The wood covering the trap cracked and then shattered beneath her weight, plunging her into the void. She cried out, her limbs flailing and then tensing for the impact, but she hit water rather than concrete, the air knocked from her as she was spun forward in a tumult of debris. Unable to see anything, she gasped, saturating her lungs, and reached for a surface that wasn’t there. She felt a cold draught and snatched a breath, only to have it punched out of her as the current tossed her around again.

Colliding with a solid wall slowed her progress, and she grappled for purchase, her fingers scraping the abrasive concrete. She righted herself, feet down, head above the water, and took huge hungry mouthfuls of air, but she quickly lost her hold, the flood reclaiming her and hurtling her along the wall in a relentless drive. She stopped suddenly, without warning or apparent reason, her right leg held static as her body twisted. Three seconds of grace was all she got before the pain hit her, a blast of agony in her right thigh that made her cry out and then vomit into the water.

“Oh God,” she whispered. Using one hand to steady herself, she pawed at the wall with the other, trying to find what was hurting her so badly. Her fingers closed around a length of rebar jutting from the concrete, and she tracked it to the point where it disappeared into the middle of her thigh. She could feel the warmth of her blood joining the current that was wrenching at her, and she bit through her lip as the motion repeatedly jarred the metal against her femur.

For an untold amount of time, all she could do was grip the wall and breathe through the pain. She began to shiver as the water lapped at her chest, sending ripples through her damaged muscles, and she sobbed quietly, unable to move yet unable to stay still.

“Please help me, please.” She kept her entreaty to a whisper, afraid to make anything worse by raising her voice, before an abrupt return to clarity overrode the shock. “Hey! Hey! Help!” she yelled. “Are you still up there? Can you hear me? My name’s Rosie, and I’m a police officer. I need your help, please!”

Daring to let go with one hand, she found the inner pocket where she’d stashed her mobile to keep it dry. She tapped its newly smashed screen, yelping in relief when it lit up, but its signal was nonexistent, denying her even the “emergency calls only” option.

“Shit. Shit.” Thrown into a blind panic, she tried to free her leg, managing to move it a fraction. When the pain came, it seemed to come from a distance. She dimly heard herself scream and saw the water twist and roil in the light from her phone. Then her forehead bounced off the concrete, and everything faded out.

Chapter Twenty-one