Plum Spooky Part 34

TWENTY-FOUR

WE WALKED BACK to the mine entrance and pulled the gate away. A walkway led into the mine interior. to the mine entrance and pulled the gate away. A walkway led into the mine interior.

"This is con ve nient for them," Diesel said. "You can pull a truck into the lot, off-load materials, and move everything along an underground path. They probably have a couple heavy-duty carts. And probably there's another entrance to this cave. Maybe several. I'm guessing if we go back to the fuel depot and the two houses where Munch was living, we'll find they all hook up with this cave system. And there has to be another house or business where they can park cars."

"Now that we've found them, what's next?" I asked. "Police? Homeland Security?"

"That would ruin my chances of containing Wulf. I need to get into the mine and look around." He turned to Elmer. "I want you to go to Gail's house. You know where it is, right?"

"Yep. I know exactly where."

"There's a guy staying there. His name is Hal. He'll be dressed in black, and he works for a company called Range-man. Tell him about the mine, and tell him Stephanie and I are inside. Ask him to tell all that to Ranger."

"Okay. I got it."

Diesel took my hand and tugged me into the mine entrance.

"I hate this," I said to him. "I'm claustrophobic. And I can't see in the dark like you can."

"Walk where I walk, and you'll be fine."

Daylight faded away behind us, and smothering blackness closed in around us. The path under our feet was smooth and level. I was close to Diesel, my hand flat against his back in an effort to absorb some courage.

We walked a short distance and came to a fork. Diesel went right and stopped.

"What's wrong?" I whispered.

"Door."

I felt Diesel put his hand to the door and push it open. Path lights dimly illuminated the corridor in front of us. We were in a rock tube, a habitrail for spelunkers. Fuel-storage tanks lined the side of the tube, and electric lines ran overhead. A narrow tunnel went off to the right, but we could hear voices ahead, and we followed the voices. We reached what appeared to be the end of the tunnel and peeked around the edge of the rock wall into a cavernous room that looked like it belonged in a low-bud get James Bond film. Monitors sat on collapsible rectangular tables. Bundles of wires snaked across the floor. A couple monster computers were housed in a makes.h.i.+ft cubicle. I could see the openings to two more tunnels on the other side of the room. Three men in khaki uniforms were helping Munch pack boxes.

Wulf was moving his operation out of the Barrens.

Diesel backed us out, retreated down the corridor, and took the narrow side tunnel. We came to another large cavern, where cots were stacked triple-decker and a kitchen of sorts had been built into a wall. Dormitory, I thought, but no one was in it, and the beds had been stripped of linens.

The cave smelled musty, the walls were damp, and there was the constant whoosh of air getting pumped through the tunnels.

The tunnel widened, and more fuel tanks were stacked against the rock. There was another door ahead, on the tunnel wall, and beyond the door, the tunnel narrowed and slanted downhill. Diesel listened at the door, put his hand to the lock, and pushed the door open.

It was a small, cell-like room with a sink and toilet at one end and a chair and cot at the other. A single overhead bulb lit the room. Gail sat on the cot, her eyes dead in her face, her shoulders slumped. She was wearing a khaki jumpsuit and sneakers.

"Gail?"

She looked at me and sighed. No expression.

Diesel scooped her up, carried her out of the room, and closed the door. We hustled down the corridor, retracing our steps. Diesel opened the door to the tunnel entrance, and Elmer and Carl walked through and squinted down the long corridor. Carl stood back, not sure he wanted to go further.

"Look at this," he said. "Isn't this something?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I got to the end of the parking lot, and I had one of them freak accidents, and next thing, my truck was on fire. So I thought I'd come see what you were doing here, but I couldn't get through the door."

I looked at Elmer's pants and realized the seat was burned out and black around the edges.

Two uniformed guys stepped into the tunnel at the far end. One raised his rifle and fired.

"Oh c.r.a.p!" Elmer said.

I couldn't hear over the rifle fire if he farted, but the packing boxes lining the wall went up like tinder, and flames enveloped the first of the fuel tanks.

"Eep!" Carl said, and he turned tail and disappeared down the tunnel toward the entrance. Carl said, and he turned tail and disappeared down the tunnel toward the entrance.

Diesel pushed everyone through the door, closed it, and we all ran blind in the dark until we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Behind me, I heard POW POW POW, POW POW POW, and I suspected it was the string of tanks exploding. We burst out of the tunnel and didn't stop running until we were in the middle of the parking lot. and I suspected it was the string of tanks exploding. We burst out of the tunnel and didn't stop running until we were in the middle of the parking lot.

Four fireb.a.l.l.s rose out of the pines into the sky. There were more explosions, and a wall of fire roared out of the mouth of the cave. Black smoke blanketed the forest and parking lot, blocking the sun, stinging my eyes. I heard wings flapping close overhead, but I couldn't see through the smoke. A load of road apples dropped from the sky and splattered on the blacktop, missing me by inches. The sound of flapping wings faded.

