Chapter 10 - The Gold Beneath the Cabin
Marshal Samuel Pike was a heavy man with a trimmed mustache and a badge polished brighter than his conscience.
He smiled when Alandre emerged from the vault.
“Mrs. Collins.”
She kept Thomas’s statement folded inside her sleeve.
“Marshal.”
“Word is you’ve been staying in the mountains.”
“Word travels strangely fast.”
Pike’s smile tightened.
“A woman traveling alone becomes conversation.”
“I’m touched by everyone’s concern.”
One deputy laughed.
Pike did not.
“Where’s Boone?”
Alandre kept her expression neutral.
“I don’t know anyone named Boone.”
“Curious.”
“Why?”
“Because two trappers saw you riding his horse.”
Her stomach tightened.
Pike gestured toward the bank office.
“Perhaps we should speak privately.”
“No.”
His smile disappeared.
“That wasn’t a request.”
Alandre looked toward the front windows.
People moved along Main Street.
Witnesses.
That was protection.
For now.
“Then arrest me.”
Pike’s eyebrows rose.
“For what?”
“Exactly.”
She stepped past him.
One deputy blocked her.
The elderly clerk spoke.
“She’s done nothing wrong, Sam.”
Pike looked over his shoulder.
“Stay out of it, Henry.”
The clerk’s expression hardened.
“This is my bank.”
Silence.
Alandre realized corruption did not mean the entire town belonged to Pike.
That mattered.
Pike stepped aside.
“For now.”
Alandre walked outside.
She did not hurry.
Half a block.
One block.
At the general store, she turned into an alley.
Then ran.
Someone shouted.
A horse stood saddled beside a hitching rail.
Alandre hesitated only once.
“Forgive me,” she whispered to whoever owned it.
She mounted and rode.
Two deputies followed.
Alandre had grown up riding farm horses.
Thomas once joked she could outrun the devil if given a decent saddle.
Today, she intended to test the theory.
She took the north road.
Exactly the opposite direction from Jed.
Then cut west across an orchard and followed a creek.
The deputies passed her trail.
She waited.
Then doubled back toward the ridge.
Jed found her before she reached the miner’s cabin.
He rode out of the trees.
Alandre had never been so relieved to see anyone.
“You’re late.”
“So are you.”
“I was coming after you.”
“I know.”
He noticed the unfamiliar horse.
“Stole it?”
“Borrowed under urgent circumstances.”
Something almost amused crossed his face.
Then he saw her expression.
“What happened?”
“Pike knows.”
“About us?”
“About everything.”
She handed him Thomas’s statement.
Jed read.
His eyes widened.
“This can hang Clayton’s entire operation.”
“That’s not all.”
She gave him the photograph.
For several seconds, Jed simply stared.
“You never told me Thomas had this.”
“I didn’t know.”
He turned it over.
His mouth tightened at the message.
Alandre watched him.
“He knew you were terrible at confession.”
“Apparently.”
“He trusted you.”
“Eventually.”
“So do I.”
Jed looked at her.
Alandre immediately added, “Somewhat.”
His eyebrow rose.
“Somewhat?”
“You lied to me for months.”
“Fair.”
“But I believe you didn’t kill Thomas.”
Jed exhaled as if he had been holding that breath for three months.
Alandre continued.
“I believe Clayton used your gun to frame you. I believe you tried to protect us.”
He waited.
“And?”
“And I am still furious.”
“Also fair.”
For the first time since the cabin, they smiled at each other.
Then a gunshot echoed from the miner’s shack.
Jed turned.
They rode hard.
The door stood open.
Clayton was gone.
A severed rope lay on the floor.
And one of Clayton’s men lay unconscious outside.
Jed examined the tracks.
“Pike.”
Alandre understood.
“Pike freed him.”
“Looks like it.”
“Why leave his own man?”
“Disagreement.”
She looked toward town.
“What happens now?”
“Clayton knows we have the evidence.”
“And he knows about the gold.”
Jed nodded.
Alandre thought of the cabin.
“Twelve thousand dollars.”
“Enough to buy horses, weapons, men, officials.”
“So he’ll go back.”
“Yes.”
Alandre said, “Then so do we.”
Jed looked at her sharply.
“No.”
“The documents connect the gold to unpaid workers.”
“The documents matter more.”
“The gold is proof.”
“It isn’t worth dying for.”
“Thomas thought it was worth risking his life to expose this.”
“And look what happened.”
The words came out harsher than Jed intended.
Alandre went still.
He closed his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re right.”
That surprised him.
“Thomas died. I won’t pretend bravery made him immortal.”
She looked toward the snowy ridgeline.
“But I also refuse to spend the rest of my life letting Clayton decide what Thomas’s death means.”
Jed said nothing.
Alandre turned to him.
“If we run straight to Fort Benton, Clayton takes the gold and disappears. He buys new names. New officials. New towns.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You do.”
Jed looked away.
She was right.
“We go back,” she said. “We move the gold somewhere safe. Then we take everything to federal authorities.”
Jed stared toward the mountain.
“It’s exactly what Clayton expects.”
“Then we stop doing what men like him expect.”
He looked back.
“What do you suggest?”
Alandre smiled slightly.
“Let him find an empty floorboard.”
Jed stared.
Then slowly smiled.
“You’ve become troublesome.”
“Thomas used to say that.”
“I liked Thomas.”
“You would have argued constantly.”
“We did.”
Her smile disappeared into something softer.
For once, the memory did not hurt quite as much.
They rode toward Black Pine Ridge.
They reached the cabin after dark.
The door hung open.
Inside, drawers had been emptied.
Boards pulled up.
Shelves broken.
Clayton had already been there.
Alandre’s heart sank.
Jed crossed toward the bed.
The floorboard was open.
The gold was gone.
Then Alandre noticed something on the table.
A silver revolver.
The rattlesnake engraving caught the firelight.
Beside it lay a folded note.
Jed opened it.
Three words.
Bring me Thomas’s papers.
On the back was a place.
Miller’s Crossing. Dawn.
Alandre stared.
The place where Thomas had been murdered.
Clayton Reynolds was not merely asking for an exchange.
May you like
He wanted to finish the story where he had begun it.
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