Saving Laurel Springs (19 page)

Carter motioned to Rhea, and they slipped through the kitchen and out onto the screened porch. His parents had already gone back outside to finish gardening chores they'd dropped in a flurry when Carter arrived carrying Taylor earlier.

“Whew, what a day,” Carter said, leaning back in a wicker chair and propping his feet up on a stool.

Rhea settled in the corner of the porch swing and curled her feet up under her. “I want a sip of your lemonade.” She reached across to snag Carter's glass from the side table.

“Help yourself.” He sighed and leaned his head back against the chair.

“Carter, do you think the same vandal that scared Taylor today hit you?”

“Even the sheriff thinks it's probably all linked, Rhea, that it's either the same person or a part of the same group or gang.” He retrieved the lemonade she'd put back on the table and drained the glass.

Rhea drummed her fingers on the arm of the swing. “I just don't get all of this at all.”

“Me neither. But I especially don't like the idea that my son might have been injured.”

Rhea shifted her position. “I think the vandal thought Taylor might recognize him, don't you? That would explain why he threw the quilt from the bed over Taylor's head. My guess is that Taylor caught him unexpectedly in the cabin looking for something.”

“Like what?”

She shrugged. “I don't know. I wish I did.”

They sat and thought about this for a few minutes.

“You know what I think?” Carter asked, leaning forward.

“What?” She looked at him with interest.

“I think whatever the man was doing, he got interrupted.” A faint smile played on Carter's lips. “My guess is he'll come back.”

Rhea's eyes flashed. “Or he might come back because he's afraid evidence could have been left behind.”

“Maybe.” Carter considered her point. “Ursell went to the cabin to search and look around. He didn't find anything.”

Rhea smiled. “But the vandal might not know that. Besides, only the vandal knows why he was there and if he left evidence behind that Ursell didn't find.”

A muscle in his jaw bunched. “When do you think he'll come back?”

She scratched her chin, thinking. “I'd go after dark, wouldn't you? When there was less chance to run into anyone.”

“An interesting thought.” Carter flexed his fingers. “I think I'll be visiting the old Sutton place tonight.”

Rhea sat forward. “That might be dangerous, Carter. Maybe we should suggest Ursell or one of his deputies stake out the place.”

“Ursell wouldn't do it. The idea would seem too much of a whim to him.” His eyes narrowed. “But not to me. I think there's a good chance the man might come back. I'd like the chance to take a piece out of him if he does.” He shrugged, conscious of Rhea's indrawn breath. “Even if the vandal doesn't come back, I'd like an opportunity to look around the place.”

Rhea slanted him a warning glance. “You shouldn't go by yourself.”

“I'll be careful.”

She shifted again on the swing, dropping her feet to the floor. “Then I'm going with you,” she announced.

He frowned at her. “I'm not so sure that's such a good idea.”

She gave him a saucy look. “I'm not so sure
you
have any choice.”

Carter knew how Rhea could be when she set her mind to something. “Oh, all right. We'll both go after I get Taylor down for bed—and when I can sneak out. I'll come to your window to get you.”

“Okay.” She stood up now, stretching her shoulders. “I think I'll go home to get some rest. I've really had a killer day.”

He grinned at her. “Watch your choice of words.”

She shivered. “Don't try to scare me, Carter Layman.”

“Don't think this is a joke. We'll need to be very careful.” He paused to think. “Wear all black or dark clothes tonight. Bring a light jacket and a few essentials packed in the pockets, or in a waist pack, just in case we need to stake out for a while. I'll do the same.”

Rhea gave him a thoughtful look. “Should we tell anyone where we're going?”

He shook his head. “They'd try to talk us out of it. You know that.” He stood up from his chair to see her out. “Besides, this little trip may all be a wasted venture. The guy will probably lay low and not even come around Laurel Springs for weeks after this incident with Taylor.”

She nodded. “You're probably right. Hardly anything happened for several weeks after you got injured that time.” She paused, considering this. “You want to call off going up there tonight?”

Carter flashed a teasing grin at her. “No. What's the matter? You afraid old Jonas Sutton's ghost might come floating in and scare you?”

He watched her bristle. “Don't be ridiculous. You know I don't believe in ghosts.”

