Chapter 4 - The Ledger Beneath the Floor
Eliza read the sentence twice.
Silas said nothing.
Nathan looked between them.
"That seems specific."
"Very," Silas replied.
Eliza folded the photograph.
"I'm going."
"No."
She looked at him.
"You don't get to decide."
"Correct. I get to point out when something is obviously a trap."
"It may be Rebecca."
"It may be Caleb wearing your aunt's dress."
Nathan almost smiled.
Neither Eliza nor Silas did.
Eliza tucked the photograph into her pocket.
"If Rebecca knows something about my father, I need to hear it."
Silas stepped closer.
"And the part about me?"
"I noticed."
"You going to ask why?"
"I was planning to."
They compromised.
Eliza would approach the house alone.
Silas would remain close enough to intervene.
Nathan stayed behind with the documents.
The address led to an isolated farmhouse.
Eliza dismounted.
The door opened before she knocked.
An older woman stood there.
Silver threaded her dark hair.
Her eyes filled instantly.
"Lizzie."
Eliza froze.
Nobody had called her that except inside her memories.
Rebecca covered her mouth.
"My God."
Eliza stepped inside.
Rebecca touched her face with trembling fingers.
"I looked for you."
"Then why did you stop?"
"I didn't."
Rebecca's expression hardened.
"They stopped me."
"Who?"
"Rourke."
Eliza waited.
Rebecca explained.
After the fire, she had discovered Samuel dead in his office.
Eliza was gone.
Caleb claimed Eliza had fled after starting the fire.
Rebecca did not believe him.
She began asking questions.
Within a week, Pike arrested her for theft.
Rourke offered a choice.
Leave Colorado.
Or spend twenty years in prison.
"I left."
"You abandoned me."
Rebecca's eyes filled.
"I thought you were dead."
"So did Silas."
Rebecca looked sharply toward the window.
"He's here?"
Eliza did not answer.
Rebecca gripped her arm.
"You cannot trust him."
"Why?"
"His father."
"What about him?"
"Thomas Reed worked for Rourke."
Eliza's stomach tightened.
"Doing what?"
"Enforcement."
Silas had never spoken much about his father.
Rebecca continued.
"Thomas collected debts. Forced ranchers from land Rourke wanted."
"That doesn't make Silas guilty."
"No."
Rebecca looked away.
"But Thomas Reed was at your ranch the night your father died."
Eliza went still.
"How do you know?"
"I saw him."
Outside, Silas watched the windows.
He could not hear the conversation.
But he saw Eliza step away from Rebecca.
Something had changed.
Inside, Eliza asked, "Did Thomas kill my father?"
"I don't know."
"Did Silas know he was there?"
"I don't know."
"Then why tell me not to trust him?"
Rebecca opened a drawer.
She removed a letter.
It was written by Thomas Reed.
Samuel,
I was wrong to take Rourke's money. He's coming tonight. Caleb has agreed to let him inside. Get Eliza out before dark. I will try to stop them.
T.R.
Eliza read it twice.
Rebecca whispered, "Thomas may have tried to save Samuel."
"Then why hide this?"
"Because the rest is worse."
She handed Eliza another page.
Thomas had written it the following morning.
Samuel is dead. Eliza is gone. I saw Caleb take her. Rourke ordered me to keep silent. I won't. If anything happens to me, Silas must never know what I did for Rourke.
Eliza closed her eyes.
"What happened to Thomas?"
Rebecca stared at her.
"He died three days later."
Silas had told Eliza his father died in a riding accident.
"Was it an accident?"
"No."
Eliza understood why Rebecca had warned her.
Not because Silas was dangerous.
Because the truth could destroy him.
A floorboard creaked outside.
Rebecca's head snapped toward the door.
"Did you bring him?"
"No."
That was technically true.
Then the front window shattered.
Silas shouted.
"DOWN!"
Eliza dropped.
Gunfire struck the wall.
Rebecca crawled toward the rear room.
Silas entered through the side door.
"Back!"
Eliza looked at him.
"How many?"
"Four."
Rebecca opened a cellar hatch.
"This way."
They descended.
The cellar connected to an old root tunnel leading behind the barn.
