Chapter 3 - The Basement Excavation
The damp smell of raw earth hit Arthur the moment he lifted the wooden cellar door from the inside hallway. It wasn't the usual musty odor of an old Oregon basement; it smelled fresh, like a grave freshly turned by a shovel. He clicked on his heavy-duty flashlight, the bright LED beam cutting through the gloom of the concrete foundation.
Maya stood at the bottom of the wooden steps, her pink dress glowing faintly in the stark white light. She wasn't shaking anymore. She walked deliberately toward the far corner of the root cellar, right where the original fieldstone foundation met the newer concrete pour.
"Maya, stay back," Arthur warned, his voice echoing off the low ceiling. "There could be nails, glass, something sharp."
She didn't listen. She dropped to her knees in the mud and began scraping away the loose dirt with her small hands. At first, Arthur thought she was just acting out another compulsive episode, driven by the stress of her mother’s violent outburst upstairs. But then his flashlight caught the edge of something metallic buried just beneath the surface.
He hurried down the remaining steps, sliding in the wet clay, and dropped beside her. He pushed her hands gently aside and began digging with his bare fingers, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
A corner of heavy-duty black plastic appeared, secured with thick industrial zip ties. He pulled at it, his muscles straining against the suction of the wet soil. With a sharp tearing sound, the plastic gave way, revealing a collection of items that made his breath catch in his throat.
It was a small canvas gym bag, caked in mud, bearing the faded logo of a local high school that had closed twenty years ago. Inside the semi-transparent mesh pocket rested a rusted silver wristwatch and a driver's license with a face Arthur had never seen before.
May you like
Arthur pulled the license closer to the flashlight beam. The name read Thomas Vance, missing since 2004. And the address listed on the card was the exact plot of land their house was built upon.
---