Carter laughed. “You were scared enough that time in the cemetery when I came floating in wearing a white sheet and moaning.” He raised his arms and waved them dramatically.

She kicked at him in annoyance. “I was ten years old. And you tricked me into going to that cemetery so you could sneak up and scare me.”

He laughed. “Son of a monkey, we had some good times growing up, didn't we? A whole wealth of wonderful moments.”

Her eyes shuttered over unexpectedly. “I'll look for you about dark,” she told him, starting out the back door of the porch. “You better go check on Taylor.”

Carter reached to stop her, not liking her change of mood, but then hesitated. They were both tired. He needed to catch a nap, too, before tonight. They could talk later.

CHAPTER 17

R
hea heard Carter's footsteps on the roof as darkness fell over the valley.

“You're late,” she said, opening the window to him.

He scowled. “I know. Taylor had some trouble getting to sleep.”

“That doesn't surprise me.” Rhea fastened on the waist pack she'd loaded earlier and tucked her flashlight into one of its side loops.

Eager to move on, Carter didn't climb in the bedroom. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes.” She climbed over the sill, pulled down the window, and followed him carefully across the roof to the tree.

Staying in the shadows, they cut through the trees behind Nana Dean's herb garden and started along the familiar trail snaking upward through the woods to Low Ridge. At the rock wall, they turned to follow the familiar grassy lane below Low Ridge to the Laymans' farm.

When they neared the turn to Rocky Prong Road, the gravel side road leading to Gold Mine Springs and the old Sutton place, Carter turned to put a hand on Rhea's arm. “Let's don't take the road to the cabin. Let's continue across the road and then swing right to cross the creek, climb up to Rocky Hillside through the woods, and come in behind the Sutton cabin.”

“Good idea.” Rhea nodded, following Carter as he headed up the path along the stream. “Do you think the vandal will really come back?”

“I don't know.” Carter held out a hand to help Rhea over a fallen tree by the stream.

The darkness deepened, and Carter flicked on his flashlight.

A short time later, they crept cautiously toward the back of the old Sutton place, squatting behind a rocky outcrop to survey the dark shape of the cabin. Night had fallen heavily now, but they could see the back of the log house in the moonlight.

“I don't see any light moving around,” Rhea said after they watched for several minutes.

Nodding in agreement, Carter led them closer to look in the back window, two of its panes still cracked from Taylor's escape earlier. “There's no one here now.” Carter brushed off the last of the glass fragments from the sill and pushed up the window. “Let's climb in here.”

“Okay.” Rhea followed Carter into the cabin.

They stood quietly, listening for several more minutes before Carter flicked on his flashlight. Rhea followed Carter around the room then, the two of them examining every inch of the cabin carefully, looking for anything the sheriff might have overlooked.

“I don't see anything unusual, do you?” Carter turned gradually around, fanning the light from the flashlight over the room again. “I guess we'll just go set up a little watch camp behind the rocks now. If our man comes back, we'll hear any movement or see any light from there.”

Rhea nodded, her eyes moving over to the old bedstead, thinking of how Taylor had been wrapped in a quilt and tossed there earlier.

“Look, Carter.” She put a hand on his arm. “That bed's not exactly where it usually is. It looks like it's been shifted.”

Carter followed her eyes. “It probably got pushed around with all the skirmish with Taylor.”

“Let's move it and check underneath, just in case. All right?”

He stuck his flashlight into his jeans pocket and moved to one end of the iron bedstead to help Rhea push it away from the wall.

Rhea shone her own flashlight over the area where the bed stood before. “These floorboards look odd here. See?” She walked over to stand in the area where she could see more closely.

Carter, interested now, started over to join her. “You're right. It looks like one of the boards has been shifted.” He stepped over to stand beside her to look down where her light shone.

And the floor fell in!

With a scream, Rhea heard the wood splinter and felt herself tumbling down with Carter into some long, dark dirt hole.

Carter hollered, too, and added a few expletives before the two of them quit rolling and tumbling and finally came to a stop, piled on top of each other in a heap, at the bottom of what appeared to be a deep tunnel.

“What the devil!” Carter groaned and pushed himself upright.

