Chapter 6 - The Price of a Child
Silas took the ring from his pocket.
Pike watched every movement.
Lucy cried in the arms of Pike’s man.
Clara trembled beside Mara.
“Give her back,” Silas said.
“After I have the ledger, the ring and every copy.”
“You already know the ledger isn't enough.”
Pike smiled.
“I know Mara’s testimony worries me considerably more.”
Mara spat at his feet.
Pike sighed.
“You were always unpleasant.”
“You murdered Evelyn.”
“Careful.”
“Why? Worried someone might hear?”
Pike glanced around the railroad camp.
Workers watched from a distance.
Nolan’s deputies had told them it was official business.
No one wanted trouble with a judge.
That was how men like Pike survived.
Not because everyone supported them.
Because enough people were afraid.
Silas looked at Daniel.
Daniel’s hand rested near the telegraph key.
Nolan noticed.
“Don't.”
Daniel froze.
Silas looked back at Pike.
“What do you want?”
“The evidence.”
“And then?”
“You leave Montana.”
“With Clara and Lucy?”
“If she wishes.”
“And Mara?”
Pike smiled.
Silas understood.
“No.”
“Then the child pays for your principles.”
Clara lunged.
Mara caught her.
“Don’t!”
Clara screamed at Pike.
“She is six months old!”
“And therefore wonderfully innocent of her mother’s poor decisions.”
Silas felt something cold settle inside him.
His rage did not disappear.
It became controlled.
That was more dangerous.
“You killed Thomas.”
Pike glanced toward Nolan.
“I employed people.”
Nolan’s smile faded slightly.
Interesting.
Silas saw it.
Pike used men.
Then discarded them.
Perhaps Nolan knew it too.
Silas held up the ring.
“You want this?”
“Yes.”
“It contains your signature.”
“I know.”
“Then come take it.”
Nolan raised the pistol.
“No.”
Pike extended one hand.
Silas threw the ring.
Not toward Pike.
Toward the mud between them.
Every eye followed it.
Daniel slammed the telegraph key.
Mara struck the deputy holding her.
Clara ran toward Lucy.
Silas tackled Nolan.
Chaos erupted.
The man holding Lucy turned.
Clara hit him with both hands.
He stumbled.
Mara grabbed the baby.
A gun fired.
Daniel fell.
“Daniel!”
Clara screamed.
Silas struck Nolan again.
Pike ran toward the horse line.
Workers began shouting.
Daniel crawled back to the telegraph.
Blood stained his sleeve.
“Send it!” Silas yelled.
Daniel began tapping.
Nolan pulled a knife.
Silas blocked the first strike.
The blade sliced his coat.
The second cut his forearm.
Silas punched Nolan hard enough to drop him.
Pike reached his horse.
Mara raised a pistol.
Silas shouted, “No!”
She looked at him.
“If we kill him, his friends call it revenge.”
Pike mounted.
“Let him run.”
Mara hesitated.
Then lowered the gun.
Pike escaped east.
Nolan attempted to follow.
Railroad workers stopped him.
Something had changed.
They had heard enough.
A foreman stepped forward.
“You pointed a gun at a baby.”
Nolan sneered.
“I’m sheriff.”
“Not here.”
Three workers surrounded him.
Nolan slowly raised his hands.
Daniel completed the telegraph message.
Mara found Evelyn’s ring in the mud.
Clara took Lucy and held her so tightly the baby protested.
Silas approached.
“You okay?”
Clara nodded.
Then she touched the cut on his arm.
“You’re bleeding.”
“So is Daniel.”
Daniel laughed weakly.
“I seem to be developing a habit.”
The bullet had passed through the fleshy part of his upper arm.
Painful.
Not fatal.
They treated it inside the supply office.
Then they waited.
The return telegraph arrived thirty minutes later.
FEDERAL MARSHAL CROWLEY EN ROUTE STOP HOLD POSITION STOP STATE AUTHORITIES NOTIFIED STOP
For the first time, Pike no longer controlled what happened next.
But Silas knew they were not safe.
“Pike will destroy everything he can before Crowley arrives.”
Mara nodded.
“His land office.”
“The mine records.”
