Dani tried her phone again. Still no signal. What the hell should she do? She’d much rather have a team to support her here, but how long would that take? First she and Ana would have to traipse nearly back to the car to even get a signal, then sit and wait, then make the whole journey back through the forest again.
As much as she’d rather have other officers with her now, she really didn’t want to go through any of that.
And anyway, if Alex was already dead inside here, then what was the worst that could happen?
Dani crept up to the entrance, shone the torch inside, but it was so black and featureless beyond that the torchlight did little to help show what they were facing.
Dani turned to Ana, but as she did so the torchlight flicked into the near distance and Dani paused as she stared across the ground surrounding them. Just like everywhere else there was a thick layer of leaves and other debris scattered all over, but it was clear the ground around here was undulating with small mounds. A horrific thought wormed into Dani’s mind but she pushed it away.
‘How far inside?’ Dani asked.
‘I don’t know. Not far. But… I can’t go back in there.’
Ana was shaking as she spoke, and Dani didn’t believe it was from the cold.
‘You’d rather stay out here on your own?’ Dani said.
‘I’d rather be in a foamy bath in the suite of a five-star hotel.’
‘Tell me about it.’
Dani turned and ducked and headed in. She was confident Ana would soon follow. Three steps inside she glanced over her shoulder to see Ana right there.
The cramped space was dank and musty. Water pooled underfoot and Dani’s feet splashed through it sending mucky liquid up against the bottom of her trousers with each step. She kept the torchlight focused up ahead and soon she could see a junction of sorts where the tunnel split into two.
‘Which way?’ Dani said to Ana.
‘I don’t know.’
Dani shone the torch to the left. The tunnel carried on that way as far as the light could reach, sloping downwards as it went, no end visible. To the right the ground remained more level, and Dani was sure there was an end in sight that way. Which was why she chose that path.
Sure enough, after a few more steps, the form of a doorway took shape.
‘This must be it,’ Dani said as much to herself as to Ana.
Every step now was more fraught than the last. How Dani longed to be somewhere else. The five-star room Ana had mentioned. Dani could imagine it now. The warmth, the comfort, the smells and the feel. That picture of serenity couldn’t be any further from her reality.
By the time Dani was five yards from the open doorway, she could make out some of the room that lay beyond. Shelving. Workbenches. She flicked the torch down to the ground, kept the light focused on the unidentifiable, crumpled mound on the floor just past the threshold.
She edged forwards ever so slowly. Her heart raced. Her legs were shaking from surging adrenaline. Pure fight or flight. But Dani wasn’t about to turn and run. Not now.
She reached the doorway.
‘There was a light,’ Ana said. ‘I don’t remember turning it off.’
Dani, torch shining into the space, didn’t take her eyes off the heap on the floor as she reached around the doorway. She felt for the switch. Found it. She flicked it and the strip light overhead in the room sputtered into life, achingly slowly. Only when the flickering had stopped did Dani turn off her torch light. She took another half step forward, her eyes still on the heap on the floor right in front of her, spatters of red all around. Most of it still wet.
She’d expected to see the form of a man in the heap. To see skin, a face. Alex, to be precise. But all she saw was a discarded pile of blood-drenched clothes.
The room was empty.
Alex was gone.