Killing Hour - Lisa Gardner [134]
Litter covered the ground. Crumpled-up soda cans, discarded Styrofoam cups. Mac found a pile of old gasoline containers, probably used to fill up the handheld chain saws. He found another pile of old fluorescent lights. A faint popping sound was emitted from the debris field as some of the glass exploded from the heat of the sun.
He’d never seen anything like it. Strings of rusted barbed wire clawed at his legs. Abandoned saw blades lay hidden in the overgrown weeds, waiting to do far, far worse. This place was straight out of an environmentalist’s nightmare. He was 100 percent sure their third girl had to be around here somewhere.
Kimberly came staggering around one of the broken-down sheds. She had tears streaming down her face from the stench. “Any luck?”
Mac shook his head.
She nodded and went careening on by, still looking for some hint of an underground cavern.
He came upon Nora Ray soon afterward. She’d stopped running around and was now standing in one place, her eyes closed, her hands spread by her sides.
“See anything?” he asked brusquely.
“No.” She opened her eyes and seemed embarrassed to find him there. “I don’t know . . . It’s not like I’m a psychic or anything. I just have these dreams so I thought maybe if I closed my eyes . . .”
“Anything that works.”
“But it’s not working. Nothing’s working. And that’s so unbelievably frustrating. I mean, if she’s in a cavern, well then, aren’t we literally walking on top of her right now?”
“It’s possible. Search-and-rescue isn’t easy, Nora Ray. The Coast Guard passed back and forth over your spot five times before seeing your red shirt.”
“I was lucky.”
“You were smart. You hung in there. You kept trying.”
“Do you think this girl is smart?”
“I don’t know. But I’m willing to settle for lucky if that gets her home.”
Nora Ray nodded. She resumed walking and Mac zigzagged through another abandoned building. Already past four o’clock. His heart was beating too fast, his face felt dangerously hot to the touch. They were pushing too hard for the conditions. Raising their core body temperatures to dangerous levels and going too long between drinks. This was no way to manage a rescue operation and yet he couldn’t bring himself to stop.
Nora Ray was right; if the girl was in the cavern, they could literally be standing on top of her right now. So close, yet so far away.
Then, through the buzzing drone of the insects, he finally heard a welcome cry. It was Kimberly, somewhere off to the left.
“Hey, hey,” she yelled. “I found something. Over here, quick!”
CHAPTER 39
Lee County, Virginia
4:53 P.M.
Temperature: 101 degrees
“HELLO, HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME?” Kimberly had found an eight-inch-wide duct sticking up through the ground like a section of stovepipe. She peered down the tube, trying to see where it led, but encountered only darkness. Next, she waved her hand over the top. Definitely a draft of cooler air coming up from somewhere. She tried dropping a small pebble. She never heard it land.
Mac was running over. Nora Ray as well. Kimberly leaned closer to the pipe, cupping her mouth to amplify her voice. “Is anyone down there?”
She lowered her ear to the mouth of the pipe. Did she hear movement? Sounds of something shifting way down in the dark, dank depths? It was hard to be sure.
“Hellooooooo!”
Mac finally drew up at her side. His hair was spiky with sweat, his shirt and shorts plastered to his skin. He dropped to his knees beside her and added his voice to the pipe.
“Is anyone down there? Karen Clarence? Tina Krahn? Are you in there?”
“She might be asleep,” Kimberly murmured.
“Or unconscious.”
“Are you sure that goes to the cavern?” Nora Ray asked.
Kimberly shrugged wearily. “As sure as I am about anything.”
“But that can’t be the entrance,” Nora Ray said. “No one could fit down that hole.”
“No, it can’t be an entrance. Maybe