Daniel did too.
His father, Henry Whitcomb, had died sixteen years earlier after a wagon went over Briar Ridge.
The county called it an accident.
Daniel had been nineteen.
Jonah looked toward Adelaide’s chest.
“If those papers are what I think they are, your father may be the reason they were hidden.”
Daniel’s anger returned.
“Explain.”
Jonah pointed toward one of the documents.
“Find the original cooperative deed.”
They found it beneath the maps.
Twenty-three names appeared across the bottom.
Families from across Sun Hollow.
Some still lived there.
Others were gone.
Adelaide Monroe’s name appeared near the center.
The document had been signed forty-four years earlier, long before Basin Crown existed.
Sarah read the ownership language slowly.
The families did not separately own the underground springs.
Together, they formed a water cooperative.
Daniel looked at Jonah.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Basin Crown never owned the water.”
Sarah whispered, “Then their diversion tunnels are illegal.”
“If this deed is valid, yes.”
Daniel looked at the box.
“Why didn’t anybody know?”
Jonah answered, “Somebody did.”
At the bottom of the chest sat a sealed envelope.
Sarah’s name was written across the front.
Not her childhood name.
Her full married name.
FOR SARAH WHITCOMB, IF SUN HOLLOW BEGINS TO DIE.
Her hands started shaking.
Adelaide had been dead fourteen years.
She had written the envelope before Sarah ever married Daniel.
“How could she know?”
Jonah looked at the handwriting.
“Open it.”
Sarah did.
The first page answered a question Sarah had never known to ask.
Adelaide wrote that the plants she taught Sarah to gather were not simply emergency food. Deep-rooted greens survived longest above underground water. Their growth patterns outlined hidden springs more accurately than old maps after landslides, floods, or construction changed the surface.
Sarah looked toward the wild greens she had brought home all summer.
The people laughing had been watching her carry a map.
Adelaide had taught it to her one plant at a time.
The letter explained that Basin Crown would eventually discover the northern springs. When that happened, the company could weaken Sun Hollow without blocking a single visible creek.
Sarah read faster.
Adelaide had hidden the cooperative deed because somebody inside the valley had shown Basin Crown where to drill.
Daniel leaned over the table.
“Who?”
Sarah reached the last page.
One name was written alone.
Henry Whitcomb.
Daniel’s father.
Sarah did not speak.
Daniel saw her face.
“What?”
She folded the page halfway.
“What does it say?”
“Daniel.”
His voice hardened.
“Give it to me.”
Sarah did.
He read the name.
Then sat down.
For several minutes, the only sound in the room came from wind moving against the shutters.
“My father hated Basin Crown.”
Sarah moved closer.