Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 102280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Truth waited in the lighthouse depths, and Lily Morgan would find it, whatever the cost.
eight
The measuring tape stretched across the lighthouse’s north wall, its metal surface catching the afternoon sun. Lily gripped one end while Sarah walked backward, counting off feet until the tape reached the corner where new stonework met the original construction.
“Twenty-three feet, eight inches,” Sarah called, scribbling in her field notebook. “Someone did major work here.”
Lily wound the tape back, examining the differences in the masonry. After developing yesterday’s photographs, she’d convinced Sarah to help her take proper measurements and document the architectural inconsistencies. What she’d initially dismissed as routine repairs now revealed something far more complex.
“Look at this,” she said, kneeling beside the foundation. The newer stones bore expertly cut surfaces, but under close examination, the tool marks differed. Modern equipment had shaped these blocks, not the hand tools artisans would have used in 1851. “Someone rebuilt this entire section.”
“When?” Sarah crouched beside her, running her fingers along the mortar lines. “The painting looks old, but not original-old.”
“That’s what I need to figure out.” Lily pulled out her camera, a sturdy 35mm SLR she’d borrowed from the school newspaper. “The newspaper archives mention lighthouse renovations in 1923, but they don’t specify what kind of work the crew accomplished.”
She snapped several frames, documenting the junction between old and new stonework. The differences emerged as variations in stone color, different carving techniques, and even the slightest changes in the overall construction pattern.
“What’s that?” Sarah pointed to a section where the mortar had cracked slightly, revealing a dark gap behind the stone.
Lily adjusted her position, peering into the narrow opening. “There’s space back there. A cavity.”
“Maybe it’s just wall construction. Double thickness for insulation.”
“Lighthouse walls are solid stone. They don’t require insulation.” Lily took several close-up shots of the cracked mortar. “This is deliberate. Someone created a hollow space behind the exterior wall.”
They worked along the foundation, measuring and photographing each section. The modified area stretched further than they’d expected—almost forty feet of rebuilt wall, creating what appeared to be a continuous hollow space behind the lighthouse’s north face.
“This feels deliberate,” Sarah said, checking her notes. “You don’t rebuild forty feet of foundation wall unless you’re installing something significant.”
“Or hiding something significant.” Lily changed lenses, switching to macro for detail shots. “Look at these scratches around the mortar. Fresh marks. Someone maintains this section regularly.”
“Maybe your dad knows what’s back there?”
“Dad turns strange whenever I mention the lighthouse’s history. Yesterday he begged me to change my research topic.” Lily’s camera trembled in her hands. “Everyone in town treats the lighthouse as if it carries the plague.”
“Maybe it does. Small towns guard their secrets fiercely.”
“What secrets, though? It’s a building. It guides ships. What threatens people about that?”
Sarah studied her accumulated notes. “Lily, what if you’re right? What if something waits behind this wall? Can you handle what that might mean?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if people work this hard to keep something secret, they won’t appreciate a high school student exposing it.” Sarah’s voice tightened. “Maybe we should approach this investigation more carefully.”
Excitement and apprehension warred in Lily’s chest. Sarah spoke sense—they’d moved beyond academic research into dangerous territory. But the mystery pulled her forward, impossible to abandon.
“We’ll be careful,” she said. “But we need to know what hides behind this wall.”
They spent the next hour documenting the modified foundation from every angle. A pattern emerged, both fascinating and disturbing. The hollow space appeared to extend not just along the wall, but inward toward the lighthouse’s interior. If their measurements proved correct, someone had created a significant cavity between the building’s exterior and interior walls.
“This grows more complicated by the minute,” Sarah muttered, trying to reconcile their field measurements with the lighthouse’s official blueprints. “According to the architectural plans, this space shouldn’t exist.”
“Maybe the plans lie.”
“Or maybe someone altered them deliberately.” Sarah looked up from her calculations. “If someone wanted to hide structural modifications, changing the official records would be logical.”
Ice shot through Lily’s veins. They weren’t just dealing with architectural inconsistencies—they’d potentially uncovered evidence of deliberate concealment.
“We need to discover what fills that space,” she said.
“How? We can’t knock a hole in the lighthouse wall.”
“No, but we can search for access points.” Lily studied the foundation more carefully, hunting for any indication of how the hollow space might open. “If someone built this, they must have a way to use it.”
They circled the lighthouse’s perimeter, searching for concealed doors, removable stone blocks, or any other means of accessing the hidden space. The search frustrated them—the stonework appeared solid and undisturbed from the outside.
Sarah spotted the anomaly.
“Lily, examine this section.” She knelt beside a portion of the wall that appeared identical to everything else they’d studied. “The mortar lines don’t quite align.”
Lily joined her, studying the area Sarah had identified. At first glance, it resembled normal masonry work. But when she examined it more closely, she could see Sarah’s point. The mortar lines differed—too straight, too uniform, as if someone had painted rather than applied them during construction.