Gnarly New Year (Corsario Cove Cozy Mystery #2) (10 page)

“Mick, do you have any idea if those steps lead all the way down to the cove?”

“No. I figure that’s where they lead. I was in such a hurry to get that GPS gizmo to you guys and Willow, I didn’t check it out.” Perhaps my sudden concern had been triggered because I sensed a presence or more movement. Before I could say anything else, I heard rustling, followed by a swooshing sound.

“Look out, you guys!” I shouted as I ran for it! I reached out and grabbed Brien’s arm, pulling him along behind me.

“Bloodsuckers,” I heard Mick say right before he uttered a series of expletives that would have made a salty pirate blush. Chamber of heinousness wasn’t that far off after all.

10 no way out

“Relax Mick, they’re bats not vampires,” Brien hollered.

“Oh yuck, rats with wings! Don’t relax! Run!” I shouted, in the lead as we all ran toward the opposite end of the cavern, away from that entrance. A swarm of bats had come out of nowhere. The space we had occupied moments ago was now filled with them.

As Brien, Mick and I ducked down behind what must have been another stack of tarp-covered boxes, I held up my lantern and could see bats streaming from a crevice in the ceiling not far from the entrance we had used.
Where did that lead
? I wondered.

Hundreds of bats passed by as we hunkered down. They disappeared off to the left—down the same path the rats had taken. I shifted my lantern to better follow their path. I sucked in a big gulp of dusty, stinky air, stirred up by the flapping of all those bat wings. Then they were gone and an eerie silence returned to the chamber.  

I stood upright and used my lantern to explore in the direction in which the bats had flown. A corridor led off to the left—like the branches I had seen on Christmas Day in the cave area below us. This one was squared off, like the entrance into the chamber where we stood. Hardly daring to breathe, I took a step out and bumped into the tarp-covered stack of what I thought were boxes. It shook, then shifted.

“Look out, guys—this stack is going to…” Brien grabbed my arm. He launched out of the way taking both Mick and me with him. A load of barrels, not boxes, rolled out from under that tarp. Flew was more like it. One that must have fallen from near the top, smacked to the ground and broke open. A vibrant aroma filled the air. More rats scurried, up and over those barrels and down the dark corridor.

“Fruit of the vine,” I said, my words uttered half as a statement and half as a question. Brien was bending over that barrel, staring intently with the lantern held close.

“I’m pretty sure it’s red wine, Kim.” I took a closer look at the old barrel that had split. It bore some sort of mark that I didn’t recognize. Perhaps, whoever put the barrels in here had marked them so they’d know when the contents were drinkable.

“Not in this one, you guys.” Mick stood over another barrel that had cracked, but not broken open. “It’s split like a piñata, and this one is loaded with real treasure.”

Brien and I leaned over his shoulder and gazed as our lantern light glittered on several gold pieces that had spilled from the split in that barrel. I reached down and picked one up to examine it.

“Is it more of that hotel scrip Owen stole?” I peered up into Brien’s handsome face shrouded by lantern light, curiosity flickering in his eyes.

“No, Brien, this one is real. It’s a Krugerrand!”

“Shades of Miami Vice!” Mick exclaimed and started to hop around in a way I didn’t think he could do, given that beating he had taken and the shape he was in. He had “ouched” half the way to Sanctuary Grove.  I bent down to see if I could move that barrel.

“Whoa, that’s heavy. Good thing we didn’t get smacked by that thing when it fell. Thanks, Moondoggie for yanking us out of the way.”  Watching me struggle with that barrel, Brien came to my aid. Mick moved, awkwardly, from one foot to the other.

“What are you doing, Mick?”  

“A jig in honor of that pot of gold we found. That Opie was one lucky dude,” he said. “Ooh, ow, ow! Guess I’m not ready for that yet.”

“Not that lucky, Mick. He’s dead, remember? No more jig, please. You don’t want to set off another bat rave, do you?” Brien and I wrestled that barrel back into the pile with others. I’m not sure why I felt compelled to do that. We were going to need help getting the thing out of here and I didn’t want to make it too easy for someone else to spot it until we could get the authorities in the loop. As if that was a problem this far underground. You never knew though—someone must have put those wine barrels in here. By the looks of them, that had been some time ago, so I doubted the vintner was still alive. Those Krugerrands were another matter. More of Owen’s craftiness, no doubt.

