Chili Con Corpses (5 page)

“And please do not touch any of the formations,” a guide added pleasantly. “The oil from your skin can be damaging to the rocks.” Gillian looked down at her hands and then fluttered them in front of her face as if shaking off any impurities. The guide shot her a quizzical look and then continued. “There will be four guides stationed throughout the caves in case you have any questions or get turned around down there. You must remain on the main pathways at all times. And watch where you step. The paths get pretty slick in places.” She smiled and continued the speech she may have delivered thousands of times. “I see you’ve all got your coats with you. That’s good. It’s in the fifties down there—about the same as outside. Before we get started, I’d advise you to use the restroom now, because there’s a lot of stairs to climb if you need to come back up here.”

Several girls darted off to the restroom while the rest of the students organized their art supplies. When everyone was ready, Lindy read the buddy list aloud. To some of the students’ dismay, she had paired them by like gender, so that the chances of subterranean hook-up sessions were diminished. James sighed in relief.

“Oh, I cannot wait to view nature’s
sublime
architecture,” Gillian gushed. She pushed herself to the front of the line, zipping up a bulbous, electric-yellow parka.

As they descended the staircase, Lindy handed James and Bennett a map and informed them that their patrol area extended from a place called Hades to another named Giant’s Hall and included a tall chamber dubbed the Cathedral, where the “Stalacpipe” organ played its surreal melodies.

“
I’ll
be floating around the Ballroom with Principal Chavez,” she grinned sheepishly.

“And where will Kinsley be?” James couldn’t resist ribbing Lindy a bit.

Lindy pointed at the map. “She and Gillian will be hanging out near the Leaning Tower and Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes, get it? It seemed fitting. And since Adam’s grandfather is the oldest of the chaperones, he’s going to remain by the entrance/exit.” She pulled a compact out of her purse and reapplied a berry-colored shade of lip-gloss. “Plus, we’ve got the four guides.”

She scrutinized herself in the small mirror and seemed satisfied. “Tonight, my goal is to find out what Luis likes to eat,” she confessed in a hushed tone. “I’m going to throw a New Year’s party and dazzle him with my culinary skills.”

“You gonna test that ‘way to a man’s heart’ theory?” Bennett inquired.

“You betcha,” Lindy replied and hustled off, her buoyant spirits restored.

Bennett stared after her, a small smile playing around the corners of his mouth. “Go get him, girl.”

James studied his map and began to move deeper into the caves toward his patrol area. Even though he had been there before, the first glimpse of the initial chamber was still breathtaking. As he continued to roam on the walkways, he stared at the immense columns, illuminated by white-yellow light, and observed how some of the formations looked almost fuzzy. The pale, clumpy masses resembled the type of mold that grows on the surface of spoiled yogurt. Other rocks seemed like oversized weapons—covered with sharp edges and growing from the floor or ceiling into deadly points. Those were the ones that were so tempting to touch.

James saw the familiar curiosity dubbed the “fried eggs,” which were always carefully guarded by the guides. Even when James was a student, people had lunged over the guardrail in order to brush the “eggs,” with their fingertips. Several tourists had even been escorted from the caves and told never to return for disregarding the rules. There was something about those two liquid-looking ovals that screamed, “Touch me!” and over and over again, people tried. There was always a wary guide stationed near the attraction, and tonight was no exception.

Walking by structures that could have passed as the skeletal ribs of a great whale or the splintered hull belonging to a wrecked schooner, James arrived at one of the larger subterranean lakes and gasped. The staff, as a surprise for the students, had lit hundreds of white candles and placed them in nooks all around the lake. The twinkling flames reflected all around the room, and shadows danced wildly off the water. Ribbed rocks, slick with moisture, truly seemed alive in the shifting light. The chamber was completely silent even though half a dozen students had gathered and were standing against the pathway rail, gazing out at the lake in respectful wonder.

James suddenly thought of Lucy. He would have liked to have her beside him at this moment. Even with others present, it would have been romantic to see her face bathed in the soft, flickering light and to stand together without feeling the need to speak. Experiencing a pang of sadness, as though Lucy were drifting away beyond his reach, James turned to look for Bennett.

“Hey, come on!” one of the boys shouted, breaking the magical spell created by the candlelight. He waved a map and gestured at his buddy and a pair of cute girls. “The place where they found that dead girl is this way!”

Bennett appeared around a corner and gestured at James to follow the foursome.

“Is this where the skeleton was found?” the boy asked a young guide while pointing at a dark ledge across the pathway.

“Yes,” the guide acknowledged flatly. “She was most likely a Native American girl who lived in this area about two hundred years ago. Her burial ground probably fell through a sinkhole and she ended up down here.”

“That’s
not
what my daddy says,” one of the girls stated emphatically.

“What does he say, Dana?” the boy who had led them there asked with acute interest.

