Chapter 5 - The Sister Who Never Left
Silas forgot the rifle in his hands.
“Mara?”
The woman stepped into the fading light.
She was older than the sister in his memory.
Of course she was.
Twelve years older.
Silver had appeared in her dark hair. A scar ran along her jaw.
But there was no question.
Mara Mercer stood twenty feet away.
Silas took one step.
Then stopped.
“You left.”
Mara’s expression tightened.
“No.”
“You disappeared.”
“No.”
“You sent one letter saying you were going east.”
“I never wrote it.”
Silas stared.
Mara opened her palm.
Evelyn’s wedding ring lay there.
Silas crossed the distance between them.
“Where did you get that?”
“From Evelyn.”
His face hardened.
“When?”
“The day she died.”
Clara approached with Lucy.
Daniel remained behind, scanning the trees.
Silas’s voice became cold.
“You were there.”
Mara nodded.
“You watched me bury my wife and stayed hidden for six years?”
“I watched from the ridge.”
Silas stepped backward.
The betrayal was almost unbearable.
“You let me believe you were gone.”
“I was trying to stay alive.”
Again.
Always the same explanation.
Silas laughed bitterly.
“Apparently everyone in my life loves me enough to lie to me.”
Mara flinched.
“You have every right to hate me.”
“I don't even know you.”
“You do.”
“No. My sister would have come home.”
“My brother would have gotten himself killed.”
Silas stared.
Mara closed her fist around the ring.
“That is why Evelyn made me promise.”
Silas went still.
“Promise what?”
“To stay away from you until Pike could be exposed.”
“Evelyn asked that?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The afternoon she died.”
Silas felt the world tilt again.
Mara led them into a small cave above the abandoned camp.
The survey party had left two days earlier after receiving false orders supposedly from Helena.
Pike had intercepted information about the federal marshal and redirected him south.
“How do you know?” Daniel asked.
“I’ve been intercepting Pike’s messages for three years.”
Clara stared at her.
“You’ve been fighting him?”
“I’ve been surviving him.”
Mara built a small fire.
Then she told them everything.
Twelve years earlier, Mara had worked briefly at Pike’s land office.
She noticed deeds changing hands suspiciously.
She copied several documents.
Pike discovered it.
Mara fled.
The letter Silas received claiming she had gone east had been forged.
For six years she moved between settlements, gathering evidence.
Then she returned secretly after Samuel contacted her.
Evelyn became involved.
“What happened that day?” Silas asked.
Mara’s face changed.
“I arrived after Pike.”
“You saw him?”
“Yes.”
“Inside my cabin?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“I don’t know exactly. By the time I entered, Evelyn was on the floor.”
“Was Pike gone?”
“He was leaving through the back.”
“You let him?”
“I fired at him.”
Silas stared.
“I missed.”
Mara knelt beside Evelyn.
Evelyn was conscious for perhaps another minute.
“She gave me the ring,” Mara said.
“Why?”
“She said you’d recognize it if you ever doubted me.”
Silas took it.
His thumb moved across the worn gold.
Evelyn had worn it every day after their wedding.
Until her funeral.
Silas suddenly looked up.
“She was buried with this.”
“No.”
“I put it on her hand.”
“You put another ring on her hand.”
Silas stared.
Mara explained.
Samuel had replaced it before Silas returned.
The real ring contained something.
She pressed a tiny catch inside the band.
A hidden seam opened.
From within she removed a tightly rolled piece of paper.
Silas stared.
Evelyn had hidden information inside her own wedding ring.
Mara handed it to him.
The paper contained a single list.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
At the bottom was Pike’s signature.
Not copied.
Original.
“What is this?”
“The order authorizing waste dumping above six family wells.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“This can hang him.”
“No,” Mara said. “It can prove fraud and reckless contamination.”
Silas’s eyes hardened.
“What proves murder?”
Mara looked at him.
“Me.”
Silence filled the cave.
“You saw Pike leaving.”
“I saw more.”
Mara swallowed.
“When I entered, he was standing over Evelyn.”
Silas stopped breathing.
“He held a small bottle.”
“What kind?”
“Blue glass.”
Silas remembered something.
On the day of Evelyn’s death, there had been fragments of blue glass in the fireplace.
He had assumed Samuel broke medicine.
“Why didn’t you testify?”
“To whom?”