“Do you think that’s what did it? We set the bats off by moving stuff around in here?” Brien asked, as he glanced in the direction of the opening from which the bats had emerged.

“I know nothing about bats, Brien. Something must have stirred them from their hideaway up there. Maybe they’re sensitive to vibrations since they were on the move before all the noise the barrels made when they fell.” I picked up a couple of those gold coins that had fallen out of the barrel and stuffed them into a pocket of my jeans.

“Proof for Mitchum,” I muttered. I bet Owen had done the same thing. A Krugerrand or two would have been useful to entice potential partners into salvaging that shipwreck. No wonder they believed him, and were intent on finding their way back to that underwater site. Had he told them about his secret stash? How much more could still be down there? Mick interrupted my thoughts. 

“I think the bats are gone. All the good vibrations from my jig couldn’t have been worse than the shock wave from those barrels. If there were more of them, they’d be jammin’ by now, right?”

True. The sound of those barrels crashing had reverberated, that’s for sure, echoing in the cavernous space around us. I was trying to think of a witty or sarcastic reply to Mick’s question when I heard a noise. It came from above us and it didn’t sound one bit like the fluttering of bat wings. More like the crunching of shoes on grit. Maybe our activities down here hadn’t sent the bats fleeing.

“Nix the lights, guys. I hate to say it but we might have company. Not bats, either.” As I whispered, I shut off my lantern. Brien and Mick did the same. We were immersed in darkness. Crunch, crunch, crunch, above our heads. I would have preferred the scurrying sound of more four-legged rats to what sounded like the two-legged variety.

Who else, besides us, would be roaming about in the network of caves?
Guys ready to play whack-a-mole if we stick our heads up out of this hole,
I thought. I gulped and squatted down, pulled my phone out, typed a text message to Mitchum and pressed send. Dang it! No bars. No service. The message was ready to go once we got out of here. How fast could we cover the distance to that doorway and those stairs? Under cover of darkness we might be able to flee, unseen. I was about to whisper that idea to Brien, but froze, instead.

“Where did you say that crashing sound came from? I don’t see light either, Gary.” I did. A ray of light shot through that crevice the bats had used as an exit, and bounced around for a moment before it disappeared back into the chamber above. Gary’s reply was muffled.

“Oh yuck, not all this stuff underfoot is crunchy. What is this?” More muffled words, and a couple more steps. “Bat guano, as in bat…? What the…?” Expletives and a yowl followed.

Crunch, crunch, crunch at a fast pace now as Gary or someone else rushed to help Bat Guano Guy. A light bounced around, shining for a moment on a foot that dangled, then moved a little. It had slipped through the crevice in the corner above our escape route. Then darkness, as whoever came to help Bat Guano Guy must have set the light aside to help. A little of the rock and earth gave way. More of his leg could be seen when a light probed the area again.

“Grab my arm and pull. I’ll push.” As Bat Guano Guy moved again, he yelped. “Ugh, where did that come from?” More shifting above us. Rocks and debris dribbled through that crevice making it a little wider. The light bouncing around now revealed a skull lying on the floor.

“Get that thing off of me,” Bat Guano Guy’s voice went up in pitch. His partner, Gary I presume, laughed.

“He can’t hurt you. He’s already dead.”

Bat Guano Guy was not amused, as evidenced by the epithets uttered in reply. He was beginning to sound more than a little freaked out. As he squawked again, an arm bone with a hand attached to it dropped to the floor along with more of the roof as that crevice widened even more. A second leg slipped through. If that crevice grew any wider, Bat Guano Guy would be in here with us. With about a fifteen-foot drop to the floor, he might not be in good shape depending on how he landed. Worse if he brought Gary, the rest of that skeleton, and a huge chunk of the ceiling down on top of him. I did not relish the idea of being in here when any of that happened.

Okay, definitely time to go, but where? To get out the way we had come in meant heading toward those legs. With that area of the roof about ready to drop, that was no longer a great idea. Getting smashed like a bug didn’t sound any more appealing than playing the mole in a game of whack-a-mole or sleeping with the fishes.

On the other hand, being entombed in this cavern didn’t sound great either if the roof caved in and sealed that entrance. An image of Mitchum’s big bushy mustache loomed. I hoped that wasn’t the last thing I’d see before I died. It twitched—that mustache, I mean. I jumped, as Brien tapped me on my shoulder. He had pulled Mick next to him where we all huddled together on our knees.

