Bone Deep (18 page)

“Damn it, Avery,” Ziegler snapped. “Didn’t Phil tell all of you this man’s helping with the investigation? Back off and let him do his ... job.”

“And what
is
that? We’ve walked acres of that forest without
seeing hide nor hair
of the girl. What does this freak know about where she’s at?”

Other men and women had gathered behind Avery, drawn by curiosity and the desire to be part of the drama.

“Where has he been all this time?” Mrs. Davidson called out. “Where’s he been hiding?” She gave Sarah a meaningful look.

“And why
was he hiding
?” another woman chimed in, “If he hasn’t done anything wrong, why’s he been skulking around instead of coming forward to face folks.”

“Well, he’s facing folks now, isn’t he? And look how well
that’s
turning out,” Ziegler said dryly. “Look, I realize you all have a lot of questions and I’ll explain everything later, but right now the important thing is using any means
possible
to find Aileen.”

“What means is that? Some hoo-doo nonsense?” Avery scoffed.

“Back off, Avery,” Glenn
Brodbeck
suddenly exploded. “It’s our daughter missing and if this
man
can do anything at all to help, it’s worth a shot.”

“It’s bull crap, is what it is,” Avery mumbled.

Ziegler spoke loudly to the small mob that had gathered. “Like I said, all your concerns will be addressed later. We can even call a town meeting to discuss it if that’ll satisfy everybody. But for now please give us some space here!”

“What about the search?” A man said. “People were just getting ready to go back out again. Are you telling us to wait now?”

“No, not at all. There’s no reason to stop what you all have already been doing. Phil, why don’t you send folks back out to their sections. You got more of those tags for marking off the areas that have been covered?”

There was a flurry of activity as Phil got the people to disperse and the searchers to trek back out into the woods. Sarah watched Tom throughout the altercation. His hands
grasped
the sweater and he seemed oblivious of the dispute and the commotion around him as he concentrated.

“What do you see?” Betty
stepped
close to him and look
ed
into his scanning eyes. “Tell me.”

He frowned then his eyes focused on her. “We
should
start from your yard. I might be able to follow her
trail
.” His voice was suddenly sharply decisive. “She’s in a
hollowed out bit of ground
, not very deep. She went in to explore and it collapsed.”

Tom turned to the sheriff and said with authority, “You
’ll
need men and shovels to dig with.”

“Okay. But where?”

“I don’t know yet, but it’s not where you have them looking.”

Tom’s confident tone
amazed Sarah
. His shy demeanor had vanished and he was completely altered from the nearly mute man she
’
d met
a little over
a week ago. She felt she was seeing the man he would have been
if
given a normal life.

Andrew Harper, who
’
d been lingering and listening on the periphery of the group, spoke up, “Sheriff, I can get shovels from the hardware store and some guys to help.”

“Good,” Ziegler nodded. “You do that. Get four or five men who can keep a level head and work hard and bring ‘em to the Brodbeck’s place, since
it seems
that’s our starting point.” Sarah was surprised at his open-mindedness in
acting on
Tom’s input.

“Yes, sir.” Before he left, Andrew made quick eye contact with Sarah. She wondered what he was thinking
about her and Tom
.

Betty put
her daughter,
Shirley in charge of looking after her younger siblings. Then the Brodbecks, Ziegler, Sarah and Tom walked through the
orchard
, squashing deadfall apples underfoot and releasing their fermented aroma.

The Brodbecks’ property was on the east side of the orchard beyond which the forest sprawled. The search party had been focused on the forest because Aileen had said she
’
d be hiking there,
not
an uncommon pastime for the older children in the area. The kids all knew the rules and rarely went off trails and got lost.

When they reached the
perimeter
of the Brodbeck
s’ back yard, Tom looked around while
still gently kneading the
red
sweater.
He
scanned the lawn and trees and the field beyond
then
pointed west. “That way.”

Betty frowned. “Are you sure? Aileen
said—
”

“That way,” he
insisted
.

Tom strode along the property line then angled across the stubble of the harvested field toward the nearest county road. He walked quickly and soon the slower members of the group, Betty and the overweight sheriff, were hard-pressed to keep up, stumbling over the muddy furrows.

After following the paved road for about a hundred yards, Tom abruptly veered off the road and down an embankment. A small creek flowed from the culvert beneath the road. He followed the water’s course through dense undergrowth. The ground grew marshy underfoot and their shoes mud-caked
. B
ranches whipped their faces and briars caught at their clothes, but Tom was relentless in his course.

Glenn kept up
with
Tom’s rapid pace, staying right on his heels. Sarah lagged a little behind them, dodging branches and sidestepping the worst of the sucking mud. The others were
even
farther back.

