The Witches of Hant Hollow by D.F. Jones

Author:D.F. Jones
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Jones Media

Chapter 3

At full capacity, Rogers Mill employed two dozen workers. Most loyal to Jonathan’s father, Thomas. Bud had been with the company the longest, and he’d managed to snag one of the new office keys.

Saturday night, Jonathan parked in between the logging trucks. He didn’t expect anyone to be on the premises but wanted to be safe rather than sorry. He crept along the cedar tree line to the side entrance of the shop. He pulled the borrowed key out of his pocket and wiggled it into the lock, and the door opened. He glanced over his shoulder before entering the office.

Jonathan spent most of his childhood running around the grounds and office. He worked summers during school, and after he graduated, he’d trained for every position. His dad told him that working every job would make him a better boss.

Inside the main office, nothing changed, but Dale had renovated Thomas’s office. No old framed illustrations of the state maps decorated the room. His mother’s framed photo no longer sat on the desk, and no pictures of him and his father hung on the walls.

Jonathan resisted the urge to pummel the walls with holes. Destroying the property wouldn’t get the mill back. He must prove Dale killed his dad or that he forged the will or Jonathan needed to find the deed to Rogers Mill.

Patience was not Jonathan’s virtue.

He lit one lantern and started going through Dale’s desk. An hour later, he’d nearly given up hope when he found a locked safe installed behind a framed piece of art of two bears dancing.

Jonathan tried several combinations, and then entered the day of his dad’s death. Left zero. Right four. Left ten. Right thirteen. The door hissed and released.

Jonathan’s fingers trembled. In order, he pulled out each item, until he found the original deed handed down to his father by his grandfather, James. In the large envelope, he found a letter. The letter was written by Thomas and notarized by the bank president’s predecessor. Tiny pricks like needles rose on his arms.

He placed the deed in his coat, then put the empty envelope back in the safe and closed the safe door. Outside, he heard people shouting.

Jonathan looked for a way out.

Nothing.

He remembered the attic. He hopped on a desk beneath the square in the ceiling and pushed the attic door to the side then pulled himself up. He barely slid the attic door in place when the office door opened.

Dale shouted, “I arranged for you to take over the bank so I could pick off the farms nearing collapse. Land, Morgan. The land is what makes men rich.”

“You and I have a deal. Partners, fifty-fifty. How did you get rid of Thomas?”

“Never you mind.”

Jonathan watched through a crack in the ceiling as Dale enter the combination of the safe, the door opened, and he placed another envelope inside. Dale had no doubt stolen another farm. He shook with anger.

“What about the boy?”

“Jonathan? He’s too stupid to figure out that I swindled him out of his dad’s business and it’s too late now.

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