Treading Darkness: A day in the life of Officer Callahan (A Bernadette Callahan Short Story) Read online

  Her brothers had loved to scare her by throwing her in the basement and making the oohing sounds of ghosts while she screamed how much she’d kill them when she got out.

  She checked the bars on her cell phone. Nothing. Bernadette sighed, turned on her powerful police-issue flashlight and entered the mine. The entrance smelled of pungent decay, rotting timbers and wet rock. It assailed her senses. She’d chased a suspect down rat-infested alleys and experienced better odors.

  It was the darkness. It chilled her, floating its cloak of fear with it. She shook her head, trying to let fear not cloud her vision.

  How far could the kid have gone? She called out, “This is Corporal Callahan. Come out here with your hands over your head, now.” Her voice echoed down the mine until it died somewhere far below.

  A chill of cold air enveloped her. Where had it come from? Her feet moved forward. She was sure she hadn’t willed herself forward. Something drew her deeper into the mine. Every fiber of her body was screaming at her to turn back. Outside was safe, dry, and warm. Each step farther was dangerous, dark, and cold.

  How far had she gone? The cold was getting worse. The mineshaft was going downward. The timbers closed in. The shaft narrowed. How much farther would she go before she’d turn around? There had to be a limit. If the boy didn’t want to be captured, if he wanted the mine to be his final resting place, why did she care?

  Her movement forward told her she did care. She couldn’t leave the kid here. He needed to be captured and brought out for his own safety. She yelled down the mine again, and listened.

  She heard some rustling down below. Was it the kid? Was it an animal? She hated the last thought. The towns people said bears and wolves made their home in the mine.

  “Damn it, Bernadette, pull yourself together. If it’s a bear, he’s as scared as you are,” she said. Raising her flashlight higher, she stepped forward.

  There was nothing beneath her.

  Rotting planks on the mine floor gave way. A sickening loud crack, a cloud of dust, and she fell. Her hands clawed air. One hand found a plank. Splinters bit into her palm. She screamed in agony and shock.

  Dangling from one hand, she threw the other hand up and found a solid wood beam. She pulled herself up. Looking behind her she could see a yawning opening of the mine floor. It had been covered in dust. It was now over a meter wide. The way back was blocked.

  Her flashlight had fallen down the shaft. She peered over the edge. How far down was it? She couldn’t see the light. Maybe it broke on the way down. She hadn’t heard any of the debris hit the ground. Was it five hundred metres—a thousand?

  Shaking her head, she backed away from the edge. She moved around on her hands and knees in the semi-darkness until she found her gun. Thank god, she thought, at least she didn’t have to put in a lost firearm report.

  A faint light emanated from the mine entrance a hundred metres away. What was she going to do now? It was a damn good jump to get back to the mine entrance. Could she do it?

  How long would it be before Tremblay got here? Would he know where to look for her? Her left hand was throbbing. She could feel a large splinter stuck in her palm. With her other hand she took out one of her leather gloves from her utility belt. She wrapped the glove around the splinter and yanked.

  “Holy mother of god,” she screamed as the large splinter came out. A wave of pain flooded over her. She fought against it. “No blacking out now, girl.”

  “The smart thing to do, Bernadette, is to lean back against this wall, take a nap, and wait until Sergeant Tremblay comes. Okay, he’ll be pissed you went into the mine, but you’ll tell him there were shots fired and make up a good story, and get your ass out of here when search and rescue puts a big ladder over the hole and takes you out of here. Got that?” She wasn’t convinced as she said those words, but talking to herself always made her feel better.

  She crouched down beside the wall. The wall was cold. Water dripped on her head. Her eyes adjusted to the grayish half-light coming from the entrance into the mine. A sound came from inside the mine. Her sensible and conscious mind screamed at her to not venture farther. She shut that part off, got up, and stepped cautiously towards the noise. Was it the kid? The part of her that needed to find out, to save, to serve and protect, that whole police officer part of her won out. Her other part screamed, shriveled, and went into a fetal position—she’d retrieve it on her way out of the mine.

