Chapter 4 - The Ledger Under the Floor
“Eliza,” Elijah said.
His eyes found Hope first.
The relief in them was unmistakable.
Boone pressed the rifle barrel harder against him.
“Put the baby down.”
Eliza held Hope closer.
“No.”
Caleb drew his pistol.
Boone cocked the rifle.
“Do that and your brother dies.”
Caleb froze.
Reverend Cole stepped forward.
“Silas, this is a church.”
Boone laughed.
“So?”
Eliza studied him.
He looked worse than he had at the courthouse.
Sweating.
Hands shaking.
Eyes constantly shifting toward the windows.
“You’re afraid,” she said.
Boone frowned.
“Quiet.”
“You’re terrified.”
“Shut up.”
“Of Pike?”
Boone’s face twitched.
That was answer enough.
Eliza moved slowly.
“You followed Pike for years.”
“I said quiet.”
“You forged assays.”
Boone’s jaw tightened.
“You helped seize ranches.”
“Put the child down.”
“You killed Thomas.”
Boone’s eyes flickered.
Eliza stopped breathing.
There.
She had not known for certain.
Now she did.
“You did.”
Boone said nothing.
Elijah turned his head slightly.
“Silas.”
“Don’t.”
“You don’t want to do this.”
Boone’s voice broke.
“You have no idea what I want.”
“I know Pike plans to blame everything on you.”
That landed.
Boone stared.
Elijah continued.
“He told Denton at the mine.”
Eliza could not tell whether he was lying.
Boone could not either.
“What did he say?”
“That the bridge was your idea.”
Boone’s breathing changed.
“He ordered it.”
“He says you acted alone.”
“No.”
“He says Sarah’s death was your fault.”
“She wasn’t supposed to—”
Boone stopped.
Too late.
Everyone heard.
Eliza whispered, “Wasn’t supposed to what?”
Boone looked at her.
His eyes filled with something close to despair.
“She was supposed to turn back.”
“But she didn’t.”
“No.”
“You followed her.”
“Pike followed her.”
“You were there.”
Boone squeezed the rifle.
“Yes.”
Elijah spoke softly.
“Tell them.”
Boone’s face twisted.
“What difference does it make?”
“All the difference.”
“Pike owns the judge. Sheriff. Mining company. Half the valley.”
Eliza answered.
“Not if people know.”
“People always know.”
Boone laughed bitterly.
“They just choose not to say it.”
That sentence silenced the room.
Because it was true.
Reverend Cole lowered his head.
Boone looked exhausted.
Eliza tried another angle.
“What’s in your medical ledger?”
His eyes snapped toward her.
Bingo.
“Sarah wrote about it.”
“She shouldn’t have known.”
“What’s inside?”
Boone stepped backward.
“No.”
Elijah suddenly moved.
He threw his weight sideways.
The rifle fired into the ceiling.
Caleb tackled Boone.
Eliza ducked over Hope.
Plaster rained down.
Reverend Cole shouted.
Elijah kicked the rifle away.
Caleb pinned Boone.
Elijah grabbed the weapon.
For several seconds nobody moved.
Then Hope began crying.
Elijah turned instantly.
The fury disappeared from his face.
“Is she hurt?”
“No.”
Eliza approached him.
He touched Hope’s blanket with two fingers.
The baby settled.
“You got out.”
“Barely.”
“How?”
“Denton left one guard.”
“Why?”
“Pike brought everyone back to town after you took Hope.”
Caleb looked at Boone.
“And him?”
Elijah’s expression hardened.
“He found me first.”
Boone spat blood.
“I came to offer a deal.”
“What deal?” Eliza asked.
“The child disappears.”
Elijah stepped toward him.
Caleb blocked him.
“Brother.”
Elijah stopped.
Boone looked at Eliza.
“Not kill her.”
“Explain quickly.”
“Send her east. Orphanage. New name.”
Eliza stared.
“You thought I would agree?”
“I thought you might prefer it to what Pike intends.”
“What does Pike intend?”
Boone closed his mouth.
Elijah lifted the rifle.
“Talk.”
“Pike believes the baby can destroy him.”
“Why?”
Boone looked at Reverend Cole.
The old minister said nothing.
Finally Boone whispered, “Because Sarah kept a record.”
“What record?”
“Of what her father did.”
Eliza’s stomach tightened.
“To her?”
Boone looked away.
That was enough.
Eliza felt sick.
Elijah’s face became stone.
Caleb whispered something profane.
Reverend Cole closed his eyes.
“Did Pike father Hope?” Eliza asked.
Boone shook his head quickly.
“No.”
She exhaled.
“Then Sarah’s note—”
“Was about what the baby could prove.”
“What?”
Boone hesitated.
“The mark.”
“We know about it.”
“No.”
He looked at Hope.
“You know half.”
Eliza waited.
Boone sighed.
“Harlan carries the Mercer mark.”
“Yes.”
“Sarah did too.”
“Yes.”
“But Sarah’s baby carries it in a different place.”
Eliza frowned.
Reed had said left shoulder.
Boone shook his head.
“Look behind the right ear.”
Eliza carefully turned Hope’s head.
A second mark.
Smaller.
Half-moon shaped.
She stared.
“What is that?”
Boone whispered, “The Vale mark.”