They emerged unseen.
Silas got them to the horses.
Rebecca climbed behind Eliza.
They rode hard.
Only when the farmhouse disappeared did Silas speak.
"Someone followed us from Denver."
Rebecca looked at him.
"Thomas's boy."
Silas stiffened.
"You knew my father?"
Rebecca said nothing.
Eliza closed her eyes.
Not now.
But Silas had already understood.
"What did she tell you?"
"We need to get somewhere safe."
"What did she tell you?"
Eliza turned.
"Your father tried to warn mine."
Silas's expression emptied.
"What?"
Rebecca spoke.
"He worked for Rourke."
Silas looked at her.
"No."
"He regretted it."
"My father hated Rourke."
"Eventually."
Silas rode in silence.
They returned to Nathan.
Nathan took one look at Rebecca and sat down.
"I thought you were dead."
Rebecca answered, "Apparently that's a popular condition in this family."
For the first time, Eliza laughed.
It was brief.
But real.
Then they planned.
The old Mercer ranch held the missing evidence.
Rebecca remembered Samuel hiding documents beneath the stone office floor.
If they could retrieve them, Wallace could act.
They rode south the following night.
The ranch appeared at dawn.
Eliza stopped her horse.
Her memories came back before the landscape fully registered.
Her mother in the garden.
Her father calling from the barn.
Silas waiting beside the creek.
Then flames.
She closed her eyes.
Silas rode beside her.
"You don't have to go in."
"Yes, I do."
The stone office stood roofless but intact.
Rourke had used the surrounding land for cattle, but the old structure remained abandoned.
Rebecca found the correct stone.
Silas pried it loose.
Underneath was a metal box.
Inside lay Samuel's duplicate ledger.
Letters.
Deeds.
And a statement signed by Thomas Reed.
Silas stared at his father's handwriting.
He read silently.
Thomas admitted working for Rourke.
He described the plan to pressure Samuel into surrendering land.
Then he described the night of the fire.
Rourke arrived with Pike and Caleb.
Samuel refused to sign.
Caleb struck Eliza when she tried to run for help.
Thomas intervened.
In the confusion, a lamp overturned.
The fire spread.
Thomas dragged Rebecca outside.
When he returned, Samuel was dead.
Caleb had taken Eliza.
Silas lowered the page.
"My father knew."
Eliza touched his arm.
"He tried to stop them."
"After helping them for years."
"Both can be true."
Silas looked at her.
She understood better than most what it meant to discover the past was neither clean nor simple.
Rebecca found another document.
"This is it."
Samuel's final will.
Everything went to Eliza.
But there was an additional clause.
If Eliza married Caleb Vale, Caleb could never acquire legal control of the Mercer land.
Silas frowned.
"Samuel knew Caleb was after it."
Rebecca nodded.
"That's why Caleb needed Eliza declared incompetent."
"And accused of murder," Nathan said.
Eliza looked at the documents.
They finally had enough.
Then a slow clap came from the doorway.
Everyone turned.
Sheriff Harlan Pike stood there.
Four armed deputies behind him.
"Touching," Pike said.
Silas reached toward his gun.
Pike smiled.
"I wouldn't."
Eliza stepped forward.
"You're arresting the wrong people."
"No."
Pike looked directly at her.
"I'm arresting exactly who I came for."
He held up the murder warrant.
Eliza stared at him.
"Caleb is alive."
Pike smiled.
"Then prove it."
Rebecca stepped forward with Thomas's statement.
"We can prove everything."
Pike glanced at the paper.
Then tossed it into the remains of the old fireplace.
Silas lunged.
Two rifles came up.
"Careful."
The paper began burning.
Eliza rushed forward and pulled it from the embers.
Half survived.
Pike's smile disappeared.
Then another voice came from outside.
"That's enough, Harlan."
Pike turned.
A man stepped into the doorway.
Eliza recognized him before her mind accepted it.
The same face from six years of marriage.
Caleb Vale.
Alive.
He smiled at her.
"Hello, Anna."
Eliza stared at him.
Caleb's smile widened.
May you like
Then he said the one sentence she had never expected.
"Tell them who really killed your father."
