Chapter 10 - The Tunnel Under the Cabin
Dale refused to speak inside the hotel.
He led them to an abandoned church outside town where the roof leaked and the electricity had been disconnected for years.
Pike checked the surrounding road before they entered.
Dale sat in the front pew.
“I was the man at the cabin,” he said.
Nora remained standing.
“You attacked us.”
“I thought you were Cresswell’s people.”
“You saw my face.”
“Not before I swung.”
“You took the brass button.”
Dale reached into his coat and placed it on the pew.
“I’m sorry.”
Nora picked it up.
“Where is Luke?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said you knew where he hid the chest.”
“I know where he planned to hide it.”
Dale rubbed his bandaged hand.
“Six days ago, Luke called me. He had been cleaning the cabin for Mason. Mason wanted everything removed before the property inspection.”
“What did Luke find?”
“A loose floor beam in the north room. Beneath it was a steel chest and a trapdoor.”
“The second door,” Nora said.
Dale nodded.
“Luke opened the chest. He found old deeds, notebooks, a military coat and several metal film canisters.”
“Where did he take it?”
“He moved it into the tunnel below the cabin. He said Mason arrived before he could bring it out.”
“And then?”
“Luke called Claire. Gave her the survivorship deed and a ledger. After that, he called me.”
Dale’s voice broke.
“He said someone was following him.”
“Who?”
“He didn’t know.”
Pike crouched in front of him.
“Why didn’t you report this?”
“I did.”
“To Cresswell?”
Dale looked ashamed.
“The sheriff told me Luke had probably stolen from Mason and run.”
“You believed him?”
“No. But Cresswell showed me photographs of Luke entering a drug house in Roanoke.”
“Were they real?”
“I don’t know.”
Nora remembered the ledger entry beside Dale’s name.
Collateral.
“They threatened your son before he disappeared.”
Dale nodded.
“They’ve controlled me since Caleb died.”
“What did they make you do?”
“I watched the cabin. Reported visitors. Told them when Caleb met Evelyn.”
Nora’s anger sharpened.
“You helped them track my father.”
“I didn’t know they would kill him.”
The church fell silent.
Dale lowered his head.
“After the crash, Cresswell gave me a new truck and a job. I told myself it was because I had been useful. But I knew.”
Pike stood.
“Where is the tunnel entrance?”
“Beneath the cedar roots.”
They returned to the cabin shortly before dawn.
Pike parked a mile away.
Using Caleb’s instructions, Nora located a narrow gap between the roots of the old cedar tree and the cabin’s stone foundation.
Dale cleared away mud and leaves, revealing an iron ring.
Together, they lifted a rectangular stone hatch.
Cold air rose from below.
A wooden ladder descended into darkness.
Nora went first.
The tunnel was narrow and reinforced with old mine timbers.
Carved initials covered the beams, some dating back nearly a century.
Twenty feet in, they found fresh footprints.
At the end of the tunnel stood an empty alcove.
The steel chest was gone.
On the ground lay a broken watch.
Dale picked it up.
“Luke’s.”
A sound echoed deeper underground.
A faint metallic knock.
Three times.
Nora turned toward the darkness.
The tunnel continued beyond the alcove, hidden behind a movable timber panel.
She pushed it aside.
The air smelled of earth, rust and something chemical.
Pike aimed his flashlight ahead.
The beam revealed a second passage.
Farther down, someone knocked again.
Three slow strikes.
Dale shouted.
“Luke!”
A weak voice answered from the darkness.
“Dad?”
They found him chained to a support beam in an old excavation chamber.
Luke was dehydrated, bruised and barely conscious, but alive.
Dale fell to his knees beside him.
Nora searched the chamber.
There was no chest.
Only empty food containers, rope and a portable radio.
As Pike cut the chain, Luke opened his eyes.
“Captain Hayes?”
“Yes.”
“He took it.”
“Who took the chest?”
Luke tried to speak, but his voice failed.
Nora gave him water.
“Who?”
May you like
Luke’s frightened gaze shifted toward the tunnel.
“Mason.”
