Chapter 9 - Ruth’s Bible
Smoke rolled beneath the bedroom door.
“Take the box!” Jonah shouted.
Elias shoved receipts and letters into the tin.
The staircase was already burning at the bottom.
They could not go down.
Jonah smashed the bedroom window.
“Roof.”
“With this leg?”
“Then stay and burn politely.”
Elias hated when treacherous friends made good points.
Jonah climbed out first onto the porch roof.
Elias passed him the tin box.
Then Ruth’s Bible caught his eye.
It sat on the nightstand.
He had seen her read it every morning for twenty years.
“Leave it!” Jonah shouted.
Elias grabbed it.
He crawled through the window.
Pain tore through his leg.
Below them three armed men moved around the property.
One carried a kerosene can.
Not thieves.
Destroyers.
Sani’s voice suddenly sounded from the darkness.
An arrow struck the kerosene can and knocked it from the man’s hand.
Another arrow buried itself in the porch post beside a second attacker.
The men fired wildly.
Sani and his companions had ignored Elias’s instruction to remain far away.
Elias had never been happier to be disobeyed.
Jonah lowered himself from the roof.
Elias had no chance.
“Catch me.”
Jonah stared.
“You weigh two hundred pounds.”
“Then catch most of me.”
Elias dropped.
They hit the ground together.
His scream probably reached Missouri.
Sani dragged him behind a water trough.
The attackers mounted and fled.
One shouted:
“Crane says the dead should stay buried!”
Elias fired once into the air behind them.
Not to hit.
To make them ride faster.
The house burned.
For the next hour they carried water uselessly.
By dawn the roof collapsed.
Elias sat in the dirt holding Ruth’s Bible and the tin box.
Everything else was gone.
His childhood bed.
The kitchen table Silas built.
Ruth’s blue cup.
The wall where Elias’s height had been marked every birthday.
All of it.
Jonah sat beside him.
“I’m sorry.”
Elias stared at the ashes.
“Were you working against Voss when you helped set me up?”
“Yes.”
“Then why not warn me?”
“Because Tavan wanted the ledger.”
Elias turned sharply.
“What?”
Jonah looked exhausted.
“He knew Voss planned to let you steal it.”
Elias felt cold.
“Tavan knew?”
“Not every detail.”
“He knew enough.”
“He thought once you saw the pouch—”
“The pouch was Voss’s idea.”
Jonah shook his head.
“No.”
Elias stared.
“Then whose?”
Jonah looked toward the smoking house.
“Silas.”
The betrayal landed in a new place.
“Silas put the bracelet in the bag?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He knew the land dispute was reaching its end. Railroad lawyers needed your signature. He believed he had run out of time.”
“So instead of telling me…”
“He arranged for you to find the truth.”
“By stealing from Voss.”
“He knew you’d do that.”
Elias laughed bitterly.
“Everyone knows me except me.”
Jonah said nothing.
Elias opened Ruth’s Bible.
The heat had curled the cover.
A small folded paper slipped from between the pages.
Elias froze.
He unfolded it.
Not Ruth’s handwriting.
Mara’s.
He recognized it from the letter Silas showed him.
For my son, if he ever comes home.
Only one paragraph followed.
Elias,
If you are reading this, then the people who loved you have finally failed to keep you safe from the truth.
Do not mistake blood for obligation.
You owe me nothing because I gave birth to you.
You owe Tavan nothing because he is my brother.
You owe Caleb nothing because he was your father.
Choose people by what they do after they have the chance to betray you.
That is how you will know your family.
Elias read the final line again.
Jonah did not ask.
Sani stood several yards away, giving him privacy.
Elias looked at the ruins.
Ruth had known this letter existed.
She had hidden it inside the book she touched every day.
Why?
Perhaps because she had intended Elias to find it after her death.
Perhaps because she could never bring herself to hand it over.
Both could be true.
Elias folded the letter carefully.
Then he looked at Jonah.
“Tell me everything Tavan knew.”
Jonah hesitated.
“Everything.”
Jonah exhaled.
“Tavan knew the bag would reach you.”
“Yes.”
“He knew the chase would force you off the main road.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know about the pit?”
“No.”
“Did he plan to frighten me?”
Jonah looked uncomfortable.
“Yes.”
Elias nodded slowly.
The arrows.
The spear.
The shouting.
A performance built around real danger.
He had nearly died anyway.
Mara’s words returned.
Choose people by what they do after they have the chance to betray you.
Tavan had lied.
Silas had manipulated.
Jonah had deceived.
Ruth had hidden.
Voss had stolen.
Crane had tried to burn every trace.
Elias suddenly understood that the truth about his family would not be revealed by discovering who had never betrayed him.
There might be nobody left.
It would be revealed by discovering why they had—and what they did afterward.
He handed Sani the tin box.
“We’re going back.”
“To Cedar Basin?”
“No.”
Elias looked east, where the men who burned his home had disappeared.
“Fort Garrett.”
Jonah frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Everett Crane wanted those receipts burned.”
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Elias opened the ledger.
“And I want to know what else he’s afraid of.”
