“I guess we have to.”
“They’re too dangerous. The boy knows too much, and that Kincaid woman is a damn wildcat in a fight. We can’t risk it, and this way, we didn’t have to kill them, they did it themselves.”
RL didn’t see how that was true since Ellis was going to seal them inside to die, but he didn’t argue. All this made his head hurt.
Ellis said, “I know you were hot for the woman, but I’ll make it up to you when we get back to Ojinaga. There’s some new whores in Boy’s Town that they brought in from Delícias. Blonds and redheads, young and pretty.”
RL nodded, then used his light to shine on the mine walls. “We gonna have to drill holes for the dynamite?”
“Nah, this mine’s over a hundred years old, and because it’s on the hillside, there are deep cracks that’ll work fine.” He handed RL several sticks, then cut fuses and handed him the fuses and blasting caps. “You know how to rig them, we’ve done dynamiting before. Take the charges outside and put them above the entrance. Try to bring as much of the hillside down on here as you can.”
“You want me to start the fuses when I do?”
“No. I’ll come out and signal you. Then you do it and run like hell to me.”
“All right.”
“I’ll plant the ones inside and do them first, but I’ll leave long enough fuses to light them all at once. That gives time for you to do what you need to do. We clear?”
“We’re clear.”
“Get going.” RL left the mine and disappeared. Ellis heard his feet slipping on the slope above the entrance several times, but nothing else. He turned his attention to the walls and ceiling, finding several large, deep cracks that he felt would work. He pushed the sticks in them and left the fuses out for easy reach.
Ellis used the striker fuses to light them and stepped back to make sure they all burned. When he was sure, Ellis walked to the entrance. He looked back once into the dark mine and wondered if Hunter and Adan had found the skeleton back in there, then he went outside and yelled to RL to light the fuses and come down.
RL hurried too much and slipped on the steep slope to come down with his legs pumping and heels digging into the dirt like a bronco rider spurring his horse. His butt hit hard on the level ground beside the shed, and he grunted with the impact.
Ellis said, “Get your ass up and come on.”
“I’m comin’.”
They moved behind the pickup and waited. It wasn’t long before the whump, whumpwhump, whump-whump-whump-whump sounds of the explosions sounded and a cloud of dust spewed from the shed door like someone exhaling cigar smoke.
Ellis was satisfied. He patted the watch in his pocket and said, “Let’s go drink some of Winston’s whiskey and relax.”
Chapter 15
Hunter felt sure there was no pursuit, that Ellis and RL remained on the far side of the hole in the mine floor and hadn’t found something to use as a bridge. Her ankle throbbed from kicking the heavy board, allowing her and Adan to escape. Feeling they were safe enough to use a light, she pulled out Hart’s iPhone and turned on the flashlight app.
“It’s bright,” Adan said.
“Not bad, huh? Let’s see where this goes.” They walked deeper into the mine for several minutes before the low rumbles came and the mine’s roof dropped pieces the size of dinner plates to the floor.
Hunter pushed Adan against the wall and covered him with her body. One
broken piece of roof hit her shoulder and almost buckled her legs, but she held fast against the wall.
When the rumbles subsided, dust filled the mine and made it hard to breathe. Creaks and groans also sounded in the mine, more from the front entrance.
“Let’s just sit a while and wait for it to subside.” She said.
Adan pointed at her shoulder, “You’re bleeding.”
She looked at it, then pulled her shirt from her neck and inspected the wound. A small, ragged cut on her deltoid wept blood. The wound was an inch long, with deep bruising already showing around it. She said, “It’ll be okay for now. I’ll patch it up when we get out of here.” She didn’t want him to worry.
They walked, stepping carefully because of the fallen rocks and timbers, but made good time. An hour later, Adan spotted something ahead at the edge of the light on the floor. They walked towards it, and Hunter realized it was a human skeleton, still clothed, sitting on the floor with its back and head resting against the wall. Fifty yards beyond it was a small beam of sunlight running from the roof to the mine floor like a spotlight. She ignored it and focused on the skeleton on the floor.
When they reached it, Adan said, “I wonder who it is.”