Archaeology and Alibis: A Cozy Tiffany Black Travel Mystery by A.R. Winters

Author:A.R. Winters [Winters, A.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Adeafening crash shattered the tense silence.

JJ sent a display case clattering to the ground. In a blind panic, he was already scrambling for the exit. He dodged between the looted artifacts and headed towards an escape.

He had all the frantic energy of a startled jackrabbit, and before we knew it, he was beyond our sights.

"JJ, stop!" I shouted.

But it was futile. He was gone already, disappearing through a doorway.

The approaching footsteps grew louder and more insistent. A harsh voice echoed from somewhere outside. It barked out indecipherable orders and threats.

"We're out of time," I hissed.

I grabbed Rosie by the arm and yanked her toward a narrow doorway at the back of the room. We slipped through the shadows, and the muffled sounds of pursuit closed in all around us.

A dizzying maze of cramped corridors and supply closets greeted us. The air was thick with the musty scent of disuse. Rosie and I stumbled along.

Rosie's eyes were wide with a mixture of terror and exhilaration. We blindly navigated the labyrinth driven by pure animal instinct to escape the closing net. Finally, up ahead, a sliver of daylight filtered in from an open doorway.

I burst through the exit with Rosie on my heels. We squinted against the harsh desert glare and spilled into a narrow alleyway hemmed in by towering stacks of construction materials.

My lungs burned with ragged breath as I tried to get in enough oxygen to keep running. I scanned our surroundings searching for any sign of a clear escape route. A chain-link fence loomed ahead. Its rusted links cast an intricate lace pattern across the baked earth at our feet.

"There," Rosie wheezed. She jabbed a finger toward a gap in the fencing just wide enough for us to slip through.

We took off at a dead sprint. Our shoes kicked up plumes of dust in our wake. The sounds of pursuit seemed to swell all around us. Shouts and heavy footfalls echoed off the metal siding of the prefab structures.

I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see a burly figure in a neon safety vest round the corner. His face was twisted into a mask of rage when he caught sight of us.

"Stop right there," he bellowed.

He gave chase with the lumbering determination of a bloodhound on a scent. "I've got you trespassers now!"

My heart lodged in my throat, and I redoubled my pace. I half dragged Rosie alongside me. The chain-link loomed ahead. It swayed tantalizingly with the promise of freedom beyond its rusted confines.

Just a few more strides.

But it seemed too far.

I zigged and zagged through the maze of construction detritus. Rusty I-beams and stacks of lumber provided scattered cover, but the man in the safety vest seemed to be everywhere at once. His bellow of rage echoed across the barren worksite.

"Get back here, you scoundrels," he roared. His voice was edged by a slightly unhinged fury that sent a fresh tendril of terror lancing through me. "I'm gonna make you pay for whatever you stole!"

"We didn't steal anything!" I shouted over my shoulder.

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