“All right. Let me grab my hat.” Will retrieved his hat. He followed her outside but said nothing more.
“I’m so sorry to bother you. I’ve needed to talk to you for some time now, but I didn’t know how to go about it or what good it might do. However, it can’t wait.” She sighed and looked off down the road. Laura knew if she looked Will in the eyes, she would start to cry.
“What’s so important?” The friendly familiarity between them was strained, and Will’s tone reminded her of when she’d first met him.
Yet another thing that made her want to cry. She reached into her pocket and produced the necklace.
“First of all, I brought this for you. I should have done it before now, but I wasn’t sure ... I mean, I felt that ...” She couldn’t figure out what to say and handed the necklace to Will. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry about what?” he asked, pocketing the piece without looking at it.
Laura pulled her shawl closer to ward off the chilly air. “It belongs to you, and I should have been quicker to return it. I’m afraid a great many things have happened, however, since you first saw me with that necklace. Things that I’m not even sure how to tell you about. All I ask is that you please hear me out and try not to hate me.”
Will frowned. “Why would I hate you? You didn’t know. Your father lied to you about the necklace.”
“And a lot of other things. He’s not ... he’s not the man I thought him to be,” she said, her voice breaking. She took a moment to regain her composure and continued to walk.
Fear gripped her like nothing ever had. She was terrified that Will would have nothing more to do with her once he knew the truth, and she was starting to realize that she wasvery afraid of her father. The night before, she’d heard someone walking in the hallway outside her bedroom door and worried that her father had learned what she knew and had come to silence her. That was the biggest reason she had decided she must speak to Will.
They moved away from the neighborhood and into the less populated edges of town. “Nothing is right in my life, and I’m afraid that what I have to say will cause you to hate the very sight of me. I just want you to know, I’ve had nothing to do with any of it, and I still don’t even know everything that has happened.”
Will touched her arm to stop her. Laura turned and found his expression much more compassionate. “Tell me what’s happened.”
“Etta quit the day you spoke to Father. After you left, someone else came. She wasn’t sure but thought it was my father’s man Gus Synder. He’s the only one she knew who would be likely to sneak around the place.”
“Sneak around?”
“Yes, Etta told me that he hadn’t come to the door. He just showed up in father’s office. No one let him in, so he must have snuck in.”
“I see.”
“Besides the department store staff, he’s the only one of Father’s men I’ve met, and when I did, Father didn’t introduce him. He just dismissed me and ... he was the one Father told to drown the kitten.”
“Oh ... him.”
“It gets worse. Etta told me Father spoke to him about the stagecoach passengers. I can barely tell you what was said—it’s so awful.” She drew a deep breath. “Apparently, my father’s men came upon the stagecoach after the attackand ... and ... they were the ones who ransacked the dead passengers. They’re probably also the ones who took the money box.” She forced herself to look up at Will.
His eyes narrowed as he frowned. “Are you certain?”
“Etta overheard the conversation. Father told his man to get the stuff they had taken, along with things they had collected from other jobs, and take it to Chicago. Etta said that Gus told Father he had a cousin who could take it that evening. This was a week ago.”
His frown deepened. “Why didn’t you come and tell me right away? Maybe I could have stopped them.”
“There was something more, and ... well, I can’t explain why I delayed. I suppose because I’m afraid. I don’t know what it all means or what’s going to happen next, but Etta also overheard my father say something about killing the governor, and while I think he was probably just talking out of anger, I know the man is a friend of yours. Just in case he is really plotting something ... I ... well ...” She shook her head. “I don’t know what to do.”
Will had never much liked Granite Evans. The man always seemed to be hiding something, and Will accounted it to spiritual discernment and avoided him. But now Laura was giving him proof that his suspicions were more than just odd feelings.
“He wants to kill John Campbell? You’re sure?”
“Yes. Etta didn’t know anything more than that. She heard footsteps and feared the man was coming to the door and fled. She was so afraid, she didn’t even stick around. She told Mrs. Murphy that she was resigning her position and left immediately. I had to go to her house to find out why, and this is the story she told me.”
They started walking again as Will tried to digest all that he’d heard. Evans’s men and not Indians had ransacked the dead. Had they just happened upon them? Had they perhaps heard the attack and come to their rescue, then seeing they were too late decided to take what they wanted?
A horrible thought came to mind. Will tried to put it aside, but it wouldn’t go. It was all that made sense.
“What if ... your father’s men attacked the stagecoach to begin with? What if there weren’t any Indians at all?”
Laura stopped and shook her head. “No, that can’t be. Surely not. There were arrows.”
