The crackle of static on the walkie-talkie startled her.
“Flash flood warning, careful,” someone was saying, and then they were at the riverbank again, and JJ was pointing, and she could barely see it.
“There! By the riverbank!”
She gaped, not sure she was seeing correctly. It looked like JJ was pointing to a huge metal grate and a massive concrete pipe, like a water tunnel or cavern. It sloped downward, and water poured out of the huge opening into the river.
She stopped mid-stride, grabbed his arm. “That’s your fort?”
JJ nodded, eyes wide. “Yeah.”
“That’s a storm drain.” Josh’s face was pale as they watched the water churn. “Lord, I hope he’s not in there.”
Rebecca turned to JJ. “You guys enter through the bottom part, there? By the river?”
JJ looked from her to his dad, and Josh nodded for him to answer.
JJ stared at the ground, swallowed. “Yes, ma’am. They have signs, but there’s never any water in it when we’re there. It’s dry, and it echoes, and there’s a part so narrow you can touch the edge and flip yourself around, like a hamster wheel.”
Rebecca let out a breath, eyed the drain. Everything she’d ever heard about storm drains and storms said to steer clear. She’d even done a story about an old man in New York who’d fallen down a drain chasing his dog, gotten trapped in a sudden rainstorm, and died. There was that big national story maybe a year ago, too, about the teenager out West who got swept away and drowned. Surely Devon knew better.
Only it hadn’t been raining Thursday, or Friday. Hadn’t started till Sunday night, in fact.
She put a hand on JJ’s shoulder. “Is that the only entrance?”
“Uh-uh.” He pointed. “There’s an opening up there, too. I mean, it’s a harder climb, and it’s way better down here, but you can get in from the top. I’ve done it once or twice. Do you think he … ?”
Josh and Rebecca exchanged glances.
“I hope not,” she finally said.
Josh motioned. “Why don’t you two climb up and see about the top? I’ll check over there, at the bottom.”
Rebecca’s mouth went dry as she glanced at the pipe’s opening, the torrent of water gushing out. “You’re not going in there, are you?”
“No, but I’ll scoot close enough to see if I can peer in, call his name.”
She looked at him a long moment. “Be safe.”
He nodded. “I will.” And then he was off, stepping over the river rocks, and JJ was tugging her arm and pushing her up the slope.
“Devon!” she called.
She could hear Josh shouting, too, from below them. No answer.
At the first level spot she grabbed for her walkie-talkie.
“This is Rebecca Chastain,” she said, pressing the button. “We’re at the Wahca River, by this big storm drain Devon knew about. We’re looking to see if he’s here.”
“This is Deputy Zane. Do not go in,” a voice crackled from the other end. “I repeat, do not enter the storm drain. It’s dangerous. Over.”
“We won’t. Over and out.”
“Miss Becca, I can’t find it!” She watched as JJ scaled the riverbank, higher and higher, looked frantically around.
The mud and rain was making everything a soppy mess. She could barely see enough to get a good foothold. A moment latershe was at his side, slipping in the muck as the rain continued to pour.
“Devon!” She cupped her hands over her mouth to make it louder, scanned the line of concrete sloping up from the river, looking for what she’d only seen in pictures—some sort of metal grate or opening in the ground, some cement block or cavern that had been there so long it probably blended into the scenery.
