Chapter 5 - The Widow Pike Couldn’t Frighten
“Fire,” Elijah said.
Smoke thickened near the ceiling.
Boone rushed to the cellar hatch.
It would not open.
“They barred it.”
Eliza grabbed the iron box.
“Can we break this?”
Elijah kicked it once.
The lid dented.
Again.
A hinge cracked.
Above them flames caught somewhere near the stairs.
Boone shouted, “Hurry!”
Elijah kicked a third time.
The lock tore free.
Eliza opened the box.
Ledgers.
Letters.
Seals.
Receipts.
Enough paper to destroy half the officials in Cinder Gulch.
Assuming the fire did not destroy it first.
Eliza pulled off Thomas’s riding coat.
“Wrap them.”
Elijah stared.
“You’ll freeze.”
“I’ll survive.”
They bundled the records.
Smoke burned Eliza’s eyes.
Boone searched the cellar walls.
“There used to be a coal chute.”
“Where?”
“Behind those crates.”
Elijah threw them aside.
A small wooden door appeared.
Locked.
He hit it with his shoulder.
Nothing.
Again.
Wood cracked.
Eliza coughed hard.
Her abdomen tightened.
She stopped.
No.
Not now.
Another tightening came.
Elijah looked at her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That wasn’t nothing.”
“Open the door.”
He broke through.
Cold night air rushed in.
They crawled out behind the building.
Thirty seconds later flames burst from the office windows.
People emerged from nearby buildings.
Pike stood across the street.
He saw them.
And saw the bundle in Eliza’s arms.
His face changed.
“Denton!”
The sheriff drew his gun.
Elijah stepped in front of Eliza.
Then Amos Bell appeared from the alley holding a shotgun.
“Don’t.”
Dawson joined him.
Then the blacksmith.
Then six miners.
Denton looked around.
Nobody moved.
Pike laughed.
“You’re threatening a sheriff.”
Amos answered, “No. We’re watching one decide whether he wants to die for you.”
Denton’s gun slowly lowered.
Pike stared at him.
“You coward.”
Denton looked exhausted.
“Maybe.”
Eliza stepped forward.
“I have your records.”
Pike’s expression remained surprisingly calm.
“You have stolen property.”
“No.”
“Those books belong to Black Pine Mining.”
“Then you admit they exist.”
A murmur traveled through the gathering crowd.
Pike realized the trap.
Too late.
Eliza continued.
“Thomas Mercer documented your land fraud.”
Pike smiled.
“A dead man’s notes.”
“Sarah documented more.”
The smile vanished.
She pulled one letter free.
“Want me to read it?”
Pike stepped toward her.
Elijah blocked him.
“Try.”
Pike stopped.
“You think this brute protects you?”
Eliza looked at Elijah.
“I think he protects children.”
The crowd heard.
That mattered.
Pike’s face hardened.
“You know nothing about him.”
“I know you framed him.”
“Proof?”
Boone stepped from behind the building.
“I’m proof.”
People gasped.
Pike stared.
Boone walked into the street.
“I destroyed the Black Pine bridge on Harlan Pike’s order.”
Pike laughed.
“A confession from an arsonist.”
Boone continued.
“I falsified assay reports.”
“Silas.”
“I arranged fraudulent liens.”
“Stop.”
“I loosened the support that killed Thomas Mercer.”
Eliza’s chest tightened.
The crowd erupted.
Pike shouted, “He’s lying!”
Boone looked at him.
“For twenty-two years, I lied for you.”
He pointed at the bundle.
“That ledger contains every payment.”
Pike’s control finally cracked.
He lunged.
Denton grabbed him.
Pike struck the sheriff.
Men surged forward.
For a moment the street became chaos.
Elijah took Eliza’s arm.
“Church.”
“What?”
“Hope.”
She had forgotten nothing.
But panic returned instantly.
They ran.
Halfway there, another contraction struck.
Eliza stopped.
Elijah caught her.
“Now you tell me it’s nothing.”
She breathed.
“It’s too early.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“Keep moving.”
They reached St. Matthew’s.
The front door stood open.
Reverend Cole was lying in the aisle.
“Elijah.”
They ran to him.
He was conscious.
Barely.
“Hope?” Elijah asked.
Cole pointed toward the cellar.
“Gone.”
Elijah froze.
“Who?”
“Pike’s men.”
“But Pike was at the assay office.”
“Before.”
Eliza’s mind raced.
The fire was a diversion.
While they stole the ledger, someone stole the baby.
“Mrs. Barlow?”
“Alive.”
“Where did they go?”
Cole whispered one word.
“Mine.”
Black Pine.
Elijah stood.
Caleb entered through the door.
He saw their faces.
“No.”
“They took her.”
Caleb cursed.
Elijah grabbed a rifle from the church wall display.
It had belonged to a Civil War veteran.
Eliza took his arm.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“This time you can argue.”
“I will.”
Another contraction hit.
She bent over.
Elijah’s face went white.
“Eliza.”
“Not labor.”
“You’re terrible at lying.”
Caleb touched her shoulder.
“You stay.”
She looked toward the door.
Hope.
Then toward her belly.
Her own child.
For the first time since the courthouse auction, Eliza admitted there was a line she could not cross.
She hated it.
“Bring her back.”
Elijah looked at her.
“I will.”
“Promise.”
His face softened.
“I promise.”
He and Caleb left with half a dozen men.
Reed arrived minutes later.
The doctor examined Eliza.
“You’re not in active labor.”
She almost collapsed from relief.
“But you need rest.”
“No.”
“Eliza.”
