He couldn’t lose Eliza. Not when he was so close to finally making her his own.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST16, 1916•JENSEN
“They’re sure to search the whole ranch tonight.” Melissa stared at her captives. “And then tomorrow, they’ll widen the search and go elsewhere. That’s when you three will help me dig up my gold.”
The young Adams girl sobbed.
Melissa rolled her eyes. The girl had no idea what suffering was.
“I’m so sorry, Eliza.” The girl spoke between whining and gulping for air. “I wanted something bad to happen to you. Mrs. Friedman said you’d done bad things at the ranch—damage to the property. Even stolen things! She was so mad and wanted to know where you were.”
Melissa had to give it to the Mills woman. She was calm, as though she were sitting in a drawing room and not restrainedby ropes in a shack. “It’s not your fault, Louise. You’re forgiven. She already knew where we were. We saw her the other day.”
Aha. The paleontologist’s soothing tone had grown angry with the last statement. So maybe she had some backbone after all. That would make this more interesting.
And fun.
The woman pointed her icy stare at Melissa. “Since we’re going to be here all night, why don’t you tell us what this is all about? Did you kill all those animals? And your brother’s workers too?”
Melissa allowed a small laugh. She sat on the last chair in the little shack, resting her Colt on her knee. Aimed right at her guests. “Little miss paleontologist princess thinks she has it all figured out?” She looked at the other woman. Deborah? Was that her name? “What about you? Do you think I’m a murderer?”
While this woman showed more fear than Miss Mills, she clamped her lips together and didn’t answer.
As for the blasted paleontologist, she didn’t give up. “You did it. You killed them. And you were behind the stolen tools and the vandalism, weren’t you? And all the events on the ranch that made people think it was haunted. For how many years?” Her eyes filled with disdain. “All for what ... gold?”
Howdareshe mock her! “Youwouldbelittle it. From what I heard, you grew up in a mansion and your family has scads of money. You wouldn’t understand what gold could do for me. I have nothing! Nothing beyond what I’ve taken. And yes, I killed for it. But you missed one. I also killed my good-for-nothin’ husband. Now what do you think? You with your fancy clothes and hats.”
Melissa stood, knocking her chair over. In two paces she was in front of that little rich girl, her gun pointed straight at the interloper’s heart. “You have no idea what it is to suffer at the hands of controlling men. To be the daughter of awealthy man and never see apennyof it. To be sent out every night on rat duty because that’s all a girl was good for.” She gulped. “To long to be loved and taken care of, and when you meet someone you adore, your father tells you it’s forbidden to marry a bum like him.”
She didn’t owe this woman any explanation! But having started, she couldn’t stop.
“And when you do get married, the man turns into a hateful, greedy monster, and your family disowns you. They alldeservedto die. This ranch should be mine. That goldwillbe mine. Don’t judge me until you understand what it’s like to be m—”
Crash!
The door behind her fell off its hinges, and men flooded into the shack.
“No!”She turned toward Eliza and pulled the trigger.
twenty
“There are many things I wish to remember and keep some thing like the sequence of events. Sometimes one event a day will serve as a string to hold many remembrances. I have made a mistake in not realizing this in the past.”
~Earl Douglass
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST16, 1916•JENSEN
Devin pushed past the sheriff and his men, shoving shoulders and bodies as hard as he could. He had to get to Eliza. Was she shot? Was she even... still alive? His heart threatened to beat out of his chest.
When the door had crashed in, he’d felt as if time stopped—then started again, but slow, moment by moment. He watched it all unfold.
The woman turning and pulling the trigger.
The bullet heading straight for Eliza.
Some kind of guttural noise escaped his mouth as he surged forward.
Eliza screaming. A sickening thud.