"I guess what with all the explosions, we woke the Dev il up," Elmer said.

There was a lot of lightning, and the sky opened up and dumped water on the forest. The rain turned to hail and then back to rain. We walked to the road, past Elmer's truck carca.s.s, and looked back at the pines. There was still a lot of smoke, but not a lot of fire.

"Where's the closest ride?" Diesel said to Elmer.

"There's a bed-and-breakfast a couple miles down the road."

"Mallory Eden's place," Gail said.

It was the first she'd spoken, and we all turned to her.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "I'm so depressed." Tears spilled down her cheeks. "My poor monkeys. I couldn't tell you about Martin Munch and his partner. They had my monkeys."

"Your monkeys are okay," I said. "We took their helmets off." Most of them, anyway.

"I want to go home," Gail said. "I want to see my monkeys." She looked down at Carl. "Who's this little guy?"

"This is Carl," I said. "He's sort of mine."

We walked down the road in the rain. I expected to hear sirens and see fire trucks barreling down on us, but the road was deserted. Maybe they came from the other direction.

"I was scared," Gail said. "I thought they were going to kill me."

"Sorry it took us so long to find you. We didn't know where to begin looking."

"I should have realized they'd eventually take me to the mine," Gail said. "The mine was Eugene's big dream project. He was going to make his fortune with it, but it turned out to be a bust."

"We couldn't find any record of Eugene owning property in south Jersey."

"It wouldn't be under his name. He had a partner, and they bought it under a holding company. They had a fight over how the business should be run, and the partner disappeared and was never seen again. I try not to think about that too much. Eugene didn't have a will that we know of, so I suppose I own his share of the mine with my sister now."

It had stopped raining by the time we reached the bed-and-breakfast. Gail knocked on the door and explained that we needed a ride to her house. Moments later, a van pulled out of the garage, and we all piled in.

Gail was the first out when we stopped in her yard. She ran to the monkey cage and counted them.

"They escaped," I told Gail, "but they almost all came back."

Hal ambled over to us. "The monkey with the scarf came back," he said to me. "I put it in the cage."

"Did you send the monkey with the scarf to get help?" I asked Gail.

"No," she said. "She just likes to wear a scarf. She's always worn it. You probably just didn't notice."

Diesel gave me a poke in the side, and I poked him back.

"I told you it was stupid," he said.

"I'm sure the others will return," I said to Gail.

"The truth is, they've escaped before, and they always come back. They're really clever when it comes to locks and doors."

Hal looked relieved to see Gail Scanlon. His term as monkey man was almost up. Diesel, Carl, and I got into the Subaru and headed for the Expressway.

"I'm wet again," I said to Diesel. "I feel like I'm always wet."

"I have to say, I'm going to miss sleeping on top of you, but I won't miss the Barrens."

"So you're leaving?"

"I always leave."

"Do you mind always leaving?"

"Sometimes, but it's what I do. I'm the job."

"You'll drive me home first, won't you? You won't just pop out in the middle of the Turnpike?"

"I still have a loose end. Wulf made a deal to get barium, and the barium is supposed to come in to night."

"Do you think he'll still want the barium now that we've torched his project?"

"Don't know. Probably Wulf will move on to something new. He gets bored. Even as a kid, he was always restless. Still, I have to see it through."

I called Morelli when I finally got cell ser vice.

"I have a sort of disaster to report," I told him.

"I hate when a conversation starts like this."

"It's not a big thing. It's that this mine blew up in the Barrens, and I thought someone should look into it, but I don't know any of the local cops."

"I'm a.s.suming it's best if I don't involve you?"

"Yeah. You could say it was an anonymous phone call. The thing is, there might have been people in the mine."

"Oh s.h.i.+t."

"I'm pretty sure they were bad people."

"That makes all the difference," Morelli said.

"Listen, it was an accident. I think Elmer might have farted, and next thing, some boxes were on fire, and then it was one of those chain-reaction things."

"But you're okay?"

"Yes. And Diesel and Carl are okay, too. And we rescued Gail Scanlon."

"Anthony is gone, and I'm going to be lonely to night."

"I'll keep that in mind and get back to you."

Diesel was smiling when I hung up.

"What?" I said.

"You're gonna get some."

"And?"

"It would be better if it was me."

"You're leaving."

"I could squeeze you in," Diesel said.

I burst out laughing. "What's so awful about that is you're serious!"

Diesel was laughing, too. "I know. I want you bad."

We were about to get on the Expressway. We stopped for a light, I looked left and realized Martin Munch was alongside us, at the wheel of a scorched and dented black SUV. There were four other guys in the car with him. They were wearing the khaki uniforms, and they were soot-smudged and their hair looked singed.

"That's him!" I said. "It's Munch."

"Hang tight," Diesel said.