another cave-in and yelled through the opening. “Cookie, stay back!”
“What? No. What about the supplies?”
“I’ve almost got Teresa through the opening, but the ceiling is crumbling as we speak.” As I looked out, I saw the beam of a flashlight bouncing off the ground. “Cookie, what the heck?”
“Don’t
She put the flashlight on the incline and reached up to help Teresa. A steady stream of dirt fell a few feet from us and she looked back at me, her eyes wide. “Hurry.”
The minute I got Teresa through, I scrambled back for the helmet, climbed over the mountain of debris with Hardy’s help, then hustled down to assist Cookie. Together we eased Teresa toward us. She clutched on to me, moaning as pain pounded through her. So much so, I was worried she would pass out.
“Help is coming,” Cookie said as I put the helmet on Teresa and wrapped my arms around her.
Teresa cringed as another wave of pain carpet-bombed her entire body. She cried out as Cookie and I started forward.
“I’m so sorry, Teresa,” I said.
She shook her head, determined to make it. Adrenaline coursed through her as she hobbled and we dragged. Another avalanche of dirt plummeted onto our heads, almost knocking the helmet off Teresa’s head. I repositioned it, and we started forward again.
Then, with a really inappropriate gasp, it hit me. “Aldrich-Mees!” I shouted.
When the ceiling started crumbling down around us, I realized how wrong of me that was.
Chapter 23
Seemed like a good idea at the time.
“You had to shout it?” Cookie asked, literally bitching all the way out of the stupid mine. “At the top of your freaking lungs?”
We were covered from head to toe in dirt and some kind of root system. “Now is not the time, Cook,” I ground out as we struggled to get Teresa from the mine.
“This is where I get off,” Hardy said. I started to protest, but he tipped his helmet and with a soft, “Ma’am,” disappeared.
Then Uncle Bob rushed in, and a wave of relief washed over me. However, the look of shock on his face proved that either he had no faith in me whatsoever and was taken aback by my success in finding Teresa Yost, or I looked worse than I thought.
Agent Carson was there, too. Though I’d never seen her before, I recognized her instantly. Her looks matched her voice perfectly. Short dark bob, solid build, intelligent eyes. She hurried forward, and together with Uncle Bob took Teresa out of our arms. Before they’d gotten two feet, Luther Dean rushed in as well, ducking at the entrance and taking over for Agent Carson.
“Luther,” Teresa said, surprised he was there.
The smile that warmed his face was simply charming. “You never call. You never write.”
A soft laugh escaped her despite everything.
Carson turned back to me, and I tried to raise my hand to shake hers, but my muscles had completely given out. Though they did twitch occasionally. An officer helped Cookie outside while Agent Carson took my arm to help me, careful not to get too close. Dust still lingered in the air from the latest cave-in.
“I can’t believe you did it,” she said, shaking her head as daylight blanketed us.
“I get that a lot.” My hair was so caked with dirt and rocks, it actually hurt. Then again, I did get pummeled by a boulder the size of Long Island.
“I left the flashlight inside,” Cookie said over her shoulder, suddenly remembering.
“Well, you’d best go back and get it. It’s not like I can get another one at pretty much any store between here and Albuquerque.”
She snorted the likelihood of that happening. I couldn’t wait to tell her about Hardy. I’d have to come back someday, get to know him better — another cave-in sounded down the shaft, sending a wave of dirt billowing out the opening — or not.
I saw Rescue hustling up the trail carrying an aluminum litter, bags of medical supplies, and a flashlight I was certain I could talk them out of. And Rescue was built. All three of them, in fact. Tall. Nice tone. Good overall posture.
“Who’s the help?” I asked Carson.
“Your uncle brought them.”
“Nice of him.”
We stopped a moment to admire the view. “Sure was,” she said. “By the way, I couldn’t get a copy of the message the first Mrs. Yost left on the doctor’s answering machine before she mysteriously died in the Cayman Islands. Apparently, the investigator didn’t actually hear it for himself. Just took Yost’s word for it, since it wasn’t a
