Chapter 4 - The Dead Woman’s Secret
A woman collapsed through the doorway and gasped, “Don’t trust Thomas Reed.”
Elias caught her before she hit the floor.
She wore a torn gray cloak.
Around her neck hung his mother’s silver locket.
Inside was a photograph Elias had never seen.
Matthew stood beside Clara, staring.
The woman opened her eyes.
“My name is Ruth Reed.”
Thomas’s daughter.
Caleb’s mother.
Elias carried her to the cot.
“You rode here?”
“Walked the last mile.”
“Where’s Caleb?”
“With my father.”
“Creed has him?”
“No.”
Elias froze.
Ruth tried to sit.
“My father wrote that note.”
Matthew cursed.
“Why?”
“To bring you back.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas has worked for Creed for eleven years.”
Elias felt something inside him drop.
Thomas had helped build his barn.
Thomas had stood beside him at his mother’s funeral.
Thomas had loaned him cattle after a brutal winter.
“He’s family.”
Ruth looked away.
“That’s why Creed chose him.”
Clara asked, “Why did you warn us?”
Ruth touched the locket.
“Because your mother warned me first.”
Elias’s voice sharpened.
“My mother is dead.”
“Yes.”
“What did she know?”
Ruth opened the locket.
Behind the photograph was a folded piece of paper.
Elias recognized his mother’s writing.
Thomas is afraid. Fear makes good men useful to monsters. If my sons ever return together, tell them the bell is only half the truth.
Elias read it twice.
Matthew sat slowly.
“She knew.”
Ruth nodded.
“Your mother knew Matthew was alive.”
Elias turned on his brother.
Matthew looked stunned.
“I never told her.”
“Then how?”
Ruth answered.
“She saw you once.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
Matthew stared at her.
“No.”
“You came to Stevensville at night. You watched the house from the ridge.”
Matthew’s face changed.
Elias stepped toward him.
“You came home?”
“I couldn’t enter town.”
“But you came.”
“I wanted to see her.”
“She saw you.”
Matthew closed his eyes.
Ruth continued.
“She followed your tracks the next morning. She found one of your camps.”
Elias remembered his mother’s strange behavior during her final years.
Secret trips.
Locked drawers.
A refusal to sell the old property even when money was scarce.
“She helped you without you knowing,” Ruth said.
“How?”
“She started moving evidence.”
Matthew looked up.
“What evidence?”
“Deeds. Witness statements. Copies of payments.”
“Where?”
Ruth looked toward Elias.
“Your house.”
Elias frowned.
“I’ve lived there every day.”
“Not in the house.”
He understood.
“The foundation?”
Ruth nodded.
His mother had insisted on replacing three foundation stones before she died.
Elias had thought age had made her irrational.
It hadn’t.
At dawn they rode back toward Black Pine.
Ruth came with them.
No one followed.
That worried Elias more than pursuit would have.
At the cabin he found the loose foundation stone.
Behind it lay a sealed metal tube.
Inside were documents.
Dozens.
Clara knelt beside him.
“Land deeds.”
Matthew examined them.
“Original ones.”
Ruth nodded.
“Your mother stole them from my father.”
“Thomas had these?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Creed ordered him to destroy them.”
“But he didn’t.”
“My father isn’t innocent. But he isn’t entirely lost either.”
Elias stared at Ruth.
“You just told me not to trust him.”
“I said he works for Creed.”
“That sounds lost.”
“He kept Caleb alive by obeying.”
Clara’s expression softened.
“Creed threatened the boy.”
“For years.”
Matthew spread the deeds across the table.
“These prove the seizures were fraudulent.”
Clara looked at him.
“With the ledger, we have everything.”
“Almost.”
Elias noticed a final envelope.
It bore his name.
Again.
He opened it.
Eli,
If you are reading this, then Matthew came home, whether he meant to or not.
Do not punish him for surviving.
He believed leaving protected us.
Maybe it did.
I know you are angry.
Be angry later.
First finish what he started.
The mountain took your father.
Do not let these men take your brother too.
And if Clara Mercer ever comes to your door, believe her before you believe anyone with a badge.
Love,
Mama
Elias turned away.
He could not let the others see his face.
Clara came beside him.
