A Trick of the Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

it. But lowering you down into the hole? Easy as pie.”

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    Melinda Barron

    “If you could bake.” Declan dropped the rope near the entrance and turned to Dario. Maura stepped in between them, and he inhaled her scent; it was intoxicating and it prevailed over everything, even over the sagebrush and horses. She used orange shampoo, and it stirred his senses. One quick look at Dario showed it did the same thing to him. His friend's eyelids looked heavy, and he was gazing down at Maura as if she were lunch.
    “If you two are done with your pissing contest, can we come to the conclusion we need to bring the truck out here?”
    “Yeah.” Declan swallowed a laugh. “But I still want to look.” He dropped to his knees and grabbed the rope, then tied a slipknot at the end. Then he attached a large bell to the knot, threading the hook through and making sure the latch caught.
    “It would be helpful if you gave me the beams from two flashlights down.”
    He indicated the horses. “Dario, there's at least one more in my pack, if you please.”
    Dario nodded and left; Maura dropped to her knees, then lay down on her stomach, sticking her head out enough to look through the opening.
    “Do you think this is old?”
    “Yes and no.” Declan mimicked her moves, his body touching hers. “I'd say this kiva is old, but someone in modern times excavated it and is using it for whatever purpose.”
    “Why do you say that?” Dario plopped down on Maura's other side and Declan noticed his body pressed tightly against hers. She didn't seem to mind being pressed between the two of them, though, so he didn't ask his friend to bring his flashlight over to Declan's other side, which would put him near the roof, and could prove dangerous. There was no telling how sturdy the structure was, or if the dirt ceiling was reinforced from the inside. One false move and someone would see the inside of the structure after falling through the top.

    A Trick of the Moon
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    “Over the years this room would have filled with dirt,” Declan replied.
    “Sometime in the not-too-distant past someone cleaned that dirt out, and because I don't see any piles of it anywhere around here, they also hauled it away.”
    “Which brings about the question of who did it and why.” Dario's voice had taken on what Declan called his “cop tone.” He was shining his light in the entrance to the kiva, studying the ground. “I'd love to get down there and see what's inside.”
    “Me first,” Declan said. “And not until we get the winch truck here, per the boss's orders.”
    Maura's satisfied nod made Declan wiggle his shoulder against hers. She smiled at him, the glow on her face an obvious sign she enjoyed the contact, or at least he hoped that's what it meant. She turned on her flashlight and aimed it toward the bottom. The light from both the instruments lit up the inside and Declan's breath caught. He hoped he was right in thinking that what he saw littering the bottom was pottery shards and not someone using the hole as a convenient place to throw their trash. It would support his theory about this being an actual ancient site.
    He lowered the rope over the side and began to feed it gently inside the opening. “Let's stay quiet and listen for the sound of the bell hitting the bottom.
    It will tinkle as it moves, but when it hits bottom it should make a nice heavy sound. Then we can mark the rope and draw it back up. The mark will help us estimate how deep the kiva is.”
    Their silence showed they understood. He lowered the rope slowly, the soft tinkling sound of the bell growing more distant. The three of them remained silent, and when he heard the tinkle of the bell and Dario say, “There,” he stopped his movements, then pulled a marker from his pocket and slid it across the rope.

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    Melinda Barron

    He pulled the rope up quickly, then handed one end to Dario. They both stood and pulled the rope between them as they backed away from each