Elijah froze.
Caleb stopped breathing.
Eliza looked between them.
“Your family?”
Caleb touched behind his own right ear.
A faint crescent.
Elijah did the same.
Eliza stared at Hope.
“Elijah…”
He looked shocked.
“I didn’t know.”
Boone said, “Sarah did.”
Silence.
Caleb whispered, “Brother.”
Elijah stepped back.
“No.”
Eliza understood before anyone said it.
“Hope is yours.”
Elijah shook his head.
“No.”
Boone laughed bitterly.
“She never told you?”
Elijah looked like he had been struck.
“No.”
“When were you with Sarah?” Caleb asked.
Elijah sat on a pew.
“Last fall.”
His voice was barely audible.
“She called herself Sarah Grey.”
Boone nodded.
“She used her mother’s maiden name.”
Eliza remembered Sarah’s age.
Elijah’s reaction.
Everything rearranged itself.
“You loved her,” Eliza said.
He stared at the floor.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She left.”
“When?”
“January.”
“Why?”
“She said staying near me would get me killed.”
Boone muttered, “She was right.”
Elijah stood so fast the pew scraped.
“Careful.”
Boone raised his hands.
Elijah’s eyes burned.
“You knew.”
“I knew she saw you.”
“You knew Hope was mine.”
“Not until she was born.”
“How?”
“She came to the assay office.”
“Why?”
“For money.”
Boone’s voice softened.
“She wanted to escape.”
Elijah closed his eyes.
Eliza asked, “Did you help her?”
Boone said nothing.
“Did you?”
“I gave her a horse.”
A strange silence followed.
The villain had done one decent thing.
Perhaps that was why he had looked frightened at the auction.
“Why?”
Boone looked at Hope.
“Because even a coward gets tired.”
Eliza sat.
“Tell us everything.”
Boone stared at the floor.
“I worked for Pike twenty-two years.”
“What did you do?”
“Whatever needed doing.”
“False claims?”
“Yes.”
“Burned barns?”
“Yes.”
“Harper?”
Boone closed his eyes.
“I didn’t kill him.”
“What happened?”
“Denton drove him out of the territory.”
“Thomas?”
Boone swallowed.
“I loosened the timber support.”
Eliza’s vision blurred.
She refused to cry in front of him.
“On Pike’s order?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Thomas found the ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“Mine.”
“The medical one?”
Boone nodded.
“It isn’t really medical. It’s everything.”
“Payments?”
“Birth records. Land fraud. Payoffs. Sarah’s letters. Pike made me keep records so he could control everyone.”
“Where?”
“Under the assay office floor.”
Eliza looked at Thomas’s note.
Sarah had been right.
“Then we get it.”
Boone laughed.
“You think Pike left it there?”
“Did he move it?”
“No.”
“Then why laugh?”
“Because the office has three armed men inside.”
Caleb smiled.
“Only three?”
Eliza looked at him.
“No heroics.”
“Wasn’t planning any.”
“You were smiling.”
“That’s just my face.”
Elijah looked at Boone.
“Why are you helping?”
Boone’s eyes drifted toward Hope.
“Because Pike told me to kill the baby tonight.”
Silence.
“And?” Elijah asked.
“I said no.”
Elijah studied him.
“Why?”
Boone whispered, “Sarah called me Uncle Silas when she was little.”
His voice cracked.
“I watched her learn to walk.”
No one spoke.
Boone wiped his mouth.
“I helped a monster because I kept telling myself every order was the last one.”
He looked at Eliza.
“There’s always another order.”
Eliza believed that too.
“Then help us end it.”
Boone laughed softly.
“You sound like Thomas.”
That hurt more than she expected.
They made a plan.
Reverend Cole would hide Hope in the church cellar with Mrs. Barlow.
Caleb would gather Amos Bell, Dawson, and men willing to testify.
Boone would lead Eliza and Elijah through the back entrance of the assay office.
Elijah objected immediately.
“Eliza stays.”
“No.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“You have Hope.”
“She’ll be hidden.”
“You have your own child.”
Eliza’s anger rose.
“Do you imagine I forgot?”
“No.”
“Then stop using my pregnancy as an argument whenever you dislike my decision.”
His mouth opened.
Closed.
Caleb grinned.
Elijah glared at him.
“Not a word.”
They waited until midnight.
The assay office sat across from the closed saloon.
One guard smoked near the front.
Boone led them behind the building.
“There’s a cellar hatch.”
He lifted it.
They descended.
The air smelled of dust and chemicals.
A staircase led to the main office.
Boone pointed beneath a worktable.
“Three boards from the wall.”
Elijah lifted one.
Nothing.
Second.
Nothing.
Third.
A locked iron box.
Boone exhaled.
“There.”
Eliza knelt.
“Key?”
Boone reached into his vest.
Then stopped.
His face changed.
“What?”
“The key is gone.”
Elijah looked up.
“Who has it?”
Boone whispered, “Pike.”
Footsteps sounded overhead.
One.
Two.
Many.
Lantern light appeared beneath the cellar door.
Someone slid the bolt from outside.
Pike’s voice came through the floor.
“Looking for this, Silas?”
A key dropped through a crack.
May you like
It landed at Eliza’s feet.
Then smoke began pouring down the stairs.
