“Last night.”
She went pale.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
He showed her the photograph.
Mara stared at it for several seconds.
Then she sat down.
“Daniel gave me a copy of this.”
Ethan's expression hardened.
“When?”
“Three days before he disappeared.”
“You had this for four years?”
“I thought he was dead.”
“So you hid it?”
“I was scared.”
Ethan wanted to shout.
Instead he forced himself to breathe.
“What did Daniel tell you?”
Mara opened her bag.
She pulled out a small envelope.
“Daniel said that if he disappeared, I should wait until someone came looking for the truth.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Who?”
“You.”
Inside the envelope was a brass key.
And another photograph.
This one showed Black Hollow Mine.
On the back were coordinates.
Mara whispered, “Your brother believed there was a hidden room inside that mine.”
Ethan stared at the key.
“What opens it?”
“I don't know.”
Before they could say more, the sound of an engine came from the road.
A vehicle was approaching.
Mara looked through the window.
“That's a sheriff's truck.”
Ethan immediately understood.
“Sheriff Harlan?”
She nodded.
“Then we leave through the back.”
They grabbed the notebook and photographs.
Ethan kicked open the rear door.
They ran into the forest.
Behind them, a vehicle stopped.
A man's voice shouted.
“Ethan Cole!”
Ethan kept running.
Another voice called out.
“You don't know what you're getting into!”
Ethan looked at Mara.
She was running beside him.
“Maybe not,” Ethan said.
“But I'm about to find out.”
Black Hollow
They reached Black Hollow before sunset.
The mine entrance was hidden behind a wall of thorn bushes and fallen timber.
Ethan remembered the place from childhood.
His father had forbidden him and Daniel from coming here.
Now he understood why.
Mara held the brass key.
“This is where Daniel wanted us to go.”
Ethan examined the old wooden supports.
Many had rotted.
“This place could collapse.”
“Then we'd better be quick.”
Inside, the temperature dropped immediately.
The air smelled of wet stone and rust.
Their flashlights moved across the walls.
Old mining equipment lay scattered across the ground.
Chains.
Broken carts.
Shovels.
A rusted helmet.
They followed the coordinates deeper into the tunnel.
After several minutes, they reached a dead end.
Mara frowned.
“The coordinates end here.”
Ethan examined the wall.
Something looked wrong.
One section of stone had a different color.
He touched it.
It moved.
A hidden wooden door swung inward.
Beyond it was a narrow passage.
Mara stared.
“Daniel found this.”
Ethan nodded.
They entered.
The passage opened into a small underground chamber.
There were crates.
Dozens of them.
Some were marked with dates.
Others carried names of companies Ethan recognized.
Victor Crane owned several of them.
Mara opened one.
Inside were old financial records.
Invoices.
Shipping manifests.
Bank transfers.
Ethan's eyes widened.
“This isn't mining equipment.”
“No.”
Mara turned another page.
“These are land purchases.”
Ethan studied the documents.
Hundreds of acres had been purchased through shell companies.
Most belonged to struggling ranchers.
But there was something else.
A series of payments had been made to county officials.
Judges.
Inspectors.
Sheriff's deputies.
Then Ethan saw his father's name.
A payment.
Twenty-five thousand dollars.
He stared.
“My father took money?”
Mara shook her head.
“Look closer.”
Ethan examined the document.
The payment was listed as a debt.
Then he saw the note beside it.
Refused.
His father had refused the money.
Ethan felt a strange mixture of relief and shame.
He had spent years believing his father had become distant and secretive before his death.
Now he realized Samuel had been fighting someone.
Someone powerful.
At the bottom of another crate was a leather ledger.
Ethan opened it.
Every transaction was recorded.
The final page contained a handwritten note.
They know about Daniel.
Underneath it:
Move the ledger before they reach the cabin.
Ethan looked at Mara.
“The ledger was supposed to be in the cabin.”
“No,” she whispered.
“It was bait.”
A sound echoed through the tunnel.