CHAPTER NINETEEN

“I don’t like this tunnel, ” Potts said, twenty minutes in. “I’m cold and wet and muddy. I’m going to have to take zinc and vitamin C when I get home. My mother is going to yell at me when she sees my sneakers. ”

Grandma’s flashlight beam caught a shadowy figure some distance in front of us. It was a black-clad woman, and the silver studs on her boots bounced the light back at us. Gabriela.

“Follow her, ” I said to Grandma. “Don’t lose her. ”

My hope was that Gabriela knew what she was doing, because we sure as hell didn’t. My fear was that we’d wander forever in the dark until we face-planted in the muck and someone found our bones ten years from now.

An instant later Gabriela disappeared. It took me a beat to figure it out. There had to be a bend in the tunnel. We hurried after her as best we could, sliding in the muck. We rounded the bend, I caught sight of Gabriela, and then she was gone again.

“How is she finding her way without a light? ” Grandma asked.

“Probably has night-vision goggles, ” Potts said. “Or maybe she’s like a cat woman. ”

“Do you think she knows we’re following her? ” Grandma asked.

“I’m sure she can see the Maglite, ” I said.

Impossible to know if she was leading us somewhere or running from us. Also, impossible to assess the danger level. She could turn around and shoot us all dead. I didn’t think a Chardonnay drinker would do this, but you never know.

Grandma picked up the pace and forged ahead. I struggled to keep my footing and stay close to her.

“Be careful to not fall down in the mud, ” I said.

Seconds after I said it, Potts went down.

“Don’t worry about me, ” he called out. “Keep going. I’ll probably only get worms or a rash. I hope there aren’t any leeches. ”

I pulled Potts to his feet and we sloshed on until we came to a fork.

“Now what? ” Grandma asked.

I took the flashlight from her and aimed the light at the tunnel floor. The sludge was too deep to see footprints.

“Go left, ” Potts said. “I’ve been keeping track of a symbol that looks like a bird wing. I can see one on the beam to the left.

“Works for me, ” I said. “I’ll take over the lead. ”

After five minutes of trudging in the dark, the tunnel widened slightly and there were rotting wood planks overhead.

“It looks like we’re under something, ” Grandma said. “It looks like we got a floor over us. Maybe this is it. We could be under the room that has the safe. ”

The wood ran for about ten feet and then the dirt tunnel continued. I rapped the beams with my Maglite and some of the wood splintered off.

“This wood couldn’t hold a safe, ” I said.

I rapped the ceiling again and punched a hole through to the other side. A couple of boards broke apart and fell into the tunnel. I heard some squealing and high-pitched chirping sounds and suddenly the air was filled with bats escaping from the hole I’d created.

“Bats! ” Potts yelled. “I hate bats!! ”

We all ducked down, and the bats chirped and flapped and swirled around us and took off down the tunnel. The bats were followed by rats. They tumbled out of the hole, squealing and splatting when they landed in the mud.

“Rats! ” Potts yelled. “I hate rats!! ”

The rats kept coming, piling up three-deep in front of us, jumping and climbing over each other, trying to get out of the muck. I had myself plastered against the tunnel wall. I had my eyes closed tight, but I could feel the rats running over my feet. Think happy thoughts, I told myself. Don’t panic. What was the line from Ratatouille? Only the fearless can be great. Only the fearless can be great. Crap. Not working. I wasn’t fearless.

I opened my eyes to see the last few rat stragglers hauling ass down the tunnel.

“I think I have rabies, ” Potts said. “Am I foaming at the mouth? Don’t anyone get near me. ”

I directed the flashlight beam into the hole in the overhead flooring. Water was trickling out.

“It looks like a large culvert, ” I said. “Maybe part of the sewer system. We can try to climb into it or we can continue down the tunnel. ”

“The bats and the rats all went down the part of the tunnel we just traveled, ” Potts said. “I don’t want to go that way. ”

“Okay, let’s go a little further in the other direction, ” I said. “We can always turn around and try the culvert. ”

We walked for a couple of minutes and came to a dead end. A ladder had been built into the wall, and two stories above the floor of the tunnel I could see what looked like a round manhole cover that was slightly ajar. A sliver of light outlined part of the opening.

“I’m going to climb up, ” I said. “Stay down here until I see what’s up there. ”

I got to the top and had a moment of panic when I had to take a hand off the ladder to push the manhole cover away. Don’t look down, I thought. Channel your inner Indy.

I gave the heavy metal lid a shove, flipped it back, and light flooded into the tunnel. I hauled myself up through the small round opening and crawled out onto a concrete walkway that led to a fountain. I’d come out in Liberty Park. I went flat on my stomach and looked down the hole at Grandma and Potts.

“Can you make it up the ladder? ” I asked. “Or would you like me to get help? ”

“I can do it, ” Grandma said.

“Me, too, ” Potts said.

Grandma came first. I grabbed her when she got to the top, and I pulled her out. Potts came next.

“Liberty Park, ” Grandma said, looking around. “There used to be a statue of Betsy Ross in the fountain, but the pigeon situation got out of hand. They moved Betsy to a park near the river. ”

“Betsy Ross was from Philadelphia, ” Potts said. “Along with cheesesteaks, Tastykakes, and Rocky Balboa. Do you think that’s the Philadelphia part of the clues? ”

“Maybe, ” I said, “but it doesn’t feel right to me. If the treasure is in Liberty Park, the question is where? ”

“It’s not a big park, ” Grandma said. “There’s not much to it. Mostly just the fountain that’s seen better days. ”

I looked at the area around the manhole cover and the concrete walkway. It was splattered with mud from Grandma, Potts, and me, but there were also muddy footprints leading down the path to the street. Gabriela had exited the tunnel here, and I wondered if she’d deliberately left the cover ajar, so we would see it.

“My feet feel squishy, ” Potts said.

“I’m not looking too good, either, ” Grandma said. “There was a lot of mud down there. ”

“We’re two blocks from Lucky Lucy and my car, ” I said. “I think we need to call it a day. ”

My instincts told me we were working too hard to make the clues fit Liberty Park. Lucky Lucy seemed to have the Ace tie-in, but I was pretty sure it was just a coincidence.

I took Grandma home and waited until she was safely inside.

“Are you staying with your friend tonight? ” Potts asked.

“Yes. ”

It was a fib. I was going back to my apartment. I needed to spend some time with my own things. My couch, my television, my hamster running on his wheel in the kitchen. If I told this to Potts he’d be camped out in front of my door and it would diminish the enjoyment of being in my own space.

I stopped in front of his house and turned to face him. “Thanks for helping me with my shopping today. I would never have found all those clothes on my own. I wanted to reinvent myself and I didn’t know where to begin. ”

“Everyone wants to be a better version of themselves, ” he said. “It’s easy for you because you just needed a new jacket. For some other people the job is more complicated. ”

I carried my shopping bags into my apartment and set them down in the kitchen. Rex was already busy with his nocturnal wheel spinning. I said hello and gave him a peanut. I got a beer from the fridge and drank half of it leaning against the counter.

Potts’s last words were stuck in my brain. Everyone wants to be a better version of themselves. That was true for me. I was looking for a passion that would spin my life in a new direction. It was probably true for Potts as well, but Potts was a disaster of such proportions that I suspect he had given up looking for his better self. At least temporarily.

I took my bags into my bedroom and left them sitting on the floor with the tags still attached to the clothes. I went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror.

“Who are you? ” I asked the reflection.

⇐ Предыдущая 16 17 18 19 202122 23 24 25 Следующая ⇒