“Well, Jacob,” she began, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she basked in her moment of self-importance. “My daddy’s a history professor at JMU, and he’s studied all about these caves.” She paused to make certain she had the full attention of her small audience. “It
was
a woman’s body, but no one could tell if she was Native American. Her bones were almost destroyed
after
this place was discovered in, like, the 1800s sometime. So, anyway, the guys who came in here, the first, like, tourists,
stole
parts of her skeleton!” Two of the other students gasped. “One guy took, like, a whole leg bone!”

Even the guide was transfixed.

“That’s so totally gross!” Dana’s drawing partner exclaimed.

“My mama says that ever since she was little, this part of the caves has been haunted. See, that girl wants her bones back!” She finished theatrically.

The guide gaped at this revelation and searched for a rebuttal. Before he had the chance, Jacob grabbed Dana’s shoulders and shouted, “Maybe she’s here right now!”

Dana shrieked and then giggled.

“Yeah, yeah,” Bennett stated, unimpressed with the ghost story. “And maybe a UFO will land down here, too. Go on and find your spots and get settled down to work.” He checked his watch. “Lights are going off in ten minutes. Go on now.”

“I don’t want to be standing
here
in the dark,” Dana’s partner breathed. Bennett made a shooing motion with his hand and, reluctantly, the students moved off.

James followed the students to the Cathedral chamber where all four decided to set up their drawing materials and, leaning against the rail, began to study the crevices and crags on the rock faces before them. Not wanting to hover, James meandered around his patrol area, nodding at students intent upon their work, and wondered how Lindy was getting on with Principal Chavez.

Suddenly, an image of Murphy Alistair in her workout attire popped unbidden into his head. James found his pulse quickening, and he began to ruminate on how friendly she had always been to him. Beyond friendly, in fact. There were times when Murphy had been downright flirtatious.

Trying to banish Murphy’s cute face and trim figure from his mind, James headed back toward the Cathedral. He noticed that two of the four students who had been working near each other were no longer standing against the guardrail.

“Where are your partners?” he asked the remaining boy and girl. “They were Dana and … Jacob, right?”

The boy shrugged and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “I think they’re studying a different kind of artistic contrast.”

The girl sniggered as James attempted to translate the meaning of the boy’s words. He felt his stomach lurch. Now he would have to find the wayward duo, who were certainly up to no good, and get them back on task. If he didn’t, there was no telling what Lindy would do to them—and him—when she found out.

“Which way did they go?” he demanded of the girl, looming over her and implementing the authoritative tone he had perfected years ago as a professor at William & Mary.

The girl pointed to a passage leading back toward the exit and James hustled off. His feet had just encountered a slippery downward slope when the cave was plunged into utter darkness. Unable to halt his forward momentum, James reeled and, unable to see the guide rails, lost his balance. He landed hard on his rump on a patch of uncarpeted and wet concrete. The seat and legs of his pants immediately became saturated and James felt chilled. Fumbling about for the rail, he pulled himself upright and rubbed at the goose bumps that had sprouted all over his arms. Cursing in the blackness, he jabbed at the buttons on his watch until the face lit up with a pale light and showed the time of 7:01.

Within seconds, all of the interior lights came back on in a burst of white and yellow color. James rubbed at his shocked eyes and pulled at his soaked pant legs, which were sticking to his skin, and resumed his search for the two students.

Off to the right, he heard the echo of running footsteps, and Dana suddenly appeared, running in his direction from one of the prohibited pathways. In the near-darkness, her face looked like a moon bobbing in a black sea. James opened his mouth to yell at her but never had the opportunity. As soon as Dana reached him, she threw her arms around his waist and burst into noisy tears.

Removing her sharp nails from the flesh of his upper arms, James told her to calm down. “It’s okay,” he said gently. He repeated this phrase over and over until he began to lose patience with the girl’s blubbering.

“Dana!” he shouted roughly. “Stop it! I can’t help you until you get a hold of yourself!”

“I … I …” were the only intelligible sounds James was able to comprehend.

“What is WRONG with you?” he growled. “Are you hurt?”

“N-not, m-me,” she stammered, her face blotched and streaked with tears. She wiped at her runny nose with the back of her jacket and tried to breathe. “It-it’s Ms. W-Willis!” she wailed. “I th-think sh-sh-she’s dead!”

James took a
long look at Dana’s stricken face and knew that she was sincere.

“Can you show me where she is?” he asked, sounding more courageous than he felt.

“B-back where the sk-skeleton used to be.” She pointed toward the path veering off to the right.

James pried three of Dana’s talons from the flesh of his forearm and gripped her shaking hand tightly. “Can you show me the exact spot?”

“NO WAY!” she bellowed and ran off in the opposite direction, yelling out Jacob’s name.

