Chapter 5 - The Price of Doing the Right Thing
Michael stared at Ruth's gun.
"Don't."
Her hand trembled.
"I'm sorry."
Shaw turned his revolver toward her.
"Put it down."
Calder smiled.
"She won't."
Michael finally understood why Ruth had appeared exactly when the laundry house burned.
"How long?"
Ruth's eyes filled.
"Michael—"
"How long have you worked for him?"
"Not the way you think."
Calder laughed softly.
"Everyone says that eventually."
Ruth looked at Michael.
"He has my son."
Michael froze.
"What?"
"Alive. Somewhere west."
Calder's smile vanished.
"You talk too much."
Ruth swung the pistol.
Not toward Michael.
Toward Calder.
"Run!"
Gunfire exploded.
Shaw pulled Michael behind the grave marker.
Ruth fired twice.
Calder's men scattered.
Michael grabbed the tin case.
They ran toward the horses.
A bullet struck Shaw's shoulder.
He fell.
Michael dragged him behind a tree.
Ruth kept firing.
"Go!"
Michael looked at her.
"What about you?"
"Protect Annie!"
Those were the last words he heard before smoke and gunfire swallowed the cemetery.
Michael got Shaw onto a horse.
They escaped through the north trail.
By noon they reached town.
Walter met them.
"Where's Ruth?"
Michael did not answer.
He went directly to Annie.
She sat beside her mother's bed.
Lillian looked worse.
But when Michael showed her the documents, she cried with relief.
"It's over."
"No."
Michael looked toward the window.
"Not yet."
Shaw's wound was treated.
The marshal sent a telegram to the territorial office requesting deputies and a federal judge.
Response could take two days.
Two days was too long.
Calder knew exactly where Annie was.
Michael moved Lillian and Annie to the saloon.
Not because it was safe.
Because it was public.
By evening, forty workers filled the room.
Michael stood on a table and read from the ledgers.
Names.
Amounts.
Land stolen.
Wages withheld.
Men began shouting.
One farmer discovered Calder had falsified the debt that cost him eighty acres.
Another found his dead brother's wages had been claimed by Calder.
Truth spread faster than fear.
Michael held up the trust.
"Thomas Calder left controlling shares to his daughter, Annie."
Silence.
Michael looked at the little girl sitting beside Lillian.
"Calder starved his own granddaughter to keep those shares."
That broke something.
Workers who had been afraid for twenty years finally became angry.
Calder arrived at dusk.
This time he had fewer men.
Power disappeared quickly when people stopped believing in it.
He entered the saloon.
Michael stepped down from the table.
Calder looked around.
"You think papers change anything?"
Shaw appeared behind Michael, arm in a sling.
"They do in federal court."
Calder laughed.
"You won't reach one."
Shaw looked toward the doors.
"Deputies are coming."
"Tomorrow."
The marshal stiffened.
Calder knew the telegram.
Someone at the office had told him.
Michael realized they still had a leak.
Calder looked toward Annie.
"Come with me."
She shook her head.
Lillian stood despite her weakness.
"No."
Calder's face changed.
"You caused this."
"I protected my daughter."
"You poisoned Thomas against me."
"He saw you clearly."
Calder stepped closer.
"My son died because of you."
Lillian's eyes hardened.
"Your son died because he tried to expose you."
The room erupted.
Calder shouted, "Enough!"
A gun appeared in his hand.
Michael moved instantly.
He knocked Annie and Lillian behind the table as Walter fired toward the ceiling.
Chaos exploded.
Calder retreated through the door.
His remaining men fled.
Nobody was hit.
But the message was clear.
Calder had stopped pretending.
That night Michael sat beside Annie.
"You scared?"
She nodded.
"Me too."
She looked surprised.
"Grown-ups get scared?"
"All the time."
"Then how do they do brave things?"
Michael thought about it.
"Usually while they're scared."
Annie considered that.
Then handed him half a biscuit.
"You didn't eat supper."
Michael smiled.
"I'll survive."
She pushed it toward him.
"You gave me yours."
He took it.
They ate half each.
Near midnight, Michael heard a wagon.
He stepped outside.
No one.
Then he noticed the saloon's rear door.
Open.
He ran inside.
"Annie?"
No answer.
"Lillian!"
Lillian woke.
The bed beside her was empty.
She screamed.
Michael searched.
One wooden crutch lay near the back door.
The other was missing.
A folded note had been pinned beneath it.
Michael tore it free.
Three words.
BRING THE DOCUMENTS.
Below them:
COME ALONE.
Lillian grabbed his arm.
"Michael."
He looked at her.
Her face had gone completely pale.
"What?"
She pointed toward Annie's abandoned crutch.
Something had been carved into the wood.
Not by Calder.
By Annie.
Three shaky letters.
MILL.
Michael stared.
May you like
The child had left him a message.
She knew where they were taking her.
