Chapter 9 - The House Turns Against Her.
Pike did not move.
Elias's hand shook from weakness, but the pistol remained steady enough to change the doctor's expression.
"Step away from the bed."
Pike raised both hands.
"You are proving every statement I made about your mental condition."
"And you are standing in my room after midnight with an unmarked medicine."
"I am your physician."
"Not anymore."
Clara moved between Pike and the door.
"Where is the bottle?"
Pike looked at her.
"You are under arrest."
"Answer her."
Elias's voice stayed low.
Pike reached slowly inside his coat and placed a small vial on the table.
Clara took it.
"Now leave."
Pike smiled at Elias.
"By morning, the sheriff will hear that an injured man threatened his doctor with a firearm."
Elias's eyes did not leave him.
"By morning, the sheriff will also have your vial."
For the first time, Pike's confidence slipped.
Only slightly.
Then he walked out.
Clara locked the door.
Elias lowered the pistol.
His arm dropped heavily to the mattress.
"I hate that thing."
Clara took it from him.
"You looked convincing."
"Fear improves performance."
Ruth entered with Jonah moments later.
Jonah carried a folded county map.
"Pike has a carriage waiting by the south lane."
Clara looked at him.
"He plans to leave."
"Or move someone."
Jonah spread the map across the table.
"There is an old smokehouse on Mercer land two miles east."
Ruth frowned.
"No one uses it."
"Exactly."
Jonah tapped the map.
"When Pike held me in the west wing, I heard his helper mention the smokehouse."
Elias looked at Clara.
"The bonds were planted to remove you."
"And the medicine was meant to weaken you again."
"Which means whatever happens next needs both of us unable to interfere."
Clara stared at the map.
"Then we interfere."
Sheriff Cole appeared at dawn.
Pike had already complained.
Elias told the sheriff exactly what happened and surrendered the pistol voluntarily.
Then Clara handed Cole the vial.
"Send this to Ashbury with the other sample."
Cole frowned.
"Other sample?"
Clara told him about the tonic.
The sheriff looked from her to Elias.
"If the chemist confirms tampering, the case changes."
"Until then?"
"Until then, the warrant against you remains."
Clara nodded.
"Give me one hour."
Cole almost laughed.
"That is not how custody works."
Elias spoke.
"Then take me too."
The sheriff turned.
"For what?"
"Obstruction."
"You have not obstructed me."
"I am about to."
Elias threw the bedroom key out the window.
Cole stared at him.
Ruth covered a smile with her hand.
The sheriff rubbed his forehead.
"You Mercer people are exhausting."
Elias leaned back against the pillows.
"One hour."
Cole finally agreed to delay departure while his deputy searched the south lane for Pike's carriage.
Clara and Jonah used the servants' passage to leave unseen.
They rode to the smokehouse through wet fields.
The building looked abandoned.
Inside, they found rope, medical cloth, and two empty food tins.
No prisoner.
Then Clara heard tapping beneath the floor.
Jonah pulled aside a feed bin.
A trapdoor appeared.
Below was a cramped storage cellar.
A young man sat against the wall with a bruise along his jaw.
Clara recognized him as Peter, Ruth's cousin, the mail driver.
"Where is the package?"
Peter looked ashamed.
"They took it."
"Who?"
"Doctor Pike and another man."
Jonah crouched beside him.
"What did the other man look like?"
Peter shook his head.
"Hat low."
"Anything else?"
Peter hesitated.
"He called Pike by another name."
Clara's pulse jumped.
"What name?"
"Miles."
Jonah went still.
Clara stared at Peter.
"You are certain?"
"Pike turned on him and said never to use that name."
The air seemed to leave the cellar.
Doctor Harlan Pike was not helping Miles Mercer.
Doctor Harlan Pike was Miles Mercer.
They returned to Blackthorn less than an hour later.
Sheriff Cole listened to Peter's statement in silence.
Silas arrived halfway through it.
When he heard the name Miles, he sat down hard in the nearest chair.
Elias watched him.
"You knew."
Silas did not deny it.
"How long?"
Silas looked suddenly old.
"Twelve years."
Clara felt rage rise.
"You knew Pike was Elias's brother for twelve years?"
"Half-brother."
Silas's voice was hollow.
Elias stared at him.
"Explain."
Silas looked toward the window.
"Your father had Miles before he married your mother."
Elias's face went blank.
"The portrait."
"Marian raised him as her own."
Silas nodded.
"Until Gideon decided one son was legitimate enough to inherit and the other was not."
Elias's voice dropped.
"So Miles left."
"He was sent away."
Silas closed his eyes.
"And he came back with a different name."
Before anyone could ask more, the front bell rang violently.
A deputy ran into the room holding a telegram.
The Ashbury chemist had tested Clara's first sample.
The message contained seven words.
TONIC ALTERED.
DANGEROUS COMPOUND PRESENT.
STOP USE IMMEDIATELY.
Sheriff Cole looked at Elias.
"Doctor Pike is now wanted for attempted murder."
Silas whispered something almost too low to hear.
May you like
"Then he will burn the records."
At that exact moment, smoke began pouring from beneath the west corridor door.
