Chapter 3 - Daniel’s Last Letter
Elias pulled Claire behind the support beam.
“Stay low.”
“I’m pregnant, not invisible.”
“Tonight I’d prefer both.”
Despite everything, a wild laugh nearly escaped her.
Then a rifle shot exploded through the tunnel.
Wood splintered above them.
Elias dragged Claire into a side passage.
Three men entered the chamber.
Sheriff Pike.
Deputy Harlan.
Caleb Moss.
Claire recognized their voices before she saw their lanterns.
“Give me the box,” Pike called.
Elias whispered, “Can you run?”
“Not elegantly.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“Yes.”
They moved.
The side passage narrowed sharply.
Claire held the metal box against her body while Elias led her deeper into the mountain.
Another shot struck stone.
“Stop!” Caleb shouted.
Claire kept moving.
Daniel had brought her into the mine once when they were newly married.
He had shown her old ventilation shafts used by miners during fires.
At the time, Claire had complained about dirt ruining her dress.
Now that memory saved them.
“Left,” she whispered.
Elias stopped.
“What?”
“Left.”
“That tunnel is collapsed.”
“Not completely.”
She pushed past him.
Thirty yards later, the passage ended at a wooden barrier.
Elias stared.
Claire found an iron latch hidden beside the beam.
Daniel had shown her.
She pulled it.
The barrier pivoted.
Cold air rushed through.
Elias looked at her.
“You’ve been here.”
“Once.”
They squeezed through and closed it behind them.
The shaft descended toward the southern face of the mountain.
Claire’s lungs burned.
Her back ached.
The baby inside her kicked hard.
Not now, little one.
Please.
Behind them came shouting.
“They found the latch,” Elias said.
They reached an opening overlooking a ravine.
Twenty feet below, pine branches covered the slope.
Claire stared down.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I am eight months pregnant.”
“I noticed.”
“And your solution is a cliff?”
“My other solution has rifles.”
Another gunshot echoed.
Claire muttered something Daniel would have scolded her for saying in church.
Elias almost smiled.
He climbed down first using exposed roots.
Then he guided Claire.
Halfway down, her boot slipped.
She fell.
Elias caught her with one arm.
Pain tore through his shoulder.
He grunted.
Claire clung to him.
“Let me go.”
“No.”
“You’ll fall.”
“Not happening.”
He lowered her slowly.
They reached the ground.
Claire looked up.
A lantern appeared above.
“Move!”
They ran into the trees.
By dawn, they returned to the ranch.
Jonah opened the door before they reached it.
His face told them something was wrong.
“Where’s Rose?” Elias demanded.
“Inside. She’s safe.”
“What happened?”
Jonah held up a piece of paper.
“Found this nailed to the barn.”
Claire read it.
RETURN WHAT BELONGS TO BLACK RIDGE.
OR THE CHILD GOES FIRST.
Elias became terrifyingly still.
Claire watched his hands close into fists.
“No.”
He turned toward the door.
Claire blocked him.
“You’re not going after Pike.”
“Move.”
“You walk into town angry, he hangs you before breakfast.”
“He threatened Rose.”
“Yes.”
“He killed Anna.”
“And Daniel.”
Elias stopped.
Claire held up the box.
“That is why we don’t give him what he wants.”
Jonah locked the door.
“We need proof beyond papers. Pike will claim forgery.”
Claire opened Daniel’s letter again.
There was more.
She had not had time to finish inside the mine.
My love, Pike believes the ledger is the danger. It isn’t. The ledger proves theft. The names behind it prove murder.
Claire read aloud.
If Jonah reaches you, ask him about Saint Mercy.
Jonah sat down.
Elias stared at him.
“What is Saint Mercy?”
Jonah looked pale.
“A cemetery.”
Claire frowned.
“There’s no cemetery called Saint Mercy.”
“Not anymore.”
He explained.
Twenty years earlier, a mining camp called Saint Mercy had stood north of Black Ridge.
A fire destroyed it.
Official reports claimed twelve miners died.
Jonah had surveyed the land later.
He found forty-three graves.
“Pike’s father ran that camp,” Jonah said.
“And Caleb’s father owned the mine.”
Claire understood.
“They’ve been doing this for decades.”
“Worse.”
Jonah pulled out a notebook.
“Many of the dead weren’t miners. They were settlers who refused to surrender claims.”
