The Hidden Compartment
Chapter 05 - The Hidden Compartment
After everyone left, Mack carried the wooden motorcycle into the garage.
He placed it beneath a work light and examined every inch.
Daniel had been gifted with his hands. He could make broken engines run, carve shapes from scrap wood, and turn ordinary metal into something worth keeping.
The small motorcycle was the last thing he had made before his death.
Mack remembered Daniel sitting at the garage workbench, sanding the wooden wheels.
“It’s for my kid,” Daniel had said.
Mack had refused to ask about the pregnancy.
He had been too angry that Daniel planned to marry Sarah, a young woman Mack barely knew. He believed Daniel was giving up his future.
Three days later, father and son had their final argument.
A week after that, Daniel died.
Mack turned the toy over.
The star beneath the seat had been carved more deeply than he remembered.
He pressed it with his thumb.
A thin panel opened.
Inside was a tiny brass key wrapped in faded paper.
Bear leaned over his shoulder.
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know.”
The paper contained an address written in Sarah’s handwriting.
Unit 214, Hawthorne Storage.
Below it were four words.
Danny left the truth there.
Mack checked the time.
The storage facility was fifteen minutes away.
He and Bear rode there immediately.
Unit 214 had been rented under Sarah’s maiden name. The brass key opened the padlock.
Inside were boxes of Daniel’s clothing, old photographs, tools, and a damaged leather jacket.
Mack touched the jacket with trembling fingers.
He had given it to Daniel on his eighteenth birthday.
A locked metal cabinet stood against the back wall.
The brass key did not fit it.
Bear searched the boxes while Mack opened a plastic container filled with letters.
Every envelope was addressed to him.
None had been mailed.
Mack unfolded the first one.
Mack, I know you hate me, but Daniel needs his father.
The second was written months after Daniel’s death.
I don’t believe he was driving that truck.
The final letter was dated six days earlier.
Grant knows I found the storage unit. If anything happens to me, please believe Eli.
Mack lowered the page.
Behind him, Bear had stopped moving.
He was staring at the damaged leather jacket.
“What?” Mack asked.
Bear pointed to a dark stain near the shoulder.
“I saw this jacket the night Danny died.”
Mack turned toward him.
May you like
Bear’s voice dropped.
“But Danny wasn’t wearing it.”
