Chapter 3 - The Ghost of the Past
As soon as the menacing truck disappeared, Elena locked the fragile front door.
She pulled the heavy steel box from its hiding place beneath the floorboards.
She grabbed her rusted pickaxe and brought it down hard on the old, decaying padlock.
Sparks flew wildly across the dim room as the metal shattered into pieces.
Elena threw the lid open, completely unprepared for what she was about to find.
Inside, carefully wrapped in thick, waterproof oilcloth, were stacks of perfectly preserved documents.
Beneath the paperwork lay rows of heavy, solid gold bars.
Elena fell backward, covering her mouth in pure, unadulterated shock.
This was enough wealth to buy the entire county three times over.
She reached for the documents with trembling hands.
They belonged to the previous owner, a stubborn old farmer named Arthur Vance.
The papers were detailed, meticulous records of a massive, terrifying conspiracy.
Mr. Silas had illegally poisoned the main river reservoir feeding the valley.
He intentionally created the devastating drought to force desperate farmers into selling their lands for pennies.
Arthur had discovered the sinister plot and gathered the irrefutable evidence.
But Silas had found out before Arthur could reach the federal authorities.
A handwritten note sat at the very top of the pile.
"If you are reading this, Silas has murdered me and buried me in my own dry well," the note read.
Elena felt a freezing chill run down her spine.
May you like
She now held the absolute destruction of the most dangerous man in the state.
But she also knew that if Silas found out, he would kill her and her children without a second thought.