Elias said quietly, “Mass graves.”
Jonah nodded.
“Daniel discovered them.”
Claire pressed Daniel’s ring into her palm.
“What do the graves have to do with Pike now?”
“Land titles.”
Dozens of properties in the valley had changed hands after the Saint Mercy fire.
Families vanished.
Records disappeared.
The Pikes and Mosses acquired everything.
Daniel had realized the same scheme was happening again.
Only now the Whitaker land stood in the way.
Claire looked toward the window.
“What does Pike need?”
“Your signature,” Jonah said.
“He forged it.”
“Forgery gets him temporary control. A real signature makes it nearly impossible to challenge.”
“Then he won’t get it.”
Jonah looked toward her stomach.
“He thinks you’re vulnerable.”
Claire smiled without humor.
“He’s right.”
Elias looked at her.
She continued.
“He just misunderstands what that means.”
They spent the morning copying evidence.
Every page.
Every signature.
Every freight manifest.
Claire wrote letters addressed to the territorial marshal, the Helena Gazette, and a federal land office.
If Pike burned one copy, others would survive.
At noon, someone rode toward the house.
Elias reached for Daniel’s rifle.
Claire recognized the rider.
“Martha Bell.”
Silas Bell’s wife.
The auctioneer’s wife arrived alone.
Her face was streaked with tears.
She entered without removing her bonnet.
“I know what my husband has done.”
Claire offered her a chair.
Martha did not sit.
“He keeps records for Pike.”
“We know.”
“He has for nineteen years.”
Claire’s anger rose.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Silas came home last night with blood on his coat.”
Elias’s expression changed.
“Whose?”
“I don’t know.”
Martha pulled a key from her pocket.
“He keeps another book under the courthouse floor.”
Jonah leaned forward.
“What book?”
“Names.”
“What names?”
“People Pike paid. People Pike threatened. People who disappeared.”
Claire stared at the key.
“Why tell us now?”
Martha’s mouth trembled.
“Because my son’s name is in it.”
Silence.
“Your son died ten years ago,” Claire said.
“I thought he did.”
Martha swallowed.
“He found Silas’s records. Pike took him north.”
“To Saint Mercy?”
She nodded.
“I have spent ten years pretending I believed the story they gave me.”
Claire felt her anger soften.
Martha placed the key on the table.
“Silas told me yesterday that Pike intends to arrest you by tomorrow.”
“For what?”
“Murder.”
Claire almost laughed.
“Whose?”
Martha looked at Elias.
“Anna Cole’s.”
Elias stepped forward.
“No.”
“They’ll say you hired Kane to kill her because she had an affair with Daniel.”
Claire went still.
It was grotesque.
Which made it believable enough for gossip.
“They’ll take Rose,” Martha continued. “Then they’ll take your ranch.”
Elias picked up the courthouse key.
“We go tonight.”
Claire looked at him.
“We?”
“You’re staying here.”
“No.”
He looked at her belly.
She looked at his scar.
“Neither of us is making decisions based on appearance.”
Jonah coughed to hide a smile.
That night, Claire and Elias entered Black Ridge through the alley behind the church.
The courthouse was dark.
Martha’s key opened the rear door.
They found the loose floorboard beneath Silas’s desk.
Under it was a black ledger.
Elias lifted it carefully.
Claire opened the first page.
Payments.
Names.
Dates.
Page after page.
Then she reached the year Daniel died.
A line had been written three days before the wagon crash.
D. WHITAKER — FINAL WARNING FAILED.
Below it:
A. PIKE — ROAD.
C. MOSS — WAGON.
H. BRENNER — BODY.
Claire’s knees weakened.
“Body?”
Elias took the book.
His face changed.
“What?”
He pointed.
The payment to Brenner had been made two days after Daniel’s supposed burial.
Claire whispered, “Who is Brenner?”
“The undertaker.”
Her blood turned cold.
The closed coffin.
The missing ring.
The body she had never seen.
“What did I bury?”
A floorboard creaked behind them.
They turned.
Silas Bell stood in the doorway.
He was holding a shotgun.
His hands were shaking.
Claire looked into his frightened eyes.
“Tell me what was in my husband’s coffin.”
Silas swallowed.
The shotgun lowered an inch.
May you like
Then he whispered:
“Daniel wasn’t in it.”
