Clara looked toward the church doors.
“The papers were never in the pies.”
Caleb’s eyes widened.
This time, his surprise was real.
Rusk spun Clara around.
“What did you say?”
She smiled through her fear.
“My father knew Rusk watched everything,” she said, looking at Caleb now. “But he also knew strangers could be followed.”
Caleb stared at her.
“I found the letter in my father’s coat years ago. Hidden in the lining. I thought it was nonsense until you brought the button.”
Rusk’s face drained of color.
Clara continued.
“The ledgers were never meant to travel out of Red Creek. The pies were a diversion.”
“Where are they?” Rusk demanded.
Clara’s gaze lifted toward the ceiling.
Above them, the church bell rang again.
Father Daniel had reached the rope outside.
“The bell,” Clara said.
Rusk looked up.
Inside the hollow bronze bell, hidden for twenty years, were the original ledgers.
Her father had concealed them before fleeing.
And every year, on the anniversary of his disappearance, Clara had unknowingly helped Father Daniel polish that bell.
Rusk shoved her aside and ran toward the stairs leading to the tower.
He made it three steps.
The church doors opened.
Men in dark coats entered, rifles raised.
At their front stood a gray-haired federal marshal.
Behind him came the circuit judge, two newspaper editors, and townspeople carrying lanterns.
The marshal spoke calmly.
“Amos Rusk, you are under arrest for murder, land fraud, bribery, and conspiracy against the territory.”
Rusk turned toward Caleb.
“You said noon.”
Caleb smiled faintly.
“I lied.”
Rusk reached for his gun.
Clara kicked the back of his knee.
He fell.
The marshal’s men rushed forward and seized him before he could fire.
For several seconds, Clara could hear nothing but her own breathing.
Then the tension inside her broke.
She sank onto a pew.
Caleb approached slowly.
“You knew about the bell?”
“Not until tonight.”
“How?”
Clara opened her father’s envelope.
She had taken it from the mill before the shooting began.
Inside was a single page.
My dearest Clara,
If Caleb finds you, trust his courage but not his plans. He believes he is delivering my evidence. He does not know he is delivering my son.