Chapter 4 - The Men at the Door
Three knocks.
Calm.
Measured.
Almost respectful.
Garrick stood beside the door with his rifle lowered but ready.
Nola remained near the staircase.
Dr. Pike lay hidden in the back bedroom.
Thomas and Clara were upstairs with Elsie.
Another knock.
Then a familiar voice.
“Garrick.”
Garrick’s eyes hardened.
Silas Hollis.
Nola had seen him only once in town.
A large man in his fifties.
Silver hair.
Expensive coat.
Soft voice.
The kind of face people trusted because it rarely showed anger.
That made him more dangerous.
Garrick opened the door halfway.
Hollis stood on the porch.
Six riders waited behind him.
Caleb Mercer was among them.
Gray coat.
Clara had been telling the truth.
Mercer smiled.
Not kindly.
“Evening.”
Garrick looked at him.
“You touched my daughter.”
Mercer’s smile faded.
Hollis lifted one hand.
“Let’s not begin badly.”
“You’re already on my land.”
“Yes.”
“With armed men.”
“Precaution.”
“You poisoned Elsie.”
Hollis sighed.
“May I come in?”
“No.”
Nola watched him scan the room.
His eyes found her.
Recognition.
Immediate.
“Miss Vance.”
She felt cold.
“We haven’t been introduced.”
“No.”
“How do you know me?”
“I make it my business to know who enters Hollow Creek.”
“Did you make it your business to put my name in Garrick’s barn?”
Mercer shifted.
Hollis smiled slightly.
“You are direct.”
“You are avoiding the question.”
Garrick stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
“Samuel Pike.”
“He’s not here.”
Hollis’s smile disappeared.
“We saw his horse.”
“He left.”
“On foot?”
Garrick said nothing.
Hollis glanced toward the upstairs windows.
“How is Elsie?”
Garrick raised the rifle.
Mercer reached for his revolver.
Six other men moved.
Nola stepped into the doorway.
“If anyone shoots, the whole town will hear about it.”
Hollis looked amused.
“The town already believes whatever I tell it.”
“Maybe.”
Nola held up Mara’s ledger.
“But Denver might not.”
That was a bluff.
She had not sent anything to Denver.
Hollis did not know that.
His expression changed.
Only slightly.
Enough.
“Where did you get that?”
“Your mistake was leaving women alive long enough to write things down.”
Mercer muttered something.
Hollis raised a hand.
“Nola Vance, your mother had the same unfortunate confidence.”
The words struck harder than a slap.
Nola’s throat tightened.
“You knew my mother.”
“I knew of her interference.”
“She died from fever.”
Hollis said nothing.
That silence answered too much.
Nola stepped onto the porch.
Garrick grabbed her arm.
“Don’t.”
She looked at Hollis.
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
“Did your company?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“You know everything.”
“Not everything.”
He looked past her.
“I did not come to discuss ancient history. Pike stole property belonging to me.”
“People aren’t property,” Nola said.
“Who said anything about people?”
“Mercy House.”
Mercer swore.
Hollis turned on him.
Just a glance.
But Mercer shut up.
That told Nola plenty.
“So there are children there.”
Hollis looked back at her.
“There are patients.”
“Patients who volunteered?”
No answer.
Garrick’s voice became deadly calm.
“Leave.”
Hollis nodded.
“Very well.”
Nola did not believe it.
Neither did Garrick.
Hollis stepped down.
Then paused.
“You have until sunrise.”
“For what?”
“To send Pike to me.”
“And if I don’t?”
Hollis looked toward the upstairs bedroom.
“Then Hollow Creek will lose another Hale.”
Garrick surged forward.
Nola and the doorframe were the only things slowing him.
Hollis’s men raised weapons.
“Garrick!”
Nola’s voice cut through him.
He stopped.
Barely.
Hollis mounted his horse.
“Sunrise.”
The riders disappeared into darkness.
Garrick slammed the door.
“Thomas!”
The boy appeared.
“Pack clothes for yourself and the girls.”
Thomas stared.
“Where are we going?”
“South.”
Nola shook her head.
“No.”
Garrick rounded on her.
“You heard him.”
“Yes.”
“I’m getting my children out.”
“And where will you go?”
“My brother has land near Santa Fe.”
