Chapter 4 - The Secret Behind the Silver Locket
Jasper wanted to leave immediately.
Ellie threatened to tie him to the bed.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
Samuel coughed suspiciously into his hand.
Jasper glared at both of them.
The address on the note belonged to an abandoned mining settlement twelve miles east of Copper Falls.
Dead Man’s Hollow.
The name did little to reassure anyone.
Ellie insisted Jasper wait until morning.
He reluctantly agreed.
But before sunrise, the deputy Harlan had left outside was discovered unconscious beside the woodpile.
His horse was gone.
“So whoever delivered the box came back,” Samuel said.
Jasper checked the deputy’s pulse.
“Or never left.”
Ellie’s eyes moved toward the forest.
Someone had been close enough to watch them all night.
They traveled at first light.
Jasper rode despite Ellie’s objections, though every jolt clearly hurt him.
Dead Man’s Hollow appeared near afternoon.
Broken cabins leaned beneath snow. An abandoned mine entrance opened like a black mouth in the hillside.
The address led to a weather-beaten house at the settlement’s edge.
Jasper dismounted.
“Stay behind me.”
Ellie almost argued.
Then she saw his expression.
This mattered too much.
He opened the door.
A woman stood beside the fireplace.
Thin.
Dark-haired.
Perhaps thirty years old.
A scar crossed one cheek.
Jasper stopped breathing.
The woman covered her mouth.
“Jasper?”
His knees nearly failed.
“Rose.”
Years of grief collapsed in one word.
She ran toward him.
Brother and sister clung to each other while Ellie quietly turned away.
Jasper Cain, who had endured a grizzly attack without asking for help, sobbed against his sister’s shoulder.
Eventually Rose noticed the bandages.
“What happened?”
“Long story.”
Her eyes moved to Ellie.
Jasper wiped his face.
“This is Eleanor Caldwell.”
Rose looked between them.
Something almost amused entered her expression.
“The nurse?”
“How do you know?”
“I know more than you think.”
They sat near the fire.
Rose’s story came slowly.
On the night Silas Cain died, she had hidden in the barn after Jasper’s fight with their father.
She saw a young ranch hand enter the house.
Elias Boone.
Ellie’s stomach tightened.
“Boone worked for your father?”
“Yes,” Rose said. “My father discovered he’d been stealing cattle and selling them under false brands.”
Boone confronted Silas.
Rose watched through the window.
“They fought. Boone hit him with an iron poker.”
Jasper closed his eyes.
“I should’ve stayed.”
“No.” Rose grabbed his hand. “Father would have killed you eventually.”
“Why did you run?”
“Boone saw me.”
She touched the scar on her cheek.
“He chased me. I escaped with a freight wagon.”
For years she lived under another name.
“Why didn’t you find Jasper?”
“I tried. Boone’s men were watching anyone connected to us. Then I heard Jasper was wanted. I thought if I contacted him, Boone would find him.”
“He found me anyway,” Jasper said.
Rose nodded.
“Because Boone is afraid.”
“Of what?”
“Of this.”
She lifted a floorboard.
Beneath it was a ledger.
Boone had kept records of stolen cattle, forged deeds, bribes, and payments.
Including one entry dated the night Silas Cain died.
Payment to a territorial clerk.
For the preparation of a murder warrant against Jasper Cain.
Ellie stared.
“This could clear you.”
“It can destroy Boone,” Rose said.
A gunshot exploded outside.
The window shattered.
Jasper dragged Ellie to the floor.
“Stay down!”
Another shot.
Samuel fired through the broken window.
Rose crawled toward the back door.
“There’s a tunnel beneath the shed.”
They escaped through deep snow as Boone’s men surrounded the house.
Jasper stumbled.
His wound had reopened.
Blood darkened his shirt.
“Jasper!”
“I’m fine.”
“You are bleeding.”
“Later.”
They reached the shed.
Rose pulled aside rotting boards, revealing a narrow passage into the old mine.
The four disappeared underground.
Behind them, voices grew closer.
Ellie supported Jasper as they moved through darkness.
His breathing became ragged.
“You’re going to collapse.”
“Not until you’re safe.”
“Stop saying that.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t cross a mountain to save you just so you could die trying to save me.”
Despite everything, Jasper smiled.
“That sounded almost affectionate.”
Ellie stared at him.
“Keep walking.”
The mine opened on the far side of the ridge.
By nightfall, they reached Copper Falls.
Sheriff Harlan was waiting.
Rose placed Boone’s ledger on his desk.
Harlan read several pages.
His face changed.
“This implicates half the county.”
“And Boone?” Jasper asked.
“Most of all.”
Harlan looked at Jasper.
“If this verifies, the murder warrant dies.”
For the first time in years, Jasper seemed unable to speak.
Then a church bell began ringing outside.
Once.
Twice.
Again and again.
People rushed into the street.
Orange light rose over the rooftops.
Ellie ran outside.
Her clinic was burning.
And painted across the snow in black letters were four words:
May you like
THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING.
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