Chapter 8 - A Stranger at the Fence
Arthur went outside carrying a lantern.
The rider had already vanished.
But someone had left an envelope nailed to the fence.
Inside were five words.
STOP DIGGING OR SHE DIES.
Arthur immediately decided Leanne would leave.
Leanne immediately refused.
Their argument lasted twenty minutes.
“You don’t understand these men.”
“I understand men who use fear.”
“You could die.”
“So could you.”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
Arthur had no answer.
Leanne stepped closer.
“Because you believe your life already ended?”
That struck deeper than she intended.
Arthur turned away.
Leanne softened.
“You survived the fire, Arthur. That does not mean you must remain inside it forever.”
The following day they searched Anna’s box again.
One burned scrap contained numbers.
Parcel numbers.
Arthur recognized one.
His own ranch.
Another belonged to Jedidiah.
Several others belonged to families whose land had eventually been purchased cheaply by Vane after accidents, fires or financial ruin.
The pattern was impossible to ignore.
Silas had been acquiring land along the proposed railroad route.
Arthur’s ranch sat directly in its path.
Anna must have discovered something.
Thomas Liang had discovered the same scheme years later.
Both died.
Now Arthur and Leanne possessed pieces of their evidence.
But not enough.
They needed the ledger.
And according to Anna’s letter, she had hidden it somewhere Silas would never think to look.
Arthur stared toward the burned barn.
Then remembered something Samuel once said.
Something Arthur had dismissed as childish nonsense.
“Papa, Mama put a book where the horse sleeps.”
May you like
Arthur slowly turned toward Ghost’s paddock.
---
