Chapter 12 - The Empty Chair.
Ruth had been standing beside Sheriff Cole less than five minutes earlier.
Now she was gone.
The deputy at the cottage door swore she had never passed him.
Clara ran outside.
Ruth's shawl lay near the woodshed.
One corner was caught on a nail.
Fresh wagon tracks cut through the wet grass behind the cottage.
Jonah knelt beside them.
"Two horses."
Cole cursed under his breath.
"Miles had someone waiting here."
Silas stood in the doorway.
"He knows the old service roads better than any of you."
Elias looked at him.
"Then you are going to tell us everything you know about the station."
The old Mercer station had been abandoned when the main rail line moved south fifteen years earlier.
It sat beyond a limestone cut where the telegraph lines no longer worked.
A freight train still passed the spur once each night without stopping.
Silas drew the layout from memory.
"There is a platform, a ticket room, a storage cellar, and a maintenance shed."
Clara studied the page.
"How many roads in?"
"One obvious road."
"And the others?"
Silas looked at Jonah.
"There is a timber track from the north."
Jonah nodded.
"I know it."
Sheriff Cole folded his arms.
"Miles said no sheriff."
Elias looked at him.
"So he expects you to come."
Cole almost smiled.
"I was hoping you would say that."
They spent the afternoon planning.
Clara hated every minute of it.
Ruth had protected her when no one else knew her real name.
Now Ruth was a hostage because Clara and Elias had uncovered the truth.
Elias seemed to read the guilt on her face.
"Miles took Ruth because she matters to us."
Clara looked at him.
"That does not make me feel better."
"It is not meant to."
He adjusted the leather strap on his crutch.
"It means the blame belongs to him."
Clara glanced at the crutches.
"You are not going."
"Yes, I am."
"You cannot walk fifty feet without resting."
"Then I will rest at forty-nine."
"This is not funny."
"I am not joking."
Elias's gaze hardened.
"Miles wants the ledger and the letter."
"We can take copies."
"He wants me."
Clara knew he was right.
That made it worse.
Silas entered carrying a long coat.
"There is something else you should know."
Elias looked at him.
"At this point, I assume there are fifty things."
Silas ignored the remark.
"Miles believes Gideon left a formal confession."
Clara frowned.
"The letter is a confession."
"Not enough for him."
"Why?"
"Because Gideon once told Miles he had signed a document restoring Miles's place in the family."
Elias's eyes narrowed.
"Did he?"
"I never saw it."
Silas looked uneasy.
"Miles thinks you found it."
"I did not."
"He will not believe that."
Clara remembered Pike's words during the fire.
Elias has something I need.
Now they knew what he meant.
At nine that evening, Sheriff Cole sent two deputies toward the station by the public road.
They would stop a mile away and approach on foot.
Jonah would take Clara and Elias by the northern timber track.
Silas insisted on coming.
Elias refused.
Silas insisted harder.
"Ruth kept my secrets for thirty years."
His voice was rough.
"I owe her at least one decent act."
Elias studied him.
"One act will not erase the others."
"I know."
That answer earned him a place in the wagon.
At eleven thirty, they saw the abandoned station through the trees.
One lantern burned on the platform.
Ruth sat in a chair beneath it.
Her hands were tied in front of her.
Miles stood behind her wearing a dark coat and the Mercer ring.
He no longer looked like Doctor Pike.
Without the medical bag and polite expression, he looked harder and older.
Clara could finally see the resemblance to Gideon's photograph.
Elias climbed down from the wagon with Jonah's help.
Miles watched him balance on the crutches.
"You came."
Elias looked at Ruth.
"Let her go."
"After I see the documents."
Clara held up a leather folder.
Miles smiled.
"Miss Vale."
"You planted the bonds in my room."
"Yes."
"You imprisoned Jonah."
"Yes."
"You altered Elias's medicine."
Miles's expression did not change.
"Yes."
Clara hated the ease of each admission.
"And the carriage?"
"I loosened the pin."
Elias's jaw tightened.
"You took my leg."
Miles looked at him for a long moment.
"I meant to take your freedom for a week."
"That is a remarkable apology."
"It is not an apology."
Miles stepped closer.
"I needed you injured enough that Silas could gain temporary control."
Silas emerged from the darkness behind the wagon.
"You told me the accident would be minor."
Miles's face changed.
"You were told to stay away."
Silas walked into the lantern light.
"I have spent twelve years doing what you told me."
"Because you were guilty."
"Yes."
Silas's voice rose.
"And so were you."
Ruth suddenly stood.
The rope around her wrists fell loose.
Clara blinked.
Ruth stepped away from the chair.
"You tie knots like a physician."
Miles turned toward her.
That half second was enough.
Sheriff Cole's deputies emerged from behind the freight shed.
"Miles Mercer, do not move."
Miles backed toward the platform edge.
A distant train whistle cut through the night.
He smiled.
"You still think this is about inheritance."
Then he pulled a folded paper from his coat.
"Elias, ask Clara why her father's signature is on your mother's death certificate."
May you like
He threw the paper onto the platform.
The train whistle sounded again, closer now.
