Chapter 13 - The Road to Fairplay
Nathaniel Price had aged into the kind of man whose fear looked practiced.
He checked windows twice.
Sat facing doors.
Refused to sleep near lamps.
Eliza recognized the habits.
Different prison.
Same lessons.
They sheltered that afternoon inside Isaiah's mining shed.
Price examined every document.
Thomas's statement.
The ledger.
Weller's letters.
Marriage settlement.
Margaret's note.
When finished, he removed his spectacles.
“This is enough.”
“To convict them?” Eliza asked.
“To investigate.”
Her disappointment showed.
Price continued.
“Investigations uncover witnesses. Bank records. land transfers. Copies of deeds in other counties.”
“Unless Weller burns them.”
“He can't burn every copy in Colorado.”
Rowan leaned against the wall.
“What about Caleb?”
Price looked uncomfortable.
“Assault against Eliza is separate.”
“There were no witnesses,” Eliza said.
“Your injuries.”
“He'll say she fell,” Rowan replied.
Price nodded.
“He already has.”
Eliza felt anger.
“So everyone knows he's lying and that means nothing?”
Price looked at her kindly.
“Truth and proof are relatives, Mrs.—”
“Mercer.”
“Yes.”
He corrected himself.
“Truth and proof are relatives, Miss Mercer. Not twins.”
She remembered the phrase.
It sounded like something her father would have liked.
“Then we get proof.”
“How?”
Caleb's silver watch.
Samuel spoke from the doorway.
“The watch.”
Everyone looked.
“If Thomas's statement identifies it specifically, and Caleb has it…”
Price nodded slowly.
“Possession alone doesn't prove murder.”
“But it proves contact.”
“Possibly theft.”
Eliza knew where Caleb kept the watch when sleeping.
On a nail beside his bed.
Ridiculous that such intimate knowledge survived love.
“I can get it.”
Rowan immediately said no.
Eliza glared.
He sighed.
“Right. Your choice.”
“Thank you.”
“Still a terrible choice.”
“Also thank you.”
Isaiah chuckled.
Caleb was staying at the Fairplay Hotel.
They learned from Samuel's contacts that he intended to leave for Denver the following morning.
If the watch traveled with him, their chance might disappear.
Eliza made the decision.
She would enter the hotel.
Rowan hated the plan.
He said so exactly once.
Then helped make it safer.
Maeve brought clothing from a friend.
A dark green dress.
Hat.
Veil.
Eliza barely recognized herself.
At nine that evening she entered through the kitchen.
The cook knew her.
Or thought he did.
“Mrs. Rourke?”
Eliza held a finger to her lips.
“Surprise.”
He laughed.
Caleb's charm had given her one advantage.
People wanted to believe their marriage was normal.
She climbed the stairs.
Room twelve.
Her old room with Caleb.
She stood outside.
Hands shaking.
Not because he was inside.
She believed he wasn't.
Because memory was.
Arguments muffled by hotel walls.
Apologies whispered after midnight.
Her first attempt to leave.
Caleb crying.
Yes, crying.
She had never told anyone.
He had knelt and cried.
Promised to change.
That memory had kept her trapped longer than threats.
Because cruel men were easier to leave if they were cruel every minute.
Caleb wasn't.
Sometimes he brought flowers.
Sometimes he made coffee.
Sometimes he listened.
Then the rules tightened again.
Eliza unlocked the door with the key Samuel had borrowed.
Empty.
She entered.
The silver watch hung exactly where expected.
Her hand reached.
Stopped.
Beside it lay a photograph.
Her.
Taken years earlier.
Before marriage.
She stood outside her mother's home.
Caleb had possessed it before they met.
Proof.
Eliza took both.
Then saw letters beneath the photograph.
One from Judge Weller.
M. received final dose today. Doctor believes natural decline convincing.
Eliza nearly dropped it.
Mother.
There it was.
Not implication.
Admission.
She took the letter.
The hallway creaked.
Eliza froze.
Caleb's voice.
“Thank you, gentlemen.”
Too soon.
She hid behind the wardrobe.
Door opened.
Caleb entered.
He removed his coat.
Walked toward the washstand.
Eliza barely breathed.
He reached for the watch.
His hand stopped.
Silence.
“Eliza.”
Her blood chilled.
He did not search.
Did not shout.
He simply knew.
“You always stand too quietly when you're frightened.”
She stepped out.
Caleb looked almost sad.
“You could've stayed hidden.”
“You would've found me.”
“Yes.”
They faced each other.
No Rowan.
No sheriff.
No audience.
For the first time since the ravine, Eliza stood alone with her husband.
Caleb looked at the bruises he had left.
His expression twisted.
“I didn't mean for it to go that far.”
The old words.
“I was angry.”
Silence.
“You shouldn't have run.”
There it was.
The apology that wasn't.
Eliza felt something inside finally release.
“I loved you once.”
Caleb blinked.
“I know.”
“No. You don't.”
She shook her head.
“Because if you knew what that meant, you'd understand what you destroyed.”
His face hardened.
“You think Creed loves you?”
“This isn't about Rowan.”
“Everything became about Rowan the second he touched you.”
Eliza almost laughed.
Even now.
Jealousy.
Possession.
Never responsibility.
“You killed my mother.”
Caleb's face became still.
“Weller wrote you.”
She showed the letter.
Caleb glanced at it.
Then back at her.
“She was already ill.”
“Liar.”
“She would've died eventually.”
“Everyone does.”
Her voice shook.
“That doesn't give you the right to choose when.”
Caleb stepped toward her.
“Eliza.”
She backed toward the door.
“You killed my father too.”
“No.”
The answer surprised her.
“No?”
“I didn't kill Thomas.”
“Then who did?”
Caleb's eyes shifted.
For the first time she saw genuine fear.
“Weller.”
Her breath stopped.
“Judge Weller?”
“Thomas confronted us. Weller panicked.”
“Us?”
“I was there.”
“Rowan found him alive.”
“Yes.”
“Then Weller didn't kill him.”
Caleb's jaw tightened.
“He finished what Weller started.”
“What does that mean?”
“I followed Creed's trail.”
The room seemed to narrow.
“I reached the cabin.”
“When?”
“After midnight.”
Eliza could barely breathe.
“Was my father alive?”
“Yes.”
“Did you speak to him?”
Caleb looked toward the window.
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
She knew that tone.
“Caleb.”
“He was dying.”
“What did you do?”
“He had the watch.”
“You took it.”
“Yes.”
“Before or after he died?”
Silence.
Eliza understood.
“You watched him die.”
Caleb's face twisted.
“He knew where the ledger was. I asked. He refused.”
“You could have helped him.”
“He was finished.”
Eliza shook.
“You could have helped him!”
Footsteps raced toward the room.
Rowan burst inside.
Caleb turned.
Eliza stepped away.
Rowan saw her face.
Then Caleb's.
“Did you get it?”
Eliza held up the watch.
“Yes.”
Caleb lunged.
Rowan blocked him.
No dramatic fight.
One brutal second of motion.
Then Caleb stopped when Samuel and Price appeared behind Rowan.
Too many witnesses.
Too much risk.
Eliza moved into the hallway.
Caleb called after her.
“Elizabeth!”
She stopped.
Turned.
“My name is Eliza Mercer.”
Then she walked away.
But downstairs Judge Weller waited with six armed men.
May you like
And this time he had no intention of allowing them to leave Fairplay alive with the evidence.
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