“I will rest when Hope is back.”
Reed stopped arguing.
Outside, Cinder Gulch had changed.
People gathered in the street.
Word of Boone’s confession spread.
Copies of ledger pages were being made.
The telegraph operator, a young woman named Margaret Sloan, sent messages to the territorial marshal in Denver and the county judge in Pueblo.
Pike could no longer contain the story.
But Pike himself had vanished.
Denton searched the courthouse.
Empty.
His house.
Empty.
The mine remained the obvious destination.
Eliza sat in the church, waiting.
Midnight became one.
One became two.
No Elijah.
No Caleb.
No Hope.
At three, a rider arrived.
Amos Bell.
Alone.
Eliza stood.
“Where are they?”
Bell looked grim.
“Mine entrance was blocked.”
“By what?”
“Explosion.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Were they inside?”
“Caleb and three men got through before it collapsed.”
“Elijah?”
Bell looked at her.
“He went another way.”
“What way?”
“Black Pine Pass.”
Eliza remembered Sarah’s wagon.
The broken bridge.
The ridge.
“Why?”
“Tracks.”
“Whose?”
“Pike’s.”
Hope was with him.
Eliza grabbed her coat.
Reed blocked the door.
“No.”
“You cannot stop me.”
“Your contractions—”
“Stopped.”
“For now.”
“Then move.”
Amos looked at Reed.
“She’s going either way.”
Reed swore.
They took a wagon.
The road up Black Pine Pass was narrow and dark.
Lanterns threw trembling shadows across the trees.
At the broken bridge, they stopped.
Eliza climbed down.
A horse lay injured beside the road.
No rider.
Then they heard a baby crying.
Hope.
Eliza ran.
“Eliza!” Reed shouted.
She followed the sound through the trees.
The trail ended at the ridge.
Pike stood near the edge.
Hope was in his arms.
A pistol in his other hand.
Elijah stood twenty feet away.
Unarmed.
“Eliza,” he said sharply.
Pike turned.
His face was wild.
“You.”
Eliza stopped.
“Give me the baby.”
Pike laughed.
“You started this.”
“No.”
She looked him directly in the eye.
“Sarah did.”
His face changed.
“Don’t say her name.”
“She was your daughter.”
“Quiet.”
“She ran from you.”
“Quiet!”
Hope cried harder.
Pike looked down.
Elijah took half a step.
Pike raised the pistol.
“Another inch.”
Elijah stopped.
Eliza slowly moved closer.
“What are you going to do?”
“End the proof.”
“Everyone has the ledger.”
“It proves theft. Fraud. Nothing else.”
“It proves enough.”
“No.”
Pike’s voice shook.
“They will remember me as a criminal.”
Eliza stared.
“You are one.”
“But not that.”
She understood.
The truth about Sarah mattered more to him than murder.
Not guilt.
Reputation.
“You cared more about what people might call you than what you did to her.”
Pike’s eyes filled with rage.
“You know nothing.”
“Then tell me.”
“She lied.”
“About what?”
“Everything.”
“Did you hurt her?”
“No.”
Elijah’s jaw tightened.
Pike shouted, “No!”
The baby screamed.
His grip shifted.
Eliza’s heart stopped.
“Careful.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
He stepped backward.
Loose gravel fell over the ridge.
Elijah moved.
Pike swung the pistol.
A shot exploded.
Eliza screamed.
Elijah staggered.
Then Pike slipped.
His boot slid on loose stone.
Hope fell from his arm.
Eliza saw the blanket tumble.
Elijah lunged.
He caught the baby.
His momentum carried him to the ground.
Pike grabbed a tree root at the ridge.
His pistol disappeared into darkness.
For one impossible moment he hung there.
Elijah held Hope with one arm.
His other hand pressed against his side.
Blood darkened his shirt.
Eliza ran toward him.
Then Pike shouted from the cliff edge.
“Help me!”
Eliza looked down.
He dangled twenty feet below.
Reed and Amos arrived behind her.
“Elijah first,” she said.
“No!”
Pike screamed.
“You cannot leave me!”
Elijah looked at him.
Then at Eliza.
“Help him.”
She stared.
“He shot you.”
“I know.”
“He killed Thomas.”
“I know.”
“He tried to kill Hope.”
Elijah’s face tightened with pain.
“If we let him fall, he dies with excuses.”
That stopped her.
Amos found rope.
Together they pulled Pike up.
The magistrate collapsed on the ground.
The moment he was safe, Amos tied his wrists.
Pike stared at Eliza.
“You should have let me die.”
She held Hope.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because tomorrow you answer questions.”
Pike laughed weakly.
“You still don’t know everything.”
Eliza stopped.
“What?”
His eyes moved toward Elijah.
Then the baby.
“Ask him what Sarah told him before she died.”
Elijah’s face changed.
Eliza saw it.
“You said she told you not to trust Pike.”
Elijah looked away.
“What else did she say?”
Silence.
“Elijah.”
Pike smiled from the ground.
“He knows.”
Hope quieted.
Eliza stared at the man she had bought for eighty-five dollars.
Elijah finally looked at her.
“Sarah told me something about Thomas.”
Her breath caught.
“What?”
He swallowed.
Then a rider burst onto the pass shouting from the darkness.
“Mrs. Mercer!”
Everyone turned.
The man held a telegram.
He jumped from his horse.
“It came from Denver.”
Eliza took it.
The first line read:
TERRITORIAL MARSHAL CONFIRMS THOMAS MERCER FILE.
May you like
The second line made her hands begin to shake.
THOMAS MERCER MAY STILL BE ALIVE.