Rhea, lying halfway across him, winced and tried to sit up, too.

“Are you all right?” Carter rescued Rhea's flashlight from the dirt floor nearby and shone it on her.

“I think I'm okay.” Rhea rubbed at her arm. “But I've scraped my arm, whacked my leg something fierce, and turned my ankle.” She tried to move it. “Ouch.” It hurt.

He ran the light down her ankle and pulled up her pants leg to check it. “There's no break. It looks okay.” He moved her ankle carefully. “I think you just twisted it a little.”

“What about you?” Her eyes moved over him anxiously. “Are you all right?”

“My pride's hurt.” He chuckled. “And I've got some nice scrapes and bruises and a bump on my head. But I'll live.”

He shone the light upward. “Look at that. We must have fallen twenty feet. You can see the remains of the floorboards above us.”

Rhea looked upward. “Good heavens! It's a wonder we weren't seriously hurt falling that far.” She looked around. “What is this place?”

“Obviously a tunnel.” Carter shone the light along the dirt walls. “It drops down about twenty feet under the cabin and then heads eastward into a smaller passage. See?” He pointed ahead.

Snatching the other flashlight from Carter's pocket, she shone a light toward the smaller tunnel curiously. “Where do you think that passage goes?”

Carter shrugged, brushing dirt off his jeans from the tumble. “I don't know, but we'll need to find out.” He looked up and frowned. “We can't climb out of this hole easily, so we'd better hope that passage leads to an outside entrance.”

A trickle of fear crawled up Rhea's spine as she shone her light up the dark tunnel toward the broken remains of the cabin floor. “No one knows where we are, Carter, and we didn't bring cell phones with the reception so bad up here.”

“Don't panic. Even if we're stuck here for a while, someone will come looking for us. That hole above would be hard to miss.” He shone the light upward, moving it around the splintered opening. “Look. There's a trapdoor hanging down from the cabin floor.” He pointed it out to her. “The two of us standing over the area must have been too much weight. We probably snapped the latch on the old trapdoor and then broke the floorboards through with no support beneath them any longer.”

“Nice to know that now,” Rhea groused.

Carter leaned over to examine Rhea, turning her arms over looking for cuts, rubbing a thumb over her face to remove a dirt streak. “You know, I realize now why there are remnants of an old ladder beside the house, grown over in ivy and kudzu. Grampa mentioned once it looked like a mighty long ladder for work on a small cabin like this.”

Rhea stared at him. “You think old Jonas Sutton dug this tunnel under his cabin?”

“Well, I hate to mention it, but it's pretty creepy down here.” Carter shone the light around. “Doesn't look like anyone's been here in a mighty long time.”

Rhea shivered, pulling her arms in to hug herself. “You don't see any rats or spiders or anything, do you?”

“Not right off.” He chuckled. “But I'd say there's some critters living in the area. We probably scared them off for now, falling down screaming like we did.”

As if on cue, Rhea heard a scuffling in the small tunnel ahead of them. She wrinkled her nose. “I don't relish spending much time here.”

“Me neither.” Carter flashed his light into the tunnel. “We'd better see if this passage leads anywhere.”

The small side tunnel led only about twelve feet to a rocky wall. From the light of their flashlights, Rhea and Carter could see quartz veins in the rock face and occasional minute flecks of gold. They also found a battered wooden box, covered with dirt, wrapped in a rusted chain and locked tight at the hasp.

The tunnel had narrowed as it progressed, and Carter and Rhea found it hard to stand upright at the wall. Squatting, Rhea looked up toward the ceiling. “I guess we're under Rocky Hillside and not far from the mouth of the springs.”

“Yeah.” Carter followed her eyes around the passage. “And it looks like we've found old Jonas Sutton's gold stash.”

“Maybe.” Rhea studied the dirty box covered in spiderwebs and grime. “Do you think this is what the vandal has been looking for all this time, digging up first one place and then another around Laurel Springs?”

“Could be.” Carter kicked at the box to judge its weight. “This box is heavy, obviously filled with something, but I doubt we can get into it without the proper tools to break the hasp and chain.”

