Chapter 5 - The Sheriff’s Price
Clara's blood went cold.
Jamie stood with his hands tied.
Sheriff Webb held one shoulder.
"Ma!"
Clara moved.
Ethan stopped her.
"Easy."
Silas smiled down through the opening.
"I told you Black Pine wasn't the whole story."
Clara stared at the sheriff.
"You took him from Mary?"
Webb looked ashamed for approximately one second.
Then the expression disappeared.
"Mary Hale interfered with lawful business."
"He's seven."
"Then this should be easy. Give us the deed."
Ethan looked at Jamie.
The boy's lip was bleeding.
Not badly.
Enough.
Something inside Ethan became frighteningly quiet.
"Did you hit him?"
Webb shifted.
Silas laughed.
"Don't become sentimental, Walker."
Ethan looked at him.
"Did you?"
"No one hurt the boy."
Jamie immediately shouted, "He's lying!"
Silas's smile vanished.
Good boy, Ethan thought.
Clara held the metal tube behind her dress.
Webb extended his hand.
"Give it over."
"Then what?" Clara asked.
"You sign the transfer. Your debt disappears."
"I don't owe you anything."
Webb shrugged.
"Courts may disagree."
"Which court? Yours?"
Silas crouched.
"Clara, you were nobody yesterday. You're nobody today. The only difference is that yesterday you understood it."
Ethan watched her.
He expected pain.
Instead Clara smiled.
It was small.
Almost peaceful.
"You know what changed yesterday?"
Silas frowned.
"A man paid twenty dollars."
"No."
She looked around the old cellar.
"For the first time, someone told me I could walk away."
Her gaze returned to Silas.
"So I'm walking away."
Silas raised the shotgun.
Ethan moved.
He threw the lantern upward.
Glass shattered.
Oil flared across the edge of the opening.
Webb jumped back.
Jamie dropped.
Clara ran beneath the hatch.
Ethan grabbed the old table and shoved it upward, forcing the trapdoor half closed.
A shot exploded.
Buckshot tore into the wall.
"Tunnel!" Ethan shouted.
Clara crawled toward the opening.
Then Jamie screamed above them.
She stopped.
"No!"
Ethan saw the decision in her face.
She would go back.
Even if it killed her.
"Stay."
He climbed.
Silas fired again.
Ethan rolled through the opening as splinters flew beside him.
He struck Silas's wrist.
The shotgun fell.
Webb reached for his revolver.
Jamie kicked him in the shin.
The sheriff cursed.
That half-second was enough.
Ethan hit Webb.
The sheriff crashed into a table.
Clara climbed out.
"Jamie!"
The boy ran to her.
Silas recovered first.
He grabbed the shotgun.
"Nobody move."
Ethan froze.
Silas pointed the barrel at Clara.
"Give me the deed."
She held Jamie behind her.
Ethan watched Silas's trigger finger.
"Don't."
Silas laughed.
"You're going to stop me?"
"If you shoot her, you never get the deed."
Silas considered.
Ethan continued.
"She hid it in the tunnel."
Clara looked at him.
Silas's eyes shifted.
Just once.
Toward the cellar.
Ethan drew.
One shot.
Silas screamed.
The shotgun fell from his injured hand.
Webb lunged for the back door.
It opened before he reached it.
Jacob Walker stood there.
Behind him were six ranchers.
And Mary Hale.
Webb stopped.
Mary raised a rifle.
"Try another door."
For the first time, Sheriff Webb looked like a man who understood his badge might not protect him.
Jacob walked inside.
His eyes went to Ethan.
Neither brother spoke.
Silas clutched his hand.
"You fools think a piece of paper matters?"
Mary answered.
"Not one."
She held up a stack.
"Twenty-seven."
Ethan looked at her.
Mary smiled.
"Thomas told me where the copies were."
Ranchers entered.
Men Ethan recognized.
Families Silas had cheated.
A blacksmith who had lost his shop.
A widow whose ranch had been seized.
An old miner everyone said had drunk away his claim.
Silas stared.
"This proves nothing."
Jacob removed another document from his coat.
"This does."
It was the real ledger.
Ethan looked sharply at him.
"You had it?"
"Not until tonight."
"Where?"
"Silas's office."
Webb backed away.
