Inside the jail, the rear door swung open. One deputy lay beside the empty cell with a knot above his ear. Sheriff Reed stood over him, cursing beneath his breath. Fresh mud crossed the floor and the keys hung from the deputy's belt. No stranger had opened it.
"Boon had help," Caleb said. The sheriff looked toward Clara. "Then she should leave town. " The last wagon left. "Not my concern. " Caleb's face changed by less than an inch, but Clara saw it. "She is under my protection now. " He took her bag and led her through the back door before the sheriff could answer.
Caleb's house stood beyond the northern edge of Hollow Creek, small and square, beneath two cottonwood trees. A gray horse watched from the pen. Warm lamp light showed through clean windows. Inside, Caleb placed her bag beside a bedroom door. "The lock works," he said, setting a brass key in her palm.
"Keep it with you. " Clara closed her fingers around it. "" Caleb built up the stove. Clara found beans, salt pork, and cornmeal without asking where anything belonged. Soon, a skillet hissed over the flame. While they ate, she took a sewing knife from her bag and opened the hem of her dress. Caleb watched the folded ledger page slide onto the table.
His plate remained untouched as he read the names. When he reached his own, one muscle tightened beside his mouth. My brother owned a ranch near Dodge City. He said his barn burned last spring. They found him inside.
Clara looked at the page again. Beside Caleb's name stood a date only 4 days away. "What happens Thursday? " she asked. I was hoping you knew. She studied the marks beside it.
Two crossed lines and the letters RC. "Railroad crossing," she said Pike used that mark when stolen cattle were moved after midnight. Caleb folded the page. Then Thursday night, we will be waiting. "We? " "You heard me. " "I heard a man forgetting whose memory solved his case. " The corner of his mouth lifted.
It was gone quickly, but her spoon stopped against the bowl. Over the next 3 days, Hollow Creek watched Clara enter Caleb's house. each evening and leave for errands each morning. Curtains shifted. Conversations ended when she approached. She walked through them with her shoulders straight.
At night, Caleb copied every name she remembered from 6 years at the Silver Queen. She gave him bribes, whispered deals, and meetings men had held within arms reach because none had believed she was listening. He wrote down every word. No smirk, no question about how she knew. No glance that turned her past into something dirty.
On Wednesday, he returned after dark with a torn sleeve and blood soaking his shoulder. Clara pulled him into a chair. Boon. Two men near the livery. She cut away the cloth and cleaned the shallow bullet track.