Once her youthful form had disappeared around a shadowy bend, James became aware of the intense silence around him. Even the water dripped noiselessly from the rock points as he moved cautiously down the path, looking left and right for any sign of Kinsley. His mind raced as he wondered how Kinsley could have come to harm. Had she fallen? Did something fall
on
her? He flicked his eyes at the ceiling where the dagger-shaped rocks jutted downward like dozens and dozens of menacingly outstretched arms.

After several minutes of walking, James saw a spot of blue on the forbidden side of the railing. Kinsley’s short, sky-blue trench coat was gently illuminated by the row of lights embedded in the rock walls above. The pale light pooled around her form, radiating a fragile corona in the darkness. She was lying on her side, her face turned toward the back wall, but her legs were clearly splayed at an odd, uncomfortable angle. James had a peculiar thought that her pointy-toed, high-heeled ankle boots, though undoubtedly chic, were very unpractical for a walk through the caves.

Edging under the railing, James timidly whispered Kinsley’s name. He hadn’t expected her to reply, but it was the only action he could think of repeating as he inched closer to her inert body. He noticed that the belt she had worn on top of her long, black tunic and which had accentuated her small waist had somehow come unbuckled. It lay like an uncoiled snake next to her upraised palm. Kinsley’s hair, which had been bound neatly into a low ponytail when they entered the caves, was now tangled and messy. Several moist blonde strands were plastered across her cheek and forehead. Another stuck to her lips, and James instinctively reached out to lift it off when he stopped himself.

It had only taken a few seconds to absorb the details of the scene, but the overall meaning of it took a little longer to sink in. James sat back on his heels, his eyes transfixed on Kinsley’s light blue eyes, which were unnaturally glassy beneath the dim lights. He felt as though he were gazing into a shallow pool and, finding his own reflection there, kept staring like some kind of deranged Narcissus. There was his image, which Kinsley was unable to shatter by simply blinking her eyes. The feathery curtains of her lashes were angled back toward her own skin, which seemed to become less and less pink in tone the more James stared.

“Kinsley?” he whispered once more, now watching her mouth. The full lips were parted, and he could see the gleam of her white teeth. It was only then that he became aware of two shocking details. The first was the presence of a vicious red and purple welt encircling the beautiful skin of Kinsley’s neck, and the second was that someone was sitting nearby in the dark, weeping.

Fear filled his stomach, his chest, and finally worked its way up into his throat. Taking in a desperate breath, James slowly backed away from Kinsley’s body, his eyes never leaving the figure crouched only feet away in the shadows.

“Is that you, James?” the figure whimpered.

James recognized the voice. He relaxed a fraction and allowed himself to breathe.

“Lindy? How long have you been sitting over there?” James backed away from Kinsley and moved closer to his friend.

Lindy shook her head as if trying to make sense of what she was experiencing. “Jacob found me and told me to come here. He said someone was hurt.” She exhaled and continued, her voice trembling along with her hands. “He didn’t say who—just mumbled something about a skeleton and ran for the exit. I yelled at him but he wouldn’t stop.” Lindy laced her fingers together to prevent them from shaking. “I’ve never seen Jacob rattled—even when his term project blew up in the kiln, so I knew something was up. When I got here …”

“Yes?” James prompted.

Lindy gestured at Kinsley’s body without actually looking at it. “She was just like this. I climbed up here and saw … and saw her eyes. Then I realized she was dead and felt like I wanted to hide.” Her brown eyes were glistening with unshed tears. “I thought that if I put my head down on my arms and waited, I would look up in a few minutes and find that this whole thing was a prank or some … subterranean hallucination. But then you came and, by watching your face, I knew that this wasn’t just a bad dream.”

James took his friend’s hand and pressed it between both of his own in an attempt to warm it. “It’s real, Lindy, and we have to get help.”

Lindy nodded numbly. “I’ll find a guide.”

When she failed to move, James stood and pulled her gently to her feet. As he did, he became aware of footsteps approaching behind them.

“What’s happened?” boomed the voice of Principal Chavez.

The young guide who had discussed the details of the ancient skeleton with Lindy’s students earlier stood alongside Chavez. Leaning to the side, the guide observed the immobile form lying precisely where the skeleton had once lain. Issuing an involuntary grunt, he fumbled with his walkie-talkie. Talking rapid-fire into the receiver, he grew ashen as he tried to cloak his emotions by adapting a posture of bravado. Squaring his shoulders and drawing himself upright, he directed Lindy and James to return to the pathway.

“Ms. Perez!” Chavez ignored the guide and repeated his question. “What’s going on here?”

Lindy refused to meet his eyes. “It’s Kinsley,” she said timidly, waving away James’s proffered arm as she heaved herself over the guide rail. “It looks like … we think she’s dead.”

