Chapter 5 - What Rebecca Asked Him to Hide
They had less than an hour.
Maggie wanted a plan.
Rebecca wanted speed.
The marshal wanted both.
“You three can’t ride into Shaw’s camp,” he said.
Rebecca tied her hair back.
“I’ve done stupider things.”
“That isn’t reassuring.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
Maggie loaded Caleb’s rifle.
Her hands no longer shook.
“Where are his men?”
“Two at the ridge,” the ranch hand said. “Three stayed at Shaw’s house. The rest took Caleb.”
“How many with him?”
“Four. Maybe five.”
Maggie counted.
Still too many.
The marshal stood carefully.
“I can ride.”
“You can barely walk.”
“I’m still the law.”
Rebecca gave him a dry look.
“Tonight, that means whichever side has more bullets.”
He didn’t argue.
Maggie looked toward the road.
“Where are the children?”
The ranch hand answered.
“At the church. Safe.”
“Good.”
Lily had fallen asleep upstairs after crying herself exhausted.
Maggie hated leaving her again.
But Lily would lose Caleb if they did nothing.
Rebecca touched Maggie’s shoulder.
“You don’t have to come.”
Maggie stared at her.
“I spent eleven years waiting for you to come home. I am not spending another eleven wondering what happened because I stayed behind.”
Rebecca smiled faintly.
“Still stubborn.”
“You taught me.”
They rode.
Blackstone Ridge rose above the grassland like a wall.
Moonlight turned the rocks silver.
The marshal led them toward an old timber road.
They dismounted half a mile away.
Voices carried through the trees.
Everett’s first.
“You could have made this easy.”
Caleb answered.
“You could have been a better man.”
Maggie nearly laughed from relief.
Alive.
Everett spoke again.
“Sign it.”
“No.”
“You know what happens otherwise.”
“I know what you want me to think happens.”
Rebecca leaned toward Maggie.
“Caleb always did talk too much when someone pointed a gun at him.”
“You sound fond.”
“I owe him everything.”
Maggie looked at her.
Rebecca’s expression softened.
“Not the way you’re thinking.”
“I wasn’t thinking anything.”
“You were.”
“Quiet.”
Rebecca almost smiled.
They crawled closer.
Caleb sat against a tree, hands tied.
His face was bruised.
Everett stood before him holding papers.
Four armed men watched.
A lantern burned beside an open grave.
Maggie’s stomach turned.
Everett crouched.
“Rebecca is dead.”
“No.”
“You believed she was.”
“Yes.”
“You raised my daughter.”
“Your blood. My daughter.”
Everett struck him.
Maggie flinched.
Rebecca grabbed her arm.
“Wait.”
Caleb spit blood onto the dirt.
Everett’s composure cracked.
“Lily belongs to me.”
“No child belongs to a man like you.”
Everett raised the pistol.
The marshal whispered, “Now.”
He stepped into the clearing.
“Everett Shaw.”
Every head turned.
Everett looked annoyed rather than frightened.
“Marshal.”
“You are under arrest.”
Everett laughed.
“With what men?”
“Enough.”
“No, you don’t.”
Rebecca stepped into the lantern light.
“Maybe he doesn’t.”
Everett stopped breathing.
Caleb’s expression became disbelief.
“Rebecca?”
She stood tall.
“Hello, husband.”
Everett’s face changed.
For the first time, Maggie saw fear.
“You’re dead.”
“So inconvenient.”
One of Everett’s men backed away.
The entire story upon which Everett’s legal claim depended had just walked into the clearing.
Everett recovered quickly.
“You abandoned your child.”
Rebecca’s voice shook, but she held steady.
“I fled you.”
“You have no proof.”
“I’m the proof.”
“Of what? Being a hysterical wife?”
Maggie stepped out.
“Careful.”
Everett stared.
“Who are you?”
“Maggie Whitaker.”
Recognition flickered.
“Ah.”
Maggie disliked the way he said it.
“So the sister finally arrived.”
“You know me?”
“I know everyone Rebecca ever cared about.”
Rebecca went rigid.
That sentence told them exactly why she had stayed away.
