The Fossil Hunter of Sydney Mines (18 page)

“Woohoo!” Fred cried. “We're safe!”

“I can't believe we made it,” Mai said, tilting her head up. “It's so nice to see the sky again.”

Now that they were out of immediate danger, anger began boiling in Grace's stomach. Yes, Jeeter had saved them. But it didn't matter to her right then. She whirled around to confront him. “You lied to me!” she blurted out. She could hear a tremor in her voice.

“I didn't have any choice,” Jeeter said.

“What do you mean?” she spat.

“Grace, please! Can't we talk about this later?” He touched her hand. “You can trust me.”

“Trust you?” she said, pulling her hand away. “I told you everything! All I got back was lies!”

“I just saved your life.”

“Why?” she whispered. “Why did you lie?”

“I had to.”

“What does that even mean?” Grace shook her head. “All those lies about Stanley. The faked video, the note…why would you do all that? This is my life! Was it all some kind of sick game to you?”

“Game? No!” Jeeter looked into her eyes. “Grace, I—”

“Shhh,” Mai hushed suddenly. “Do you hear that?” She pointed above them.

Everyone stepped back into the cloak of darkness.

“Flashlights!” Mai whispered. They all clicked off their lights.

A shadow fell across the opening.

“Dad, there's a rope here. Do you think it's those kids?”

“I wouldn't doubt it!” Stuckless's voice was loud and clear. “They're up to something. Let's go back to the truck and get some gear. We'll have to go down there!”

A beam of light swung back and forth in the sinkhole.

Grace, Mai, Fred, and Jeeter receded further into the dark.

Jeeter leaned over and spoke quietly in Grace's ear. “You and Mai stay here. We'll see if there's another way out.” He motioned for Fred to follow him. The two of them disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel like ghosts.

“We should go with them, shouldn't we?” Mai asked softly.

“They'll come back if they find anything,” Grace murmured. “Come over this way, farther from the opening.” They couldn't hear Stuckless, but he could have pretended to leave and might still be above them.

Grace paced slowly back and forth through the tunnel, away from the opening. This was one of the last spots her dad might have been. She shone her flashlight back and forth across the ground in front of her as she paced, looking for any sort of clue that would tie her dad to this place.

Out of the corner of her eye, Grace noticed something in the dirt a metre or so away. She bent down to take a closer look. There were strange markings on the ground—a row of circle marks imprinted in the dust. “Mai, come see this,” she called quietly. “Isn't it weird?”

“That
is
weird,” Mai agreed as she bent down to look.

Grace shone her beam around, looking for clues as to what could have made the circles. “Hey!” she said. “There are more marks over here—maybe from a wheelbarrow or something—and footprints, too.”

“Why would there be a wheelbarrow down here?” Mai asked.

Grace walked along the edge of the wall. Her foot banged into something and she stumbled forward, her fingers brushing against some sort of fabric. She felt for the edge of the cloth and pulled. Underneath it were black barrels—a whole row of them. Grace shone her light on one. There was something painted in bright yellow on its side:

Sandstar?
That was the company that had won the tar ponds project. What was going on here?

“What's that?” Mai asked, coming up beside her.

“Don't touch that!” Grace warned.

“Oh my gosh—it's toxic waste!”

“I think it's from the tar ponds,” Grace said, backing away. Her thoughts flashed to the sites she'd visited on the internet. The cleanup using the incinerator. Sandstar's claims that they were on schedule. She remembered her dad's doubts that it could handle all the waste. She flashed her beam along the rows of toxic waste in the abandoned tunnel. Her dad and the environmentalists had been right all along! Sandstar must be secretly dumping the waste the incinerator couldn't handle! “Mai, we have to get out of here!”

“What's wrong?”

“Sandstar—that's the company that has the contract for the tar ponds cleanup,” Grace said.

“What do you mean?”

“Don't you see?” Grace said, tilting her injured arm toward the barrels. “They're dumping toxic waste in the tunnels! I bet that's why Stuckless was following us. He must be involved somehow!”

Mai swung her light across the floor. “But look at these circle marks on the ground. They're the same size as those barrels. It looks like there used to be a lot more toxic waste here.”

Grace frowned. “Why would they go to all the trouble to hide the barrels here just to take them out again?” She moved slowly along the row to examine the barrels more closely.

A bit farther down the line, Grace noticed something sticking out from between two of them. She bent down and tugged it loose. When she saw what it was, she gasped and collapsed to the floor.

“What is it?” Mai peered over her shoulder.

“My dad's hat,” Grace choked. “He was wearing it the morning he disappeared.” It felt like she was in a trance. “That means he was here that day.” She held the hat gently in her hand and traced the embroidered letters on the front: D-A-L. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

The hat had a tear on one side and there were dark marks splattered across the normally white material. Grace couldn't breathe. She stood up, slowly made her way to the sinkhole opening, and held the hat up under the light. “There are weird stains on the brim,” she said. “And they're not coal dust—they're kind of reddish.”