  The mine descended downward. This time, she let her feet slide against the floor, feeling her way. If there was a bunch of boards underneath, she told herself she’d stop. Going into darkness was one thing, but being dropped through a hole in the mine floor…wasn’t going to happen again.

  The mineshaft took a sharp right. She stood there, sensing the darkness and the depth. There was no way farther without a flashlight. Any more steps had her in total darkness.

  She yelled down the mine shaft, “This is officer Callahan of the RCMP, come out with your hands up. You are surrounded.” No idea why she said it. It was totally unnecessary. The kid knew he had no way out. She realized her nerves were getting the best of her. Making her spout gibberish.

  There was a noise. It sounded distant, like it was down somewhere below her. She stepped forward to hear it better. Her feet began to slide forward. “Aw, shit,” was all she could yell as she began a slide downwards. She fell onto her butt, hoping to stop the slide—it didn’t help.

  She gained speed. Spreading her feet wide, she dug in with her heels to slow herself down. It didn’t stop her. The incline was too steep, the gravel too loose. When would she stop?

  A feeling of terror gripped her. Was there a drop off? Did this incline go over some unseen, dark cliff into the depths of darkness? She threw one hand to the side to grab on to something. Anything. There was nothing in her reach.

  Her other hand clutched her gun. Her grip was so tight on the weapon her fingers turned numb. She couldn’t convince herself to let go of the gun. What good would it do in the darkness? she asked herself. Being without it in the darkness was inconceivable.

  The slide seemed like forever. Was it seconds, minutes? It ended with a thud. Not a thud into rock. Not into wood. A body. The body made a sound.

  “Ouch!” a voice yelled.

  “What the hell! Is that you, kid?”

  “Who do you think it is? The boogieman? You put your boots in my stomach.”

  “Sorry, I was trying to stop my slide.”

  “Glad I could be here for you.”

  Bernadette felt her way around the kid to sit beside him against the wall. The wall was just as damp as the one up above. This one was colder. They were deeper into the mine.

  She let her breathing slow. There was only the sound of her breath and of the kids. Small droplets of water dropped in between their breathing as if a metronome was marking the rhythm, or was it marking the time they had left to live?

  “You want to tell me why you drove to this mine?” Bernadette asked.

  “What’s it to you?”

  “Well…as I may be one of last people on this earth you talk to unless someone finds us, I just thought you’d let me know what the hell was on your mind. Most car thieves head for Hope and then try to get lost in Vancouver. This is a dead end. Did you know that?”

  “…Yeah…I knew that.”

  “Hmm, you knew it was a dead end. What’s up with the rifle? Did you plan a shoot out with police—go down in blaze of glory?”

  The kid shuffled in his place and fell into silence, then said, “No. The gun was for me.”

  “You intended to kill yourself?”

  “…Yeah, that was the plan.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Ryan.”

  “Ryan, what?”

  “Ryan Tremblay.”

  “Are you Sergeant Tremblay’s kid?” Bernadette said. She couldn’t see him in the dark, but the idea of being beside Tremblay’s kid made her eyes widen.

  “Yeah, that’s me, dadd
y’s little treasure,” Ryan said.

  “Why do you want to kill yourself? What’s got you so down?” Bernadette said softly. She’d done one course in suicide prevention in the RCMP, but never until now spoken to anyone who was suicidal.

  “It’s a long story.”

  “It could be hours before a search and rescue team gets out here, and they have to find this shaft we slid down. I say we’ve got some time to kill.”

  Ryan sighed, “Okay…it’s a lot of things…but mostly how my dad’s been treating my mom…”

  “Oh…I heard she has cancer. Is it progressing?” Bernadette asked. She felt fragile in her questioning, as if she was poking into an open wound.

  Ryan moved beside her. “Cancer? My mom doesn’t have cancer—where’d you hear that from?”

  “Your dad told me. He said your mom was in the city for treatment.”

  Ryan spit into the darkness. “More of his bullshit. My mom doesn’t have cancer, her sister does. She’s taking care of her. Meanwhile my dad’s chasing women in town. I heard he was at dinner last night with some red-haired bimbo at the Steak house making all eyes at her. God, he makes me sick. What an asshole.”

