Her obsession with hauling stones.
The nights she sat awake with papers beside the stove.
Everything he once read as unhappiness now had another meaning.
“She was protecting me.”
Silas answered before Mara could.
“In her way.”
Caleb turned.
“Do not speak for her.”
Silas lowered his eyes.
Then Caleb asked the question that had been waiting beneath everything else.
“Did you kill her?”
Silas looked at Sheriff Pike.
Pike’s hand moved toward his revolver.
That small movement answered more than words.
Chapter 16: Copper Creek
Elias Murray saw Pike’s hand first.
Two railroad guards stepped between the sheriff and Mara before the revolver cleared leather.
“Take your hand away,” Murray said.
Pike froze.
Silas laughed bitterly.
It was the sound of a man realizing the person beside him had become more dangerous than the people in front of him.
“I didn’t kill Ruth.”
Caleb stared.
Silas continued.
“I told Pike to frighten her.”
Pike shouted that he was lying.
Silas ignored him.
“She had taken freight records from one of my warehouses.”
“You mean copied them,” Mara said.
Silas looked at her.
“I wanted the papers returned.”
Caleb stepped forward.
“What happened at Copper Creek?”
Silas swallowed.
Pike answered instead.
“Her horse slipped.”
Silas turned on him.
“You chased her.”
Pike’s face darkened.
“You told me to get the papers.”
“I told you to scare her.”
“You told me she could ruin us.”
The last word hung there.
Us.
Pike realized too late what he had admitted.
Silas laughed again.
“Fifteen years, Owen.”
“Fifteen years I paid you.”
Pike stared at him.
Mara felt the case cracking open without her touching it.
Silas continued because frightened powerful men often believed the next confession might somehow save them from the previous one.
“I kept every payment.”
Pike’s face drained.
“What?”
“You think I trusted you?”
Silas looked toward Mara.
“There are books in my office.”
“Every dollar.”
“Every favor.”
“Every farm you helped me take.”
Sheriff Pike lunged toward him.
Railroad guards grabbed both arms.