“Oh my gosh,” Mai said, touching her arm. “Is that blood?”

“Blood?” Grace closed her eyes. She felt like she was going to throw up.

“It s-s-sure looks like it,” Mai stuttered.

“It can't be,” Grace mumbled, clutching the hat protectively to her chest. But if Sandstar was dumping toxic waste and her dad had found out…

She opened her eyes slowly and stared at the stains.
Of course
it was blood. Grace sank to the ground. She was finished running away from the truth. The part of her that had always thought that maybe he was alive felt like it was shrivelling up.

It was over.

“We found a way out!” Jeeter said, appearing from around the corner. “There's another tunnel off this one that goes right to the ocean.”

Neither Grace nor Mai moved.

“What's the matter?” Jeeter asked. “I said we found a way out. Come on!”

“It's her dad,” Mai said. She was tugging her hair again. “I think Grace is in shock or something. She found his hat!”

Jeeter looked startled as his glance fell to the bloodstained hat. “What happened?” he asked.

Mai shone her flashlight on the toxic waste barrels. “Her dad must have found the guys who were dumping this toxic waste in the tunnels,” she said in a hushed voice.

“Oh, no,” Jeeter said. His voice sounded hollow.

“I don't know what to do,” Mai said. “I'm not sure Grace can even hear us!”

“Well, we can't stay here,” Jeeter said. “Stuckless is coming. It's not safe. C'mon, Grace. Get up.”

Grace felt like a rag doll. Her brain didn't seem to be connected to her arms and legs. She watched as if from far away as Jeeter pulled frantically on her sleeve. She figured she should get up. He wanted her to.

“
Grace
, what's the matter with you?” Jeeter said, tugging harder on her sleeve. “Didn't you hear me? We have to go!”

Mai knelt down beside Grace and brushed the hair from her eyes. “We have to go,” she spoke softly in her ear. “Grace? Can you hear me?”

Grace leaned forward and closed her eyes, touching her forehead against Mai's. “I don't know what to do,” she sobbed. She could feel warm tears on her face.

“We'll figure this out,” Mai said, taking her hand. “I promise.”

Grace looked into Mai's concerned eyes. She was such a good friend. But what could she do? The unthinkable had already happened.

“What's taking you guys so long?” Fred panted, racing into view.

Mai pulled Grace to her feet and held her hand tightly as she led her away. Just before they turned the corner, Grace looked back, squinting to see the spot where she'd found her dad's hat—the place where he had to have been. But there was only darkness.

Chapter
25

THEY ROUNDED A TURN INTO THE LIGHT AND GRACE SQUINTED
against the glare. She could smell the ocean.

“C'mon, hurry!” Fred shouted back to them. He was teetering on a big boulder at the edge of the water. There was only a metre or so between the cliff and the rising tide.

The beach was littered with mounds of dried kelp, and its rotting, salty smell mingled with the damp sea air. Rain was exploding from the thunderheads above. Stinging needles of water pelted Grace's face and arms as she emerged onto the beach. The pain on the outside seemed to dull some of the pain inside and she tilted her face upward, welcoming more.

“Where are we, anyway?” Mai asked. She looked back and forth along the shore. “Grace?”

“What?”

“Do you know this place? It's not Battlemen's Beach, that's for sure!” Mai's voice rose.

Grace shook her head.
What does it matter now?
she thought.

Mai's fingers closed gently around Grace's wrist. “It's important!” she said firmly.

Grace sighed. “Well, we were at the PA4, which is pretty much under the Point Aconi lighthouse.” She glanced above them to the cliffs. “Look, you can see the tip of it up there.”

Grace stepped onto a flat boulder at the edge of the waves. She leaned as far forward as she dared. “There!” she said, pointing. “I can see the very tip of Little Table Island. The rest of it is hidden by the point.”

“So we're on the opposite side of the point, then?” Fred asked. “We've never been here before.”

Grace pulled the map out of her dad's field bag. She spread it out on the rocky beach. Point Aconi stretched like a long finger into the ocean. She traced along the right side of the point with her finger. “That's Battlemen's Beach.” She pointed to a small sliver off the point. “And this is Little Table Island.”

“Oh,” Mai said, crouching down beside Grace. “So we're here, then?” She touched the left side of the long finger on the map.

“We have to be,” Grace nodded.

“Uh, guys?” Fred broke in. “The tide's almost in. And it doesn't look like we can get back to Battlemen's Beach from here—the water's already risen all the way up to the cliffs that way. We're gonna get trapped here if we don't start moving!”