Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 53450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Turning to the wall, she saw a faint line had appeared. Juniper jumped to her feet and ran over to push on the wall. Nothing. It was stuck firmly. Backing up, she ran at the wall.
The resulting impact rocked her back. Rubbing her shoulder, she checked the crack. It was definitely bigger.
Determined, she rushed toward the wall again. A shriek flew from her mouth as the barrier swung free. Juniper flailed her arms for anything that would break her fall. Her feet landed on a stair, but her momentum was pushing her forward. Without a conscious thought, she grabbed the swinging door when her fingers brushed against it. Her body swayed forward, but she was able to stabilize herself.
Feeling her heart beat a million miles a minute, she tried to pull herself together. Juniper scooted her feet back on the step until she stood securely.
“I just saw a Danger Bluff employee go in there. They must be fixing something,” an unfamiliar male voice said.
“I’m so glad. I love the remodeling they’ve done here, but these old buildings can be hard to maintain.”
That must be his wife. They sounded just outside the door. Juniper whirled around to close the door to block the opening in case they peeked inside the room.
She jumped at the sound of a click. Panicking, she tried to remember how the door reopened. Sammi had pressed something next to the door. Juniper felt for the lights running on a track next to the stairs. Brushing her hand through years of cobwebs, she tried not to think of the creatures that could still be lurking there. Her fingers closed around a bulb, and she traced it back to the switch above.
Crap! It didn’t work. Was the electricity out down here, or was the bulb just bad? She tried another. And another. The fourth bulb she tried flickered into life.
Whirling around, her gaze ricocheted back to the door. There was a notecard-sized button that extended from the surface. She’d be able to push that and get out. Sighing a breath of relief, Juniper turned to look down the stairs.
The meager light extended down several stairs. Slowly, she worked her way toward the bottom, trying all the lights and finding that about one in five actually worked. Once on solid ground, she pulled on her memory to guide her. The path wasn’t as big as she remembered it being as a child. There were a few places she had to duck a bit to squeeze under.
Keeping track of her limited time, Juniper explored as much as she dared. There were a few collections of old things here and there. Nothing that she considered worth anything. She even found shreds of the old wool blanket she and Sammi had sat on as they’d made up scary stories about the people who had created these underground tunnels. Time and the crawly residents had disintegrated it.
She was heading back when she noticed a small opening tucked behind a craggy rock. The light didn’t shine well from the corridor back there. Gathering her courage, she extended a hand into the darkness and fell back on her bottom when her hand touched fabric. Her shriek filled the air, echoing slightly through the empty tunnel.
When her heart stopped beating so hard she could feel it in her neck, Juniper reached back into the alcove. This time, she was expecting it as her fingers brushed over a rough material. Grabbing hold of whatever it was, she tugged the object toward her. It seemed to be caught on something.
Wiggling it this way and that, Juniper didn’t give up. She tugged the material toward her. After a final pull, she plopped onto her bottom, her gaze fixed on a large bag in front of her. The name of a bank was barely legible on the fabric.
Chapter Nineteen
It’s true. Here’s the proof.
With trembling fingers, she unfastened the top of the bag and peered inside. A bright banknote with a picture of a man and a colorful bird looked up at her. There was a band across the middle, and she knew it was holding a stack together. She traced her fingers over the outside of the dusty bag and could feel row after row of bundled bills.
There was no way this was just Sammi’s parents’ nest egg. What had her father done?
She wiped away the perspiration from her forehead and felt the remains of her oatmeal roiling inside her. How could her father have been involved in this?
Tears filled her eyes, messing with her vision. Blindly, she pushed the bag back into the alcove and stood. Stumbling back the way she had come, Juniper automatically turned off the bulbs she passed until she reached the bottom of the steps. There, she looked back over her shoulder at the darkness.
What am I going to do?