Chapter 3 - The Suspicious Warning
The suspicious edge in Dale’s voice at dinner had stayed with Nancy all night.
She knew her grandfather Elijah better than anyone. He was a meticulous man who saved every receipt, loved his family deeply, and had sworn to take care of Nancy after her husband passed away. It made no sense that he would leave behind nothing but ruin.
Early Saturday morning, while Dale was at his country club golf game, Nancy drove out to the old farmhouse.
The house sat quiet and abandoned at the end of a long gravel driveway. Paint was peeling off the porch railing, but the heavy oak front door remained locked.
Nancy pulled her spare key from her purse—a key Elijah had given her years ago.
She stepped inside the silent hallway. Dust motes danced in the morning light filtering through dirty windows. She bypassed the living room and went straight for the wooden basement door tucked under the stairs.
The lock was new, but the latch was loose. Nancy used a small screwdriver from her glove box to pop the latch open.
As she stepped down the creaky wooden stairs into the dark basement, her heart was beating against her ribs like a trapped bird.
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She pulled the pull-chain on the single hanging light bulb, revealing rows of stacked boxes labeled "JUNK" behind the rusty old furnace.
👉 What made Nancy bypass the first three boxes and look directly behind the old heating pipes?
