The truth struck her with physical force.
Isaac had not died in an accident.
Isaac had been murdered.
Miriam’s knees gave way.
Silas caught her.
For several moments she fought him, grief and rage bursting free all at once.
“He knew,” she sobbed. “He knew somebody was after him.”
Silas held her while she cried.
“I should have seen it.”
“You couldn’t.”
“He kept looking through the windows. He started locking the door in daylight. He told Jonah not to walk into town alone.”
“Miriam.”
“He knew.”
Silas gripped her shoulders.
“Listen to me.”
She looked at him.
“This was not your doing.”
Then came a sound outside.
A horse.
Silas released her and reached for his revolver.
The front doorway darkened.
Gideon Mercer stood there.
And beside him was Sheriff Harlan Beck.
Both men were armed.
Gideon smiled.
“I was hoping you’d find the box for me.”
Silas slowly stepped in front of Miriam.
Sheriff Beck raised his shotgun.
“Don’t.”
Silas stopped.
Gideon entered.
His boots crushed fragments of Miriam’s broken roof.
“You could have signed the land over,” he told her.
Miriam stared at him.
“You killed my husband.”
Gideon sighed.
“Isaac was an obsessive man.”
“His name was Elias Crowe.”
For the first time, genuine surprise appeared on Gideon’s face.
Then he laughed.
“So Crowe finally told you.”
Silas’s hands curled into fists.
“You knew.”
“I knew before either of you.”
“You burned my house.”
Sheriff Beck glanced at Gideon.
That had not been part of the arrangement.
Gideon’s smile vanished.
“Your brother was always too curious.”
Silas stepped forward.
The sheriff cocked the shotgun.
“Stay where you are.”
Gideon reached for the iron box.
Miriam grabbed it first.
He pointed his pistol at her.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Miriam.”
“No.”
His eyes hardened.
“You think hunger was an accident?”
The words froze everyone.
Gideon stepped closer.
“I told every storekeeper in Red Ash Crossing that extending you credit would cost them their bank loans. I told the relief committee your household had already been provided for.”
Miriam’s lips parted.
“You starved my children.”
“I applied pressure.”
Peter’s face flashed before her.
Licking crumbs from his fingers.
Jonah offering away half his bread.
Something inside Miriam changed.
Fear disappeared.
“You murdered Isaac because he found out.”
“I offered him money.”
Gideon’s mouth twisted.
“He refused.”
Silas’s voice came softly.
“So you shot him.”
“He ran.”
Gideon shrugged.
“Men fall on ridges all the time.”
Sheriff Beck stared at him.
“You told me he was already dead when you found him.”
Gideon turned sharply.
That single mistake destroyed everything.
The sheriff lowered his shotgun slightly.
Gideon saw it.
His pistol swung.
The shot exploded through the ruined cabin.
Sheriff Beck fell.
Silas lunged.
Gideon fired again.