Everett turned toward the marshal.
“None of this changes the order.”
“It changes the murder charge.”
“Perhaps.”
Everett lifted the pistol toward Rebecca.
“Unless she disappears again.”
The marshal drew.
Everything happened at once.
Caleb kicked the lantern.
Darkness swallowed the clearing.
A gun fired.
Men shouted.
Rebecca pulled Maggie behind a boulder.
Another shot.
Then another.
Maggie heard Caleb yell.
“Run!”
She ignored him.
“Caleb!”
“I’m fine!”
The marshal shouted commands.
One of Everett’s men fled.
Another dropped his weapon.
Moonlight returned as clouds shifted.
Maggie saw Everett climbing toward the ridge.
Rebecca followed.
“Rebecca!”
“I’m ending this.”
Maggie went after her.
They reached the upper ledge.
Everett stood near the ravine.
Rebecca stopped twenty feet away.
“This is where you tried to kill me.”
Maggie froze.
Everett smiled faintly.
“Careful what you accuse a man of without witnesses.”
Rebecca looked at Maggie.
“I remember everything.”
Her voice trembled.
“After six years, I finally remember.”
Everett’s smile disappeared.
Rebecca touched the scar on her temple.
“You followed me from Reed Hollow. You grabbed my reins. My horse went over the edge.”
Maggie’s eyes filled.
“How did you survive?”
“I landed on a shelf. A freight wagon found me the next morning. I couldn’t remember my name for months.”
Everett stepped closer.
“You remember what suits you.”
Rebecca continued.
“When my memory came back, so did the fear.”
“Rebecca.”
“You told me if I returned for Lily, you would kill Maggie.”
Maggie stared.
Rebecca looked at her.
“That is why I stayed away.”
Eleven years of anger collapsed in one sentence.
Everett drew his pistol.
Caleb appeared below.
“No!”
Everett aimed at Rebecca.
Maggie moved instinctively.
A shot cracked.
Everett’s gun flew from his hand.
The marshal stood below with smoke curling from his revolver.
“Next one won’t be at the weapon.”
Everett raised his hands.
For a moment, it seemed finished.
Then he smiled.
“You still have nothing.”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“What?”
“The ledger.”
Everett looked toward Caleb.
“You kept it all these years, didn’t you?”
Caleb said nothing.
Everett laughed.
“That ledger is ash by now.”
Maggie’s heart sank.
Without evidence, Everett might still manipulate the courts.
Rebecca’s testimony would help.
But money could bury truth.
Then Caleb looked at Maggie.
“Remember the six tickets?”
She frowned.
“Yes.”
“Turn them over.”
“What?”
“The tickets.”
“I left them at the ranch.”
“No. You put them in your dress pocket.”
Maggie reached instinctively.
He was right.
She pulled them out.
“Turn over Lily’s.”
“There is no Lily ticket.”
“The scratched one.”
Maggie found it.
On the back were numbers.
Ledger references.
Dates.
Bank names.
Initials.
Everett stopped smiling.
Caleb said, “Eleanor knew someone might find the ledger. So she copied the index onto something nobody would keep once the children boarded.”
“Train tickets,” Maggie whispered.
“Six pieces.”
Maggie spread them.
Together, the backs formed a list.
Rebecca stared.
“Where is the actual ledger?”
Caleb looked toward Reed Hollow.
“Safe.”
Everett suddenly moved.
He shoved the marshal.
Then ran toward the horses.
Caleb chased him.
Maggie shouted.
Everett reached one horse, mounted, and disappeared down the ridge road.
The marshal cursed.
“Where would he go?”
Caleb’s face went white.
“Reed Hollow.”
Maggie understood immediately.
“Lily.”
They ran for their horses.
But by the time they reached the ranch, the upstairs window was open.
The bed was empty.
Lily’s teddy bear lay on the floor.
Pinned to it was a note.
Caleb read it once.
His hands started shaking.
Maggie took the paper.
Bring the ledger to the station before sunrise.
Come alone.
Or you will never see her again.
May you like
At the bottom, Everett had written one more line.
And Maggie realized exactly why he had bought only six tickets.