Brien held the three of us in a tiny beam of light that he moved, pointing down the corridor the rats and the bats had used earlier. He put the light under his chin. It lit up his face like a scene from a horror film. Putting a finger to his lips, he switched off that light, placed a hand on each of our shoulders, and moved us in the direction of that corridor.

More cursing came from that corner above us. “Disgusting,” a voice said that must have belonged to Gary since it was even higher-pitched than Bat Guano Guy’s terror-stricken voice.

“Just get me back up on my feet before this whole thing gives way or I’ll show you what’s disgusting.”  

Shouts and falling rock sent us scurrying faster even than the rats. It was dark in that corridor. Who knew where it led? We scrambled as quick as we could in the dark. Every so often we heard shouting from back in that cavern. It sounded as if someone had fallen hard onto the ground—not hard enough to kill him since he let loose another round of cursing.

“Bat Guano Guy,” I whispered under my breath, recognizing the voice even at this distance. We kept moving. I realized that I was huffing and puffing. The corridor was rising at an incline. Up, was good—toward ground level and to what I hoped would be another way out.

Suddenly, I hit something solid—softly solid and pleasantly familiar. Brian had come to an abrupt stop in front of me and I bumped into him. We had been hustling along that corridor single-file, so stooge-style, I bumped into Brien and Mick bumped into me. That got an ‘umph’ from me and a ‘shush’ from Brien. Mick bounced off me and hit the ground. He was having trouble getting up, so I gave him a hand.

Meanwhile, Brien snapped on that penlight again. We all stared as the light revealed a wall of stone in front of us. Hand hewn stone, like you might use to build a garden wall or a building. If there was a doorway, I couldn’t see it. Brien ran his hands along the stones, perhaps searching for the edge of a passageway or door hidden from view.

I could hear noise from that cavern behind us. We couldn’t go back. Now what? The impact from Mick had knocked the phone from my hand. I bent down and retrieved it, pressed the button that lit up the face of the phone. Lo and behold, the NO SERVICE sign had been replaced by a single bar. I pressed send and heard the whoosh as my text message, prepared earlier, hurtled through cyberspace toward Mitchum.

Found Krugerrands. Cavern in old cave system above Corsario Cove. Bad guys, too. Send help! GPS on! 

My heart sank as that puny little bar disappeared and the NO SERVICE returned. So much for the hope that Mitchum could pick up my GPS signal—presuming he received that message and regarded that as a reason to search for us in the first place. Even if the message got through, would he notice it and do something about it? I felt myself sinking into despair.

Without warning, Brien was on the move again. He had backtracked, searching either side of the corridor we had just passed through before it dead-ended in that stone wall. Off to our left and a few yards back, he had discovered a second corridor. In the dark, we had missed it.

Opposite that corridor Brien’s light flashed on what must once have been another branch. Most of it was blocked now by a wall of stone. Too regular to have been the result of a cave-in, it appeared as though it had been deliberately sealed off.
Why seal it off?
I wondered. As I stood there, I watched a rat run up the rough-hewn blocks of stone and through an opening at the top of that blocked passageway. Okay, so good idea we weren’t headed that way.

Brien disappeared down the second corridor, Mick after him, hobbling a little now. Behind us, as I left that old corridor, I glimpsed a beam of light bouncing along the floor still a considerable distance behind us. A sudden inspiration gripped me. I pulled a Krugerrand from my pocket and dropped it on the ground at my feet. I placed a second one closer to that blocked passageway and tucked my hair ribbon into a chink in the stones as high up as I could reach. If we were really lucky, the guys behind us would take the wrong passageway. There was enough room at the top to climb through. Maybe they’d go for it. If not, it might at least slow them down as they stopped to check it out. That would give us a little more time to find a way out of here.

I picked up the pace, catching up with Mick. He was not doing well. I glanced anxiously behind us as I grabbed Mick’s arm and urged him forward. A surge of hope fueled my effort as a speck of light shone in front of us! Brien picked up speed, heading toward it. Not much more than a pinprick at this point. As Brien sprinted on ahead of us, I used the button on my cell phone to illuminate the area around me. This corridor was wider than the previous one. Off to my left, I spotted a wooden door.