Page 61 of In the Pursuit of Haven
“We’ll get out of here,” he said again. The way he talked it was like he was trying to convince himself. “One way or another.”
A soft moaning sound that I never knew could leave my mouth moved over my tongue. Jessie’s hands ran down my hair. “Don’t worry. If the worst happens and we can’t find our way out, there will be people here in the cemetery tomorrow. We might cause a little bit of a scene, but they’ll help us leave our graves.”
A hysterical laugh left my lips. “Will they hear us?”
“Yeah, yeah, of course. We just have to come up with a good story after we’re out of here.”
“I know a real good story,” I whispered. “It has to do with these jerks throwing us in a crypt. We’re turning them in!”
He ran his fingers through my hair. “We can’t, honey.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” My nails dug into the ground. “What do they have on you?”
“Everything.” He flipped on his flashlight and it illuminated the caskets to the side of us. I didn’t want to see. Normally I could take a cold, clinical approach to history, but not down here in the darkness, in a place we weren’t supposed to be. I realized that I was shaking so hard that I was damp with sweat.
“What’s going on?” I asked. Jessiehadto tell me now. No more hiding. We were in this together.
“Hunter thinks there’s a secret tunnel to a mausoleum down here,” he said.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“No, it’s not.” His hand left mine and he inched up the stairs, running his flashlight across the stone walls. I was so shocked that he believed any of this that I couldn’t say a word. “We have good evidence that Reverend Higginson had this tomb built out into a cavern—he had full access to the graveyard when he lived just across the way, and he had plenty of reason to do it… we just have to find the entrance. Roxy, just think of it like… we’re in the ultimate escape room.”
I clenched my teeth. This sounded like the underground tours all over again. All a big fat conspiracy!
But what if it was true? Taking a deep breath, I threw my arms around my knees and tried to make myself as small as possible. It was too cramped, too cold, too disgustingly gross down here with the maggots and worms that fed on corpses. It smelled like dirt and whatever I imagined death to smell like.
“Archer Hunter is from a family of treasure hunters, and no, I don’t think that’s their real last name,” Jessie’s steady voice in this echoing tunnel somehow comforted me; like we were going over a list of facts in a lecture, not like our lives were at stake. “The Hunter family makes their living finding artifacts and treasure. They don’t take their chances on hunches. Someone told them about Crabb and his witch, and they’ve been following this case for a few years now.”
“What made them decide to go in now?”Do they just want to ruin my marriage?
Jessie hesitated, long enough for me to be suspicious of whatever he said next. “I’m not sure what did it.”
I had a hunch. “It’s Robert, isn’t it?” The guy just got out of prison.
My husband didn’t deny it. He took a steadying breath, highlighting the stone near the arched entryway of the tomb. “Here’s what they’re looking for,” he said. “Hunter thinks it will lead us to the map.”
Somehow I found my feet and crawled over the rubble of the stairs to study the wording ahead of me:
(W)
1751
Ri[c]haRD
W+CloW
(S)1751: R.P.::D.E. 1751(N)
1751
(E)
“What’s it mean?” I whispered.
“Supposedly it’s the mark of whoever did maintenance on the tomb in 1751 before its final interment,” he said. “But why here? Why now? None of the others have this inscription.”
“That’s all they’ve got to go on?” I cried. “Does Hunter really make money doing this or is he just insane?”
