Page 115 of The Whispering Girls

“I don’t know. Cisco wouldn’t leave this area and he zeroed in on this spot. I can’t move this…”

“What is it?”

“I have no clue.”

Between the two of them, they managed to dig around the edges to move the wood and found that underneath was an opening.

Katie switched on her flashlight and directed the beam. At first she couldn’t see anything. The large hole went into a deep void. “It’s a well of some sort.”

“Isn’t that what Devin had said?” said McGaven. “Is there anything down there?”

“I don’t see anything,” she said. Leaning closer, she called, “Hello?”

They listened to her voice echo until it disappeared.

Cisco became agitated and pushed to an area next to them.

“Look,” said McGaven. “There’s some kind of entrance.”

Katie got to her feet and investigated where Cisco had showed interest.

There was a snowdrift in between two trees and underneath she could see an outline of a small building about the size of a storage shed. There was a door.

Katie moved quickly, fighting the snow, which was now up to her thighs. It had stopped snowing a while ago, but there wouldn’t have been any sunlight that could penetrate this section of the woods.

“Help me get this open,” she said to McGaven.

They worked hard to get the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. A small window was around the side. Katie hurried, followed by Cisco who seemed to push her in that direction. She tried to peer inside but couldn’t see anything. She picked up a piece of branch and used it to smash the window. Sweeping her flashlight, she saw the outline of what appeared to be a body lying in the corner on their side.

“No, no, no,” she kept saying. Katie pushed herself up and through the window. The floor was dirt mixed with a bit of snowy ice. She rushed blindly to the corner. She thought it was John, but when she turned the body over toward her she was staring into the face of Chief Cooper. His eyes were closed, but his body tepid.

“Chief,” she said. “Can you hear me?” Katie felt for a pulse. It was weak.

Without warning, the chief opened his eyes wide and stared at her. It was the look of pure fear; he had an almost Halloween aspect to his expression. He tried to talk but his mouth only moved. Parts of his body and face seemed to be frozen and frostbite had set in.

“Hang in there, chief. We’re going to get help,” she said.

McGaven was at the window. “Is he…?”

“He’s alive but suffering obviously from advanced hypothermia. We have to get him out of here and to a hospital.”

“The hospital is thirty miles away,” said McGaven.

“Devin is closer than my Jeep.”

“I’m not leaving you here,” he said.

“There’s no time or choice. We need to get the chief out of here.”

McGaven called Devin and luckily he answered the phone. He began to relay the emergency and requesting things they were going to need.

Katie tried to warm up the chief’s hands, wishing they had blankets. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

The chief grabbed her arm and slightly nodded. He then mouthed, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it now. We know that Jack is behind this.”

The chief gripped her harder and shook his head, before becoming unresponsive again.