Chapter 9 - The Burning Water Tower
They reached the water tower as flames climbed the wooden supports.
Two Silver Crown trucks sped away across the eastern pasture.
Mercer called the only deputy he still trusted.
Harrison and Lucy ran toward the tower.
A metal ladder led to the reservoir platform.
The lower rungs were burning.
Harrison wrapped his coat around Lucy.
“You cannot climb this.”
“The deed needs both keys.”
“I will bring the box down.”
“What if there are two locks again?”
Harrison knew she was right.
They climbed together.
Heat rolled beneath them.
The structure groaned.
At the top, Harrison found an iron hatch submerged beneath several inches of water.
Two keyholes appeared in the center.
They inserted the keys.
The hatch opened.
Inside was a waterproof cylinder containing documents, a cassette recorder, and an old revolver.
Walter Hart’s voice played when Harrison pressed the recorder.
“If my children are hearing this, Silver Crown has returned.”
Harrison closed his eyes.
His father continued.
“The mineral deed belongs to the valley families.”
“No individual Hart has the right to sell it.”
“The only legal transfer requires signatures from every surviving family.”
“Evelyn believes possession gives her control.”
“She is wrong.”
A second recording began.
Daniel Bennett’s voice filled the platform.
“Harrison, if Mara reaches you, believe her.”
“Evelyn paid Silas to move money through ranch accounts.”
“Sheriff Mercer buried the evidence.”
“And Gordon Price forged the Silver Crown transfers.”
“Daniel recorded this recently,” Harrison said.
The tape could not have been more than a year old.
Daniel had reached the tower while imprisoned.
He had hidden new evidence beside Walter’s old documents.
The final section contained coordinates.
Lucy recognized them.
“The dry river.”
“The white house.”
The tower shifted violently.
One support collapsed.
Mercer shouted from below.
“You have thirty seconds.”
Harrison strapped the cylinder across his back.
He lowered Lucy down the ladder.
Flames closed around them.
They jumped from the final ten feet as the tower collapsed into the field.
Lucy landed hard but stood immediately.
The cylinder remained intact.
Mercer examined the coordinates.
“There are tunnels beneath the white house.”
“Silver Crown used them to move workers and equipment.”
Harrison looked toward the eastern ridge.
“We go now.”
A rifle shot cracked across the pasture.
Mercer fell.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
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On the hill, Gordon Price lowered the rifle.
Harrison’s trusted family attorney had joined the hunt.
