Chapter 2 - The Man Above Us
A rope dropped through the opening.
“Do not climb yet.”
The voice remained low.
I held Sophie behind me.
“Who are you?”
“Ethan Cole.”
The name meant nothing.
“You know Daniel?”
“Unfortunately.”
Then:
“I need to know whether Sophie can stand.”
“She can.”
“You?”
“I think my ribs are hurt.”
“Any heavy bleeding?”
“No.”
“Head injury?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Good.”
The hatch opened another foot.
Ethan lowered himself onto an upper support.
Forty maybe.
Dark jacket.
Climbing harness.
Short gray at his temples.
He did not come all the way down.
Instead he looked toward the ridge above.
“We have about six minutes.”
“Before what?”
“Your father comes back.”
Sophie gripped me.
“Why?”
“He forgot Daniel’s satellite phone.”
I stared.
“You were with them?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel hired me.”
“For what?”
“To inspect the shaft and tell him whether it could be permanently sealed after an ‘equipment accident.’”
My stomach turned.
“You knew?”
“Not at first.”
Then Ethan reached into his jacket.
Showed me a small recorder.
“I knew enough by yesterday.”
“Why didn’t you stop them?”
“I notified the sheriff’s office and your mother’s attorney. We did not know they were going to push you today.”
That answer hurt.
But it sounded real.
He continued:
“I was supposed to meet them at the ridge after you signed papers.”
“I never saw papers.”
“Then you refused earlier than they expected.”
Daniel had shoved me without asking me to sign anything.
Or maybe the family reunion itself was supposed to end at another location.
“What happens now?”
“We get you out through the lower adit.”
“What lower adit?”
“This shaft intersects an old ventilation tunnel sixty feet below this ledge.”
I looked into darkness.
“You want my child to climb deeper?”
“No.”
He reached into pack.
A compact lowering harness.
“I lower both of you ten feet to a cross beam, then there is a ladder installed by mine rescue surveyors years ago.”
“Is it safe?”
“Safer than the surface.”
That was not comforting.
Then headlights flashed faintly above the ridge.
Ethan cursed.
“Too soon.”
He pulled hatch nearly closed.
“Don’t make a sound.”
Footsteps.
Richard.
“Cole!”
Ethan climbed upward.
His voice changed.
Louder.
Casual.
“Here.”
“Anything?”
“I checked the shaft.”
My father stood above us.
I could see boots through the crack.
“Bodies?”
Ethan paused.
“Couldn’t see movement.”
Daniel arrived.
“Then go down.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the ledge is unstable and I’m not breaking my neck for your family problem.”
Daniel cursed.
Richard said:
“They’re dead.”
Ethan:
“Then sealing can wait until morning.”
“No.”
Richard’s boot hit hatch.
“Tonight.”
Ethan stayed calm.
“You pour rock into a historic shaft after dark and somebody notices the equipment. You told me you wanted it to look abandoned.”
Silence.
He understood Richard.
Appeal to control.
Then Daniel:
“What if Melissa has the trust page?”
My hand tightened around Sophie’s paper.
Richard snapped:
“She doesn’t.”
“I left the folder open.”
“You said everything was there.”
“One page is missing.”
Sophie’s breathing stopped beside me.
Then Daniel:
“The beneficiary schedule.”
Richard swore.
“Go check the truck.”
Footsteps ran away.
Richard remained.
Then:
“Cole.”
“Yeah?”
“If they’re alive…”
Ethan answered:
“They won’t get out without equipment.”
My father laughed softly.
“Good.”
Then footsteps left.
Ethan waited.
Thirty seconds.
One minute.
Opened hatch.
His face was different now.
“Plans changed.”
“What?”
“They know the document is missing.”
“Is this what they want?”
I held paper.
He stared.
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Evelyn showed me the full amendment four months before she died.”
I stopped breathing.
“You knew my mother?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I worked for her.”
“Doing what?”
Ethan looked toward the ridge.
May you like
“Finding out whether your father and brother were stealing from her.”
Continue to the next part: Ethan reveals Evelyn had been investigating Richard and Daniel months before her death, and the trust amendment Sophie stole was created because of what she found.
