2 Dead & Buried (18 page)

“No more games now. You’re going to show us what’s on the map or that young sister of yours is going to have a very bad day.”

Morgan’s heart clenched. “What do you mean? Have you done something to her?”

Black hair laughed. “Not yet, but if you don’t give us what we want, she’ll wish she was never born.”

Red beard looked at black hair out of the corner of his eye. “Yeah and she’s just your type isn’t she?”

The two men laughed lewdly and Morgan remembered Celeste’s warning to memorize the map. Could this be why? Was she
supposed
to tell them where the treasure was?

“If I tell you what’s on the map, how do I know you still won’t hurt my sister?”

“You don’t, but you also don’t have any choice, so you might as well spill or we’ll let you watch us hurt all of your sisters before we do the same to you.”

Morgan’s heart dropped in her chest. She didn’t have much of a choice and drawing them a map would buy her time and hopefully in that time Luke would be able to find her and dispense with the bad guys.

“Okay, I’ll draw it for you.”

Red beard produced paper and a pencil and Morgan used one of the boxes as a surface for the drawing. She contemplated drawing the map wrong, but her gut feeling told her to go with what was exactly on the leather map as she had memorized it.
 

When she was done, she handed him the paper. “Are you going to let me go now?”

The two men laughed.
 

“Do you think we’re stupid? We’re going to check this out and then …
maybe
we’ll let you go,” he said then glanced down at the paper. “Unless you tried to trick us with a fake map. Then we’ll come back and make you wish you hadn’t.”

Morgan shivered at his words, rubbing her upper arms as the men turned to leave. She watched them slam the iron door shut and lock it then listened to their retreating footsteps echo off the walls.

As soon as they were out of earshot, she ran over to the door. She pushed. She pulled. It wouldn’t budge. She looked down at the lock, remembering how Jolene had popped the lock on the box with a hairpin in the attic. It wasn’t the same kind of lock but she took the barrette out of her hair and tried anyway. The only thing she succeeded in doing was mangling the barrette.

Morgan pressed her back against the wall, her stomach sinking like a lead ball. She was trapped. She slid down the wall, to a sitting position and put her face in her hands.
 

“Mew.”

What was that?

Morgan jerked her head up and looked toward the iron door. Nothing was there.

“Meeew.” More insistent this time, but the cave like walls acted as an echo chamber and she couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

“Meeeoooow.”
 

That sounded just like Belladonna.

Morgan stood up, swiveling her head from side to side. She walked to the far end of the room, the one that was furthest away from the lantern. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she saw the cat sitting near one of the chains that hung from the wall.

“Where did you come from?” Morgan bent down to pet her. She must have snuck in through the bars of the door when Morgan had her head in her hands.
 

Did that mean Luke was coming?

The cat weaved her way around Morgan’s ankles, then headed over toward the wall.

“Meow.”

Morgan looked over. The cat was in front of a giant iron plaque that held in one of the chains that came out of the wall.
 

Then suddenly, she was gone!

Then back again.

Belladonna was going in and out of a big hole in the wall just behind the plaque!

Morgan rushed over and poked her head in. It looked like there was some kind of passageway or tunnel behind there. Too bad the opening was only big enough for her head.

If she could just move the plaque a little more …

She pushed, but it didn’t budge.
 

Belladonna poked her head out of the opening. “Meeeooow!”

“Okay, okay. I’m trying.”
 

Morgan braced herself against the floor and pushed on the plaque with her feet.
 

It moved an inch.
 

She pushed harder.
 

Another inch.
 

She pulled back her leg and kicked out with all her might and the plaque slid about six inches. Just enough to fit her body through.

Belladonna poked her head out again, then turned around and flicked her tail as if for Morgan to follow.

Morgan took one backwards glance at the room then wriggled through the hole into the tiny tunnel on the other side.

###

The smell of rotting seaweed and dead fish made her want to vomit. Morgan had to crawl on her hands and knees as the tunnel wasn’t big enough to stand in. The bottom was slimy and she shuddered to think what that slime was. Every so often her fingers would touch something squishy and her stomach churned wondering what icky creatures lived there.
 

It was dark in the tunnel. She could barely see Belladonna’s white tail, like a flag, waving in front of her. As she crawled along behind it, she realized she had no idea where she was.
 

Underground somewhere, but where?
 

And how
far
underground?

The smell of the ocean was strong, so she figured she must be on the coast, but that could be a dozen places near where she was captured. She realized she had no idea how long she was unconscious—they could have taken her anywhere.

It seemed like she was going uphill—hopefully toward the surface. She’d had about enough of the damp underground.

The passage got increasingly larger until she could almost stand up. Her hands and knees were bruised and bleeding from crawling so she stood as best she could. She still had to bend over a little, but walking upright was much faster.
 

After a minute or two, she noticed it was getting brighter in the tunnel as if there was an opening not too far ahead. At least she hoped that’s what it was. She picked up the pace.

Suddenly Belladonna stopped short in front of her. Morgan felt the floor beneath her shake. She heard a strange rumbling sound.
 

Belladonna looked back at her then started forward at a trot.
 

Morgan did the same, her heart beating wildly against her chest as she noticed small rocks becoming dislodged from the sides and top of the passage.

Bang!

The explosion rocked the passage. Morgan watched in horror as the walls and ceiling seemed to cave in before her eyes.
 

Her heart seized as she looked in front of her just in time to see a large rock hit Belladonna. The cat fell, then sprang up again but Morgan could see more rocks heading toward her.

Without thinking, she threw herself on top of Belladonna to shield the small cat from the onslaught of rocks. Two seconds later, the entire tunnel collapsed burying them both.

