“No.”
“Clara.”
“We’re going.”
“Half the town’s looking for us.”
“Then half the town can come too.”
Silas almost smiled.
“You really are Gideon’s daughter.”
They reached the cemetery after midnight.
Wind moved through the grass.
Deadwood glimmered below like a scattering of dying embers.
Gideon Vane’s grave stood near the slope.
Silas had brought a shovel.
Clara dug first.
He did not stop her.
Neither spoke.
After nearly two hours, metal struck wood.
Clara’s hands began shaking.
Silas cleared the remaining dirt.
Together they lifted the lid.
Clara raised the lantern.
The coffin was empty.
For several seconds she could not understand what she was seeing.
Nothing.
No bones.
No clothes.
No father.
Only a folded blanket.
Then Silas noticed something carved into the inside of the coffin lid.
Three letters.
G.V.C.
Clara whispered, “What does that mean?”
Silas stared.
His face changed.
“Oh, Gideon.”
“What?”
He reached into the coffin and touched the carving.
“Not initials.”
“Then what?”
“A place.”
He looked at Clara.
“Galena Vault Company.”
It was an abandoned storage warehouse outside town.
Gideon had used it years earlier to store mining records.
They arrived shortly before dawn.
The lock had already been broken.
Someone else was there.
Clara heard movement inside.
Silas drew his revolver.
They entered.
Rows of crates vanished into darkness.
A lantern burned somewhere ahead.
Then a voice said:
“You always were difficult to kill, Samuel.”
Silas stopped.
Clara knew the voice.
Elias stepped into the lantern glow.
Wade stood beside him.
Micah was behind them with his injured hand bandaged.
Sheriff Dawes emerged from between the crates.
Four guns.
Silas had one.
Clara had none.
Elias smiled.
“Thank you for finding the place.”
Silas said, “You knew about the grave.”
“No.
But I knew my wife couldn’t resist a mystery involving her precious father.”
Clara looked behind them.
No escape.
Elias’s eyes settled on her.
“Where’s the deed?”
“Go to hell.”
Micah raised his gun.
Elias lifted a hand.
“Not yet.”
Then he looked at Silas.
“Samuel.”
Silas’s expression remained unreadable.
“Elias.”
A strange smile crossed Elias’s face.
“All these years.”
“You disappointed?”
“I’d say surprised.”
“No.
You aren’t.”
Silas frowned.
Then Clara understood.
“You knew he was alive.”
Elias shrugged.
“My father knew.”
Silas went still.
“Amos told you?”
“On his deathbed.”
Elias stepped closer.
“He said if Samuel ever came back, kill him before he reaches the courthouse.”
Silas’s eyes darkened.
“Sounds like Amos.”
Elias laughed.
“You could have had all of it.”
“I never wanted it.”
“That’s because you’ve always been weak.”
Silas looked around the warehouse.
“No.”
He looked at Clara.
“I just figured out earlier than you that
owning something isn’t the same as deserving it
.”
Elias’s smile vanished.
He raised his gun.
Then Clara heard a floorboard creak above them.
Everyone looked up.
A voice came from the darkness.
“Still talks too much, though.”
Clara stopped breathing.
An old man stepped onto the warehouse balcony.
Gray hair.
Bent shoulders.
A familiar way of rubbing his left thumb against his forefinger when nervous.
Clara’s knees nearly gave way.
“No.”
The lantern shook in her hand.
The man looked down.
Tears filled his eyes.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Gideon Vane was alive.
Clara could not move.
Could not speak.
Could barely breathe.
Elias reacted first.
He swung his revolver upward.
Gideon fired.
Elias’s gun flew from his hand.
Silas drew.
Wade fired.
The warehouse erupted.
Clara dropped behind a crate.
Gunshots thundered through the building.
Micah screamed.
Sheriff Dawes ran toward the rear door.
Silas fired once.
Dawes’s hat spun away and he slammed against the wall, suddenly staring at Silas’s revolver aimed directly between his eyes.