“Good God!” Chavez spluttered. He pushed James aside and grabbed onto Lindy to steady her as she made a wobbly landing from the top rung of the railing. She clung to him for support and seemed to instantly forget that anyone else was present.

“Are you hurt?” he asked Lindy, clutching her to him.

“No,” she dropped her eyes. “But poor Kinsley! Someone …” She pressed her cheek against his chest, as if to separate herself from the words she was about to utter. “Luis, I think she’s been murdered!”

James stared at the twosome. The way they stood, holding one another as the striped shadows from the illuminated stalagmites behind them fell across their faces, they looked as though they were posing for the cover of a romance novel.

Finally, Chavez released Lindy and raked a hand through his black hair. He turned his attention to the body on the ledge. “That’s not Kinsley. She couldn’t come today.” He lowered his voice as a group of curious students headed their way. “It’s her sister. That’s Parker.” And with that, he strode away with a shout, determined to intercept his charges before they could come close enough to see the dead woman.

A half-hour later, the police had finished questioning the shaken and agitated students. They were reluctantly loaded into buses and driven back to Quincy’s Gap. Believing they had no more pertinent information to share with the authorities, Bennett and Gillian volunteered to continue their roles as chaperones. They joined the students on the buses, leaving James, Lindy, and Principal Chavez available to assist the police.

Not all of the students were free to leave, however. Jacob and Dana, who stood huddled together sipping root beer in the staff conference room, were not allowed to join their friends. The police made them repeat the story of how they had come across Parker’s body while searching for a suitable place to make out.

Dana cried the whole time, begging the officer not to tell her father about her lack of discretion.

“My daddy hates Jacob’s daddy,” she informed the bemused officer in weepy tones. “They had some fight over some dumb girl in, like, the fifth grade and have been mortal enemies ever since.”

“Hey! That
dumb
girl’s my mama now,” Jacob added in an injured tone. He seemed to have recovered a fraction of his calm in light of Dana’s distress. He edged away from her a bit. “Calm down, Dana. It’s not like you knew her or anything,” he scoffed, referring to Parker.

“Shut up!” she snarled. “It’s all your fault I’m sitting here instead of headin’ home with my friends. If you hadn’t pulled me from the main path, someone
else
could have … found her.”

“Oh, you wanted to break some rules,” he said, smirking. “When I got behind that one pillar you were hot as a—”

“That’ll do, young man,” one of the policemen broke in before Jacob could complete his analogy. “So let me ask you this one more time,” the cop stared down the edgy teenagers. “Did
anyone
pass by you as you looked for a place”—he paused and covered a blossoming smile with his hand before he completed his question—“to hang out?”

The students shook their heads.

“And you didn’t see a single person until you found Ms. Perez?” the officer asked Jacob.

“That’s right,” Jacob replied. “Ms. Perez was standing by that lake with all the candles. I told her someone was hurt and then kept on goin’.” He cast a sidelong glance at Dana. She glared at him and made a face illustrating her disgust. “Well, damn,
I
didn’t want to end up like that poor lady.”

“Oh, so it was okay for Ms. Perez to face the axe murderer alone?” Dana inquired acerbically. “I thought you were, like, a big, tough wrestler. Ha!”

Jacob’s mouth contorted in anger. “At least
I
ran in the right direction.”

The officer cleared his throat and fixed his attention on Dana. “And the first person you came across was Mr. Henry?”

Dana shrugged. “Everyone calls him Professor, but yeah. I was
so
scared. It was, like, five minutes before I could even tell him what I’d seen. Then I ran smack into that mailman guy, and he helped me find the exit.” She shuddered. “I am
never
going into another cave for the rest of my life!” Suddenly, a thought occurred to her and her eyes lit up. “You know, my parents could probably, like, sue this place. I’m gonna have nightmares
forever
! That should be worth something.”

The officer rose and held on to the back of Dana’s chair, indicating that she should also stand. “We’re going to take you both home now.” He gestured at Lindy, Principal Chavez, James, and the remaining guides. “The rest of you folks may as well get comfortable. Sergeant McClellan from the State Police is on his way to take your statements.”

James watched with longing as Dana and Jacob were escorted outside by a kind-faced policewoman. He felt drained—both emotionally and physically. A cup of brown sludge posing as coffee sat on the table before him. He had taken one sip of the brew, which was thick with old grounds and lightened with the type of powdered creamer that fell from its aluminum can in tight, hard clumps. The result was a gray-looking and completely unpalatable liquid that James wished would be magically transformed into a glass of brandy or, at the very least, a belly-warming ale.

“James?” Lindy nudged him in the side and held out a package of peppermint whitening gum.

“Hmm?” He blinked.

Thanking her, James peeled back the foil and pondered the ability of a stick of gum to whiten his teeth. Suddenly, an image of the yellowed choppers belonging to Mr. Sneed popped into his mind.