‘Six.’ He pulled his car keys out of his pocket. ‘See you then.’
CHAPTER FIVE
MATTEO GOT TO the site at a quarter past six the following morning, but Rose had beaten him to it. As he parked next to her car, he saw her emerging from the office, clad in heavy boots, a pair of chinos and a hooded top, zipped up against the early morning chill of the mountains. She walked towards him, the spring of excitement in her step, and Matteo felt his chest tighten.
‘Thinking of doing some gardening?’ He pointed towards the pair of secateurs in her hand.
She grinned. ‘Look at this.’ Pulling a newly printed A4 sheet from her back pocket, she unfolded it, laying it out on the bonnet of his car. ‘This is a plan of the area, and I superimposed the survey of the caves.’
‘Right.’ Matteo looked at map. The path leading up to the mouth of the cave was on their left, and so... He scanned the slope in front of them. ‘So the cave we were in yesterday would be ahead of us, about halfway up.’
‘Yes, that’s what I reckon. I didn’t want to go inside the caves on my own...’ She shrugged as if yesterday hadn’t really happened.
‘I’m glad to hear it.’
‘But I reckoned that if light’s coming from the outside...’
‘...then there might be another way in.’ He finished the sentence for her, caught up suddenly in the thrill of their new discovery.
She nodded. ‘Exactly. And look up there.’
Matteo followed the direction of her pointing finger. The hill sloped gently upwards and at the point where it gave way to an outcrop of vertical rock, some thirty feet high, a large scrubby bush was growing over a dark indentation.
‘You think that’s it?’
‘Well, it’s in approximately the right place.’
Matteo leaned into his car, picking up the pair of work gloves that he’d dropped onto the front seat this morning. ‘Okay. Let’s go then.’
They moved carefully, testing the ground as they walked, in case yesterday’s earthquake had opened up any fissures. At closer quarters, Matteo could see that there was a small hole, partially obscured by branches. It took half an hour to cut a path up to it.
‘What do you think?’ He bent down, trying to see inside the jagged crater.
‘I think we’re going to feel a bit silly if it’s a fox hole. And I don’t much fancy finding out by putting my arm in there.’
‘No. Me neither. It doesn’t look like a fox hole, though.’ Most fox holes were in the ground, not a couple of feet up. All the same, Matteo reached for one of the cut branches, guiding it slowly into the hole.
‘Can you feel anything?’
‘No. Nothing. The hole seems to be angled downwards.’ He pushed the branch a little further and still met no resistance. Then he let go of it, and it disappeared completely. ‘Did you hear that?’
Rose nodded. ‘It sounded as if that branch just fell onto something on the other side.’
They looked at each other. Matteo could see the same thrill of discovery in her eyes that he felt. ‘Can we drop a camera down there?’
‘Yep. We’ve got a telescopic extension camera. I’ll go and get it.’ She turned, sliding back down the slope and jogging to the site office.
The unit, which fitted on one end of the flexible extension, incorporated a lightweight camera unit and a light. On the other end was a receiver monitor and a battery pack.
Rose fitted the components together, choosing three rigid rods with flexible joints and clipping the camera and light securely onto one end. Matteo picked up the tripod she’d brought with her, driving the legs securely into the ground.
‘Would you like to give it a go?’
There was no doubt that this was something of an honour. Matteo nodded in appreciation, balancing one end of the extension pole on the top of the tripod to steady it and lowering the camera into the mouth of the hole.
‘Careful. Try not to touch the sides...’ The monitor was giving a clear view of the first couple of inches of soil, together with a few broken roots.
‘Okay. Done this before.’ Matteo concentrated on the monitor. His work was on a much smaller scale than this, but it was the same general idea.