Chapter 7 - The Ledger Beneath the Floor
They left before sunrise.
Judge Avery sent two deputies.
Odessa refused to remain behind.
Three days later they reached a small Montana settlement.
Thomas Vale lived above a blacksmith shop.
Or had.
The room was empty.
Still warm.
Coffee on the table.
Someone had arrived minutes before them.
Emmett found blood on the stairs.
They followed it into an alley.
Thomas lay behind stacked lumber.
Alive.
He recognized Odessa.
“Mrs. Kesler.”
She knelt.
“What happened to Elias?”
Thomas cried.
That told her before he spoke.
“I saw Rafe hit him.”
Odessa closed her eyes.
Thomas explained.
Elias had discovered Vain’s cattle theft and water diversion.
He confronted Rafe at North Creek.
Rafe struck him with the running iron.
Elias was alive afterward.
Rafe and Vain carried him toward the ravine.
Thomas followed.
Vain ordered Rafe to make the death look accidental.
Thomas fled.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Puit warned me they’d kill my wife.”
“Where is she?”
“Dead now.”
His voice broke.
“I’ve been hiding from ghosts for three years.”
“You can stop hiding,” Emmett said.
Thomas looked at him.
“No. Because Vain wasn’t protecting cattle.”
“What was he protecting?”
Thomas whispered, “Land.”
Under Kesler Ridge lay something Vain wanted.
Not gold.
Not oil.
A proposed railway corridor.
The territorial rail company planned a route through the valley.
Kesler Ridge controlled the narrowest pass.
If Vain acquired it cheaply before the announcement, its value would multiply.
Elias discovered correspondence.
That was why he refused to sell.
That was why he died.
“Where are the letters?” Odessa asked.
Thomas shook his head.
“Elias hid them.”
“Where?”
“He said only you could find them.”
Back home, Odessa searched Elias’s office again.
Only she could find them.
What did that mean?
Then she remembered their first winter.
Elias had replaced one floorboard himself after Odessa cracked it carrying a stove.
He joked that only a woman her size could break oak.
She dropped to her knees.
The board was still there.
Emmett pried it loose.
Beneath lay an iron box.
Railway correspondence.
Land surveys.
Vain’s purchase offers.
And a letter Elias had written to Odessa.
If you are reading this, I failed to come home.
She stopped.
Emmett moved away.
“This is yours.”
Odessa read alone.
Elias told her everything.
He knew Vain might kill him.
He apologized for not telling her because he wanted to protect her.
And then came the line that broke her.
Do not spend your life proving you loved me. Live it.
Odessa cried without hiding.
Later she handed the letter to Emmett.
He read the final line.
Neither spoke.
Then Odessa said, “I think he just gave me permission to love you.”
Emmett swallowed.
“Emiline would probably give me the same.”
Their hands met.
For once, neither ghost stood between them.
But outside, hoofbeats thundered.
Deputy Collins burst through the door.
“Vain’s gone.”
“Where?”
“He emptied Ironwood.”
Emmett frowned.
“Why?”
Collins held up a telegram.
The railway representatives were arriving tomorrow.
Vain had one last chance to secure Kesler Ridge.
Then they heard a crash upstairs.
Odessa reached for her shotgun.
May you like
A floorboard creaked above them.
Someone was already inside the house.
