Chapter 28 - The Ledger’s Final Page

"They aren't taking Evelyn's name," Arthur growled.

He didn't look at the shattered glass. He didn't look at the red lights flashing against the snow. He stood up straight, walked to the hall closet, and pulled out his heavy wool logging mackinaw. He slipped his arms into the sleeves, his face carved into lines of immovable granite.

"Arthur, no," I begged, grabbing his arm. "They're armed. They have federal paper."

"This house was built on an honest man’s sweat," Arthur said, turning to look at me. His pale blue eyes were clear, steady, and devoid of fear. "Your mother kept those indictments safe because she knew that the day Julian Vance died, this girl would come to burn the evidence. If Victoria gets those papers out of that cavern, every dirty judge, every bought commissioner, and every crooked banker in this valley stays rich. And your mother’s memory stays a criminal’s whore."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the brass key from Oakhaven.

"There’s an emergency vent," Arthur said, looking at Mark. "The old chimney flue from the nineteenth-century lime kiln behind the barn. It drops straight into the back of that fissure. They’re drilling the front entrance at the cliff face. They don't know the kiln connects to the back."

Mark’s eyes lit up. "The old kiln flue. It’s barely two feet wide."

"I was nineteen when I climbed down it to clear a dead raccoon," I said, my pulse surging with adrenaline. "I can get inside before their drill punches through the front seal."

"You don't go alone," Mark said, checking the magazine of his sidearm and racking the slide with a crisp, lethal snap. "Arthur, you stay by the cellar door. If anyone comes down those steps who isn't us, you pull that trigger."

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Arthur looked at both of us. For the first time since this nightmare began, his hands stopped trembling. He reached out and placed his heavy, calloused palms on our shoulders, squeezing with a strength that defied his seventy-two years.

"Bring your mother’s truth back into the light," he whispered.