He looked around. “The bad news, Rhea, is that this old passage goes nowhere but right to this wall. Old Jonas must have been picking for gold bits in the rock, and came in to work through the cabin floor each time.”

Fresh alarm seized Rhea. “Then we're trapped here.” She hugged herself with a shiver.

“Might be for a time.” Carter shone the flashlight back down the passage. “The ceiling is too low to stay here, Rhea. Let's go back to the bottom of the tunnel below the cabin. We'll be more visible there when help comes, and we'll be able to hear if anyone gets close, so we can call out.”

They worked their way back through the low passage to the broader area below the cabin floor.

Carter spent some time examining the tunnel wall with his flashlight, seeing if he could dig out toe-holds in the dirt to climb out on. Rhea soon saw his efforts weren't profiting.

She began to gather up the boards that had splintered from the cabin floor. “Let's put these together to make something to sit on, instead of having to sit in the dirt.”

Giving up on the idea of climbing out, Carter helped Rhea put the boards together against one side of the tunnel. “We can sit and lean back here,” he said, taking off his backpack and dropping it beside the boards.

Rhea unfastened her waist pack and settled down beside Carter in resignation. She looked at her watch. It was nearly eleven now.

“Mother and Nana thought I'd gone to bed early with a book. It's unlikely they'll check on me until morning when I don't come down for breakfast.” She looked at Carter. “Did you tell your folks you'd gone to bed or out walking for a while?” She hoped the latter was true.

He touched her cheek. “They went to bed early, worn out from working in the yard transplanting bulbs and from all that happened with Taylor. I told them I was doing the same.” He paused. “Unless Taylor wakes up with another nightmare, they won't know I'm gone until morning either.”

“Oh, goody.” She tried to make a joke but knew it fell short.

Carter turned his flashlight off. “We'll need to conserve the batteries in our flashlights. For now, we'll keep one on.”

Rhea saw a nasty scratch on Carter's arm and dug out wipes from her pack to clean it. They took turns then, checking each other for scratches and cuts, cleaning them as best they could and putting first-aid ointment on them from Rhea's tiny first-aid kit.

Finishing applying salve to a scratch on her cheek, Carter leaned over to kiss a spot below it. “I'm sorry this happened, Rhea.”

She tucked the first-aid supplies back in her waist pack. “It wasn't your fault. Don't start trying to blame yourself because we're stranded here.” She smiled at him. “Who knew old Jonas had a tunnel below his cabin? I can't believe we haven't discovered it in all these years.”

Carter leaned back against the dirt wall. “He concealed it well under the floorboards. Probably the passing of time rotted the trapdoor underneath, and the extra weight of the two of us standing over that area on the floor caused everything to break through.”

They dug out water for a drink and shared a package of crackers that Carter had tucked in his backpack.

Rhea looked in his bag and grinned. “You have a lot of snacks in here. At least we won't go hungry or thirsty.”

“There is that.” He leaned over and kissed her nose. “It's nice to have your company, Rhea Dean—even in a bad situation.”

She gave a disgusted snort. “Well, personally, I'd rather be home in bed.”

He chuckled softly. “That sounds good, too.”

Rhea kicked at him, overlooking the little frisson of awareness that raced through her at his implication.

“Do you think there might really be gold in that strongbox?” she asked, changing the subject.

“I don't know.” Carter fished in his shirt pocket to pull out a small metal item. “Look at this.” He placed it in her hand. “I found this on the floor when we were looking around the cabin, right before we started to move the bed. I meant to show it to you but then got distracted.”

Rhea turned the item over in her hand. “It's a lapel pin of some type.” Borrowing the flashlight, she studied it closely and then looked at Carter with a shocked expression.

“I know what this is. It's a Rotary pin.” She pointed to the center of it. “See the wheel spokes in the middle? The wheel design symbolizes civilization and movement; it's been the Rotary symbol since the earliest days of its organization. I researched the club once for one of my newspaper articles.”

Carter took the pin to study it. “What are these words here?” He held the flashlight closer.

Rhea leaned over to see. “They say
‘Past President,'
so probably whoever this belonged to was a . . .”

A chill rolled over her, and she stiffened, unable to finish her sentence.

“What is it, Rhea?” Carter asked quietly.