Chapter 15 - The Night the Mountain Closed
The jail fire was a diversion.
By the time Mercer realized it, Clayton’s cell was empty.
One deputy lay unconscious.
A horse was missing.
Pike remained locked inside.
“He left me!” Pike shouted when they dragged prisoners away from the smoke.
Clayton had escaped alone.
That surprised Jed.
“He’s abandoning his network.”
Mercer nodded.
“Means he’s scared.”
“Or finished using them.”
Alandre looked toward the dark streets.
“Where would he go?”
Everyone considered.
Then Jed said, “Cabin.”
Alandre stared.
“Again?”
“The gold was recovered.”
“What else is there?”
Jed’s expression darkened.
“My old papers.”
“What papers?”
“The ones proving who bought stolen claims before Thomas’s records began.”
Mercer swore.
“You never mentioned those.”
“You never asked.”
Alandre looked at Jed.
“That is a terrible defense.”
“I know.”
The records were hidden not beneath the floorboard but inside the cabin’s stone chimney foundation.
Jed had kept them for years.
He had intended to use them eventually.
Then shame and fear convinced him to wait.
Waiting had nearly cost them everything.
Mercer assembled riders.
Snow began before they left Fort Benton.
By midnight, the storm became vicious.
Visibility dropped.
Horses struggled.
Mercer called a halt at a ranch house.
Jed refused.
“If Clayton reaches those papers—”
“You ride out there, you freeze,” Mercer said.
Jed looked at Alandre.
She knew that expression.
He was leaving anyway.
So was she.
“No.”
Jed’s voice was immediate.
Alandre mounted.
“We’ve discussed this.”
“This is different.”
“They’re always different.”
Mercer swore.
“You’re both insane.”
“Possibly,” Alandre said.
Jed almost smiled.
Mercer sent Nathan and one deputy with them.
They reached Black Pine Ridge shortly before dawn.
The storm intensified.
A deep rumble rolled through the mountains.
Jed stopped.
“Avalanche.”
They waited.
Snow thundered across a distant slope.
The road behind them disappeared beneath white debris.
Nathan stared.
“We’re cut off.”
“Until morning,” Jed said.
The cabin was ahead.
Alandre saw smoke.
Clayton had arrived.
Jed dismounted.
“No shooting unless necessary.”
Nathan nodded.
They approached through trees.
Inside, a lantern burned.
Clayton stood beside the hearth tearing stones from the chimney base.
He found the packet.
“Of course,” Jed muttered.
They entered.
Clayton turned.
His silver revolver was in his hand again.
He must have recovered it during the jail escape.
“Persistent people.”
Jed stood between him and Alandre.
Clayton laughed.
“Still doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Standing between danger and a woman who clearly doesn’t need you to.”
Alandre stepped sideways so Jed no longer blocked her.
Clayton smiled.
“Better.”
“Put the gun down,” Jed said.
“No.”
“You have nowhere to go.”
“The southern pass.”
“Buried.”
Clayton’s expression changed.
“You’re lying.”
A rumble shook the cabin.
Snow slid from the roof.
Jed said nothing.
Clayton looked toward the window.
For the first time, panic entered his eyes.
He was trapped.
Clayton clutched the papers.
“I can still destroy these.”
“Thomas’s copies are already with federal officials,” Alandre said.
“These names reach higher.”
“Then destroying them only delays things.”
Clayton looked from her to Jed.
“You’ve ruined everything.”
Alandre shook her head.
“No. You did that years ago.”
He raised the revolver.
Jed remained still.
Alandre felt fear.
But not helplessness.
Clayton pointed toward the door.
“Horse.”
“No,” Jed said.
“I will shoot her.”
Jed’s eyes changed.
Alandre spoke before he could.
“You won’t.”
Clayton looked at her.
“You need a hostage to cross the mountain. If you hurt me, Jed has no reason to cooperate.”
Clayton smiled faintly.
“Smart.”
“Thomas taught me.”
The smile disappeared.
Alandre continued.
“You hated him because he made you feel ordinary.”
Clayton’s eyes narrowed.
“He was a clerk.”
“He beat you with paper.”
Jed almost smiled.
Clayton’s hand tightened.
“You think this is amusing?”
“No.”
Alandre stepped closer.
“I think you spent years building a reputation because without men afraid of you, you’re just a man standing in someone else’s cabin holding someone else’s gun.”
Clayton fired.
The shot hit the ceiling.
Jed moved.
He slammed Clayton into the table.
The revolver fell.
Alandre kicked it away.
Clayton reached for a knife.
Nathan entered and leveled his rifle.
“Don’t.”
Clayton froze.
This time, nobody smiled.
Jed retrieved the papers.
Outside, the storm sealed every trail.
For eighteen hours, Clayton sat tied to a chair in the cabin he had once invaded.
Alandre cooked stew.
Nathan watched him.
Jed repaired the damaged chimney.
It was almost absurd.
At dinner, Clayton stared at the bowls.
“You’re feeding me?”
Alandre set one down.
“I’m not becoming you.”
Clayton looked at her for a long time.
Then lowered his eyes.
Later, Jed and Alandre stood on the porch.
Snow had finally stopped.
Moonlight covered the mountains.
“You called Thomas a clerk,” Jed said.
“So did Clayton.”
“You made it sound dangerous.”
“He was.”
Jed smiled.
Alandre looked at him.
“If you go to prison…”
He waited.
“I meant what I said.”
“What part?”
“I’ll visit.”
His expression softened.
“And if I don’t?”
She looked toward the cabin.
“Then you’re fixing this porch.”
“It does lean.”
“And the roof.”
“Demanding.”
“And that storage room.”
Jed looked at her.
“Storage?”
“Unless you had something else in mind.”
For once, the mountain man had no reply.
Alandre smiled.
Then, far below, riders appeared on the reopened trail.
Marshal Mercer was coming.
May you like
And with him came the beginning of a reckoning Jedodiah Boone had delayed for fifteen years.
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