Chapter 12 - The Town That Believed the Wrong Man
Federal Marshal Elias Mercer did not look heroic.
He looked tired.
Gray hair.
Weathered coat.
Bent hat.
The expression of a man who had heard every lie a human being could tell and was disappointed by the lack of originality.
He rode down from the ridge with four deputies.
“Clayton Reynolds.”
Clayton slowly raised his hands.
“Marshal.”
“Samuel Pike.”
Pike did not.
His hand moved toward his revolver.
Mercer sighed.
“Don’t.”
Pike hesitated.
Then surrendered.
The confrontation ended with less drama than Alandre expected.
Perhaps that was justice.
Not thunder.
Not revenge.
Just men who believed themselves untouchable being told they were no longer in charge.
Clayton looked toward Alandre.
“You think papers will hold me?”
“No,” she said. “People will.”
Mercer dismounted.
“You Mrs. Collins?”
“Yes.”
“You sent quite a message.”
“I wasn’t sure it would reach you.”
“It nearly didn’t.”
He glanced at the postal rider.
“Boy rode most of the night.”
Alandre made a mental note to repay the horse theft with interest.
Mercer turned toward Jed.
“Boone.”
Jed’s posture changed.
He knew this part was coming.
“Marshal.”
“I’ve wanted to meet you for twelve years.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“Warrant’s still active.”
Alandre stepped forward.
Mercer raised one hand.
“Doesn’t mean I’ve decided what to do with it.”
Jed looked surprised.
Mercer continued.
“Thomas Collins sent material to my office before he died. Mentioned your cooperation.”
Alandre stared.
“Thomas contacted you too?”
Mercer nodded.
“Your husband had more plans than a railroad company.”
Despite everything, Alandre laughed.
That sounded exactly like Thomas.
Clayton was placed in handcuffs.
Pike too.
The gold was recovered from a wagon hidden beyond the crossing.
All twelve thousand dollars.
They rode into Pine Hollow by afternoon.
News reached town before them.
People gathered outside stores.
When Pike entered Main Street wearing handcuffs, silence spread.
An old rancher removed his hat.
A woman began crying.
Others simply stared.
For years Pike had represented law.
To discover he had helped steal their neighbors’ homes broke something.
At the bank, Henry the clerk shook Alandre’s hand.
“I wondered if you made it.”
“Barely.”
He looked toward the postal rider.
“You owe Nathan a horse.”
“I plan to give him two.”
Nathan grinned.
Mercer commandeered the marshal’s office.
By evening, witnesses began appearing.
One farmer claimed Pike had threatened him after he refused to sell water rights.
A widow produced a deed showing her late husband’s property transferred two weeks before his death.
A miner identified Clayton as the man who had paid him to intimidate another family.
The case grew hour by hour.
Alandre watched people enter.
Thomas’s papers had opened the door.
But fear had kept these stories silent.
Now one person speaking gave permission to another.
Jed stood at the back of the room.
Mercer approached him.
“We need to discuss your warrant.”
Alandre’s chest tightened.
Jed nodded.
They entered the adjoining office.
Alandre followed.
Mercer sat behind Pike’s desk.
“Stage robbery near Willow Bend, eight years ago.”
“Guilty.”
“North Line payroll.”
“Guilty.”
“Claim intimidation?”
“Guilty.”
“Murders outside Silver City?”
“No.”
Mercer looked up.
“You willing to testify against Reynolds?”
“Yes.”
“Even if it means admitting everything else?”
“Yes.”
Alandre watched Jed.
No hesitation.
Mercer leaned back.
“Thomas believed you’d say that.”
Jed looked toward him.
“You knew Thomas well?”
“No. Met him once.”
“What’d you think?”
“Annoying.”
Alandre laughed.
Both men looked at her.
“Sorry.”
Mercer’s mouth twitched.
“He asked too many questions.”
“Exactly.”
“He also sent me three letters insisting you’d helped recover stolen property.”
Jed said nothing.
Mercer continued.
“And Amos Hale wrote one.”
Jed’s face changed.
Alandre remembered Silver Creek.
“What did he say?” she asked.
Mercer opened a folder.
“That Boone saved his son from a burning barn. Later paid the family restitution. Hale asked that any prosecutor consider it.”
Jed looked uncomfortable.
“You didn’t tell me that,” Alandre said.
“I told you enough.”
“No. You mostly tell people your worst parts.”
Jed glanced at her.
Mercer looked between them.
“I’m going to transfer you both to Fort Benton tomorrow.”
“Both?” Alandre asked.
“You’re a witness.”
“And Jed?”
“A suspect and cooperating witness.”
Alandre did not like the wording.
Jed seemed resigned.
That evening, Jed was not locked in a cell.
But he was not free to leave.
Alandre found him outside behind the office.
Snow had begun falling.
“You’re thinking about running.”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m thinking about whether I could.”
“That wasn’t what I said.”
He smiled faintly.
“I won’t.”
Alandre stood beside him.
“What if the court sends you away?”
“Then it does.”
“For how long?”
“Could be years.”
Her throat tightened.
Jed looked toward her.
“I need to tell you something before that happens.”
She waited.
He seemed suddenly more nervous than he had facing six armed men.
“Alandre.”
“Yes?”
He opened his mouth.
The office door burst open.
Nathan, the postal rider, appeared.
“Marshal!”
Mercer hurried outside.
Nathan held a telegram.
“Came through relay station.”
Mercer read it.
His expression hardened.
“What?”
Alandre asked.
Mercer looked toward Clayton’s cell.
“The territorial judge scheduled to hear Reynolds’s case has disappeared.”
Jed’s eyes narrowed.
Mercer continued.
“And someone just burned the records office in Helena.”
Clayton Reynolds had been captured.
His network had not.
May you like
And somewhere beyond Pine Hollow, powerful men were beginning to erase the evidence Thomas died collecting.
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