She put the flashlight on the incline and reached up to help Teresa. A steady stream of dirt fell a few feet from us and she looked back at me, her eyes wide. “Hurry.”
The minute I got Teresa through, I scrambled back for the helmet, climbed over the mountain of debris with Hardy’s help, then hustled down to assist Cookie. Together we eased Teresa toward us. She clutched on to me, moaning as pain pounded through her. So much so, I was worried she would pass out.
“Help is coming,” Cookie said as I put the helmet on Teresa and wrapped my arms around her.
Teresa cringed as another wave of pain carpet-bombed her entire body. She cried out as Cookie and I started forward.
“I’m so sorry, Teresa,” I said.
She shook her head, determined to make it. Adrenaline coursed through her as she hobbled and we dragged. Another avalanche of dirt plummeted onto our heads, almost knocking the helmet off Teresa’s head. I repositioned it, and we started forward again.
Then, with a really inappropriate gasp, it hit me. “Aldrich-Mees!” I shouted.
When the ceiling started crumbling down around us, I realized how wrong of me that was.
23
Seemed like a good idea at the time.
—T-SHIRT
“You had to shout it?” Cookie asked, literally bitching all the way out of the stupid mine. “At the top of your freaking lungs?”
We were covered from head to toe in dirt and some kind of root system. “Now is not the time, Cook,” I ground out as we struggled to get Teresa from the mine.
“This is where I get off,” Hardy said. I started to protest, but he tipped his helmet and with a soft, “Ma’am,” disappeared.
Then Uncle Bob rushed in, and a wave of relief washed over me. However, the look of shock on his face proved that either he had no faith in me whatsoever and was taken aback by my success in finding Teresa Yost, or I looked worse than I thought.
Agent Carson was there, too. Though I’d never seen her before, I recognized her instantly. Her looks matched her voice perfectly. Short dark bob, solid build, intelligent eyes. She hurried forward, and together with Uncle Bob took Teresa out of our arms. Before they’d gotten two feet, Luther Dean rushed in as well, ducking at the entrance and taking over for Agent Carson.
“Luther,” Teresa said, surprised he was there.
The smile that warmed his face was simply charming. “You never call. You never write.”
A soft laugh escaped her despite everything.
Carson turned back to me, and I tried to raise my hand to shake hers, but my muscles had completely given out. Though they did twitch occasionally. An officer helped Cookie outside while Agent Carson took my arm to help me, careful not to get too close. Dust still lingered in the air from the latest cave-in.
“I can’t believe you did it,” she said, shaking her head as daylight blanketed us.
“I get that a lot.” My hair was so caked with dirt and rocks, it actually hurt. Then again, I did get pummeled by a boulder the size of Long Island.
“I left the flashlight inside,” Cookie said over her shoulder, suddenly remembering.
“Well, you’d best go back and get it. It’s not like I can get another one at pretty much any store between here and Albuquerque.”
She snorted the likelihood of that happening. I couldn’t wait to tell her about Hardy. I’d have to come back someday, get to know him better—another cave-in sounded down the shaft, sending a wave of dirt billowing out the opening—or not.
I saw Rescue hustling up the trail carrying an aluminum litter, bags of medical supplies, and a flashlight I was certain I could talk them out of. And Rescue was built. All three of them, in fact. Tall. Nice tone. Good overall posture.
“Who’s the help?” I asked Carson.
“Your uncle brought them.”
“Nice of him.”
We stopped a moment to admire the view. “Sure was,” she said. “By the way, I couldn’t get a copy of the message the first Mrs. Yost left on the doctor’s answering machine before she mysteriously died in the Cayman Islands. Apparently, the investigator didn’t actually hear it for himself. Just took Yost’s word for it, since it wasn’t a suspicious death.”
“That’s odd,” I said, my eyes still glued to Search, Rescue, and Just Plain Hot. “I don’t think he had any intention of killing his wife this go-around. Somewhere in their relationship, she caught on. I think he was trying to kill somebody else entirely.”
“Mind if I ask who?”
“Can you give me half an hour to confirm my suspicions?”
She turned to me. “How about thirty minutes?”
I planted my best smile on her. “I’ll take it.”
Luther carefully helped Teresa onto the litter as his other sister, Monica, came running up the trail. My heart lurched at the sight of her. I wanted to run to her, explain what had been happening, but she was really busy.
“Teresa!” she shouted, tears streaming in rivulets down her face. “Oh, my god.” She rushed up to them, threw her arms around her brother for a quick hug, then took her sister’s hand as Rescue strapped Teresa in and started an IV drip. The emotion pouring out of Monica felt like cool water rushing over me, refreshing and pure.
Luther walked back to me then, amazed. My ego was taking quite the beating.
“You did it,” he said.
I grinned as Agent Carson nodded and stepped away. “So I’ve heard.”
He shook his head. “I owe you.”
“You’ll get a bill,” I promised.
He laughed out loud, too happy to care about much of anything other than his sister.
I turned to Cookie and gave her a thumbs-up. “We can totally eat this month.”
“Yes!” she said as Uncle Bob helped her onto a big boulder. “I’ve had my eye on a low-carb diet you’re going to love.”
“I said we could eat. I didn’t say anything about eating healthy.”
Uncle Bob walked up to me. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Did Yost do this?”
“In a roundabout way.” Yost may not have used the ATV and winch to sabotage the mine as I’d originally suspected, but he drove Teresa to desperation, in ways I doubted she was even aware of. I led Uncle Bob a little farther into the trees as everyone worked around us. Talking quietly, I said, “You have to keep an open mind.”