Chapter 5 - The Man With the Black Horse
Edwin Voss touched the wooden box.
“I believe this belongs to you.”
Hannah remained standing.
“Where did you get it?”
“Deputy Pike.”
Caleb's hand stayed near his revolver.
“Where's Pike?”
“Gone.”
“Dead?”
Voss smiled.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Then perhaps.”
Hannah hated how calmly he spoke.
Voss offered her five thousand dollars for the Reed property.
Five thousand.
More money than Hannah had imagined possessing.
Caleb said nothing.
Voss looked amused.
“Aren't you going to advise your wife?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“It's her land.”
Hannah felt something inside her settle.
Voss had expected Caleb to control her.
So had Silas.
They all misunderstood him.
“No,” Hannah said.
Voss's smile weakened.
“Think carefully.”
“I have.”
“Your father made the same mistake.”
Silence.
Hannah stepped closer.
“What did you say?”
Voss rose.
“Thomas Reed was stubborn.”
“You knew him.”
“Everyone knew him.”
“You knew him.”
Voss buttoned his coat.
“Five thousand remains available until Friday.”
“And after Friday?”
“Circumstances change.”
He left.
Caleb watched him ride away on the black horse.
That evening they opened the recovered box.
Most documents remained.
But one envelope was missing.
The letter to the judge.
Hannah wondered why.
Then Samuel entered carrying a ledger.
“Found this under Mr. Voss's chair.”
Voss had dropped it.
Inside were payment records.
Pike's name appeared repeatedly.
So did Silas's.
And one entry from fourteen years earlier:
T. REED MATTER — $300.
Hannah stared.
Her parents had died fourteen years earlier.
Caleb closed the ledger.
“We take this to Sheriff Cole.”
They never reached town.
Halfway there, a rifle cracked.
Caleb fell from his horse.
Hannah screamed.
A second bullet struck the saddle.
She dragged Caleb behind rocks.
Blood covered his shirt.
“Caleb.”
“Shoulder.”
“Can you move?”
“Yes.”
The shooter approached.
Hannah found Caleb's revolver.
Her hands shook.
A figure appeared.
Deputy Pike.
Alive.
“Hannah.”
She aimed.
“Stay back.”
Pike laughed.
“You won't shoot.”
He stepped closer.
Hannah fired into the dirt beside his boot.
Pike stopped laughing.
Caleb used the distraction.
He tackled Pike.
The men fought.
Hannah recovered the rifle.
“Enough!”
Pike froze.
Hannah pointed it at him.
Sheriff Cole arrested Pike that evening.
Caleb survived.
While Doc Warren stitched his shoulder, Hannah sat beside him.
“You could have died.”
“So could you.”
“I thought you had.”
Caleb looked at her.
Hannah realized she was holding his hand.
She did not release it.
“Caleb.”
“Yes?”
“Why haven't you ever asked anything from me?”
His thumb moved gently across her fingers.
“Because what Silas did to you made asking feel too much like taking.”
Her eyes filled.
“What if I wanted you to ask?”
Caleb went still.
Before he could answer, Sheriff Cole entered.
“We've got trouble.”
Pike had escaped.
A guard was unconscious.
And Edwin Voss was gone.
On the jail floor, Pike had left a message scratched into the wood.
THOMAS REED WASN'T THE FIRST.
Below it was another name.
May you like
Rebecca Mercer.
Caleb's dead wife.
