“No Lena,” he said, looking into her room. “But that’s where we start.”
“I haven’t been through a teenage girl’s belongings since Rayah was about fifteen,” Scott said.
“She’s not a teenager. I think she’s about twenty-one,” Zack murmured, not really giving a hoot about Scott’s newly found morals.
“I’m thirty-five. Twenty-one is pretty much still a teenager,” he said, tentatively stepping into her room.
“You’re not old enough to be her dad, so you’re fine. Here’s her phone.” He picked it up. “No one goes anywhere without their phone.” He hit the home key and saw the start of a message from Cam, the kid who helped out. Zack liked him, he seemed pretty decent, a big, well-built lad who had both brains and brawn.
He flicked the message so he could see more of it without having to put in the passcode.
Don’t go up to the caves. Sorrell said that’s where you were going to meet this dick. They’re dangerous—and you shouldn’t meet him on your
That was all he could see, but it was enough.
“The caves,” Zack said to Scott, showing him the message, his heart starting to pound and the need to move almost more urgent than breathing. “That’s where we’re heading. Sorrell’s gone looking for Lena—she’ll have found this out too. We need to go to the caves.”
“Stop!” Scott said, grabbing his shoulders. “Which caves? We live next to a cave network that is miles long with multiple entrances. The conditions out there are dangerous, Zack. Before we go tear-arsing up a mountain, dragging half the rescue team out of the pub, we need more information.”
Zack’s phone chose that moment to ring. He answered it as soon as he saw Alex’s name flash on the screen.
“What do you know?” he said.
“She bought a scarf and she was dressed for walking. That was from Gran. And she was asking about Lena and the cult,” Alex said.
“Are you meant to use that word?” Zack said, not sure why his attention had gone on that.
“If it looks like a dog and barks like a dog, then it’s a dog. What do you know?” Alex’s words were quick and direct.
“Lena was meeting this weirdo at the caves.”
“Which ones?” Alex said.
“We don’t know. And as Scott’s just pointed out, we can’t just pick one at random…”
“Not at random, but we can make an intelligent assumption that Sorrell knew where she was going because she didn’t ask Gran for any maps. Which caves does Sorrell know, Zack and for fuck’s sake, don’t tell me you’ve taken her to Hades Cavern or Shell Pit.”
He could hear Alex walking as he spoke, the wind whipping up.
“I took her to Griff’s Cavern.”
He thought he’d hear relief in Alex’s voice, some sort of ‘thank fuck for that’ because it was the most accessible, the easiest one to get to, but all he heard was a curse.
“Alex? What’s happened? Why’s that not a good thing?”
Zack looked at Scott, his usual swarthy expression pale, mouth tight.
“This afternoon,” Scott said. “There was an avalanche from the peak. It’s blocked off the entrance and they suspect rock fall inside the caves.”
Chapter 33
Fourth day of Christmas
Just after three pm
The entrance to the caves was open, as in wide open. Sorrell checked her phone and again saw that there was no signal still. She cursed and debated heading back, but given that there had only been Lena’s car, she should be on her own.
The caves were as she remembered; glittering quartz embedded in the rock and formations that looked like they were from a fairy tale. Unfortunately, as Sorrell knew, most fairy tales were steeped in darkness: children abandoned in woods, a girl imprisoned in a tower, a baby promised to a bad fairy, wicked stepmothers… who needed real life or computer games to give you nightmares?
