“Aperture,” he corrected, frowning. Kate was revealing something he’d confided in her.
“I’ve always known.” Sara looked at Jack. “We’re wasting time. Tie that ladder to a tree, then go down there and shoot what you see.”
As he made the knots, Sara instructed him about photography. “You can probably do point and shoot, but check the screen. If the photo is dark, you’re going to need to open it up as wide as it’ll go. That’s a one point eight lens so use it. And turn the ex comp. I’ll adjust the ISO. Try the flash but it may wash the photo out. If it does—”
“Bounce the light off the wall,” Jack said. “I got it.” He was pulling on the rope to check its security.
“And do a few slow shutters so you get all the details,” she said. “Damn! I wish I had my mini tripod. Set the camera on the ground and—”
Jack kissed her forehead. “I’ll be fine. Stop worrying.” She handed him the tiny flashlight she always carried in her case.
When the ladder was in place, Jack put the camera around his neck, then started down. With just his head showing, he looked at the three women. “Edmund Hillary didn’t have such a good send-off.”
The women didn’t smile as he disappeared below the ground level.
There was enough light from the top to see where he was. It was like an underground tower with a missing roof. He went down a few feet and there was the ledge that Puck had pointed out.
His builder’s eye saw that the cutout wasn’t natural. It hadn’t been caused by fallen dirt but had purposefully been dug out. For what? If the place had been used to hold kegs of beer maybe workmen hid there while they drank. Whatever its original purpose, if someone looked down from the top, they’d see nothing, not even if people were there.
As Jack swung his leg over, he hung on to the ladder until he got his balance. He glanced up to see three worried faces staring down at him. From their position, they had to be stretched out on their stomachs.
When he was on the ledge, he didn’t look to the back into the deep darkness, but kept his eyes on the front. The rocks looked to have been piled up recently. At least long after the place was built. Did someone try to hide what had been put on the shelf?
He took his time as he removed the camera from around his neck and set it down—but he didn’t look back. He had an idea what he was going to see, and he wanted to be ready for it. No matter that he’d bragged that he’d seen it “all,” bodies upset him. No, he thought, murder infuriates me.
To his left, he saw a pair of small shoes and guessed they were Puck’s. He thought of how they got there. She hadn’t said, but it was his guess that she’d fallen into the place, then thrown her shoes toward the top.
He turned on Sara’s flashlight and looked at the bottom of the pit. Ferns, moss, rotten vines. Puck was light but if she had fallen, it was a wonder she didn’t break her bones.
One by one, he picked up her shoes and tossed them up to the top.
“Thank you,” she said down to him.
There was so much relief in her voice that he realized how afraid she must have been. And rightfully so. If someone had come to check on the body, they’d know Puck had been there.
With the shoes gone, Jack knew he must look at “him.”
With the flashlight on high, he slowly turned to face the back of the ledge. He thought he was prepared, but he wasn’t. A skeleton. A human being who’d been left there to rot. Uncared for. Unmourned.
“Are you okay?” Sara called down to him.
Jack sniffed and swallowed. Cleared his throat. How his father would laugh at him for his sentimentality! “Yeah, fine,” he called up. “I just need to take photos.”
“Of every inch,” Sara reminded him.
“I will. I’ll—” He broke off because he heard the ladder against the wall. “What the hell?” he muttered, then leaned out to look up. Kate was coming down. “You can’t—” he began, but then reached out to get her, and pull her onto the ledge beside him. They were cramped close together. “You shouldn’t be here. You—”
“Neither should you.” She took the flashlight from him and turned toward the length of the skeleton. “He’s—” Her voice broke.
Jack put his arms around her, and she hid her face in his shoulder.
“That poor man,” she said.
“Right,” Jack whispered. He wanted to bawl her out for being there, but it felt so good to hold someone who was alive that he said nothing.
Kate pulled away. “Okay, that’s it. Let’s get to work before someone comes looking for us. Do you actually know how to take pictures with a real camera?”
Her sassiness almost made him smile. “Yeah. I know.”
For the next twenty minutes they were quiet as they both took pictures, Kate with her cell phone and Jack with Sara’s mirrorless camera. Between the two of them, they recorded every inch of the skeleton and the surroundings.
They tried to touch as little of the area as possible as the bones were loose and could be disturbed. All that held them together had rotted away.
“Wonder how Puck knows who it is?” Kate whispered.
Jack, camera to his face, shrugged. “No idea, but I plan to get every detail from her.” He halted. “I mean...” He didn’t need to finish his sentence. If they stayed.
Minutes later, he held Kate about the waist as she leaned out to shoot the interior of the cavernous structure.
“The sun’s coming up,” Sara called down to them. “We should go.”
When Jack lowered the camera, Kate said, “Why is no one mentioning calling the police?”
“Is that what you think we should do?”
With a grimace, Kate said, “I don’t know what to do.” Her eyes were telling him that she didn’t know about staying or leaving, or about a murder.
“Let’s go to Puck’s house and figure it out,” he said.
Kate gave a last look at the place. “Do you think anyone’s been down here lately?”
“No. I’ll look more closely but I think the vines on top were untouched.”
“Except where you nearly fell in.” He steadied her as she leaned out to get on the ladder to climb up.
“Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think that whoever did this is still here?”
“If they aren’t here now, they’ve spent a lot of time in this place. You’d have to be very familiar with this property to know about this old pit. I want to find out who fenced this area off.”