  “That’s it? Your dad is unfaithful to your mom and you want to commit suicide?”

  “The whole town knows he’s an asshole. They all know what he’s doing to my mom,” Ryan said. He sobbed softly and breathed in heavily.

  “Are you an asshole?”

  “What?”

  “I said, are you an asshole like your father?”

  “Hell, no, I’m nothing like him.”

  “Then why kill yourself? You have a good relationship with your mom?”

  “She’s great, she’s like my best friend.”

  “Killing yourself would only hurt her. Sure, it’ll make your dad feel guilty, but in the end, you’ll hurt someone you love deeply. And it sounds like you’re not a bad kid. Except for taking shots at police.”

  “I was aiming high. I wanted to scare you away.”

  “So you could kill yourself in peace? Why didn’t you just run in here and shoot yourself before I got here?”

  “I guess…I wanted to take more time…to decide…”

  “—If you wanted to go through with it?”

  “…Yeah, pretty much. I was hoping to get out of town on my own. I didn’t count on you chasing me.”

  “You ever steal a car before?”

  “No.”

  “We police, we chase stolen cars. Just a thing we do. You’d best remember it for the next time.”

  “Thanks. If I decide to do this for a living, I’ll keep it in mind.”

  They went quiet for a while. The sound of the dripping water came back as a punctuation of the darkness.

  Bernadette adjusted her bulletproof vest. Her hand glanced over the candle. She’d stuffed it in there in church. She’d been at the church altar, about to light it for her aunt when her radio came on. She hadn’t had a chance to light it.

  “You got a match, Ryan?”

  “Yeah, I got matches, how’d you know?”

  “You have the tell tale aroma of marijuana on you. I figure you were lighting up a joint when I came sliding in on you.”

  “Did you want to smoke a joint?”

  Bernadette laughed. “No. I just want to light a candle. Maybe we can find our way out of here to help the search team.”

  Ryan rustled in his jacket pocket. He pulled the matches out. “Shit.”

  “What happened?”

  “I dropped them.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know, somewhere around me.”

  Bernadette began pawing around her, looking for the matches. She felt a hand move on her leg. “Ryan, you’re fondling my leg. You search on your body and I’ll search on mine. Got that?”

  “Sorry.”

  She ran her hands over her body, feeling the crevasses of her uniform as to where the matches might have fallen. She moved from her upper body to her legs and moved over to the side. She felt something strange.

  “Officer, that’s my crotch you’re doing a search on,” Ryan said with a surprised tone in his voice. “If you want to keep…you know, searching there…I’m fine with it…”

  “Sorry,” Bernadette said with her hand bounding back like it almost touched a snake, and in all likelihood might just as well have.

  “I found them,” Ryan said.

  Bernadette held up the candle. Ryan struck the match and touched it to the wick. The cavern became illuminated.

  Ryan gasped, “Your hair. It’s red.”

  “Yeah, it’s a special shade—bimbo red.” Bernadette said, staring at Ryan.

  “Are you having an affair with my dad,” Ryan asked pulling himself back from Bernadette.

  Bernadette put up her hand. “No, I had dinner with your dad last night to discuss my career path. I’m trying to make detective.”

  Ryan sniffed. “He came home last night telling me he’s having an affair with a younger woman, and if I didn’t like it I could move out.”

  “My god, your dad’s an idiot.”

  “You’re not having an affair with my dad?”

  “Hell, no, Ryan, only in his dreams. He’s my superior officer, and I want to kick his ass for making eyes at me, but that’s as far as he’ll ever get. ”

  “Thanks…good to know.”

  “Now, you want to see if we can find our way out of here?” Bernadette waved the candle. “This thing will last thirty to forty minutes tops. The Catholic Church sells these by the truckload…they’re not everlasting.”

  “Sure,” Ryan said standing up. He helped Bernadette to her feet. “Looks like this shaft keeps going down…” He moved to one side. “Whoops, we don’t want to go that way—”

  “What is it?”