She didn’t touch him.
That made it easier.
After a moment he said, “She knew your name.”
“My father may have contacted her.”
Matthew shook his head.
“No. I did.”
Elias turned.
Matthew swallowed.
“I sent one letter. Years ago. Anonymous. I told her Clara might someday need help.”
“You said you never contacted her.”
“I said I never told her I was alive.”
Elias almost became angry.
Then he remembered his mother’s words.
Be angry later.
He folded the letter.
“Fine.”
Matthew blinked.
“Fine?”
“Later.”
Clara almost smiled.
They planned the trip to Stevensville.
The church bell stood above the oldest chapel in town.
The mechanism could be reached through a narrow maintenance ladder behind the choir loft.
Ruth would enter through the front.
Matthew through the rear.
Elias and Clara would approach separately.
“You are not going,” Elias told Clara.
She crossed her arms.
“It’s my death sentence.”
“That’s exactly why.”
“The ledger belongs to my father.”
“It also proves you innocent.”
“Which is why I’m going.”
Matthew leaned back.
“You two are going to have a very peaceful marriage.”
Clara blushed.
Elias glared.
“No one said anything about marriage.”
Clara looked down.
That bothered him more than it should have.
They entered Stevensville just before noon.
Something was wrong.
No townspeople.
No children.
No wagons.
Doors closed.
The street empty.
The church bell began ringing.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Elias looked toward the chapel.
Pike stood beneath the bell tower.
Beside him was Thomas Reed.
And Caleb.
The boy wasn’t restrained.
Thomas held his hand.
Ruth whispered, “Father.”
Thomas saw her.
His face crumpled.
Creed stepped from the church doorway.
“Mr. Boone.”
Elias drew his gun.
Ten rifles appeared in windows.
“Don’t,” Clara said.
Creed smiled.
“You brought her. Excellent.”
“You wanted me.”
“I wanted all of you.”
Matthew stepped from the alley.
Creed’s smile faded.
For the first time in years, Matthew Boone stood openly in daylight.
“I believe you’ve been looking for me,” Matthew said.
Creed whispered, “You.”
Thomas moved.
Fast.
He shoved Caleb behind a stone trough and pulled a revolver.
Not at Elias.
At Creed.
Gunfire exploded.
Ruth screamed.
Elias dragged Clara behind a wagon.
Matthew fired from the alley.
Thomas shot Pike in the shoulder.
Creed disappeared inside the church.
“He’s going for the ledger!” Clara shouted.
Elias ran.
They entered the church together.
Creed had already reached the choir loft.
The bell rang overhead.
Matthew followed.
Ruth stayed with Caleb.
Thomas held off Creed’s men.
Elias climbed.
At the top, Creed stood beneath the bell housing.
He had opened it.
The compartment was empty.
Everyone stopped.
Matthew whispered, “No.”
Creed turned.
“You thought I hadn’t searched here?”
Clara’s face fell.
“Where is it?”
Creed smiled.
“I’ve had the ledger for six years.”
Silence.
Then Matthew began laughing.
Creed frowned.
“What?”
Matthew looked at Clara.
“Your father was smarter than all of us.”
Clara stared.
Matthew pointed at the bell.
“That was never where he hid the ledger.”
“Then what was?”
“The key.”
Creed’s expression changed.
Matthew reached beneath the bell rim and pulled free a tiny brass plate.
Behind it was a number.
417-B.
Clara looked at the key hanging from Matthew’s neck.
They matched.
Elias asked, “What does it open?”
Matthew’s laughter vanished.
“A bank vault.”
“Where?”
“Helena.”
Creed raised his revolver.
“You’ll never reach it.”
A shot fired.
Creed jerked.
Thomas Reed stood below.
His pistol smoked.
Creed stumbled but did not fall.
Then the church doors burst open.
Men in dark coats flooded the nave.
Not Creed’s men.
A gray-haired stranger entered behind them.
He looked up toward the bell tower.
“Federal court service!”
Creed went white.
Matthew whispered, “Judge Cross.”
But Judge Nathaniel Cross wasn’t looking at Creed.
He was looking at Clara.
Then he raised a document.
“Clara Vale,” he called.
May you like
Her face drained.
“I have an order concerning your execution.”
