Chapter 2 - The Contract Beneath the Floor
Silas shut the back door behind him and ordered Pike to sit.
Nobody argued.
The dead wagon driver lay on the floor of a narrow storeroom, one hand wrapped around Martha's contract. A dark stain had spread through his shirt near the ribs. Silas crouched beside him, checked for a pulse, then studied the room.
Martha remained in the doorway.
"You've seen dead men before," Silas said.
It was not a question.
"My father ran cattle."
"That doesn't answer me."
"Rustlers came once."
Silas looked at her.
"How old were you?"
"Seventeen."
"What happened?"
"I learned screaming doesn't bring anybody back."
Silas stood.
Behind them, Mr. Pike began talking too quickly.
"I swear I didn't kill him."
Silas walked out.
"Nobody asked yet."
Pike went quiet.
Martha placed the bloodstained contract on the bar.
"Black Canyon."
Silas's face changed slightly.
"You know it?"
"Everybody who traps north of the divide knows it."
"What is it?"
"Old mining country."
"Abandoned?"
"Mostly."
Mostly was not the answer Martha wanted.
The other brides clustered together.
Abigail asked, "Are we in danger?"
Silas considered lying.
Martha could see it.
Then he said, "Maybe."
Several women began talking at once.
Martha raised her voice.
"Quiet."
They stopped.
Silas looked at her.
She ignored him.
"We panicked for six days crossing the plains," Martha said. "Didn't improve the road once. Panic won't improve this either."
Caroline swallowed.
"What do we do?"
Martha turned to Silas.
"That's the question."
Silas looked at Pike.
"We find out what he knows."
Pike shook his head.
"I arrange marriages."
"You sold someone."
"No."
"You marked Martha's contract."
"I didn't."
"Someone did."
Silas grabbed a chair and placed it in the middle of the room.
"Sit."
Pike hesitated.
Martha crossed her arms.
"I'd listen."
Pike sat.
Silas rested both hands on the chair back.
"Who paid for number ten?"
Pike's lips tightened.
Silas waited.
Nothing happened.
That seemed to frighten Pike more than threats would have.
Finally he whispered, "A man named Ezra Cole."
Silas became completely still.
Martha noticed.
"You know him too."
Silas ignored her.
"Where is Cole?"
"I don't know."
"Why Martha?"
"I don't know."
Silas leaned closer.
"You expect me to believe a man paid you to deliver a particular woman to an abandoned mining canyon and never explained why?"
Pike's eyes filled with fear.
"He wanted someone named Martha Bell."
"Why?"
"I swear."
Martha stepped closer.
"My surname belonged to my father."
Pike looked at her.
"What was his name?"
"Thomas Bell."
Pike's face changed.
Silas saw it.
"So that's it."
Martha's heart began beating harder.
"What?"
Pike shook his head.
"Nothing."
Martha slapped him.
Hard.
The sound cracked through the saloon.
The brides stared.
Martha leaned close.
"My father died six years ago. If you know why some stranger wants his daughter, you will tell me."
Pike rubbed his cheek.
"Thomas Bell wasn't just a cattleman."
Martha almost laughed.
"He owned forty miserable acres and sixteen cows."
"He owned land before that."
Martha frowned.
Silas asked, "Where?"
Pike looked toward him.
"Black Canyon."
The room seemed to shrink.
Martha shook her head.
"Impossible."
Pike continued.
"Your father and two partners filed a mining claim twenty-three years ago."
"My father never mined."
"He did once."
"You're lying."
"Ask Mercer."
Martha turned toward Silas.
He looked uncomfortable for the first time.
"You knew."
"Not about your father."
"But you know Black Canyon."
Silas nodded.
"There was silver there."
Pike laughed bitterly.
"Not just silver."
Silas's gaze sharpened.
"What?"
Pike swallowed.
"Land."
"Land?"
"A rail company has been quietly buying claims through the canyon. They're planning a route west."
Martha stared at him.
"Why would that matter to me?"
Pike pointed at the contract.
"Because Thomas Bell never sold his share."
Silence.
Martha's father had died leaving debts.
At least, that was what she had always believed.
Her mother had died before him.
Their farm had been auctioned.
Martha had worked kitchens, laundries, boardinghouses, and finally a ranch before answering the advertisement that promised respectable marriages in Colorado.