“Hollis controls freight routes.”
“I’ll avoid towns.”
“With a sick four-year-old?”
Garrick looked away.
He knew she was right.
Nola lowered her voice.
“You can’t run while Elsie is this ill.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“We get the medicine.”
“From Mercy House.”
“Yes.”
“That place is guarded.”
“So we don’t walk through the front door.”
Pike appeared in the hallway, pale and sweating.
“There’s an old drainage passage.”
Garrick stared.
“You should be lying down.”
“I should have spoken two years ago.”
“Where does the passage start?”
“Under the abandoned church stable.”
Nola’s pulse quickened.
“What will we find inside?”
Pike’s eyes darkened.
“Children.”
“How many?”
“Last I knew? Seven.”
Garrick swore.
“Why would Hollis keep children?”
Pike sat heavily.
“Because they survived exposure better than adults.”
Nola felt sick.
“No.”
“I told you. Trials.”
Garrick’s face looked carved from stone.
“And Mara found out.”
“Yes.”
“She tried to free them?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Pike looked down.
“She got three out.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who helped her?”
Pike raised his eyes.
“Mercer.”
Garrick stared.
Nola blinked.
“The man who poisoned Elsie?”
“He wasn’t always Hollis’s man.”
“What changed?”
“After Mara died, Mercer disappeared.”
“Then returned.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Nola thought about the gray-coated figure.
The injection.
The warning.
The hidden locket.
Something did not fit.
“If Mercer wanted Elsie dead, why give her something that took hours to act?”
Pike frowned.
“What are you suggesting?”
“I’m asking whether the injection was poison.”
Garrick stared at her.
“You said—”
“I said someone gave her something. We assumed poison.”
Pike became thoughtful.
“What if it was one of the experimental antidotes?”
Nola looked upstairs.
“Then what is she sick from?”
“The well.”
Everyone went silent.
Pike continued.
“Arsenic contamination can cause vomiting, fever-like symptoms, weakness.”
“Not usually that high a fever,” Nola said.
“No. But secondary infection could.”
Garrick ran outside.
Nola followed.
He reached the pump.
Stopped.
A dark powder stained the base.
Nola crouched.
“Don’t touch it.”
Garrick’s face went white.
“My children drank from this.”
“How long?”
“Every day.”
Pike came to the porch.
“Hollis may have contaminated the well deliberately.”
“Why?”
“To force you off the ranch.”
The answer came from Thomas.
They turned.
The boy held another page from Mara’s ledger.
A map.
The old mine tunnel ran directly beneath the Hale house.
Garrick stared at it.
“If Hollis needs access…”
“He needs your land,” Nola finished.
“And Mara refused to let him have it.”
Nola looked at the map.
One symbol had been circled near the creek.
A small cross.
Beside it, Mara had written two words.
Original records.
Nola’s pulse jumped.
“Evidence.”
Garrick saw it.
“Hollis doesn’t know she hid this.”
“Then we find it.”
“Tonight?”
“Before sunrise.”
Pike shook his head.
“You still need medicine for Elsie.”
Nola looked toward town.
Then at the map.
Two objectives.
Medicine.
Evidence.
Garrick understood.
“I go to Mercy House.”
“I go with you.”
“No.”
“You don’t know what medicine to take.”
“Pike can tell me.”
“And if something goes wrong?”
“Exactly why you stay.”
Nola stepped closer.
“I crossed half the country alone. I am not fragile.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“Then stop deciding what I can survive.”
His expression shifted.
He lowered his voice.
“I already buried one woman because she tried to fight Hollis.”
The truth inside that sentence silenced her.
Not rejection.
Fear.
That was why he had sent her away.
Not because she disappointed him.
Because she had arrived at a place where wives died.
Nola stared at him.
“Is that why you rejected me?”
Garrick said nothing.
She knew.
Before either could speak, a scream came from upstairs.
They ran.
Elsie was sitting upright.
Her eyes wide.
Pointing toward the window.
A shadow stood outside.
Gray coat.
Mercer.
Then he raised one finger to his lips and held up a small glass vial.
The medicine they needed.
Garrick rushed toward the door.
But Mercer did not run.
He placed the vial on the porch.
May you like
Then he whispered through the glass:
“Your wife is alive.”