  “Straight drop off.”

  “Good, we eliminated one direction,” Bernadette said. She put the candle up high. It began to flicker. “I hope you got more matches if this goes out.”

  “Not many.”

  Bernadette shook her head. “I knew you’d say that.” She moved forward slowly. “There must be some kind of electrical wires or cables on the sides of the walls.”

  “Yeah, they’d have had lights and power coming down into the mine. Try the left side.”

  She shuffled her feet in the gravel floor. It was steep. She leaned into each step and braced her back foot to not slip back. The wall revealed what she was looking for. Cables along the wall ran upward. They were attached by metal stanchions, each a metre apart.

  “This is our way out of here,” Bernadette said, shining the candle towards the cables.

  “You think it will hold as we pull on it?”

  “It better, and if we fall off it and start to slide back –“

  “Stay on the left side, so we don’t go over the cliff and into oblivion.”

  “…Ah, yeah…thanks for the safety note…”

  Bernadette pushed herself forward towards the wall. “Okay, Ryan, now come towards me and grab onto the cable in front of me. I’ll follow you.”

  “What about the candle? It’ll go out as soon as we start to go hand over hand,” Ryan said.

  “We climb in the dark. I’m hoping this goes straight back up the way we came down.”

  “And if there’s a diversion tunnel that takes us back down the mine?”

  “We deal with it. Okay, you with me?”

  “I’m with you,” Ryan said. He shuffled his feet, doing the same motions Bernadette had to keep from sliding back.

  Bernadette stood at the wall. She put one hand on the cable while holding the candle for Ryan to see. A breeze blew from down the shaft. The candle went out.

  “Crap,” Ryan said. He froze in his tracks.

  “Come towards my voice, Ryan. You’re less than a metre away. Keep coming; brace your back foot in the gravel before you move forward.”

  His breathing heavy, he moved closer as Bernadette spoke to him. With a lunge he grabbed onto her.<
br />
  “Now move around me and feel for the cable, it’s above my head—no, that’s my breast—no, you’re still grabbing my breast—are you listening to me or fulfilling your teenage fantasies?”

  “Sorry—lost my footing.”

  “Hmm, maybe you’re more like your father than you think.”

  Ryan moved around Bernadette, grabbing the cable. “Okay, now what? My feet are a foot off the gravel. How do we move forward?”

  “Just above the gravel is the rock wall. You’re going to hold onto the cable, arch your body, and propel yourself upwards.”

  “What? You think I’m freaking Spiderman?”

  “Here’s the deal. Do this and you’re out of here. You don’t do this, you’re hanging out in the dark hoping someone finds this shaft.”

  “Got it, I’m Spiderman,” Ryan said. He grabbed the cable, pulled up his feet and felt the rock wall. He grunted as he pulled himself upwards.

  Bernadette waited for him to get ahead and followed. She wondered how far up they needed to go. Would their arms hold out? She’d been in weight training for years. This was different. Constant strain on the muscles for long periods of time could make them go into fatigue then spasm. She hoped they reached the top before it happened.

  Heaving and breathing almost in unison, they grabbed the cable hand over hand following with their feet. The cable held. But they could both feel it starting to come away from the rock wall.

  “Stop!” Bernadette said. She was gasping for breath. Ryan was doing the same.

  “I was hoping…you’d say that…are we there yet?”

  “Funny…do you feel the cable pulling away…?”

  “Yeah…now you mention it—”

  The cable snapped off the wall. Ryan came sliding down towards Bernadette. She caught him with one arm. They fell towards the floor, their feet dangling, looking for something solid to grip onto.

  “Don’t let go,” Ryan yelled.

  “I got you. Hold onto me.” Bernadette said. She wasn’t confident she had him. She hoped they’d find something to get them back up.

  “I don’t want to slide back down,” Ryan said. There was fear mixed with a whimper.

  Bernadette had to fight back the fear. If she let it get her, it would consume her. She needed to breathe properly, let air get to her brain and calm her down. “We’re going to let ourselves down to the gravel, okay? Then we’ll pull ourselves up the cable. You with me?”