Chapter 6 - THE MAN IN THE MINE
Harrow was older than Abigail expected.
Gray mustache.
Town coat.
Clean gloves.
The sort of man who looked respectable in church.
His rifle did not.
Daniel slowly lowered the papers.
Harrow looked toward Abigail.
“Your father should've finished this on the road.”
Her blood froze.
Daniel's face changed.
“You told him to leave her?”
Harrow smiled.
“I told him loose ends ruin good business.”
Abigail thought of her mother.
Her brother.
The wagon lantern disappearing.
Her father had not simply acted from shame.
He had been afraid.
Harrow continued.
“Elias was a fool.”
Daniel's hands curled.
“He thought paper was stronger than men.”
Abigail looked toward the box.
“Sometimes it is.”
Harrow laughed.
Then another voice came from outside.
“Especially when there are copies.”
Harrow turned.
Gunshot.
Not toward anyone.
Into stone.
The sound exploded through the shaft.
Harrow dropped his rifle.
Ruth stood outside holding Daniel's spare shotgun.
Daniel stared.
“Ma?”
Ruth scowled.
“You expected me to let a seventeen-year-old mother and my idiot son visit an abandoned mine alone?”
Daniel almost smiled.
Harrow moved.
Daniel tackled him before he reached the rifle.
The fight was short.
Ugly.
Nonfatal.
Harrow ended face-down in snow with Daniel's knee between his shoulders.
Ruth tied his wrists.
Abigail looked at her.
“You know how to do that?”
“My husband drank.”
Ruth pulled tighter.
“You learn things.”
They brought Harrow to the marshal.
More importantly, they brought documents.
Copies were sent immediately to a territorial judge and a newspaper in Denver.
Daniel insisted on multiple copies.
“Paper is stronger when everyone has it.”
Harrow began talking within two days.
He blamed Samuel.
Samuel blamed Harrow.
Both blamed Elias.
Dead men make convenient criminals.
Except Elias had left handwriting.
Maps.
Records.
And Abigail.
The trial would take months.
May you like
For the first time, Abigail could wait.
She was no longer freezing on a road.