Jacob pointed to the book.
"Bribes. Forged transfers. Payments for accidents."
Silas's face changed.
Jacob opened to a marked page.
"Caleb Ellis. Eight dollars paid to cut a wagon brake."
Clara shut her eyes.
Jamie's hand tightened in hers.
Then Jacob turned several pages.
"Eli Walker."
Ethan stopped breathing.
Silas shouted, "Don't."
Jacob read aloud.
"Two dollars paid to remove an axle pin."
Ethan looked at Silas.
Everything he had carried for twelve years moved inside him at once.
Rage.
Shame.
Grief.
The old desire to punish himself.
He walked toward Silas.
Silas backed against the wall.
"You blame me?"
Ethan kept coming.
"You should blame him!"
Silas pointed at Jacob.
Ethan stopped.
Jacob's face went pale.
Silas began laughing.
"Oh, he didn't tell you."
"Tell me what?"
Jacob said, "Ethan—"
Silas talked over him.
"Your brother was working for me."
Clara looked at Jacob.
The ranchers murmured.
Silas continued.
"Before Eli died, Jacob found me properties. Families. Weak debts. People who could be pressured."
Ethan stared at his brother.
"Is that true?"
Jacob swallowed.
"Yes."
The word hurt more than Ethan expected.
"You helped him?"
"At first."
"How long?"
"Three years."
Silas smiled.
"Your saintly brother made good money."
Jacob's voice cracked.
"I didn't know he was killing people."
"But you knew he was stealing."
"Yes."
Ethan looked away.
Jacob continued.
"When I tried to leave, Silas threatened Eli. I didn't believe him."
Silas laughed.
"Until the wagon."
Jacob crossed the room and struck him.
Hard.
Silas fell.
Ethan did not stop Jacob.
But he did not help.
Finally Jacob faced Ethan.
"I disappeared because I was ashamed."
"You let me believe I killed Eli."
"I know."
"I buried twelve years of my life with that boy."
"I know."
"No. You don't."
Jacob's eyes filled.
"You're right."
Ethan turned away.
He could not forgive him.
Not tonight.
Maybe not ever.
Webb suddenly drew a hidden pistol.
Mary shouted.
The ranchers ducked.
Webb fired toward Jacob.
Ethan tackled his brother.
The bullet hit the wall.
Then three rifles aimed at Webb.
He dropped his gun.
No one died.
Perhaps that was the first miracle any of them had seen in a long time.
By sunrise, Webb and Silas were tied in the Gold Coin's storeroom.
A rider had gone to the territorial marshal with copies of the evidence.
Clara sat with Jamie on the saloon steps.
Ethan stood in the street.
She approached him.
"You found him."
"We found him."
"You could have walked away."
"So could you."
She looked at him.
"Do you always answer gratitude with an argument?"
"Usually."
She smiled.
Then grew serious.
"What happens now?"
"Marshal comes."
"And after?"
"Your land is yours."
"I meant you."
Ethan looked toward the northern mountains.
"My cabin is still there."
Clara nodded as though she had expected nothing else.
He felt something unexpectedly painful at her acceptance.
Then Jamie ran outside.
"Mr. Walker!"
Ethan turned.
The boy held the wooden horse.
"I fixed it."
One of its legs had cracked.
Jamie had wrapped it with twine.
Ethan knelt.
"Good work."
Jamie pointed at the initials underneath.
"You know what they mean?"
"Your name."
Jamie shook his head.
"Not all of them."
Clara frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Jamie flipped the horse over.
Beneath J.W.E., almost invisible under dirt, were smaller letters neither Ethan nor Clara had noticed.
T.R.
Thomas Reed.
And beside them, one word.
CABIN.
Ethan's expression changed.
Thomas had left them another message.
Before they could ask why, a rider came racing into town.
Mary met him.
"What happened?"
The rider leaned from the saddle.
"Dry Creek."
Ethan stepped forward.
"What about it?"
The rider looked directly at Clara.
"Thomas Reed is gone."
Clara's face drained.
"Where?"
"No idea."
The rider swallowed.
"But somebody left a message in blood on Mary Hale's door."
He handed Ethan a scrap of paper.
Ethan opened it.
May you like
Three words.
BRING CLARA HOME.
