Page 19 of Silent Past

"But some of us worried she was going too far. These places—they're sacred. Not meant to be catalogued like museum specimens."

Finn studied Bowden's face. The young man's anxiety seemed genuine, but there was something else there. Something personal.

"You worked closely with Mitchell?" he asked.

"I was her research assistant for two years, before James Cooper."

"And given what you know of Dr. Mitchell and the precautions she took, is it possible someone accessed her work without her knowing it?"

Bowden's eyes darted to Martinez. "Anything's possible, I guess. She was careful, but someone determined enough…"

Martinez's grip tightened on the book. "If someone has her research... her recordings of the oral histories..."

"They'd have locations of sacred sites across the region," Bowden finished quietly.

Finn's phone buzzed—a text from Sheila: Need you at the caves. Now.

"We're not done here," he told Martinez and Bowden. "I'm having officers escort you both to the station. We'll continue this conversation there."

Outside, he called in the request for escorts, then sat in his vehicle for a moment, thinking. Mitchell had found something in those caves—something that scared her enough to reach out to Martinez. Then she'd gone to meet someone with "special knowledge" of the site.

Someone who'd been waiting for her to find it.

His phone buzzed again. Another text from Sheila: Bring climbing gear.

Whatever the search teams had found, it was going to be a long day.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The caves felt different in darkness. Despite his years of combat training, Finn felt a flutter of unease as he checked his harness again before following Marcus Weber down the main passage, their headlamps cutting weak arcs through the blackness. He glanced back at where Sheila stood at the entrance, coordinating with the other teams.

"You sure you don't want to come down?" he asked.

Sheila shook her head. "Someone needs to run point up here. We've got four teams, the coroner's office calling with updates, and Martinez and her assistant to process at the station. Better if I coordinate from above." She didn't add what they both knew—that having the sheriff trapped underground if something went wrong wouldn't help anyone.

"Stay in radio contact," she added, tapping her receiver.

Finn nodded and turned back to Marcus. The descent looked nothing like his F-35 training exercises, but that old familiar tension coiled in his gut—the good kind, the kind that had always kept him alert in the cockpit.

A voice crackled over the radio, unusually hesitant. "Sheriff... Team Two found something. Kelly Bishop's group, in a lower chamber." He paused. "About two hundred feet down. You're going to want to see this yourself." The way he emphasized 'this' made Finn's stomach tighten. He'd heard that tone before—when officers found something they wished they hadn't.

"Guess I'd better check it out," Finn said.

The descent challenged him in ways his flight training never had. Ice made the ropes slick, and twice Finn had to stop to clear his headlamp of moisture. His compass necklace—the one that had saved his life in the air—swung uselessly against his chest as he navigated this underground world.

He thought of Mitchell, making this same journey days ago. Had she known what was waiting for her?

Kelly met them at the bottom of the rope line. Her face was pale in the artificial light, but her voice was steady. "It's through here. We almost missed it."

She led them through a narrow fissure that opened into a smaller chamber. The rest of her team was already there, lights positioned to illuminate what they'd found.

Signs of habitation were everywhere. A sleeping bag tucked into a natural stone alcove. The remnants of a camp stove. Empty protein bar wrappers and water bottles, neatly collected in a plastic bag.

"How long ago was someone here?" Finn asked, examining a makeshift shelf carved into the rock wall. It held basic supplies—matches, batteries, a first aid kit.

"Hard to tell in these conditions," Marcus replied. "The cold preserves everything. Could be days, could be weeks."

Kelly picked up a battery-powered lantern. "The batteries are dead. But it's a high-end model—the kind serious cavers use."

---