###

So this is what it’s like to be buried alive.

The stones and dirt lay heavy on Morgan, pressing the air out of her lungs as she waited to die. She could hear voices and wondered if they were spirits welcoming her to ‘the other side’. Maybe her mother and grandmother would be there. She wondered if she’d come back as a ghost and start talking to Celeste.

The voices were getting louder, the air in her lungs getting smaller.
 

Was the pile on top of her getting lighter, or was that her spirit departing?

She could hear rocks scraping, then she felt someone tugging at her arms.

“I’ve got her!”
 

Was that Luke?

Morgan tried to open her eyes as she felt the pile being cleared away on top of her. Strong arms tried to turn her over. Someone brushed the hair away from her face.

“Morgan, can you hear me?”

She nodded then slitted her eyes open. Luke’s face was hovering above her, his eyes clouded with concern. He reached down and tenderly touched her face.

“Let’s get you out of here,” he said scraping at the rest of the rocks.

Morgan’s heart lurched when she remembered Belladonna. The cat was right underneath her, but she didn’t feel her moving.
 

Her heart dropped.
Was Belladonna dead?
 

Tears stung her eyes as she wriggled free from the debris, looking underneath where she had been for a sign of the cat but there was none.
 

Luke pulled her the rest of the way out and took her in his arms, kissing her face, her lips, her forehead. Jolene was hugging her from behind. But Morgan was still thinking about the cat.

“Wait.” Morgan pushed away from them and they looked at her with alarm.

“Belladonna is still in there, she may be hurt.” Morgan practically sobbed out the words.

“What are you talking about?” Jolene raised an eyebrow at her. “She’s sitting right here.”

Morgan looked over to where Jolene was pointing. Belladonna sat on the grass next to the rubble-filled hole Morgan had just come out of, her fur white as snow, no sign of injury, calmly licking her paw as if it was just another regular day.
 

Morgan felt a surge of relief run through her body as Belladonna looked up at her with big ice-blue eyes.
 

And then, she could have sworn, the darn cat winked at her.

Two days later, Morgan settled into the most comfortable chair in the informal living room, a cup of tea in her hand and Belladonna in her lap. Somehow she’d only sustained minor cuts when the tunnel caved in on her and those were bandaged along with some small carnelian stones Fiona had shoved in under the gauze.
 

“How did you figure out what the
real
murder weapon was?” Fiona looked at Luke who hovered around Morgan making sure her tea cup was full and her bandages were secure.

“That was easy. When I heard the description of the kettle bells, I knew that it matched the size and shape of old cannon balls. And what better thing for a pirate treasure hunter to use to bash in a rivals skull than an old cannon ball?” He spread his hands. “Then once we found the bad guys’ boats, it was easy to get on board and find the actual cannon ball that did it. We figure the treasure hunters from one group must have killed him on their boat and put him on the cliff as a warning to the members of the other group.”

“I’m just glad you could turn all that over to Overton and get Celeste cleared,” Cal said.

“And put the group of pirates that didn’t blow themselves up in jail so we won’t have to worry about them anymore,” Jolene added.

“Well, Overton didn’t seem very happy about the evidence. He seemed rather disappointed, but he couldn’t argue with it. The two rival groups kind of helped us since they were getting in the way of each other’s efforts. Thankfully they have both now been neutralized,” Luke said.
 

“Too bad it took blowing up half our yard to do it.” Celeste jerked her chin toward the window and Morgan felt her stomach clench as she looked outside.

The yard was about twenty feet shorter now. A giant half-moon shaped crater had been blown out of the cliff facing the Atlantic during the explosion which had caused the tunnel on the other end of the yard, that Morgan had been in, to cave in. Luckily she’d been near the surface. Otherwise she might not be sitting here today. She shivered and scratched Belladonna behind the ears.

 
The cat had saved her.

“That old treasure was booby-trapped just like you said it might be.” Morgan looked up at Luke. “I guess I got lucky that I was far enough away. I’m still not sure exactly how you found me, though.”

“You can thank Jolene for that,” Luke said. “The tracking devices didn’t work because of some strange interference at
Sticks and Stones
so I didn’t see the treasure hunters sneak in. I tried to run over there when they grabbed you, but I wasn’t fast enough. Jolene was the one who figured out to watch the road and then we knew which direction they took you in.”

Morgan looked at Jolene, her heart swelling with pride. “Thanks.”

Jolene laughed. “Well, I guess those private investigator classes are paying off.”

“And then Jake was smart enough to take a dinghy out from the cove and he noticed the tunnel in the cliff. It’s just above the low tide mark so it’s underwater most of the time … or well it was until it got blown up. They must have been planning to grab you right at low tide to get you in there the whole time.”

Morgan’s stomach churned remembering the dank ocean smell inside the tunnel. No wonder the smell was so strong.

“Then the GPS in the barrette started working and we were practically on top of you when the explosion happened.” Luke looked out the window. “There must be a warren of caves and passages out there if they brought you in on the side of the cliff and you came out down by the end of your driveway.”

Morgan remembered the room she had been in with the iron door. There was a passage leading to it, presumably the one from the cliff, and then the tunnel that she crawled out of. She hadn’t seen any sign of other passages but it was certainly possible.

She was just glad she was out of there, safe and sound with her family.
 

“It sounds like you guys did some awesome teamwork to find me. I’m really overwhelmed and grateful,” she said, tears pricking the backs of her eyes. “It was scary down there.”

“We did work pretty good together,” Jake said, “which helped me make an important decision.”