Page 66 of Dangerous Secrets
“In high school, thestoner kids used to party in an old gold mine up on PaybackMountain.They’d drink and smoke weed, probably do otherthings.”
“And?”His mind wasalready jumping ahead.He’d known about the abandoned mine, and histeenage self would probably have checked it out if his grandfatherhadn’t ridden his ass so hard.
“Jerod was one of thestoner kids.If he wanted a place to hide out, he might takeDelaney there.It’s near the swimming hole.”Her voice cracked andshe did that sniffing thing women did when they were trying not tocry.
“I’ll check it out.AndKeeley?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
“Find her, Walker.Findher before he hurts her.”
“I will.”He prayed itwasn’t an empty promise.
He called Sawyer, gave himregistration info and the license plate number of the car, andfilled him in on what Keeley had told him.
“I can’t talk you intowaiting for backup.”Sawyer’s statement wasn’t aquestion.
“I’ve got a good ideawhere that mine is, and I’m closer than anyone else.I’m notwaiting.”
“Be careful,brother.”
With his phone in his pocket, heforced himself to slow down enough to do a quick search of the carfor anything useful.He grabbed an unopened water bottle from thebackseat and a package of peanut butter crackers from the sidepocket of the door.Then the flashlight beam caught a metallicgleam from between the passenger seat and center console.Reachingdown, he pulled out a pair of handcuffs.Figuring they could beuseful, he pocketed the cuffs, took a swig of water, then cappedthe bottle and shoved it and the crackers into a cargo pocket.Thenhe set off.
From where the car was parked, thetrail narrowed, zigzagging in a couple switchbacks before roundinga fold in the mountain.Walker remembered the trail eventuallycrossed a stream, following along the bank until it came to awaterfall.
The pool at the base of the waterfallwas the swimming hole Keeley had mentioned.He’d have to be carefulnot to miss the path to the mine that, if he remembered correctly,snaked off the main trail about a quarter mile before thestream.
He set out at a trot, moving as fastas he dared through the shadowy darkness.The eastern sky waslightening, but he still needed the flashlight, the beamilluminating only a few feet in front of him.So much for stealth.Anyone watching would see him coming.
A powerful sense of urgency kept himmoving, sweeping the light back and forth, looking for the turnoffto the mine.
He tried to keep his mind focused onnavigating the path and getting to Laney, refusing to consider thepossibility Keeley’s tip might be wrong.
Thoughts of what that fucker Fetterlycould be doing to Laney worked their insidious way into hisbrain.
His woman wasn’t helpless.She wassmart and had more than enough guts to fight back.But Fetterlyliked raping women and he liked carving them up.Walker had thesick feeling that for Fetterly, capturing Laney was the ultimateprize.
Still moving, Walker took another swigof water.He rounded a bend and was met with the sound of rushingwater.Shit, he’d missed the path to the mine.Cursing himself forthe wasted time, he backtracked, forcing himself to slow down.Finally, he spotted what wasn’t much more than an animal track, andtook the winding path to the mine.
With the sun rising, he switched offthe flashlight, pushing himself on.
The path wound up a slope strewn withhuge boulders before leveling off.He skidded to a stop when herealized what looked like haphazard piles of rocks were actuallytailings, piles of debris from inside a mine.Moving with a minimumof sound, he skirted the tailings, searching for the mine entrance.Some were nothing more than a hole in the ground, while others werereinforced with timber or stone.With the quantity of tailings,this mine entrance had to be big enough for the miners to cart outdirt and rock.
He spent ten frustrating minutessearching before coming to a stop.
The sun was now visible over themountains so he forced himself to slow down and use the light tolook for other signs to indicate where the mine opening mightbe.
A path, footprints, a goddamn arrowpointing him in the right direction.He’d take anything.
Then his attention caught on somethingout of place, the wrong color for the natural environment.He bentto retrieve what looked like trash.A Slim Jim, still in itswrapper.He looked carefully at an area where boulders seemed tosprout out of the ground and realized what he thought was a tallbush was actually brush dragged in front of the juncture of severalboulders.
Pulling them aside, he found theentrance to what looked like a talus cave.He whipped out his phoneto send Sawyer a text letting him know what to look for.
Zero cell service.Damn.
Plan B, he set down the Slim Jim,arranging it so it might as well be an arrow pointing in the rightdirection.With his flashlight again guiding the way, he steppedinto the cavern created by tumbled boulders.Jumbled in a niche, hespotted an old oil lantern, the metal reservoir oxidized, and therusted blade of a shovel with no handle.