“The sheriff.”
“Nolan was outside your cabin guarding Pike’s horse.”
Silas looked away.
Mara continued.
“Evelyn told me to run. She said if Pike caught me, all the evidence died too.”
“And you listened.”
“I hated myself every day for it.”
Silas looked at his sister.
For years he imagined his grief belonged only to him.
Now he saw the same years carved into Mara’s face.
He sat beside her.
“I don't hate you.”
Mara started crying.
Silas had no idea what to do with tears.
So he did what he once did when they were children.
He put one arm around her.
Mara leaned against him.
For several minutes, no one spoke.
Later, Clara fed Lucy beside the fire.
Silas watched.
Mara sat beside him.
“She’s good.”
Silas frowned.
“Clara?”
“Yes.”
“She’s in danger because of us.”
“So?”
“So good judgment would suggest running away from me.”
Mara smiled.
“Evelyn used to say the same thing.”
Silas looked sharply at her.
Mara laughed softly.
For a second, the years between them disappeared.
Then Daniel returned from outside.
“We have trouble.”
Everyone stood.
He had found tracks.
Nolan’s men were searching both sides of the canyon.
“They'll find this cave by morning.”
Mara shook her head.
“We don't need morning.”
She unfolded a map.
A railroad construction camp lay fourteen miles east.
A telegraph office operated there.
“If we can send copies of this evidence to Helena, Pike can't destroy all of it.”
Daniel nodded.
“I can ride.”
“No,” Clara said.
Daniel looked at her.
“You’ve been shot once already.”
“Grazed.”
“You disappeared for weeks.”
“I apologized.”
“You did not.”
Daniel smiled.
“Then I apologize.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“No.”
Silas studied the map.
“We all go.”
Mara shook her head.
“The baby will slow us.”
Silas looked at Lucy.
“No one gets separated.”
Clara looked at him.
Something passed between them.
Trust.
Not complete.
But growing.
They left the cave before midnight.
The trail east followed a rocky ridge inaccessible to wagons.
Silas carried Lucy for part of the journey.
At first he held the baby as if she might explode.
Clara adjusted his arms.
“Support her head.”
“I am.”
“You’re holding her like a sack of flour.”
“Flour doesn't move this much.”
Lucy grabbed his beard.
Silas winced.
Clara laughed.
He looked at her.
A real laugh.
Warm.
Unprotected.
For reasons he didn't want to examine, Silas wanted to hear it again.
They traveled until dawn.
Finally the railroad camp appeared below.
Smoke rose from cookfires.
Workers moved between tents.
A telegraph line ran east and west.
Mara exhaled.
“We made it.”
Then Silas saw the horses.
Six of them.
Tied outside the telegraph office.
One belonged to Sheriff Nolan.
“Too late,” Daniel whispered.
Silas scanned the camp.
“We need another way.”
Mara pointed toward a supply shed.
“There’s a second telegraph key for emergencies.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve used it.”
Of course she had.
They circled downhill.
Clara and Lucy remained with Mara while Silas and Daniel approached the shed.
Empty.
They entered.
A telegraph key sat on a small desk.
Daniel began tapping the message.
HELENA FEDERAL MARSHAL STOP PIKE MURDER FRAUD EVIDENCE STOP SEND MEN—
A gun clicked behind them.
Sheriff Nolan stood in the doorway.
“Finish that sentence and I put a bullet through your brother-in-law.”
Daniel slowly raised his hands.
Silas turned.
Nolan smiled.
“Good to see you again, Mercer.”
Outside, men dragged Mara toward the shed.
Then Clara appeared behind them.
Without Lucy.
Silas’s blood went cold.
“Where is the baby?”
Clara looked at him.
Her face was empty.
Nolan smiled.
“That's the interesting part.”
A man emerged from the telegraph office carrying a cream-colored bundle.
Lucy began crying.
Clara screamed.
Silas moved.
Nolan pointed his pistol directly at the baby.
“One more step, Mercer.”
Silas stopped.
Nolan looked delighted.
Then another man walked from the office.
Older.
Heavy coat.
Silver hair.
Judge Harland Pike.
He looked at Silas as if greeting an old friend.
“I believe,” Pike said, “you have something that belongs to me.”
Silas stared at him.
May you like
Pike smiled.
“Give me Evelyn’s ring.”
