Submerged

Adam came down the chute after her and joined his friends in exploring and surveying the cave. They had work to do, after all, and Cobie would leave them to it. Jen and Laura explored the far wall of the ten-foot-tall room, and Cobie hadn’t caught up to them yet.

She tried to picture her father standing here, at this very spot. Had he come to the cave in search of something for his job as a scientist, or for the sheer love of caving? If so, he hadn’t mentioned either reason in his journal. He hadn’t written in the journal religiously, and most of his notes were vague ramblings regarding people he met or a day on his job as an archaeologist. But most of the writing were old, except for a few notes about this cave. Nothing that held her attention or stood out. That’s why Cobie hadn’t paid much attention to the fact that pages had been torn from his journal after the mention of the cave.

Maybe Adam was right to think that her father’s disappearance had something to do with the man who had tried to kill her. The big question was what did this cave have to do with any of it? How long would it take them to map a caving system like this, which could have innumerable passages, loops, crawlways and rooms?

“Hey, guys,” she called to Laura and Jen. “I see a room through this tight spot. Just going to explore. I’ll be back up in a few.” They nodded their acknowledgment.

Cobie squeezed through, her headlamp easily illuminating the next passage. She noticed a small spring emerging and water streaming away beneath the wall where she couldn’t follow. And in the shadows, she saw something else.

Had someone left a pack? Was it her father’s pack? Her heart skipped, and she held her breath. It couldn’t be that easy. This couldn’t belong to her father. She crept closer to what she thought was a pack.

Instead she found a bundle of rags. She shone her flashlight to get a better look and screamed.

The rags were clothes covering human remains.

* * *

The scream echoing through the cave walls pierced Adam’s ears and sent his heart into his throat. “Cobie!”

Where had she gone? They were supposed to stick together. He ran back through the tunnels and rooms of the cave, keeping track of where he’d been, while stuffing the sketch pad into his pack. Then he slid through a tight space. Ray and Mel were close behind. They’d all gotten caught up in exploring the beauty of the unmapped cave.

Had her attacker come back?

“Someone help!” Cobie’s call echoed through the tunnels. Had something happened to one of the others?

“Where are you?” he yelled.

He made the first room near the entrance, the others on his heels. Laura and Jen climbed from a crawlway.

“Here. I’m in here.” Cobie’s voice came from the opposite direction.

Adam followed her voice, barely managing to squeeze through the tight passage and into the room. He found her hunched over a mound, sobbing. Without thinking about his actions, he grabbed her shoulders and gently pulled her to her feet, turned her to him and into his arms.

Then he looked down at the body.

Ray and Mel had followed him in, and they tucked away their weapons as they stood over the remains of a person long dead. Adam barely registered their words. Cobie was in his arms, after all. He needed her there, again, and this time he wanted to protect her from the world. As if Adam could actually do that. She shuddered, and he ran his hand down her back, through her hair, comforting her.

“It’s hard to say how long the body’s been here,” Mel said. “Could have been months.”

Cobie gasped against his shoulder; he thought he could feel her warm breath seeping through his rain jacket and the layers beneath meant to keep him dry.

She swiped at her eyes, shook her head and pressed her hand on his shoulder. “Sorry about that. It’s just... It’s just...” Cobie covered her face.

He suspected she remembered the last time she’d sobbed into his shoulder—when she’d learned that Brad had died. At the time, she hadn’t known Adam’s part in his death. He wanted to say more to her, but they weren’t alone. Now wasn’t the time. Besides, he shouldn’t let his past feeling for her rise up like this. He shoved them down.

“Well, people,” Mel said. “Whoever this was could have drowned. The debris along the wall near the ceiling shows the previous flood line. Or this cave could be a crime scene now.”

“And we’ll treat it as such until we know different,” Ray said.

A thick knot, gnarled with pain and guilt, lodged in Adam’s throat. Adam and Brad had been in a cave when Brad drowned. That had been an accident. A foolish mistake, but an accident. He let his arms drop when Cobie moved away. He glanced up to the gunk left near the ceiling—the signature of a recent waterline—that Mel had pointed out. This cave had flooded at some point. Had the water washed the body here? Nausea roiled at the thought, at the sight of the body.

“Why do you say that?” Adam asked. “Couldn’t it have been an accident?”

“Do you think the same man who attacked Cobie killed this man?” Jen asked.

Ray shook his head, the light from his helmet swathing across the cave with his action. This stunning underground world was destroyed by the sight of death. “No way to know if this is related. But we can be sure this didn’t happen anytime recently.”

“You said this could be a crime scene.” Jared crossed his arms. “What makes you think this man was murdered? Like Adam said, couldn’t it have been an accident?”

“I can’t know for sure how he died. But he’s not wearing the equipment he would need to traverse this cave alone. There’s no flashlight or headlamp. I don’t think he came here alone. Someone came with him or forced him inside. Either way they left him here. Or he was washed up from another room.” Ray scraped a hand over his face. “Investigating this is going to be a mess. From this point on, touch nothing else.”

“Wait, are you saying we can’t map the cave?” Nate had garnered this opportunity from the Forest Service to begin with; he would feel this loss the most.

“That’s what I’m saying. Until we know more.”

To everyone’s surprise, Cobie bent down and lifted something from the body.

“Cobie, what are you doing?” Ray demanded. “Don’t touch anything.”

She held up a ring dangling from a chain, grief evident in her features. Instead of answering Ray, she looked at Adam and held his gaze as though the two of them were the only ones in the cave, in the world.

“These clothes, they’re what my father always wore. And he always wore this ring on a chain around his neck. It was my mother’s.”

SIX (#ulink_2b9fc25e-d35f-5722-86bc-beb961ae1066)

Cobie’s words echoed against the cave walls as shock ricocheted through Adam’s core.

No one moved or spoke. Everyone stared at her. At the ring dangling from a chain, dancing in the light of multiple headlamps.

“You sure?” Ray took a step closer.

She closed her fingers around the ring, nodding in response. She hung her head, her quiet weeping now the only sound.

Adam wanted to go to her, but waited for Ray’s response.

“We’re going to need that for the investigation.” Ray gestured for Adam to comfort her.

Adam closed the short distance and put his arm around Cobie, drawing her near again, though he felt helpless to reassure her. Neither of them could have imagined this, the worst possible outcome. At the very least, it should have been Adam who found the remains so he could protect her from that image. Bad enough to learn her father was actually dead.

“Cobie.” Ray stood next to them, his voice gentle as he repeated his earlier words. “We’re going to need the ring and the chain for our investigation.”

Adam shared a look with Ray. They both knew she wouldn’t willingly release it. And sure enough, she held on all the tighter. Adam held her tighter, too, and eyed Ray. His friend backed off. He could get the ring later.

In the meantime, Adam would hold Cobie in his arms as long as she needed. For eternity, if necessary. Pressing her forehead against his chest, she clenched his jacket in her fists, along with the ring, and cried, angry sobs mixed with the deepest, soul-piercing sorrow and regret. Reminding Adam all over again of the day Brad had died.

He squeezed his eyes shut, held Cobie to him, afraid to let her go. Why, God? Why is this happening again?

Cobie had come for answers, and she’d gotten at least one. But finding her father like this created even more questions.