Chapter 9 - Jordan’s Second Video
The family moved that afternoon.
Deputy Mercer arranged temporary accommodation through a victim-services contact: a furnished house owned by a retired federal employee twenty-five minutes outside Asheville.
Only law enforcement, Malcolm, Tasha, and Celeste knew the location.
The children were told it was an adventure.
Jordan did not believe that.
Nia tried.
The new house had blue shutters and a swing beneath an oak tree.
Nia stood in the doorway.
“Is this our house now?”
“No,” Tasha said softly. “Just for a little while.”
Nia nodded.
She had become too agreeable since the landslide.
That worried Tasha more than crying would have.
That evening, Jordan asked Malcolm to walk outside.
They stayed within the fenced backyard.
Jordan carried his phone.
“I found something.”
“You keep becoming the most useful investigator in North Carolina.”
Jordan almost smiled.
“Mom says sarcasm is how you avoid feelings.”
Malcolm stopped.
“Your mother talks too much.”
Now Jordan did smile.
Then it vanished.
“I had cloud backup turned on.”
He opened an app.
“There were videos I deleted from my phone because I thought they were boring.”
Malcolm’s attention sharpened.
“From the ridge?”
Jordan nodded.
He played a recording from six days before the landslide.
Jordan had been flying his drone above the tree line.
The footage swept across the upper property.
For two seconds, a black SUV appeared near the old logging road.
Malcolm paused the video.
License plate visible.
He enlarged it.
Tasha joined them.
“That’s not Price’s SUV from yesterday.”
“No.”
Jordan scrubbed forward.
A man stepped from the vehicle.
Not Rourke.
Older.
Gray hair.
Malcolm stared.
Patrick Sloan.
Tasha whispered, “Why was your father’s lawyer on our land?”
Jordan played the next clip.
Sloan spoke with someone hidden behind the SUV.
Audio was weak.
Malcolm turned the volume up.
“…needs to happen before the appraisal…”
Another voice.
“…not if the Brooks family is here…”
Sloan again.
“…supposed to be Charlotte…”
Malcolm felt cold.
Tasha looked at him.
Those words matched Leon Price’s strange comment to Celeste.
I thought Malcolm was still working in Charlotte during the week.
The video shifted as Jordan’s drone turned.
A second man became visible.
Leon Price.
Malcolm sat on the porch step.
Jordan watched him nervously.
“Am I in trouble for flying up there?”
“No.”
“Because I crossed the boundary.”
“Jordan.”
“No.”
He would never punish the boy for evidence that might save them.
Tasha called Mercer.
This time, law enforcement collected Jordan’s phone immediately.
Before surrendering it, Jordan backed everything onto Malcolm’s laptop.
Mercer watched the footage.
“This changes things.”
“How?”
“It places Sloan and Price together at the site.”
“It proves they expected me to be gone.”
“It suggests that.”
Malcolm’s frustration flashed.
Mercer held up a hand.
“Words matter.”
“So do rocks.”
“Yes.”
The deputy’s expression hardened.
“And I’m trying to build something that survives court.”
Malcolm backed down.
Mercer continued.
“We obtained Keller’s explosive-storage logs.”
“And?”
“Rourke’s credentials opened the trailer at 5:43 a.m. Wednesday.”
“Explosives were missing?”
“The physical inventory technically balanced.”
“Technically?”
“Keller says old demolition charges were scheduled for disposal. The disposal paperwork shows they were destroyed Tuesday.”
“Were they?”
“No proof yet.”
“So someone could claim they were destroyed but keep them.”
“Yes.”
Tasha asked, “Who signed the disposal paperwork?”
Mercer looked at her.
“Evan Rourke.”
Malcolm exhaled.
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
“What about Sloan?”
“His office says he was inspecting boundary issues for the trust.”
“Celeste didn’t send him.”
“We confirmed that.”
Tasha crossed her arms.
“So he trespassed.”
“Potentially.”
Jordan, who had been silent, said, “He saw my drone.”
Everyone looked at him.
“What?” Malcolm asked.
“In the video.”
Jordan replayed a later section from the backup.
Sloan glanced upward.
Directly toward the drone.
Price followed his gaze.
The footage abruptly tilted as Jordan flew away.
Malcolm remembered the anonymous photograph of his children.
“Jordan, did anyone talk to you after that?”
“No.”
“Follow you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you tell anyone about the video?”
“Just Marcus.”
“Who is Marcus?”
“My friend.”
Tasha’s voice tightened.
“Did you send it to him?”
Jordan shook his head.
“No.”
“Post anything?”
“No.”
Mercer said, “It may not matter. They saw the drone. They could assume footage existed.”
Nia appeared at the back door.
“Why is everybody whispering?”
Tasha immediately changed her face.
“We’re talking about boring grown-up stuff.”
Nia considered that.
“Can I have cereal?”
“Yes.”
“With marshmallows?”
“For tonight, yes.”
Nia disappeared.
Malcolm looked at Tasha.
“We can’t keep doing this.”
“Doing what?”
“Talking like danger disappears when she walks into the room.”
“She’s seven.”
“She was seven when the mountain fell.”
Tasha’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
Malcolm softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re right.”
Mercer closed his notebook.
“There is something else you both need to hear.”
They waited.
“Evan Rourke used a credit card yesterday evening.”
“Where?”
“A gas station outside Knoxville.”
Malcolm frowned.
“So he ran.”
“Maybe.”
“Can Tennessee authorities pick him up?”
“We don’t currently have grounds for arrest.”
“What?”
“We have grounds to interview him.”
“That’s insane.”
“That’s law.”
Malcolm clenched his jaw.
Mercer continued.
“He bought fuel, food, and a prepaid phone.”
“Then where?”
“We lost the trail.”
Jordan suddenly said, “Maybe he didn’t run because he caused it.”
Malcolm looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe he ran because he knows who did.”
The adults fell silent.
Jordan shrugged.
“In movies, the guy everybody thinks is guilty is sometimes just scared.”
Tasha gave Malcolm a look.
Malcolm sighed.
“What?”
“He gets the dramatic thinking from you.”
Mercer’s phone buzzed.
He read the message.
His expression changed.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Rourke just called Keller.”
“From the prepaid phone?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Mercer looked directly at Malcolm.
“He told Keller he has proof he was ordered to drill the fracture line.”
Malcolm stood.
May you like
![92 The Girl They Called Broke Was a Billionaire’s Daughter—But Her Father’s Arrival Exposed a Secret Powerful People Had Buried for Years]](https://cdn.treeiq.biz/site_590/2026/11/clone-0-0915d882-53d7-4d17-b43a-a010ca1a1068.webp)
“And?”
“He wants protection before he gives it up.”
