Chapter 4 - The Price of Silence
Amily stared at the ledger.
Margaret Harper.
Her mother.
Payment: $800.
Another entry.
Margaret Harper.
Payment: $300.
Then another.
The dates stretched across years.
“What does this mean?”
Branson leaned against the cave wall.
“I don’t know.”
“You brought it.”
“I stole it.”
“From Creed?”
“Yes.”
Elias kept the rifle aimed at him.
“Convenient.”
Branson glared.
“If I worked for Creed, I wouldn’t have a bullet in my shoulder.”
“That proves somebody shot you.”
Anna picked up the ledger.
She studied the entries.
“These aren’t payments to Margaret.”
Amily looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“The numbers are recorded in the debt column.”
Branson frowned.
“So?”
Anna turned several pages.
“Samuel used this system. Money under a person’s name meant the amount taken against property registered to them.”
Amily understood slowly.
“Someone borrowed against my mother’s property.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Anna continued reading.
Then stopped.
“Silas Creed.”
Amily felt sick.
Her mother’s inheritance had been used as collateral.
Again and again.
“How could he do that without her signature?”
Branson answered.
“He had one.”
Amily looked at him.
“Your mother signed a power of attorney twenty years ago.”
“For what?”
“To help her father manage the Holloway estate.”
Anna closed her eyes.
“Samuel.”
“Yes.”
Branson slid down the wall.
“Creed kept using it after Samuel died.”
“That’s fraud.”
“Obviously.”
“Then why wasn’t he arrested?”
Branson laughed weakly.
“Because three judges owed him money, the sheriff was his cousin, and the bank manager was Nathaniel Cole’s father.”
Amily looked at Elias.
“So everyone knew?”
“Enough people knew pieces.”
“And nobody did anything.”
Elias’s face hardened.
“Some tried.”
“What happened?”
“They lost farms. Businesses. Sometimes worse.”
Branson pressed a cloth against his wound.
“Your father was the first wealthy man with enough records to bring the whole thing down.”
Amily swallowed.
“And someone poisoned him.”
Branson nodded.
“Arsenic.”
The word seemed impossible.
“My father’s doctor said consumption.”
“The symptoms were similar enough near the end.”
“How do you know?”
“I found purchase records.”
“Who bought it?”
Branson looked at the black ledger.
“Nathaniel Cole.”
Anna whispered, “For Creed.”
“Probably.”
Amily’s hands clenched.
“Probably isn’t enough.”
“No.”
“What would be enough?”
“The original ledger.”
Anna stood.
“Then Cedar Hollow.”
They left the cave before sunrise.
Branson rode with them despite his wound.
Elias did not trust him.
Neither did Amily.
But he knew the roads.
Snow softened into rain as they descended.
By afternoon, they reached a narrow valley.
Cedar Hollow.
Amily had visited once as a child.
She remembered apple trees.
A white church.
Children playing beside a creek.
Now many houses stood abandoned.
Fields lay behind broken fences.
Creed’s ownership had hollowed the place from the inside.
They approached the Holloway house at dusk.
It stood on a hill beyond bare orchards.
Amily dismounted.
Her mother had grown up there.
Anna stopped beside her.
“So did I.”
Amily looked at her aunt.
For the first time, Anna seemed old.
Not in face.
In memory.
“You should have told her.”
Anna knew who she meant.
“Margaret?”
“Yes.”
“I wanted to.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“She died believing you were dead.”
Anna looked toward the house.
“I know.”
Amily wanted to stay angry.
Part of her did.
But another part saw the punishment Anna had already endured.
Seven years without Elias.
Years without Margaret.
A life spent hiding.
“You can’t fix that.”
“No.”
“But you can stop hiding now.”
Anna looked at her.
Then nodded.
They entered the house.
Dust covered everything.
Sheets hung over furniture.
Amily’s childhood footsteps seemed almost audible.
She remembered Margaret standing at the staircase.
Don’t wander upstairs, darling.
Now Amily climbed.
Anna followed.
“Where did you find the ledger?”
“My father’s study.”
They entered a room at the end of the hall.
Bookshelves.
Desk.
Cold fireplace.
Anna moved to a panel behind the mantel.
She pressed a carved flower.
Nothing happened.
She pressed again.
Still nothing.
“Someone changed it.”
Elias examined the wood.
“There’s a newer nail here.”
He pried it free.
A hidden panel opened.
Inside sat a metal box.
Anna breathed out.
“There.”
Amily stepped closer.
Elias stopped her.
“Wait.”
A thin wire crossed the opening.
Trap.
Elias cut it carefully.
Then removed the box.
Anna opened it.
Empty.
“No.”
She searched inside.
Nothing.
“The ledger was here.”
Branson cursed.
“Creed got it.”
Amily looked around.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
She remembered her mother.
Margaret had once told her something strange.
The safest place in a house is where everyone looks but nobody sees.
Amily walked to the bookcase.
She began pulling books.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking.”
One book would not move.
She pulled harder.
A click.
The entire lower shelf opened.
Inside was another compartment.
And another book.
Older.
Thicker.
Anna rushed forward.
“The ledger.”
They had it.
Proof.
Every stolen acre.
Every forged transfer.
Every bribe.
Every payment.
Amily touched the cover.
“My father died for this.”
Elias said quietly, “Then make it matter.”
Branson moved toward the window.
“We need to reach the federal marshal in Silver Creek.”
Anna shook her head.
“Creed controls the roads.”
“We can send someone.”
“Who?”
A floorboard creaked downstairs.
Everyone stopped.
Elias raised his rifle.
Another creak.
Then another.
Branson whispered, “We were followed.”
Elias motioned toward the rear stairs.
“Go.”
They moved.
A voice rose from the foyer.
“Miss Harper?”
Amily froze.
Not Creed.
Not one of his men.
Nathaniel Cole.
The banker.
“I know you’re upstairs.”
Elias leaned toward Amily.
“Back door.”
Cole continued.
“I came alone.”
Branson whispered, “Don’t believe him.”
Cole laughed from below.
“You shouldn’t believe Branson either.”
Amily looked at the lawyer.
He went pale.
Cole’s next words changed everything.
“Ask him who told Creed which stagecoach you were riding.”
Amily slowly turned.
Branson backed away.
His hand moved toward his coat.
Elias raised the rifle.
“Don’t.”
Branson pulled a pistol.
Anna screamed.
May you like
The shot thundered through the hallway.
And Elias dropped.
