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And this bunker would be very well hidden. That, she was sure of.
May would have to draw on her childhood experience of playing in the woods, the memories of herself and her sisters developing their woodcraft skills. Lauren had been the best at hiding. Kerry had been the best at finding. And May hadn't been the best at anything.
She remembered again the inadequacy she had felt when one of her sisters had excelled in one direction and the other in the other.
But looking back, May realized that maybe, she'd come second in both hiding and finding. And although it wasn't a win, at least the results were consistent.
Now it was time to see if 'always second and never first' was going to be good enough to find an underground bunker that was hidden from sight by a delusional psychopath.
There was the chestnut tree. It was time to climb out and start casting around on foot, in the hope that she could findwhere it was. There might be more than one entrance. He would have covered his tracks. She’d have to search carefully.
But she had to find it. She had no choice if she was going to save these women, particularly his final victim, the one she worried was expendable.
May set off into the woods, slipping and slithering in the mud, following trails that seemed to peter out and disappear and then momentarily reappear. She felt a sense of hopelessness pervade her as she searched. These woods were so big! What chance did they have?
There was a chance, she told herself. There was always a chance.
She forged on, now starting to feel sweaty with the effort of moving across the rough terrain, with the squelch of her footsteps and the sighing of the wind in the trees.
And another sound, a strange one, that she picked up.
At first, she thought it was loose change in her pocket. She clamped a hand over the pocket with her wallet in and continued walking.
But that strange metallic tapping noise didn't stop. It continued.
May stopped. She stood utterly still and listened. It was a faint, tapping sound, and it was coming from her right.
Hardly daring to breathe, she paced toward it. Something was making this sound.
She remembered what Owen had said about the steel girder. That was what it sounded like. A tapping on steel.
Hope flared inside her as she wondered if this could be the women doing this to attract attention.
She guessed that calling out wouldn't do much good when victims were sealed in an underground bunker. Tapping the metal would be a clever way to communicate with the outside world and get the sound to travel.
It was louder now, almost like a vibration in the earth. She followed it, step by step, listening out, pausing, occasionally taking a wrong turn and having to backtrack.
She prayed it would continue and that whoever was doing it would carry on for long enough for her to reach it. Even though she had no idea where it was.
And then, May gasped.
In front of her, almost invisible under a leafy mass of shrubs, was a weathered wooden door.
It was buried in the ground. Small, humble, hidden well. If the tapping hadn’t guided her here, she’d never, ever have found it.
Quickly, May sent the coordinates through. She texted them to Sheriff Jack and to Owen with a brief word:Here.
Should she wait for them? May hesitated, agonizing over the decision. It would be safer to wait, but that meant safer for her. Not for the new hostage, whose life was at risk, along with the others.
She knew she’d be going in alone with no backup, and that the man waiting for her would most likely have sophisticated surveillance equipment ready to use. He might even know she was here already.
No. That was unlikely. But even as she suppressed that fearful thought, May decided the faster she went in, the better. Even if he hadn’t seen her arrive, but was jumpy and expecting the police, he might decide to kill his new victim sooner rather than later.
She had to try now. If it saved a life, then the danger was worth it.
Carefully, she pulled opened the door, wrinkling her nose as a stale, damp smell filtered out. The trap door opened wide, and the sloping tunnel beyond headed steeply down into darkness. Itwas like walking into deepest night, and she had absolutely no idea what might be waiting.
Or who.
