Chapter 4 - The Locked Compartment
The county put the family in a hotel for the night.
Nobody slept.
Nia lay between Malcolm and Tasha until nearly three in the morning, one hand closed around the sleeve of Malcolm’s shirt.
Every time a truck passed outside, she woke.
Jordan sat near the window with headphones on but no music playing.
At dawn Malcolm found him watching the landslide video again.
“Stop torturing yourself.”
Jordan locked the screen.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
Jordan stared at the carpet.
“Do you think that man knew we were there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think he made the cliff fall?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because guessing won’t make us safer.”
Jordan finally looked at him.
“You didn’t believe me yesterday.”
Malcolm absorbed that quietly.
“No.”
“If I see something again—”
“I will listen.”
“You promise?”
Malcolm sat beside him.
“I promise.”
By nine, county officials allowed Malcolm to return to the lower section of the property accompanied by a geotechnical engineer and sheriff’s deputy.
Tasha insisted on coming.
The children stayed with Celeste.
Malcolm did not like that.
But Nia loved her aunt, and whatever Celeste had done, Malcolm did not believe she would harm them.
The engineer, Dr. Lena Morris, wore a hard hat and carried a tablet.
She studied the debris from a safe distance.
“The failure plane began high,” she said. “Near your eastern boundary.”
“Could blasting trigger it?”
“It could contribute.”
“That sounds careful.”
“It is careful. I don’t make conclusions before evidence.”
Malcolm respected her immediately.
She pointed toward several fractured surfaces.
“Some of this rock shows weathering. Some looks fresh.”
“So the slope was already unstable.”
“Possibly.”
“And fresh disturbance could have accelerated failure.”
“Possibly.”
Tasha exhaled.
“Everybody says possibly.”
Dr. Morris looked at her.
“Possibly is how responsible people speak before they know.”
They walked toward the bunker.
Inside, emergency lights still glowed.
Malcolm paused.
The room smelled like concrete, dust, and fear.
Tasha touched his back.
“You okay?”
“No.”
They began collecting medication, documents, and whatever emergency items they might need.
Near the rear wall, Malcolm noticed a metal shelf had shifted during the impacts.
Behind it was a rectangular outline in the concrete.
He frowned.
“What is that?”
Tasha helped move the shelf aside.
A narrow steel panel was embedded in the wall.
Malcolm had never seen it.
There was no handle.
Only a small keyhole.
Tasha whispered, “Your father?”
“Had to be.”
Malcolm searched the shelves.
Nothing.
Then he remembered Isaiah’s emergency key ring.
It had hung for years inside the pantry.
The pantry was now beneath several tons of stone.
Malcolm cursed.
Tasha crouched beside the panel.
“There’s writing.”
Scratched lightly into the steel were two words.
MALCOLM — LISTEN.
He stared.
His father’s handwriting.
Even carved into metal, Malcolm recognized the heavy slant of the M.
Tasha looked at him.
“Listen to what?”
Before Malcolm could answer, Dr. Morris called from outside.
“Mr. Brooks!”
They hurried out.
The engineer was standing near the debris edge.
She pointed toward a broken piece of gray stone.
A narrow cylindrical hole ran through it.
“This didn’t form naturally.”
Malcolm crouched.
“Drill hole?”
“Yes.”
“How recent?”
“I can’t date it visually.”
The deputy photographed it.
Dr. Morris continued uphill with binoculars.
After several minutes she said, “I’m seeing multiple bore points.”
Tasha’s face tightened.
“Meaning?”
“Someone drilled the slope.”
“For blasting?”
“Possibly for anchors, samples, explosives, several things.”
Malcolm looked toward the buried house.
“What happens now?”
“I document everything. County emergency management will request permit records.”
“And if there wasn’t a permit?”
“That becomes somebody else’s problem.”
The deputy spoke.
“It becomes mine.”
A truck engine sounded below.
A black SUV stopped beyond the safety tape.
A tall man stepped out wearing a charcoal coat.
Malcolm recognized him from business articles.
Leon Price.
President of Summit Crown Development.
Deputy Mercer immediately walked toward him.
Price raised both hands.
“I’m not entering the restricted area.”
Malcolm approached anyway.
Tasha followed.
Price looked at the ruined house.
His expression was appropriately grim.
Too appropriately.
“Mr. Brooks, I am deeply sorry.”
“Were your contractors drilling my ridge yesterday?”
Price glanced at the deputy.
“Our survey contractor conducted approved subsurface testing.”
“Approved by whom?”
“The trust.”
“Explosives?”
“No.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“Then why was Keller Blasting there?”
For the first time, Price’s expression shifted.
Barely.
But Malcolm saw it.
“I don’t know that company.”
Jordan’s video was not public.
Malcolm said, “Interesting.”
Price’s eyes narrowed.
“What is?”
“You answered very quickly.”
Price ignored that.
“My company will cooperate completely.”
“I’m sure.”
Price turned toward Tasha.
“Mrs. Brooks, I know you received our purchase offer.”
Malcolm looked at her.
Price continued.
“Given what has happened, Summit Crown remains prepared to purchase the damaged property immediately.”
Tasha stared at him.
“Our house was buried yesterday.”
“That is precisely why an uncomplicated sale might help your family move forward.”
Malcolm stepped between them.
“Get off my road.”
“I’m offering you a solution.”
“No. You’re standing below a landslide your contractors may have helped cause, trying to buy the wreckage.”
Price’s polite expression disappeared.
“Be careful with accusations, Mr. Brooks.”
Malcolm moved closer.
Deputy Mercer intervened.
“That’s enough.”
Price returned to his SUV.
Before getting inside, he looked back.
“This mountain is going to cost you more than you think.”
Then he drove away.
Tasha watched the vehicle disappear.
“Was that a threat?”
Malcolm’s phone vibrated.
Celeste.
He answered.
Her voice was frantic.
“Malcolm, I found something.”
“What?”
“Your father’s old emergency keys.”
Malcolm looked toward the bunker.
“How?”
“He gave me a duplicate set.”
“Bring them.”
A pause.
Then Celeste said, “There’s something else.”
“What?”
“I remembered why Isaiah built that hidden compartment.”
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Malcolm’s grip tightened around the phone.
“He told me if anything ever happened to the ridge, I was supposed to make sure you opened it before anyone convinced you to sell.”
