Chapter 4 - What Happened to Evelyn
Daniel shouted first.
“DOWN!”
Silas dropped.
The pistol fired above his head.
Daniel tackled the shooter from behind a cedar tree.
Both men crashed into the mud.
Silas rolled, grabbed the stranger by the coat and struck him once across the jaw.
The man went limp.
Clara stared.
“Who is he?”
Daniel ripped away the man’s hat.
Deputy Warren Cole.
One of Nolan’s men.
Silas searched him.
A pistol.
Knife.
Matches.
And a telegram.
He unfolded it.
MERCER WOMAN HAS BOOK. TAKE CHILD IF NECESSARY.
Clara made a sound Silas never wanted to hear from another human being.
She snatched Lucy up.
“They know about her.”
Silas stared at the message.
“Not anymore.”
Clara looked at him.
“What?”
“No one touches that child.”
Something in his tone ended the discussion.
Daniel tied Cole to a tree.
They had to move quickly.
Nolan and the remaining rider could circle back.
Silas put the ledger away but kept Thomas’s note.
Evelyn Mercer survived the poisoning.
Her death came later.
By human hands.
Every mile north became an argument inside Silas’s mind.
He remembered Evelyn’s final days.
Her fever had improved.
Yes.
He remembered that now.
On the third morning she had sat up.
She had even eaten broth.
Samuel had told Silas she might recover.
Then Silas rode to town because Evelyn insisted they needed medicine.
When he returned that evening, she was dramatically worse.
By dawn, she was dead.
Samuel said the illness had returned.
Silas had accepted it because grief made people willing to believe anything that ended uncertainty.
Now he wondered what had happened during those hours.
“Samuel was with her,” he said.
Daniel rode beside the cart.
“Yes.”
“Did your father kill my wife?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he spent six years believing he caused her death by leaving her alone for twenty minutes.”
Silas turned sharply.
“With whom?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Tell me.”
“With Judge Pike.”
Silas stopped the cart.
Clara closed her eyes.
Daniel continued.
“Pike came to your cabin.”
“Here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To recover the records.”
Silas climbed down.
His hands shook.
“What happened?”
“My father arrived around noon. Evelyn was recovering. He examined her and believed the worst had passed. Then a rider came claiming there had been an accident near the creek.”
“Pike?”
“Not directly. One of his men.”
Samuel left.
When he returned, Pike was leaving the cabin.
Evelyn was unconscious.
By the time Silas came home, she was dying.
“Why didn’t Samuel tell me?”
“He was afraid.”
Silas stared at Daniel.
“Afraid?”
“Pike threatened all of us.”
“That was my wife.”
“I know.”
“You let me bury her thinking she died from illness.”
“I was nineteen.”
“But your father wasn't.”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“No.”
Silas turned away.
Clara touched his sleeve.
He stepped aside.
Not violently.
But enough.
She withdrew her hand.
“Did Thomas know all of this?”
“Yes,” she said.
“And he told you?”
“After we married.”
Silas looked at her.
“You have been standing beside me for a day knowing Pike likely murdered my wife.”
“I was trying to get you somewhere safe before telling you.”
“There it is again.”
“What?”
“Protection through lies.”
Clara’s face hardened.
“You think I wanted this?”
“I think I deserved the truth.”
“And I think my daughter deserved to reach tomorrow.”
They stared at each other.
Silas said nothing.
Clara continued.
“You’re angry because Evelyn kept secrets. You’re angry because Samuel kept secrets. You’re angry because Thomas did. Fine. Be angry. But every one of them was trying to survive a man who owns courts, deputies and gunmen. My husband tried telling the truth and they tied his hands and pushed his wagon off a ravine.”
Her voice broke.
“I held what was left of him while the sheriff told me it was an accident.”
Silas’s anger suddenly lost its direction.
Clara lowered her voice.
“I am sorry about Evelyn. Truly. But don’t make me apologize for trying to keep Lucy alive.”
Silas looked at the baby.
Lucy was asleep.
Completely unaware that powerful men had discussed taking her as leverage.
“I’m sorry,” Silas said.
Clara seemed surprised.
He climbed onto the cart.
They continued.
By late afternoon they reached a narrow canyon.
The old trail to Fort Owen lay beyond it.
Daniel rode ahead.
Silas finally spoke.
“What was Thomas like?”
Clara looked at him.
“Stubborn.”
“That sounds familiar.”
“He believed every problem could be solved by writing enough evidence onto enough paper.”
“Was he right?”
“He died.”
Silas regretted asking.
Then Clara smiled faintly.
“But he also believed people were better than their worst decisions.”
Silas looked ahead.
“I would have disappointed him.”
“He thought highly of you.”
“He barely knew me.”
“He knew what his father wrote.”
“What did Samuel write?”
“That after Evelyn died, you paid the debts of three families whose farms were poisoned.”
Silas shrugged.
“They needed help.”
“You sold half your cattle.”
“I had too many.”
“You gave lumber to rebuild the Hensleys’ house.”
“Their roof was bad.”
Clara smiled.
“Thomas said you always had a reason that made kindness sound accidental.”
Silas glanced at her.
“It usually was.”
“No.”
Something warm and uncomfortable moved through him.
He changed the subject.
“What was Thomas’s note talking about when it said Evelyn survived?”
Clara reached for the ledger.
“There’s another letter.”
Silas frowned.
“You knew?”
“Thomas found it in Samuel’s papers.”
She handed it over.
Samuel had written an account of Evelyn’s final hours.
Pike visited.
Samuel returned.
Evelyn unconscious.
A cup had been knocked from the table.
Samuel smelled bitter almonds.
Silas knew enough to understand.
“Cyanide?”
“Possibly.”
Silas’s hands tightened.
Then he saw another line.
Before losing consciousness, Evelyn wrote one word on the floor using spilled water.
Silas read it.
MARA.
He looked at Clara.
“Who is Mara?”
“I don’t know.”
Silas did.
Mara Mercer.
His younger sister.
Silas had not seen her in twelve years.
She had left Montana after a bitter family argument.
Or so he had believed.
“Mara wasn't here.”
Daniel had ridden back toward them.
He looked pale.
“What did you say?”
Silas showed him the letter.
Daniel read the name.
Then looked north.
“What?”
“Silas, there’s something you need to know.”
Before he could continue, hoofbeats sounded behind them.
Many.
Silas turned.
Six riders appeared at the canyon entrance.
Nolan had reinforcements.
“Move!”
The cart surged forward.
Daniel rode alongside.
Gunfire echoed between stone walls.
Silas urged the mule harder.
The canyon narrowed.
Ahead stood an old wooden bridge spanning a rushing gorge.
“Can it hold?” Clara shouted.
“It better!”
They crossed.
Daniel followed.
Silas jumped down and cut one of the support ropes.
The bridge tilted violently.
The first pursuing horse stopped.
Nolan cursed from the far side.
Silas cut the second rope.
Half the bridge collapsed.
For the first time all day, they had distance.
They continued north.
Near sunset they saw smoke.
A small collection of tents stood beyond the trees.
The federal survey camp.
Clara laughed with relief.
Daniel shouted.
“We made it!”
Then Silas saw something wrong.
No one moved among the tents.
No horses.
No voices.
They approached slowly.
The camp had been abandoned.
Silas entered the largest tent.
A table had been overturned.
Blood stained a map.
Pinned to its center was a note.
Silas pulled it free.
The message contained only one sentence.
MARA MERCER IS ALIVE.
Behind them, Clara whispered, “Silas...”
He turned.
A woman stood at the edge of the trees.
May you like
She had his eyes.
And she was holding Evelyn’s wedding ring.
