After they heard the mysterious woman’s voice a bright light was turned on further down the tunnel and in front of them a man was hanging from one of the overhead beams. A couple of the girls shot at the light knocking it out and then 3 of them ran over to it. No one was there but it was a large spotlight hooked up to a big battery. Someone had to be there initially to turn it on, perhaps the woman?

The others cut down the man, it was Mark and he had been dead for a while already. They tried calling for Sam and Melinda but there was no answer. Then suddenly a very high pitched noise, so bad that the girls were nearly paralyzed by it. They screamed, covered their ears and made their way back to the entrance, tripping and falling several times along the way. They had to leave Mark’s body behind too.

Once out they were soaked with sweat even though it was quite cold in the mine. “Hey, where is Carine?”, asked Axelina. Angel and Axelina ran back inside, but by the time they got to where they found Mark’s body, Carine was gone, nowhere to be seen and Mark’s body was also gone. They ran right back out again and told Kat. “What should we do?, asked Angel. “We go back to town,” said Kat, “and report to Steve. It would be too dangerous to continue searching that mine right now.

If we got further inside and came up against that noise again, we would never make it out.” The others agreed with that. So, although they hated the idea of leaving Carine behind, they realized it was the right decision at the moment.

Meanwhile…back to us in town. “So, who is your new wife?”, I asked Rock. “This is Caren,” he said, “she would like to be a member of our team, and Baldwin wanted to keep Annelie back to help us there.” “Good thinking,” I said, “nice to have you here with us Caren. But joining us on this case might convince you to change your mind about joining us.”

“No, it will not change my mind,” she said, “if I was not sure of joining, I would not be here now. And thank you.” “I sure hope everything is okay with Sam and the others,” I said, “we need to talk with Sam soon, he is holding something back from us and I do not like that.” After a long afternoon the girls returned from the mine giving us the news I did not want to here.

“Okay,” I said, “this has gone far enough. It is time for a good talk with Maggie. That will be your job Kat and Jenny.” “Oh, when we were coming back we saw Mike and Val go to the house,” said Kat, “Mike will be a problem.” “No he will not,” I said, “Rock and I will have a talk with him. He must be involved and I am sure he knows some things about what is going on here.” “Do you think he will cooperate?”, asked Galyna.

“He will, or he will be very sore,” I said, “Rock here has a simple way with words that gets results. Actually, Caren, you stay with Kat and Jenny also. The rest of you take Val for a walk and talk with her.” So off we went to the house. “Maggie, it is time to have a good long talk about things,” I said, “and you need to be totally honest.” “Don’t say a word to them!”, yelled Mike. “Oh, you, Rock and I are going outside to have a talk,” I said.

“Forget it!”, he growled. Rock went over and picked him up and stood him on his feet. “Now,” I said, “we are going outside.” He did not look like he would move so Rock grabbed his arm and moved him toward the door. The other girls took Val outside for a walk over to the hotel and sat outside to talk with her. “Okay Mike,” I said, “start talking and tell me what is going on here. Every time you refuse to talk or give me a wrong answer and Rock will let you know that is not a good idea.

Believe me, you do not want that. Now, one of our girls is missing, Mark is dead and his wife is missing along with Sam. What is going on?” Just then, Jenny came out with a note that Maggie had found on the dining room table. It was addressed to me again. “You do not listen well. If you want Carine back alive, then you must promise to leave right away and go back home. This is no place for amateurs.” Hmm, people keep saying that to us. I turn to Mike, “now, start talking or Rock will start breaking your bones, one by one. I want Carine back, alive.”

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.