The plan was Nola’s.
Garrick hated it immediately.
“No.”
“You haven’t heard it.”
“I heard enough.”
“You heard the part where I go into town.”
“Alone.”
“Exactly.”
“No.”
Nola folded her arms.
“Is this because you suddenly think forty-three is too young to make decisions?”
Garrick glared.
“This isn’t funny.”
“I’m not joking.”
“Crow threatened the children.”
“Which means he’s frightened.”
“It means he’s dangerous.”
“I already knew that.”
Garrick paced.
Nola waited.
Finally he stopped.
“What are you planning?”
“To tell Crow you’ve agreed to sell.”
Garrick stared.
“He’ll know it’s a trick.”
“Not if I give him a reason to believe it.”
“What reason?”
“That I convinced you.”
Garrick laughed once.
“You?”
“He already believes I came here for money.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
That surprised him.
Nola continued.
“I needed work. I did not arrive because fate whispered that I should rescue a handsome widower.”
“Handsome?”
“Don’t make me regret saying it.”
Despite himself, Garrick smiled.
Nola continued.
“I tell Crow you’re breaking. The bank note. The fire. The cattle. Weston nearly dying.”
“And?”
“I say I’ll persuade you to sign if Crow pays me.”
Garrick’s smile disappeared.
“He’ll suspect you.”
“Probably.”
“Then why?”
“Because men like Crow usually believe everybody has a price.”
Garrick watched her.
“You don’t.”
“Everybody has something they value.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
“What do you value?”
The question caught her off guard.
Nola glanced toward the kitchen where Clara was singing softly to Weston.
“I’ll tell you when this is over.”
Crow agreed to meet Nola at the hotel dining room.
He arrived ten minutes late deliberately.
“Miss Vance.”
“Mr. Crow.”
He sat.
“I’m told Dr. Webb made unfortunate allegations.”
“The bottle contained arsenic.”
Crow showed no surprise.
“That proves someone tampered with it.”
“It came from you.”
“Did it?”
Nola leaned back.
“I’m not here about Rebecca.”
His interest sharpened.
“Then why?”
“Garrick is going to lose the ranch.”
Crow smiled.
“So he finally understands.”
“He understands money.”
“And you?”
“I understand thirty dollars a month isn’t worth getting shot.”
Crow studied her.
“What do you want?”
“There.”
Nola smiled.
“You asked faster than I expected.”
“How much?”
“One hundred dollars.”
“For what?”
“I convince Garrick to sell.”
Crow laughed.
“Garrick Hale does not listen to women.”
“He listens to me.”
The boast sounded arrogant.
Crow believed it precisely because he was arrogant himself.
“You’ve been there less than two weeks.”
“His baby almost died in my arms.”
Crow’s expression flickered.
Nola continued.
“People grow attached quickly when they’re frightened.”
Crow sat back.
“And you think you can persuade him?”
“I think I already have.”
“What is he asking?”
“Five thousand.”
Crow laughed.
“Impossible.”
“Then lose the ranch to the bank and fight whoever buys it afterward.”
Crow stopped laughing.
Nola saw she had hit something.
He needed Garrick to sign voluntarily.
Why?
Perhaps because Mercer’s survey meant Crow needed clear title before someone else learned the value.
“How much?” Nola asked.
“Three thousand five hundred.”
“Four.”
“Three eight.”
“Four.”
Crow smiled.
“You bargain like a horse trader.”
“I’ve met horse traders with more manners.”
“Four.”
He extended his hand.
Nola did not take it.
“Cash for me.”
“When the deed is signed.”
“Half before.”
Crow’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re clever.”
“People usually say difficult.”
“They’re often the same thing.”
He leaned closer.
“Tomorrow night.”
“Where?”
“Hollow Creek.”
Nola shook her head.
“Too suspicious.”
“Then the abandoned church at Barrow Crossing.”
“Why there?”
“Privacy.”
Nola pretended to consider.
“Fine.”
Crow stood.
Then he placed something on the table.
Rebecca’s silver hair comb.
Nola had seen its matching comb in Garrick’s bedroom.
Her pulse changed.
“Where did you get that?”
Crow watched her carefully.
“Rebecca gave it to me.”
Nola said nothing.
“She trusted me once.”
“Did she?”
“More than Garrick knows.”
He smiled.
“Perhaps ask him whether he truly knew his wife.”
Then Crow left.
Nola waited until he was gone before touching the comb.
She understood the tactic.
Divide.
Confuse.
Create jealousy around a dead woman who could not defend herself.
Yet another question remained.
Why did Crow possess Rebecca’s property?
Garrick’s reaction was immediate.
“That was hers.”
“I know.”
“She lost it before she died.”
“Where?”
“We thought somewhere in town.”
Nola handed it to him.
“He said Rebecca gave it to him.”
Garrick’s jaw clenched.
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because Rebecca hated Crow.”
“But earlier you said you trusted him.”
“I did.”
“When did she stop?”
Garrick thought.
“After Christmas.”
“That matches her letter.”
Garrick turned the comb over.
A tiny piece of paper was wedged beneath the decorative silver backing.
Nola saw it.
“Wait.”
They carefully pried loose the thin plate.
Inside was a folded scrap.
Rebecca’s handwriting.
Only six words.
Under chapel floor. Where we married.
Garrick looked at Nola.
“The abandoned church.”
“You married there?”
“Eleven years ago.”
Barrow Crossing chapel had closed after a flood changed the road.
Crow had selected the exact location Rebecca referenced.
Coincidence was becoming difficult to believe.
They rode there before dawn.
The old chapel leaned beneath cottonwoods.
Garrick walked straight to the front.
“We stood here.”
Nola watched his face.
“Rebecca wore yellow flowers.”
“You remember.”
“Everything.”
