Chapter 6 - The Town That Finally Moved
Iris ran toward the burning bakery.
Elias caught her around the waist.
"No!"
"She's underneath!"
"The building's coming down."
"Let me go!"
Another scream rose through the flames.
Henry tried to stand.
"My daughter!"
Then something happened Red Creek had not seen in years.
Someone moved.
Henry Cole's apprentice, a seventeen-year-old named Jacob, grabbed a water bucket.
"Where's the cellar entrance?"
Iris pointed toward the alley.
"Behind the flour shed!"
Jacob ran.
Mrs. Talbot followed.
Then Samuel Reed.
Then three ranch hands.
Then more.
The crowd stopped watching.
It became a rescue line.
Elias looked at Iris.
"There."
"What?"
"They're choosing."
For years Red Creek had believed courage belonged to heroes.
Now they discovered it could belong to anyone holding a bucket.
Elias and Iris reached the rear entrance.
Flames blocked the kitchen.
"The cellar door is inside," Iris said.
"Other entrance?"
"Old coal chute."
They circled the building.
Iris dropped to her knees beside a small iron hatch.
Locked.
Elias kicked it.
Once.
Twice.
It broke.
Smoke poured out.
"I'll go."
"So will I."
"No."
"Elias."
"You can barely breathe standing."
She stared.
He was right.
She hated him for being right.
"Bring her back."
"I will."
He disappeared.
The next three minutes were the longest of Iris's life.
The roof groaned.
People shouted.
Buckets passed.
Henry crawled toward the coal chute.
"Emily!"
A voice answered.
"Papa!"
Henry sobbed.
Then Elias appeared.
He climbed backward from the chute carrying Emily.
The girl coughed violently.
Henry grabbed her.
Behind Elias came another figure.
Mrs. Halpern.
Alive.
Doctor Halpern's wife collapsed into Iris's arms.
"There's someone else," she gasped.
"Who?"
"Basement room."
Elias turned back.
Iris caught him.
"You can't."
"Someone's down there."
"The roof—"
A crash shook the building.
Elias looked at her.
For one second, neither spoke.
Then he went back inside.
Iris wanted to scream.
Instead she stood.
Walter had disappeared.
She saw Sheriff Dugan at the edge of the crowd.
Trying to leave.
"Stop him!"
Everyone looked.
Dugan ran.
Henry Cole tackled him.
The sheriff hit the ground.
For once, nobody looked away.
They took his gun.
The bakery roof collapsed.
Iris screamed.
"Elias!"
No answer.
Flames consumed the rear room.
Seconds passed.
Then a section of wall broke outward.
Elias emerged through smoke, carrying an unconscious man over his shoulder.
He collapsed.
Iris ran to him.
"Elias!"
"I'm fine."
He clearly wasn't.
His sleeve was burned.
His face blackened with soot.
The unconscious man rolled onto his back.
Nathan stared.
"Thomas."
Elias froze.
The world stopped.
The man was older.
Bearded.
Scarred.
But unmistakable.
Thomas Mercer.
Alive.
Elias crawled toward him.
"Tom?"
Thomas coughed.
His eyes opened.
"Eli?"
Elias laughed and cried at the same time.
Then punched his brother's shoulder.
"Fourteen years."
Thomas smiled weakly.
"Good to see you too."
Iris watched the brothers embrace.
Around them the town kept fighting the fire.
Not because Pike ordered it.
Not because someone paid.
Because it was right.
Thomas was taken to Doctor Halpern.
By dawn the bakery was a shell.
Iris stood before it.
Elias came beside her.
"I'm sorry."
She nodded.
"I thought losing it would kill me."
"Did it?"
She looked around.
Henry held Emily.
Mrs. Halpern sat beside her husband.
Lucy Bennett brought coffee.
People who had avoided Iris's eyes yesterday now stood beside her.
"No."
The answer surprised her.
"No, it didn't."
Nathan approached.
"The ledger."
Iris turned.
"What?"
"It wasn't in my coat."
Elias stiffened.
"Where is it?"
"I gave it to you."
"You did not."
Nathan's face changed.
Then he understood.
The church.
Someone had replaced the master ledger.
The book they'd carried out was convincing at first glance.
But the pages Elias had read were copies.
"Who knew?" Iris asked.
"Only us."
"And Reverend Mills?"
"No."
Lucy approached.
"I saw someone leave the church."
"When?"
"After you came to the telegraph office."
"Who?"
She hesitated.
"Amos Pike."
Elias looked toward the street.
"He's got it."
Nathan swore.
Thomas, supported by Doctor Halpern, walked toward them.
"No."
Everyone turned.
Thomas looked weak but alert.
"Amos doesn't have the master ledger."
Nathan stared.
"What do you mean?"
"I moved it."
"When?"
"Years ago."
Nathan's face changed.
"You were the one breaking into the mine?"
Thomas nodded.
"I've been collecting proof."
"Why hide beneath Iris's bakery?"
"Pike caught me three weeks ago."
Iris frowned.
"Three weeks?"
"He kept prisoners in the old cellar tunnels. The bakery foundation connects to them."
That explained everything.
Walter had known.
The Pike family had built storage tunnels decades before Iris's mother bought the property.
"What about the ledger?" Elias asked.
Thomas smiled faintly.
"I mailed it."
"Where?"
"Federal court."
"When?"
"Yesterday."
Hope surged.
"Then it's over," Henry said.
Thomas shook his head.
"No."
Everyone quieted.
"Amos knows."
Elias looked toward the Pike ranch.
"He'll run."
"No," Thomas said. "Men like Amos don't run until they've destroyed what can testify against them."
Iris understood.
"The people."
Thomas nodded.
Distant hoofbeats approached.
Dozens.
Armed riders appeared at the end of Main Street.
Pike men.
Amos rode at the front.
The town froze.
Iris felt the old fear return.
Amos stopped fifty yards away.
He looked at the burned bakery.
Then at Iris.
"You should have taken my warning."
Nobody spoke.
Amos raised his voice.
"Anyone standing with the Bells is standing against me."
Silence.
Iris looked at the people around her.
Yesterday they had watched.
Today they had moved.
Would they keep moving?
Amos pointed toward Elias.
"Hand me Mercer, Nathan, and the ledger."
Thomas laughed weakly.
"You don't know where it is."
Amos's face changed.
That was confirmation.
Thomas had beaten him.
For the first time.
Amos drew his revolver.
Elias stepped in front of Iris.
Then Henry stepped beside Elias.
Then Jacob.
Then Mrs. Talbot.
Then Samuel Reed.
Then Lucy.
One by one, Red Creek's townspeople formed a line.
Amos stared.
"You think numbers make you brave?"
Iris stepped forward.
"No."
Elias whispered, "Iris."
She kept walking.
Amos's revolver remained pointed.
Iris stopped ten feet ahead of everyone.
"Numbers just make it harder for you to pretend we're alone."
Amos's finger tightened.
Then a sound came from behind him.
A horse.
Then another.
Then twenty.
Amos turned.
Riders appeared on the ridge.
Silver badges flashed in the morning sun.
Federal marshals.
Lucy laughed.
"The message went through."
Relief exploded through the town.
But Amos Pike didn't surrender.
He spun his horse.
Raised the revolver.
And aimed directly at Iris.
Elias shouted her name.
May you like
The gun fired.
Iris felt herself falling.