She had arrived with thirty-two dollars sewn into her hem.
Now a trembling saloon owner was telling her she might own valuable land.
Silas asked, "How much?"
Pike shook his head.
"I don't know."
"Guess."
"If the railway announcement becomes public?"
Pike looked at Martha.
"Thousands."
Martha laughed.
Nobody joined her.
"Thousands?"
"Maybe tens of thousands."
She stopped laughing.
Abigail whispered, "Dear God."
Martha looked at the contract again.
"So Ezra Cole needs my signature."
Pike nodded slowly.
"Or needs you gone."
Silas's jaw tightened.
That was when Martha understood the corpse in the storeroom.
The driver had known too much.
"What were the knocks?" she asked.
Silas walked back toward the storeroom.
He pushed aside several crates.
The floorboards beneath them were newer.
He crouched and ran his fingers along the edge.
"Trapdoor."
Martha picked up a lantern.
Silas glanced at her.
"No."
"Don't start."
"Martha—"
"If someone is beneath this floor because of me, I'm going."
They stared at one another.
Silas finally nodded.
"Behind me."
"Beside you."
His expression suggested the argument would continue another day.
He lifted the trapdoor.
A ladder descended into darkness.
Silas went first.
Martha followed with the lantern.
The cellar smelled of dirt, whiskey, and damp wood.
At the far wall sat a teenage boy with his wrists tied.
His lip was split.
He blinked against the light.
"Don't shoot."
Silas lowered his revolver.
"Who are you?"
"Ben."
"Ben what?"
"Ben Rawlins."
Martha recognized the surname.
"The wagon driver."
The boy looked toward the ceiling.
"My uncle."
His face crumpled.
Martha knelt.
"I'm sorry."
Ben swallowed hard.
"He found the papers."
"What papers?"
"Mr. Pike's ledger. Names. Payments."
Pike shouted from above.
"He's lying!"
Ben flinched.
Silas looked upward.
"Keep talking."
Ben said his uncle had discovered that several brides arriving through Pike's agency had been redirected after reaching Colorado.
Not all.
Only women without close family.
Women unlikely to be searched for.
Some were married to men they had never agreed to meet.
Others simply disappeared from the records.
Martha's stomach turned.
"Why did your uncle stay quiet?"
"He didn't know at first. Then he tried to tell the sheriff."
"What happened?"
"Someone paid the sheriff."
Silas muttered a curse.
Ben continued.
"Yesterday my uncle found your name."
He looked at Martha.
"He said you were different."
"Why?"
"Because Cole wanted you personally."
Martha sat back.
"He tried to get me away?"
Ben nodded.
"He was going to take you east this morning. Pike caught him."
"And put you down here."
Ben's eyes filled.
"My uncle told me if anything happened, give you this."
He twisted his bound hands toward his boot.
Martha reached inside.
A folded envelope had been shoved beneath his sock.
Her name was written on it.
Martha Bell.
The handwriting stopped her breath.
She knew it.
Her father.
Her hands began shaking.
Silas saw.
"What is it?"
"My father's writing."
She opened the envelope.
Inside was a single yellowed sheet.
Martha,
If this reaches you, then someone has finally come looking for what I kept hidden.
Do not sign anything.
Do not trust anyone who claims Black Canyon belongs to Ezra Cole.
The deed is not in the courthouse.
I hid the original where only someone who knew our family could find it.
There was one more sentence.
Martha read it twice.
Silas noticed her expression.
"What?"
She handed him the paper.
He read aloud.
"If Silas Mercer ever finds you, trust him with your life."
Silas stared at the name.
His own.
Martha slowly stood.
"You said you didn't know my father."
"I didn't."
"Then why did he know you?"
Silas looked genuinely shaken.
"I don't know."
Above them, a chair scraped violently.
Then came the sound of breaking glass.
Silas rushed toward the ladder.
A gunshot exploded overhead.
The brides screamed.
Martha climbed after him.
They reached the saloon.
The front doors stood open.
Mr. Pike was gone.
Snow blew across the floor.
And nailed to the wooden wall was a fresh piece of paper.
Silas tore it down.
Three words had been written across it.
BRING HER ALONE.
Below them was a place.
Black Canyon.
May you like
And a time.
Midnight.
