Chapter 7 - The Photograph Turned Face Down
The following morning Leanne finally asked about the photographs.
Not out of curiosity.
Because one had fallen.
Anna stared up from the floor.
She was smiling beside Arthur and Samuel.
Leanne carefully lifted the frame.
Arthur entered.
He stopped.
For several seconds neither moved.
“You can look,” he finally said.
Leanne turned the photograph over.
Arthur was younger.
Happy.
Almost unrecognizable.
“She was beautiful.”
“Yes.”
“You loved her.”
Arthur swallowed.
“Yes.”
Leanne replaced the photograph upright.
Arthur immediately noticed.
He had kept it facedown for three years.
He did not turn it back.
That evening Arthur asked about Leanne’s husband.
His name had been Thomas Liang.
He worked as a translator and bookkeeper for railroad crews.
“He died in an accident?” Arthur asked.
“That is what they told me.”
Something in her voice made him look up.
“You don’t believe them.”
Leanne hesitated.
Then removed a folded paper from her belongings.
Thomas had written it days before his death.
It mentioned suspicious payroll accounts.
Land purchases.
And one name.
Silas Vane.
Arthur felt cold despite the fire.
Their tragedies were connected.
Leanne had not been sent to Arthur’s ranch by chance.
Perhaps Jedidiah did not know.
But somebody did.
May you like
And when hoofbeats sounded outside after midnight, Arthur realized whoever had brought their stories together might now be coming to finish them.
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