Sarah continued quickly.
“They took me at eighteen. I pretended to cooperate. Crane liked clever girls. He taught me his books. I learned buyers, routes, bribes, every sheriff and judge involved.”
Caleb stared at the list.
“And then?”
“I started changing the records.”
Ruth frowned.
Sarah pointed toward the pages in Caleb’s hand.
“Those women were not all sold.”
Ruth whispered, “What?”
“Some were.”
Sarah swallowed.
“And I will carry their faces until I die.”
Then she looked at Caleb.
“But many of the women marked ‘delivered’ were smuggled out.”
Ruth’s lips parted.
Sarah continued.
“I created false destinations. False deaths. False buyers. I paid drivers. I bribed guards. I moved girls north under new names.”
Caleb looked down at the list.
“Annie Mercer?”
Sarah’s face softened.
“Alive.”
The word hit him like a blow.
Caleb stumbled back.
“No.”
“She lives in Oregon. Married. Three children.”
He could not speak.
All those years.
All that guilt.
Sarah reached toward him.
“Caleb—”
He stepped away.
“What about you?”
“I couldn’t leave. If I vanished, the whole escape route died.”
Ruth whispered, “Martha Bell.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
Caleb knew before she answered.
“I couldn’t save her.”
Ruth’s face broke.
“No.”
“I tried.”
“No.”
“She fought them. Crane killed her himself.”
Ruth slapped Sarah across the face.
The crack echoed through the room.
Sarah did not defend herself.
Ruth hit her again.
“You wrote her price.”
“Yes.”
“You stood there?”
“Yes.”
“You let them—”
“I was nineteen.”
Sarah’s voice shattered.
“And I was terrified.”
Ruth raised her hand again.
Then stopped.
Because Sarah was crying now.
Not delicately.
Not quietly.
She looked suddenly young.
Seventeen years younger.
A frightened girl surviving among wolves.
Ruth lowered her hand.
Caleb looked at the armed men.
“Then why is the auction still running?”
Sarah’s expression changed.
“Because tonight was supposed to be the last one.”
Judge Merritt shouted, “You lying—”
Sarah pulled a revolver and aimed it at him.
“You didn’t know I copied the ledger, did you?”
The judge went pale.
Sarah looked at Caleb.
“I have everything.”
“Where?”
“In the courthouse.”
Sheriff Vale laughed weakly from the floor.
“No, you don’t.”
Sarah froze.
Vale smiled through the pain.
“We found it this morning.”
Her face emptied.
“Where?”
“The evidence room.”
Caleb understood instantly.
“You moved it somewhere else.”
Vale laughed.
“You think we’d let a woman destroy Redstone?”
Then the sheriff’s eyes shifted toward the ceiling.
Sarah followed his gaze.
Her horror was immediate.
“Fire.”
A second later, smoke poured through the stairwell.
The opera house above them was burning.
Panic destroyed whatever order remained.
Men shoved one another toward the stairs.
Caleb ran to the cells.
“Get them open!”
Ruth seized keys from the auctioneer.
Smoke thickened.
Flames appeared at the top of the stairwell.
Someone had barred the exterior doors upstairs.
They were being buried alive.
Sarah shouted, “There’s a tunnel!”
“Where?”
“Under the platform!”
They tore aside the rug.
A trapdoor appeared.
Caleb lifted it.
A narrow passage dropped into darkness.
“Girls first!”
Ruth led the prisoners down.
Caleb remained behind.
Judge Merritt tried to push past.
Caleb grabbed his coat.
“Not you.”
Merritt’s face twisted.
“You’ll kill us?”
“No.”
Sarah understood.
“We need witnesses.”