“And whoever works for him.”
Clara stared at them.
“You think he'll kill witnesses?”
“I think Pike survived this long because he knows exactly what evidence can hurt him,” Silas said.
Daniel stood despite Clara protesting.
“We need to go back.”
“To town?” Clara asked.
“Yes.”
Silas shook his head.
“No.”
Daniel stared.
“Those records—”
“Are paper.”
“So?”
“Lucy isn't.”
Clara looked at Silas.
He continued.
“We finally have federal law coming. We stay here.”
Mara agreed reluctantly.
They waited until afternoon.
Marshal Crowley arrived with four federal officers and a state investigator.
Silas gave him the ledger.
Mara gave him the ring document.
Daniel gave testimony about Thomas.
Clara provided Thomas’s letters.
For the first time, their evidence left their own hands.
Crowley read quietly.
“This is enough to arrest Pike on multiple federal charges.”
“Murder?” Silas asked.
“That depends on testimony.”
Mara stepped forward.
“I’ll testify.”
Crowley nodded.
“Then we start there.”
They rode toward town with an armed escort.
Nolan traveled in restraints.
As they neared the valley, smoke appeared ahead.
Silas’s stomach tightened.
It came from Pike’s land office.
The building was burning.
“Damn it,” Crowley said.
Pike was destroying records.
They rode faster.
Town residents had formed a bucket line.
Flames poured from the windows.
Silas saw men carrying boxes out.
“Stop them!”
Federal officers moved in.
One man dropped a crate and ran.
Silas opened it.
Deeds.
Payment books.
Mining records.
Enough survived.
Pike had underestimated ordinary people once they realized he was no longer untouchable.
Then someone shouted.
“The judge is at the mine!”
Crowley turned.
“What?”
A miner ran toward them.
“He took explosives!”
Silas understood immediately.
The old north mine connected to the watershed.
If Pike destroyed the tunnels, he could bury physical evidence.
Or worse.
Release stored chemicals into the creek.
Silas mounted.
Crowley grabbed his reins.
“You’re not going alone.”
“Then keep up.”
They rode north.
Clara stayed behind with Lucy and Daniel.
Before Silas left, she caught his hand.
“Come back.”
Silas looked at her.
Two words.
Simple.
But no one had asked him to come back in six years.
He squeezed her hand once.
“I will.”
The mine lay beneath a cliff.
They found Pike’s horse outside.
Inside, the tunnels smelled of powder.
Crowley ordered two officers around the western entrance.
Silas and Mara followed the main shaft.
“Why are you here?” Silas whispered.
Mara smiled faintly.
“Family habit. Poor judgment.”
They found a fuse.
Burning.
Silas stamped it out.
Another fuse burned farther inside.
Then another.
“He rigged the whole place.”
They separated.
Silas reached an underground storage chamber.
Barrels lined the wall.
Chemical waste.
Proof.
Pike stood beside them.
Pistol in hand.
“You always were inconvenient, Mercer.”
Silas raised his rifle.
“It’s over.”
Pike laughed.
“Men like me don't end because someone found a book.”
“No.”
Silas looked behind him.
Marshal Crowley entered.
“They end because eventually enough people stop being afraid.”
Pike’s smile vanished.
He raised the pistol.
A shot exploded.
Silas felt pain.
Then darkness.
When he woke, Clara was calling his name.
He opened his eyes.
Town clinic.
Bandage across his shoulder.
Clara sat beside him.
Lucy slept in her arms.
“You came back,” she whispered.
“Told you.”
She laughed and cried at once.
Silas looked around.
“Mara?”
“Alive.”
“Pike?”
Clara’s expression changed.
“Captured.”
Relief moved through him.
Then she added, “But before they took him away, he told Marshal Crowley something.”
Silas frowned.
“What?”
Clara looked toward the closed clinic door.
“He said Evelyn Mercer wasn't the only woman he poisoned.”
Silas slowly sat up.
Clara reached for him.
“Silas...”
Someone knocked.
The door opened.
Marshal Crowley entered carrying a sealed medical file.
He placed it on Silas’s blanket.
May you like
A name was written across the front.
Clara Bell.
