Chapter 9 

At sunrise, the fires were finally under control.

Crowe had disappeared.

The sheriff was dead.

Samuel was wounded.

Elias sat outside the ruined restaurant.

Clara joined him.

“Where did you get the ledger?”

Elias handed her the paper.

“It was in your father’s coat.”

She unfolded it.

The names were not criminals.

They were victims.

Every person Crowe had threatened.

Every family he had destroyed.

Every witness who had disappeared.

At the bottom was one final name.

Thomas Bennett.

Clara looked at Elias.

“Why is my father on the list?”

Elias shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

Samuel approached.

“I do.”

He placed a letter on the table.

“This was written twelve years ago.”

Clara opened it.

Her father had written:

Clara,

If you ever read this, then Crowe has failed to find me.

But there is something you must know.

I didn’t run because I was afraid.

I ran because I killed a man.

Clara stopped reading.

The letter continued.

He was going to kill your mother.

I had no choice.

But the man I killed was not one of Crowe’s men.

He was a federal marshal.

Clara looked up.

Samuel whispered:

“Your father has been hunted ever since.”

Then a horse appeared on the road.

A rider approached.

He carried a white flag.

He stopped.

“Thomas Bennett is alive.”

Clara stood.

“Where?”

The rider pointed toward the mountains.

“He’s waiting.”