Chapter 15 - Daniel Hayes
Daniel Hayes died five years before Clara.
Official cause: typhoid fever.
Eli had been eight.
Jacob remembered the sickness.
Three days of fever.
Doctor coming and going.
Clara sitting beside the bed.
Nothing suspicious.
Yet the threat said:
WHAT CLARA DID THE NIGHT DANIEL DIED.
Eli demanded answers immediately.
Jacob had none.
Martha knew something.
Her silence betrayed her.
Eli noticed.
“You know.”
Martha looked away.
“What?”
“You know something about Dad.”
Jacob stepped closer.
“Martha.”
She exhaled.
“Clara came to me that night.”
“The night Daniel died?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She needed someone to stay with Eli.”
Eli frowned.
“I remember Mrs. Vale being there.”
Martha nodded.
“What was Clara doing?” Jacob asked.
“She left the house.”
“While Daniel was dying?”
“For about an hour.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Eli’s expression hardened.
“You never asked?”
“I did. She wouldn’t tell me.”
Jacob felt unease.
“Did Daniel die while she was gone?”
“No. He died after she returned.”
“What changed?”
Martha looked at Eli.
“I don’t know.”
Eli snapped:
“Stop saying that!”
Martha flinched.
The boy’s anger filled the hallway.
“My mom’s dead. My dad’s dead. Everybody keeps saying they protected me by not telling me anything.”
Jacob put a hand on his shoulder.
Eli shrugged it off.
“Don’t.”
Jacob let his hand fall.
Eli was right.
Again.
Martha said:
“I know Clara burned a letter when she came back.”
“What letter?” Jacob asked.
“I only saw part.”
“From whom?”
“No name.”
“What did it say?”
Martha closed her eyes.
“One sentence.”
“Tell us.”
“Daniel knows about the spring. Keep him quiet.”
Jacob’s stomach tightened.
Eli stared.
“Dad knew?”
Martha nodded.
“He and Clara had been arguing for weeks.”
“About Silas?”
“I think.”
Jacob remembered Daniel differently.
Quiet.
Easygoing.
Not interested in family business.
Maybe that had been another incomplete story.
Silas sat under guard in a side room.
Jacob confronted him.
“You tell me about Daniel now.”
Silas’s face changed.
“So they finally used that.”
“Who is they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mercer?”
“No.”
“Western Meridian?”
“They weren’t involved five years ago.”
“Then who sent the note?”
Silas looked genuinely worried.
“That’s what should scare you.”
Jacob leaned closer.
“What happened to Daniel?”
Silas stared at the floor.
“He found the old partnership papers before Clara did.”
“The ones under her stove?”
“No. He found references.”
“Where?”
“Your grandfather’s tax records.”
“What did he do?”
“Came to me.”
“Why?”
“He wanted money.”
Eli stood in the doorway.
Everyone turned.
Silas cursed softly.
Eli stepped in.
“My dad blackmailed you?”
Silas did not answer.
“Say it.”
Silas looked at him.
“Yes.”
Eli’s face collapsed slightly.
“For what?”
“Five thousand dollars.”
“Why?”
“He had debts.”
“What kind?”
Silas hesitated.
Jacob said:
“Tell him.”
“Cards.”
Eli stared.
Like Elias.
Another Hayes man gambling.
“He threatened to expose the water fraud?” Jacob asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you pay?”
“Once.”
“Then?”
“He asked again.”
“And?”
“I refused.”
Eli whispered:
“What did Mom do?”
Silas looked away.
“She discovered the blackmail.”
“When?”
“The night Daniel died.”
Silence.
Jacob asked:
“How?”
“Daniel showed her the letter he planned to send me.”
“What letter?”
Silas looked at Eli.
“He claimed he would testify that I forged grazing transfers.”
“That was true.”
“Yes.”
“But he wanted money.”
“Yes.”
Eli’s hands curled.
“What did Mom do?”
Silas’s voice softened.
“She came to me.”
Martha had said Clara left the house.
Now they knew where.
“She begged you to pay him?”
“No.”
Silas shook his head.
“She gave me the five thousand back.”
Jacob stared.
“What?”
“She said Daniel had no right to profit from covering fraud.”
Eli looked devastated.
“So Mom and Dad were fighting.”
“Yes.”
“Did she kill him?”
Silas looked shocked.
“No!”
“Then what happened?”
“He was sick already.”
“Typhoid?”
Silas hesitated.
“No.”
Jacob’s skin went cold.
“What?”
“Doctor Hensley said typhoid publicly.”
“Privately?”
“He thought Daniel had ingested something.”
Eli went pale.
“Poison?”
Silas shook his head.
“Medicine.”
“What medicine?”
“Laudanum.”
Common painkiller.
Dangerous in high doses.
Jacob remembered a brown bottle beside Daniel’s bed.
“He overdosed?”
Silas nodded.
“Possibly.”
“Accident?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Clara give it to him?”
Silas looked at Eli.
“She believed she did.”
The room went silent.
Eli’s breathing became shallow.
Jacob said:
“Explain.”
“Daniel had severe pain. Clara measured his medicine. After she returned from seeing me, she gave him another dose because he said Martha had not.”
Martha’s face went white.
“I did give him one.”
Eli stared at her.
“You didn’t tell Mom?”
“I told Daniel. He was lucid.”
“Why didn’t you tell her?”
“She came in upset. He said he would.”
Silas continued.
“Clara believed she accidentally doubled the dose.”
Eli backed toward the wall.
Jacob felt sick.
“Is that what the note means?”
Silas shook his head.
“No.”
“What else?”
“Clara later learned the bottle had been refilled.”
“By who?”
“Someone added concentrated laudanum.”
Jacob froze.
“So even a normal dose could kill him.”
“Yes.”
“Who knew?”
“Doctor Hensley. Clara. Me.”
“Where is Hensley?”
“California.”
“Alive?”
“As far as I know.”
Finally, one witness who might still exist.
Eli’s eyes filled.
“Mom thought she killed Dad?”
Silas nodded.
“For months.”
Jacob understood something about Clara then.
Her secrecy.
Her obsession with documents.
Her refusal to trust appearances.
She had once believed her own hand caused her husband’s death.
Then discovered the medicine had been tampered with.
“Did she learn who did it?”
Silas looked toward the hearing room.
“She suspected the same person who later paid Matthew Rusk.”
Jacob felt cold.
“The person behind Clara’s death.”
“Yes.”
“So Silas didn’t order the fatal sabotage.”
“No.”
Eli whispered:
“Then someone has been targeting my family for years.”
Silas looked at him.
“Not your family.”
“What?”
Silas’s expression hardened.
“Anyone who threatens the water deal.”
Jacob frowned.
“The deal didn’t exist five years ago.”
“Western Meridian didn’t.”
Silas leaned closer.
“But the man selling information about this valley did.”
“Who?”
Silas said one name.
“Edwin Mercer.”
Jacob stared.
Mercer had been Clara’s lawyer.
Before that, perhaps Daniel’s.
Silas continued:
“Daniel hired Mercer first.”
Eli whispered:
“My dad?”
“Yes.”
“To do what?”
Silas looked at Jacob.
“Find a buyer for Coyote Spring.”
The betrayal reached backward again.
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Daniel had not merely discovered the scheme.
He may have helped begin it.