When the two men suddenly stopped
,
Sarah plowed into Glenn’s back. They were facing the wall of a
shallow
ravine through which the stream ran. A steep, tree-studded incline rose before them.
Green
light sift
ed through leafy
branches and
a thick carpet of fallen leaves cushioned their feet
. Huge rocks jutted out of the slope
here and there, and l
ush ferns grew in the
shade
.

The others came panting up beside Sarah.

“What?” the sheriff asked.

“I don’t know,” she answered.

Tom stood
holding
the red sweater and turning slowly like a weather vane signaling a change in the wind. The rest of them watched him
and
listened, trying to catch the faintest sound of a young girl’s cry for help.

Finally he stopped turning, raised his hand and pointed. “There.”

They walked over to the
earthy wall
he
’
d indicated.
Underneath a
ledge of rock about three feet above the
forest floor
was a fall of rubble and dirt that could have been fresh or
have lain
undisturbed for years.
Nothing
would have attracted the attention of anyone searching the area.

Without a word Tom went to his knees in front of the pile and began throwing aside rocks and digging loose earth with his hands. After a moment’s pause, the others followed his lead. Sheriff Ziegler called Phil on his walkie-talkie and told him where to direct the digging crew and to get
Dr. Hunter and
an ambulance to the county road.

Sarah knelt and dug
beside
Tom, scraping her
hands on
the rocks.
Soon her hands were cracked and sore from the tiny abrasions, but her spirits lifted with each bit of earth or stone they removed. Surely the would reach Aileen in time, otherwise why would God have given Tom his vision?

The
searchers
dug for several minutes when Tom
suddenly
stopped. He was on his hands and knees, head bowed, struggling for breath. When he lifted his
sweaty
face, a trickle of blood
ran
from his nose. He wiped it away with the back of his hand, smearing dirt and blood.

Sarah grasped his shoulder. “Are you all right?”

He gasped for air but resumed pawing at the earth.

“What
is it
?” she said urgently. “What’s happening?”

He whispered, “She’s running out of air. We have to hurry.”

Sarah’s pulse raced and she redoubled her efforts.
H
er hands were raw and aching, but finding Aileen only to lose her was not an option. They must get to her in time.

Betty called out a steady stream of encouragement. “Aileen, can you hear me? It’s mom. We’re here, sweetheart. We’ll get you out. Just hold on!”

Glenn
didn’t call to his daughter but
dug with single-minded intensity, dirt fly
ing from his fists as if
they were spades.

They’d come unprepared, bringing no shovels, but couldn’t have used them anyway since they might have broken
through and str
uck
the girl. As they tunneled further under the
rocky
outcropping, there
wasn’t
room for more than
a few
people to work shoulder to shoulder. The sheriff urged Betty to rest and took her place
. So
on Sarah too was bumped aside as the
three
men burrowed beneath the rock.

She crawled out of the confined space
,
brushed
dirt from her knees and flex
ed
her stiff fingers. She
held
Betty
’s
hand as they watched the men move the earth to save Aileen.

Sarah didn’t know how much time passed when she heard approaching voices and bodies crashing through the woods near the stream. Seconds later the clearing was filled with a half dozen men armed with shovels.

The sheriff backed out of the chasm and
s
oon Andrew, Mike and Frank Seeber, the mechanic
had taken the other men’s places
, digging with their hands.
The
men with shovels moved the piles of dirt
and rock away from the entrance
. The ambulance driver and Dr. Hunter stood waiting with a stretcher.

Glenn and Tom collapsed
near
Betty and Sarah
and watched anxiously as the newcomers worked.
A couple
of the men
began
to argue whether to try to attack the cave-in with shovels or continue to tunnel with their hands when
suddenly
Andrew gave a muffled yell of surprise. “Hey!
I’m through.
”

A
girl’s hysterical crying
came
from the dark hole.

“Aileen!” Betty jumped to her feet.
Shoving
the
men out of her way, she fell to her knees in front of the tunnel. Frank and Mike crawled out and seconds later Andrew emerged.

“I can’t pull her out. Her leg’s trapped under something.”

Glenn
wiggled
into the
fissure to try to free her
.
It had become a one-person job and a
ll the rest of them could do was wait.

Tears streaming down her face, Betty
continued to call
encouragement to her daughter. “I’m here, honey. I’m here.”

Sarah
’s own cheeks were wet and she was barely breathing as she imagined the horror of being buried alive for hours, not knowing if anyone would ever find you.

When Glen finally emerged, dragging his daughter’s body, a cheer went up from the rescue party. Every inch of the girl was
covered in
mud.
Aileen sobbed and clung to her mother, who hugged her tightly.

Sarah looked over at Tom and reached
for
his hand. His face was dirt-streaked. Blood still dripped from his nose, but when she touched him, he smiled at her.

The doctor examined Aileen’s leg and pronounced it
possibly
fractured. He applied a makeshift splint before the ambulance driver and
Mike Cunningham
carefully lifted her onto the stretcher.
She screamed
despite their attempt to handle her gently.