Chapter 6 - Before Sunrise
Clara walked into the Helena jail and said, “I’m surrendering.”
Elias grabbed her wrist.
Judge Cross’s blood-stained court order sat on the desk.
The clock read 4:12 a.m.
The execution was less than two hours away.
“You’re not staying here,” Elias said.
“If I run, everything we found becomes the story of a guilty woman fleeing justice.”
“You could die.”
“So could everyone who helped me.”
Cross had survived.
Barely.
The bullet had passed beneath his ribs.
Before doctors took him away, he had signed an emergency request for judicial review.
But requests moved slowly.
Hangmen did not.
The prison warden, Samuel Cole, looked at Clara with visible discomfort.
“I’m required to hold you.”
“I know.”
Elias stepped between them.
“She has evidence.”
“I know.”
“She has a federal judge.”
“He isn’t presiding over this conviction.”
“This is madness.”
The warden lowered his voice.
“I agree.”
“Then stop it.”
“I took an oath.”
Clara touched Elias’s arm.
“Let him do his duty.”
Elias looked at her.
“You sound calm.”
“I’m terrified.”
“Good. Because I’m terrified enough for both of us.”
She smiled faintly.
Matthew arrived with copies of ledger pages.
“We have a problem.”
“What now?”
“The attorney general received the documents.”
“And?”
“He says they prove corruption but not necessarily that Creed killed Wren.”
Clara closed her eyes.
Matthew continued.
“The missing pages contained witness affidavits.”
Elias slammed his fist against the wall.
“We need a living witness.”
Clara whispered, “There was one.”
Everyone turned.
“The guard outside Wren’s office.”
“Name?”
“Jonah Price.”
Matthew frowned.
“He testified you entered alone.”
“He lied at trial.”
“Why?”
“Creed had his daughter.”
Elias leaned forward.
“Is he alive?”
“I don’t know.”
The warden spoke.
“I do.”
All eyes turned.
“Jonah Price worked here after the trial.”
Clara stared.
“Here?”
“Three months. Then disappeared.”
“Where?”
The warden hesitated.
“I heard he bought a small place near Butte.”
Matthew was already moving.
“Too far.”
Elias looked at the clock.
4:19.
“What about telegraph?”
Warden Cole nodded.
“I can send every station.”
They did.
Then they waited.
Clara sat in a cell.
Elias sat outside it.
The bars between them became unbearable.
“You should go,” she said.
“No.”
“If they do this—”
“They won’t.”
“If they do.”
“They won’t.”
“Elias.”
He looked at her.
She slid her hand through the bars.
He took it.
“If they do, I need you to promise something.”
“No.”
“You don’t even know what.”
“I know I won’t like it.”
“Promise you’ll finish this.”
“I will finish it with you.”
“Promise Matthew gets his life back.”
“He will.”
“Promise you don’t become bitter.”
“That one is unreasonable.”
She laughed quietly.
The clock moved.
4:43.
5:02.
5:18.
No response.
The gallows stood in the prison yard.
At 5:30 the chaplain arrived.
Elias nearly punched him.
Clara stopped him.
“He’s not the enemy.”
At 5:41, the warden received a telegram.
Everyone crowded around.
JONAH PRICE DIED TWO YEARS AGO. DAUGHTER ALIVE. LOCATION UNKNOWN.
Elias felt the room collapse.
Clara whispered, “His daughter.”
Matthew said, “If she knows anything.”
“Where do we find her?”
No one answered.
At 5:47 guards came for Clara.
Elias drew his revolver.
Six rifles lifted.
Clara stepped in front of him.
“No.”
“I’m not letting them take you.”
“Then you’ll die first.”
“I’m comfortable with that.”
“I’m not.”
She touched his face.
It was the first time.
“Elias.”
His eyes burned.
She leaned closer.
“You asked for a hard farm wife.”
He laughed brokenly.
“I was an idiot.”
“Yes.”
“You’re enjoying this?”
“A little.”
The warden looked away, giving them privacy.
Clara whispered, “I would have liked Black Pine.”
“You’re going back.”
“I would have learned the cows.”
“They bite.”
“You never mentioned that.”
“I was trying to attract applicants.”
She smiled through tears.
Then the guards led her outside.
The yard filled.
Officials.
Witnesses.
A priest.
The executioner.
Creed was not there.
He sat under federal guard in another building.
Elias stood below the platform.
Matthew beside him.
5:56.
The warden read the sentence.
Clara climbed the steps.
5:58.
Elias could not breathe.
5:59.
The hood was brought forward.
Then a bell rang outside the prison.
Someone shouted.
Hoofbeats.
A woman screamed at the front gate.
“STOP!”
Everyone turned.
A young woman stumbled into the yard holding a stack of papers.
“My name is Sarah Price!”
Clara gasped.
Jonah’s daughter.
Sarah held up an affidavit.
“My father wrote everything before he died.”
The attorney general took the pages.
Read.
His face changed.
“Warden.”
Cole waited.
“Delay the execution.”
“For how long?”
“Until further order.”
Elias nearly collapsed.
Clara cried openly.
Sarah continued.
“My father saw Creed leave Wren’s office. He heard the gunshot. He watched Creed put the weapon in Mrs. Vale’s hand.”
Matthew grabbed Elias.
“We have him.”
But Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“He wasn’t working alone.”
Elias already knew that.
“Who?”
Sarah looked toward the courthouse.
“My father said Creed took orders from someone above Senator Wren.”
Clara whispered, “Above a senator?”
Sarah nodded.
“Someone who controlled the courts, land office, and marshal appointments.”
Matthew asked, “Name.”
Sarah swallowed.
“Governor Alden Shaw.”
Silence.
Then rifles fired outside the prison.
Men shouted.
A federal officer ran through the gate.
“Creed escaped!”
Matthew drew his gun.
Elias looked at Clara.
The bells began ringing across Helena.
Another officer appeared.
“Governor Shaw’s train leaves for Canada in twenty minutes!”
May you like
Clara stepped down from the gallows.
“Then we have twenty minutes.”
