“We don’t know yet, sweetheart,” she told him. “Richard and Liam will be back soon to tell us.”
Minutes passed, and then Liam’s voice floated up from below. “You won’t believe this!”
“What is it?” Chloe called back.
“I’ll take a video to show you.”
It seemed to take forever for Liam and Richard to join her, but it was probably only a few minutes. They crawled out of the passageway with huge smiles on their faces.
“Look at this,” Liam said, holding up an old glass jug full of clear liquid.“I’d bet anything this is moonshine.”
Chloe held the heavy one gallon jug and carefully turned it around. “It’s in perfect condition.” The one finger loop handle and size were like other moonshine jugs that were displayed at the Smithsonian.
Liam took his phone out of his pocket. “Would your friends at the Smithsonian be able to identify the liquid? It’s too important to open it now.”
Chloe nodded. “They’d be happy to look at it.”
Liam showed her his phone. “This is what’s at the end of the tunnel. It doesn’t go far underground, but it’s enough to give whoever used it a decent storage area for more alcohol.”
As Liam’s video panned around the small underground room, it showed a collection of dusty crates, wooden shelves, and old barrels. Against one wall were a few more bottles, a stack of newspapers, and some old metal tools.
Chloe’s eyes widened as she took in the scene. “I can’t believe this has been hidden all this time. Do you know how rare it is to find something that hasn’t been touched in a hundred years?”
“Keep watching,” Liam said quietly from beside her.
As the video moved across the room, Richard’s hand appeared and he carefully opened one of the crates. Inside were more bottles and some faded documents. “They’re shipping logs,” he said. “They mention the railway.”
Chloe’s heart raced. “This could be the connection between Samuel and the bootlegging operation.”
“We thought the same thing,” Liam said. “And Eleanor might have known about this place.”
Richard looked thoughtful. “If she was trying to expose what they were doing, it could explain why she disappeared.”
Chloe’s brain was moving at a million miles an hour, trying to sort through everything she knew about the Prohibition, Eleanor, and Samuel Hartman. “We should document all of this. It could be significant for the town’s history.”
Oscar stood between Liam and Chloe. “Did you find treasure?”
“In a way, we did.” Liam smiled at Oscar’s upturned face. “We found some very old things that tell us more about our mystery.”
“Can I see?” Oscar asked.
Chloe kneeled beside him and showed him the video. As she explained what was in the hidden room, she thought about the years she’d spent at the Smithsonian. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed piecing together stories that were long forgotten.
After she’d finished, she handed Liam back his phone. “You did a great job of filming everything.”
He looked into her eyes. “The light from Richard’s flashlight helped. Are you okay?”
She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I was just thinking about how grateful I am. For this town, for friends like you. For opportunities to rediscover what I love. If we canfigure out what happened to Eleanor, her story would make an amazing book.”
Liam laughed. “While we were in the tunnel, Richard said it’d make a great TV series.”
“I hadn’t thought about that, but he’s right.” Chloe watched Oscar as he peered through the hidden door with Richard. “We’ll need to let Pastor John know what we’ve found. He might want to call Percy, too.”
Richard looked over his shoulder. “Could you give them some ideas about what to do next?”
Chloe nodded. “I’d love to. They both have my phone number if they’d like to call me. Thanks for showing us around, Richard. We wouldn’t have found the tunnel without you and Oscar.”
“It was my pleasure. It’s not every day you get to find a hidden door and a secret room.”
