Chapter 13 - The Sheriff’s Locked Drawer
Rebecca entered the tunnel alone.
Not because Hannah allowed it.
Because Rebecca waited until everyone argued about the safest plan and walked inside.
Harlon’s lantern flickered ahead.
“You always were stubborn.”
Rebecca held her rifle.
“You knew me when I was a child.”
“I knew your father.”
“So did half the town.”
“Not like I did.”
The tunnel narrowed.
Rebecca followed his voice.
She found him in a chamber partly blocked by rock.
Harlon held a pistol.
Beside him sat a wooden trunk.
The trunk from Elias Mercer’s possessions.
Rebecca recognized the freight markings.
“You kept it.”
“My father kept it.”
“What’s inside?”
Harlon smiled.
“Your father’s signature.”
Rebecca stopped.
“On what?”
“A partnership agreement.”
He opened the trunk.
Inside were old papers.
Harlon held one out.
Rebecca did not approach.
“Read it.”
“Put the gun down.”
“No.”
“Then read it yourself.”
Harlon tossed the document onto the ground.
Rebecca picked it up.
The agreement was between Silas Boon and Edwin Puit.
It referred to freight operations.
Profit sharing.
Mercer Valley access.
Silas’s signature appeared at the bottom.
Rebecca felt sick.
“You think Father helped steal the valley.”
“He did.”
“Why would he?”
“Money.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“You’re lying.”
“Paper isn’t.”
Rebecca studied the date.
Twenty-one years earlier.
Before Silas married Hannah.
Harlon continued.
“Your father drove the wagon that took Elias away.”
Rebecca froze.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Delbert’s father—”
“Owned the wagon. Silas drove it.”
Rebecca looked at the paper again.
Silas’s name.
Harlon smiled.
“Your noble father built his marriage on betrayal.”
Footsteps sounded.
Hannah.
Rebecca shouted.
“Stay back!”
Harlon raised the pistol.
Hannah stopped beyond the chamber.
“What did he show you?”
Rebecca’s voice cracked.
“A partnership agreement.”
Hannah closed her eyes.
“You knew.”
That hurt more than the paper.
“You knew too?”
“Not until years later.”
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“Wonderful.”
Harlon looked delighted.
“Family honesty.”
Hannah ignored him.
“Silas did drive the wagon.”
Rebecca stared.
“He helped abduct Grandfather.”
“No.”
Elias’s voice came from behind Hannah.
“He helped me escape.”
Rebecca turned.
Elias entered.
Harlon’s expression changed.
Elias looked at the document.
“Edwin Puit forced Silas into the partnership. Silas signed so Edwin trusted him.”
Harlon scoffed.
“Convenient.”
Elias continued.
“The night they loaded me into the freight wagon, Silas was driving.”
Rebecca’s hands shook.
“What happened?”
“Six miles outside town, he stopped.”
Elias smiled faintly.
“He handed me a horse and told me to run.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
Her father had not betrayed Elias.
He had saved him.
“Why keep this paper?” Rebecca asked Harlon.
“Because your father’s signature was useful.”
“To blackmail him.”
“For years.”
Rebecca understood.
The inflated debts.
Silas’s silence.
His fear.
Harlon had inherited more than a mercantile.
He inherited leverage.
Hannah stepped closer.
“You destroyed Silas.”
Harlon shrugged.
“He made choices.”
“So did you.”
Kums entered behind them.
Pale from blood loss.
“Harlon.”
Harlon aimed the pistol.
“Stay back.”
Kums stopped.
“You shot a sheriff.”
“You were never much of one.”
Kums almost smiled.
“Fair.”
Rebecca looked at the trunk.
“What else?”
Harlon’s gaze shifted.
Too fast.
Rebecca saw it.
“Something else is inside.”
“No.”
She moved toward it.
Harlon aimed at her.
Hannah raised her rifle.
Everyone froze.
Elias spoke calmly.
“Harlon. Your father lost twenty years ago.”
“He died rich.”
“He died afraid.”
That struck.
Harlon’s face twisted.
“You don’t know anything.”
“I know Edwin came to Redstone.”
Silence.
Harlon’s gun lowered slightly.
Elias continued.
“Seventeen years ago.”
Rebecca stared.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He begged me never to testify.”
“Why?”
“He said Harlon had started searching the old records.”
Harlon’s face drained.
“You’re lying.”
Elias smiled sadly.
“He was afraid of you.”
The son who believed he inherited power had apparently inherited his father’s fear instead.
Harlon fired.
The shot hit the ceiling.
Kums lunged.
Hannah pulled Rebecca back.
Rock rained down.
The pistol skidded away.
Harlon and Kums wrestled.
Rebecca grabbed the trunk.
Elias helped.
They dragged it toward the exit.
Then the tunnel groaned.
“Move!” Elias shouted.
Everyone ran.
Harlon broke free.
He ran deeper instead of out.
Kums shouted.
“Wrong way!”
Harlon disappeared.
The ceiling collapsed between them.
Dust swallowed the tunnel.
Rebecca woke outside.
Hannah leaned over her.
“You’re all right.”
Rebecca coughed.
“Kums?”
“Here.”
“Elias?”
“Here.”
“Harlon?”
Nobody answered.
The tunnel entrance had collapsed.
Rebecca stared.
“Is he dead?”
Kums looked toward the rocks.
“I don’t know.”
The trunk survived.
Inside were letters.
Account books.
Blackmail agreements.
Records of land fraud.
And a small key labeled:
SHERIFF DRAWER.
Kums stared.
Rebecca held it up.
“What drawer?”
Kums’s expression told her he knew.
“In my office.”
“What’s inside?”
He looked ashamed.
“My confession.”
Rebecca blinked.
“You wrote one?”
“Ten years ago.”
“Why hide it?”
“Cowardice has habits.”
The next morning, Rebecca returned to Pine Hollow.
Kums unlocked his office.
His desk contained a narrow hidden drawer.
Rebecca used the key.
Inside lay Kums’s confession.
A copy of Elias Mercer’s original deposition.
Statements about Edwin Puit.
And a list of payments Harlon made to Kums after becoming sheriff.
Rebecca looked at him.
“You took his money.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“To look away.”
“How much?”
“Enough to hate myself. Not enough to make it worthwhile.”
Rebecca closed the drawer.
“What happens to you?”
Kums removed his badge.
“This time, someone else decides.”
For the first time since Rebecca had known him, Wyatt Kums placed himself beneath the same law he had used against others.
Outside, the church bell began ringing.
Not for Sunday.
Not for a funeral.
For a town meeting.
Pine Hollow was finally ready to hear what had been hidden.
But before Rebecca could leave the sheriff’s office, a boy ran inside.
“Miss Boon!”
“What?”
“They found someone near the north ridge.”
Rebecca’s heart jumped.
“Harlon?”
The boy shook his head.
“Another man.”
“Who?”
“He says his name is Amos Bell.”
Hannah went pale.
The dying county clerk who had confessed six years earlier.
May you like
The man whose evidence Hannah believed lost.
And Amos Bell had arrived carrying a sealed envelope addressed to Rebecca.
