And there she was.
It was impossible to see much in the dark, but the top of her white-blonde bob was unmistakable in the gloom. “She’s so far down,” Pember whispered, pressing himself against Blake’s arm.
Blake returned the touch. “I know. There’s no ladder. They must’ve thrown her down.” Blake clenched his teeth, and for the first time since they’d arrived a flicker of emotion stretched across his face. “Fucking animals,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Hey,” Pember whispered, squeezing his arm. “We’ll get her out.”
Blake dropped his head. “How? You heard what he said. We’ll lose everything if we try to lift her.”
Sucking his teeth, and still clutching Blake’s arm, Pember turned back towards the Falkington officers. To his surprise, they were watching them in silence.
“Um, is there another way down?”
The same man as before tugged at his mask and stepped forward. “Yeah. There’s a second chute over there,” he said pointing to a hatch in the adjacent room. “There’s a few of them dotted about. Big enough to stand up in the chutes, but you’d have to crawl through the tunnels to reach the ones without ladders. That one over there has an old iron ladder. They’re allinterconnected, but the crawl space is tiny. We’ll never get our equipment down.”
Pember let go of Blake and walked towards the next hatch along. The space was big enough for a small adult, but only just. Unclipping a torch from his belt, he bent down and shone a light into the shaft. The beam reflected off the dusty floor, revealing a tiny three foot by three foot hole. A tunnel.
“What if we didn’t have to send all our equipment down?” Pember said, assessing the width of the hole. “Just one person with one bag of swabs. You could lower the camera through the other hatch.”
The other forensics officers glanced at one another, shuffling awkwardly and shaking their heads. “We could,” one of them said. “But it’s too dangerous. We don’t know how stable the tunnel is.”
“I’m claustrophobic,” said another, covering his chest with a hand.
“And I have thyroid issues,” said another.
Pember sighed and rose to his feet. “I’ll do it.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Blake said, pulling off his mask and striding towards him.
Without another word he gripped Pember’s arm, pulling him back through the scene tape and out into the open air.
“Blake!” Pember growled, yanking his arm free. “I can?—”
“No.”
It wasn’t a request, or a plea. It was a command. One that made his wolf whimper.
Pember folded his arms, stepping away from the alpha. “You don’t think I can do it?”
Blake breathed through his nose and unzipped his scene suit. “I know you can do it. That’s what worries me. You don’t have anything to prove, and I’m not letting you do something they aren’t willing to do themselves. Will I fit?”
Pember snorted, shaking his head. “They aren’t making me do anything, andno.”
“Absolutely not. You don’t know how unstable the tunnel is. It could collapse on top of you.”
Pember’s jaw pulled tight. “The building’s centuries old. If it hasn’t collapsed yet, it’s not going to today.”
“You don’t even know if it’s open. You could get down there only to find it’s blocked.”
“Erm, it’s not blocked,” someone said from behind. “We lowered a camera?—”
“Back off,” Blake spat as they both whirled around to find the Falkington officers huddled behind them. “Can’t you see I’m trying to have a conversation with my ma?—”
Pember looked at Blake, and Blake looked at Pember.
“Colleague,” Blake said, awkwardly clearing his throat.
The Falkington officers backed away, retreating into the mill.
