Chapter 5 - The Secret Judson Buried
Winifred woke with her wrists tied.
She was inside the abandoned Blackstone mine office.
Amos Black sat across from her.
"You've caused considerable trouble."
"So I've been told."
He smiled.
"Judson underestimated you."
"You did too."
"Perhaps."
Amos placed Edmund Hayes's notebook on the table.
"We searched your father's possessions years ago."
"You missed something."
"The key."
Winifred said nothing.
"The locker contains documents that belong to me."
"Then why didn't my father give them back?"
"Because your father developed inconvenient principles late in life."
"You killed him."
Amos's expression barely changed.
"No."
She studied him.
She believed him.
That frightened her more.
"Who did?"
"Ask Matthew."
Winifred's stomach tightened.
Amos leaned forward.
"Matthew McIntyre tells beautiful stories. Captivity. Escape. Courage."
"You're saying he lied."
"I'm saying Matthew worked for me willingly for several years."
Winifred remembered the ledger.
The payment to Edmund.
There might be payments to Matthew too.
"Why?"
"Money. Anger. Jealousy. Ordinary reasons."
"Jealousy of Judson?"
Amos smiled.
"You should ask your husband."
Outside, a horse approached.
Amos stood.
"Right on time."
Judson entered with the deed.
Matthew followed despite the instructions.
Amos's men surrounded them.
"Winifred."
"I'm fine," she said.
Judson saw the bruise on her wrist.
His jaw tightened.
"Let her go."
"Deed."
Judson held it up.
"Her first."
Amos laughed.
"Marriage has made you sentimental."
"No. Marriage gave me something worth shooting you over."
Winifred's heart jumped.
Amos nodded toward his men.
They untied her.
She walked toward Judson.
Halfway across the room, Matthew drew his gun.
He pointed it at Judson.
Winifred stopped.
Judson didn't turn.
He closed his eyes.
"I wondered when you'd do it."
Matthew's voice broke.
"Give him the deed."
Winifred stared.
"Matthew."
"I'm sorry."
Amos smiled.
"There. Now we can stop pretending."
Matthew had indeed worked for Black.
At first unwillingly.
Later for money.
He helped forge transfers.
He betrayed Edmund's hiding place.
He had also been present the night Edmund died.
Winifred looked at him.
"You killed my father?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Matthew looked at Amos.
Amos's smile disappeared.
"Enough."
That answer told Winifred there was still another secret.
Judson gave Amos the deed.
Amos inspected it.
Then he laughed.
"This is a copy."
Judson smiled.
"You think I'd bring the original?"
Amos struck him.
Winifred moved.
A guard caught her.
Judson lunged.
Chaos erupted.
Matthew suddenly turned his gun on Amos's men.
He fired.
"Go!"
Judson grabbed Winifred.
They escaped through the mine tunnel.
Matthew followed.
Silas waited with horses on the opposite ridge.
They rode until dawn.
At an abandoned trapper's cabin, Judson turned on Matthew.
He hit him.
Matthew didn't fight back.
"You pointed a gun at me."
"I had to convince Black."
"You could have warned me."
"Black was watching."
Winifred interrupted.
"Who killed my father?"
Matthew looked at her.
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I know who was there."
"Who?"
Matthew hesitated.
"Your father's business partner."
Winifred frowned.
"My father had no partner."
"He did before you were born."
Matthew gave her the name.
Nathaniel Hayes.
Winifred felt dizzy.
"My uncle?"
She had been told Nathaniel died when she was a child.
Another dead man.
Another body never seen.
Nathaniel had helped create the original forged-deed operation with Amos Black.
Edmund discovered it and forced his brother out.
Nathaniel disappeared.
Years later, he returned.
"He runs the marriage agency," Matthew said.
Winifred stared.
The agency that sent her to Judson belonged to her supposedly dead uncle.
Her marriage had been engineered from both sides.
Nathaniel wanted access to the McIntyre property.
Amos wanted the evidence.
Matthew tried to manipulate the arrangement to protect them.
Everyone had used the same marriage.
Except the two people actually inside it.
Winifred walked outside.
Judson followed.
"I can't do this."
"Do what?"
"Spend the rest of my life discovering another man decided where I should live, whom I should marry, what danger I should face."
Judson's face tightened.
"I didn't know."
"I know."
"Then don't punish me for them."
She turned.
"I'm not."
He stepped closer.
"Our marriage began because other people moved us around like pieces on a board."
"Exactly."
"Then choose now."
She looked at him.
Judson removed his wedding ring.
Winifred's face fell.
He placed it in her palm.
"If you want to leave when this is over, I'll buy your ticket. I'll give you enough money to start anywhere. St. Louis. Chicago. New York. Anywhere."
She stared at the ring.
"And if I stay?"
His voice softened.
"Then stay because you choose me."
Her eyes filled.
"What do you choose?"
"You."
No hesitation.
"No agency. No deed. No ranch. You."
Winifred closed her fingers around the ring.
She kissed him.
Then slipped it back onto his hand.
"I haven't decided yet."
Judson almost smiled.
"Fair."
They rode to Denver.
Marshal Grant listened to everything.
Without the St. Louis evidence, he had suspicion but not enough proof.
They needed locker 217.
Grant arranged discreet rail passage east.
Judson insisted Winifred remain in Denver.
She refused.
"You've learned nothing."
"I've learned you're stubborn."
"Good."
They boarded the train together.
Matthew remained behind with Grant.
For three days, Judson and Winifred traveled east.
For the first time since meeting, nobody shot at them.
They talked.
About childhood.
About grief.
About the future neither dared describe too clearly.
Judson learned Winifred loved books and hated sewing despite being good at it.
Winifred learned Judson secretly wrote terrible poetry.
He denied this.
She had found the notebook.
He threatened to throw it from the train.
She threatened him with imaginary cookware.
By the time they reached St. Louis, they no longer felt like strangers.
Union Station was crowded.
Locker 217 stood at the end of a storage corridor.
Winifred inserted the brass key.
It turned.
Inside was a metal case.
Judson carried it to a rented room.
They opened it.
Printing plates.
Original forged deeds.
Payment ledgers.
Letters.
Enough evidence to destroy Black.
Then Winifred found an envelope.
FOR WINIFRED.
Her father's handwriting.
She opened it.
The letter explained everything.
Edmund had discovered Nathaniel's crimes.
He knew his brother had joined Black.
He knew Nathaniel might eventually come for Winifred.
The final paragraph made her cry.
You are stronger than people will assume, Winnie. Do not waste your life proving them wrong. Give your strength to people who deserve it.
Judson read the words beside her.
He took her hand.
A sound came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Judson reached for his gun.
The doorknob turned.
Nathaniel Hayes entered.
Winifred recognized her uncle immediately from an old family photograph.
He smiled.
"My dear Winnie."
Behind him stood two armed men.
Nathaniel looked at the metal case.
"Thank you for opening it for me."
May you like
Then he looked at Judson.
"And now, niece, you finally get to learn why your father really died."
