“Squirrel,” he said.
“Fascinating. Maybe we can find a live one and roast it if we can’t get out of here,” she said as she watched him reach for the caved-in portion of the manmade tunnel. She could just make out his fingertips running over the pile of soil, timber and debris.
“Be careful! There are nails in some of those pieces of wood,” she warned.
He didn’t respond, just stood and stepped several feet to their right, his hand brushing against the solid limestone wall.
“You’re not going to get any cell phone coverage down here,” he said as he walked. She followed him.
“Don’t be so negative,” she remonstrated lightly. He approached the waterfall and rolled back one sleeve of his shirt. He reached through the water and touched the stone behind it. Then he rinsed both his hands. Jennifer hesitated, wanting to do the same, but not wanting to forsake the light of her phone. She compromised by setting it down, the greenish light glowing at her from the ground.
“It’s cold,” she murmured, her fingers moving in the trickling water. She watched as he cupped some water in his hand, smelled and then tasted it. It must have passed the test because he took a larger swallow of it and wiped his mouth before turning away.
At least they had water, she thought, lifting her jacket and wiping her hands on her shirt. She retrieved her phone and hurried after him. She wouldn’t allow the panic that had entered her awareness a moment ago to take hold of her. It’d been pure shock that had made the image of two human skeletons spring into her mind’s eye when she’d seen the squirrel bones. Just because a forest animal had died down in this underground trap didn’t mean they would. And wasn’t there that wonderful, blessed beam of sunshine partially lighting up the darkness? A thought occurred to her and she brightened.
“You live near here, don’t you? Surely someone will miss you and come looking for you in a bit.”
“I stay alone.”
Great, she thought, images of psycho Unabomber-type characters living alone in the woods flickering through her brain. Still, he’d said he was a chiropractor. He wasn’t entirely a societal misfit. And she’d caught a whiff of him when he’d been examining her after the fall. He smelled of the woods and a lime- and spice-scented soap. Surely Ted Kaczynski hadn’t taken so much time with his hygiene.
His touch had certainly been gentle. And knowing—
“What’s your name?” she asked as they continued to make their way around the periphery of the cave. He seemed to be looking for something along the rock walls, using his hands to aid him in the near-pitch blackness.
“John Corcoran.”
“I’m Jennifer. Look, I’m really sorry about this.”
Panic curled around her throbbing heart when the darkness swallowed him and he didn’t immediately reply.
“I was a fool to follow you,” he said.
She exhaled in relief when his gruff voice emanated from just a few feet ahead. She flipped her cell phone around and saw a hazy image of his face in the glowing light. He’d paused, one hand on the rock wall. He stared back at her. Had he heard her gasp of fear?
His jawline was strong and tilted at a determined . . . possibly stubborn angle. His beard wasn’t quite as long as she’d imagined when she’d first seen him standing on the path. It was more like a tw
o- or three-day shave-free scruff. His hair looked thick and midnight black in the shadows. He hadn’t had it cut in a while. It had a natural wave. Jennifer figured it was the kind of hair most women and a good portion of men on the planet would have gladly given a couple of years off their life to possess. His nose seemed at first a little large, but then she realized it fit somehow perfectly with the rest of his masculine features. It was a bold face . . . a masculine one . . .
An arresting one.
“I’m sure you’re furious at me, but could you manage to at least be polite? This situation is bad enough without you barking at me,” she said quietly.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, sounding exasperated by her prickliness. “I just meant that if I hadn’t followed you, I would have been able to direct the rescue team toward your location. I followed you for maybe a mile and a half before I caught up to you. Now no one knows where either of us is. It’ll be like finding a needle in a haystack to locate a three-by-three-foot hole in the entire forest. The stream is going to make it difficult for anyone to hear our shouts. Enzo won’t wander twenty feet from the hole in order to meet any rescue workers.”
“It’s that serious?” she asked slowly. “But I only hiked maybe five miles before I got here. Surely the search area won’t be so wide?”
“You went about seven and a half miles from Rill Pierce’s place.”
Her hand fell in surprise, plunging them into temporary darkness. “How did you know I was staying with Rill and Katie Pierce?”
“Rill Pierce is our resident celebrity,” he replied dryly. “Where else would a movie star be staying around here but a big Hollywood film director’s house?”
“You . . . you know who I am?”
“Yeah,” he said, his cursory manner making her feel like the knowledge was about as relevant as her telling him her favorite color. He again turned his attention to charting out the cave.
“So it’ll take a while for them to find us, but they’ll find us, right?” Jennifer persisted, tailing him closely, afraid of him escaping her sight.