They searched the floorboards.
Near the altar, one plank had been cut and replaced.
Beneath it lay a tin box.
Inside were letters.
Receipts.
And Rebecca Hale’s journal.
Garrick could not open it.
He handed it to Nola.
“You.”
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
Nola opened the first page.
Rebecca had documented months of suspicion.
Vernon Crow’s repeated offers.
The missing surveyor.
Strange barrels near the spring.
The tonic.
And eventually something worse.
She had caught Crow pouring powder into a bottle in the Hale kitchen.
When Rebecca confronted him, he told her nobody would believe a sick woman.
Then he threatened Garrick.
If I tell my husband now, Vernon says Garrick will be killed in an accident and Eli will inherit debts he cannot pay. I thought I was protecting them by pretending not to know. I may have been wrong.
Garrick sank onto the church pew.
Nola continued reluctantly.
I stopped taking the tonic four days ago, but I am no better. Perhaps it is too late. I have hidden what proof I have here. Vernon believes I burned the survey copy. I did not.
Beneath the journal lay a mineral survey signed by Daniel Mercer.
And a receipt from an apothecary in another county.
Purchased by Vernon Crow.
White arsenic. Agricultural pest control.
Garrick covered his face.
Nola closed the journal.
“We have him.”
A floorboard creaked.
Crow stood in the doorway.
Two armed men behind him.
“No,” Crow said.
“You have paper.”
Garrick rose.
Crow pointed a revolver.
“Sit.”
Nola’s heart pounded.
Crow stepped inside.
“I wondered how long it would take you to find Rebecca’s little insurance box.”
“You knew?” Garrick asked.
“I knew it existed.”
“Then why leave it?”
“I didn’t know where.”
Crow looked at Nola.
“Until she showed me.”
Nola felt cold.
The meeting had been bait.
Crow had expected them to discover something.
“You used the comb.”
“Rebecca was clever.”
His voice hardened.
“Annoyingly so.”
Garrick surged forward.
The gunman cocked his rifle.
Nola grabbed Garrick.
Crow smiled.
“Still impulsive.”
“You murdered my wife.”
Crow’s face went flat.
“She was going to ruin everything.”
The words hung in the chapel.
Nola stared at him.
Garrick stopped breathing.
Crow seemed to realize what he had admitted.
Then decided it no longer mattered.
“She should have taken the offer.”
“You poisoned her.”
“I encouraged weakness that was already there.”
Garrick lunged.
A rifle struck him across the head.
He collapsed.
“Garrick!”
Nola knelt.
Blood ran near his temple.
Crow pointed the revolver at her.
“You made this far more complicated than necessary.”
Nola glared.
“You poisoned a nursing mother.”
“She discovered something that was not her concern.”
“You poisoned the cattle.”
“Enough to make the ranch fail.”
“The barrels?”
“Waste from an assay operation.”
“The fire?”
Crow smiled.
“Insurance, as it were.”
Nola looked toward the doorway.
Nobody.
No sheriff.
No rescue.
She had insisted they come quietly.
Perhaps her first serious mistake.
Crow collected the documents.
“Now Hollow Creek will burn.”
Nola’s blood chilled.
“The children.”
“Not my concern.”
She stood.
“Touch them and I’ll—”
“You’ll what?”
Crow stepped closer.
“You’re a middle-aged mail-order bride nobody wanted.”
The insult should have hurt.
Instead Nola smiled.
Crow frowned.
“What?”
“You made the same mistake Garrick did.”
“What mistake?”
“You looked at me and decided you knew what I was worth.”
Crow’s face hardened.
Outside, a whistle sounded.
Then another.
The chapel doors burst open.
Sheriff Reed entered with Amos Pike, Dr. Webb, and six armed townsmen.
Crow spun.
Reed raised his rifle.
“Drop it.”
Crow stared at Nola.
She smiled again.
“You didn’t think I’d come without telling anyone?”
One gunman surrendered immediately.
The other fired.
The chapel exploded into chaos.
Crow grabbed Nola.
His arm locked around her neck.
He dragged her backward.
“Move and she dies!”
Garrick stirred on the floor.
His eyes opened.
“Nola.”
Crow aimed toward him.
Nola drove her heel into Crow’s shin.
His grip loosened.
She twisted.
The revolver fired into the ceiling.
Garrick tackled him.
They crashed through a rotten pew.
Crow struck Garrick’s injured head.
Garrick fell.
Crow reached for the gun.
Eli’s voice suddenly came from the doorway.
“Pa!”
Everyone froze.
Garrick stared.
“What are you doing here?”
Eli had followed them.
Of course he had.
Behind the boy stood Clara.
“Eli!” Nola shouted.
Crow lunged toward the children.
That was his last mistake.
Garrick rose with a roar and hit him.
Once.
Crow collapsed.
Sheriff Reed kicked away the gun.
“Vernon Crow, you are under arrest for the murder of Rebecca Hale, attempted murder, poisoning livestock, arson, intimidation, and whatever else I can make stick before breakfast.”
Crow spat blood.
“You have no case.”
Reed looked at the journal.
Then at the armed witnesses who had heard Crow’s confession.
“I reckon we finally do.”
Garrick grabbed Eli.
Then Clara.
He held both so tightly they protested.
Nola touched the blood at Garrick’s temple.
“You need stitches.”
He looked at her.
“You tricked Crow.”
“Yes.”
“You tricked me.”
“A little.”
“I told you this plan was dangerous.”
“It worked.”
“I’m going to be angry later.”
“Get in line.”
For the first time in nearly a year, Garrick Hale laughed.
Right there in the chapel where he had married Rebecca.
It was not a betrayal of her.
Perhaps that was why it felt possible.
Because Rebecca had left behind the truth.
And the truth had finally brought them all back into the light.
---