The Promise (34 page)

"The north and south sides." Patrick interrupted his
brother. "The slant is then either to the west or east."

Cara nodded with understanding. "So the directions
are for the third tunnel on either the south or north sides with a
westward slant."

Michael shot her a quick smile. "Exactly. With this,
we can narrow it down to two tunnels."

"But what good does it do us to know where, if we
don't know what, and more importantly, why?" Loralee asked.

"Patrick and I think it must have something to do
with Father's ramblings."

"About the silver?" Loralee leaned forward, elbows
propped on the table, her eyes on the paper in Patrick's hand.

"Right."

Cara frowned as something nagged at her brain. She
tried to focus on it, but whatever it was it remained just on the
edge of her subconscious. Reluctantly, she let it go and focused
again on the conversation.

"That and the fact that Vargas may have been related
to Striker."

"The great grandfather." Cara thought back to Nick's
confession. "His name was Amos."

"Exactly." Patrick smiled. "So somehow it's all
related."

"And what's more important is that Striker knows
how." Michael's face hardened in the glow of the candles.

"And killed our Father because of it." Patrick's face
tightened, too.

Cara was grateful suddenly that they were on her
side. These were not men to be trifled with. "So you think that
Amos is on his way to the Promise now?"

"Maybe. If there's really something up there, then
he'd want to get it before everything blows sky high."

Patrick grimaced. "And Striker doesn't hit me as the
type to abandon something he obviously believes is worth killing
for."

"True enough, and Duncan was awful excited about the
silver." Loralee put in.

Suddenly, the little thought pushed its way into the
forefront. Cara sucked in a breath. "He said
the
silver, not
silver."

"What?" Three heads turned to focus on her.

"When you all talk about it. You say silver. As
though it's not specific. But whenever Loralee talks about what
your father said, she always refers to
the
silver. Specific
silver." She groaned with frustration as three pairs of eyes looked
equally blank. "Don't you see? Nick had books about the lost
silver. That's what he was looking for.
The
silver."

She watched as the impact of her words sank in,
satisfied to see comprehension dawning. Michael was the first to
see it. "You think Amos found the silver from the Promise?"

"I think it's possible."

"So then what? My father found it, too?"

"It would make sense. That would explain his
excitement."

Michael ran a hand through his hair. "But if he found
it, he would have told Owen." He looked over at his brother.

Patrick frowned. "He tried. Or at least that's what
Sam said. But Owen was out, so Father got drunk instead."

"And came to see me," Loralee added.

"That must be when he put the note in the locket,"
Cara said, her mind trying to put it all together.

"It's possible." Loralee scrunched up her forehead in
thought. "In fact, it makes sense. Duncan had my locket with him.
I'd broken the chain and he said he'd fix it for me. Never let
anyone have it before. But I trusted him." She looked up to meet
Patrick's gaze.

"Our father was a wily old goat, Loralee. I wouldn't
put it past him to slip the coordinates into the locket. Especially
if he thought there might be trouble."

"Look, this is crazy." Michael held up a hand.
"Father couldn't have found the silver. We're ignoring the fact
that my mother ran off with it. She and that son of a bitch
muleskinner." He spit out the word as if it tasted vile.

"His name was Zachariah Bowen and he didn't run off
with anyone." Loralee's voice was tight with anger. "My Zach never
ran off with anybody."

"Your Zach?" There was a note of incredulity in
Michael's voice.

Loralee squared her shoulders and lifted her chin.
"Zach Bowen was my husband."

There was complete silence around the table.
Cara studied each of the faces. Loralee looked angry enough to spit
nails. Michael looked equally angry, but his anger was tinged with
amazement. Patrick simply looked sick at his stomach. She had no
way of knowing the depth of the emotions around the table, but she
was astute enough to know that with one sentence Loralee had
managed to change everything.

"Did my father know?" Patrick's words were almost a
whisper.

Loralee nodded. "That's how we come to be
friends."

"I see." His mouth tightened into a thin line, hurt
radiating from his eyes.

Loralee placed a hand on his arm. "I'm sorry I didn't
tell you, Patrick. I tried, that night on the porch, but somehow I
just couldn't." She stared at her hand, looking miserable.

"Zach never mentioned the fact that he was married."
Michael's words were clipped, almost harsh.

Loralee's chin went up again. "That was because of
me. I didn't want him telling folks."

"Why the hell not?" Michael barked. Loralee cringed
and Cara put a gentle hand on Michael's knee. He glanced over at
her and some of the frustration in his face faded away. "I mean it
seems odd that you wouldn't want anyone to know," he continued in a
more gentle tone.

"It was for him, not me. I didn't think folks would
cotton to him being married to a…"

"Working girl?" Patrick finished for her.

"A whore, yes." Somehow, coming from Loralee's mouth,
the term sounded almost dignified. "I didn't want folks looking
down on him. I'd already quit working, but you know how gossip
travels from camp to camp. He was going to send for me and Mary
when he had enough money. Then we were going to try to start over,
someplace far from here." Tears welled in her soft brown eyes. "We
were going to make a go of it."

"But he decided to run off with my mother
instead."

She glared at Michael. "He didn't run off with your
mother. I don't know what happened, but there's no way he would
have done something like that."

Michael's voice softened. "I understand the way you
feel. In fact, I admire your loyalty. But face it, Loralee, you
aren't the first wife to be jilted by her husband."

"You don't understand." She scrubbed at her eyes,
wiping away the tears. "When I found out I was pregnant with Mary I
knew it was his. I hadn't been working. Just being with him." She
sucked in a deep breath. "But I still wanted to get rid of the
baby. There's ways to do that, you know. There's always some gal
around who has a potion or a doctor willing to take care of things
for a price. Anyway, I was certain it was the right thing to do. I
cared about Zach, but there wasn't any future in it. I wasn't
proper and besides, he didn't seem like the marrying kind."

Patrick's eyes were now filled only with concern.
"But you did marry him."

"It was like I told you the other night, Zach
wouldn't have it any other way."

"You knew about this?" Michael shot Patrick an
accusing look.

"Only that she'd been married."

Cara reached out to pat Loralee. "Go on."

She responded with a watery smile. "Well, Zach was
tickled pink about the baby. More than any man I've ever seen." She
smiled to herself, lost in her thoughts. "He used to lie with his
head on my stomach and talk to the baby. Silly stories and dreams.
About what our life would be like, the places we'd go, the things
we'd do. Oh, he had grand plans for us all."

"I still—" Michael started, but Cara waved him
silent.

Loralee sighed. "He was pretty persuasive, Zach
Bowen. Finally, I was so worn down I said yes." She hugged her
middle rocking back and forth. "And for a while we was real happy.
But the money ran out and he headed here to try and make more. He
wrote every week."

Patrick's look had changed to thoughtful. "You told
me the last letter you had from him was about the silver."

"Right, he said he'd struck it rich and that he'd be
wiring the money for me and Mary to come and join him."

"And you never heard from him again?"

She lowered her head, staring at her hands on the
table. "No."

"Further support for the theory that he ran away with
the silver and our mother." Michael rubbed a weary hand across his
face.

"Look, Michael, I can't give you any proof. But I
know for certain, in here," she pointed to her heart, "that my Zach
never run off with your ma."

"I'm not trying to hurt you, Loralee, but I don't
think you're facing facts."

"Michael, you don't have children," she said,
quietly, her face softening at the thought. "If you did, you'd know
that even if Zach had decided to leave me for your ma, he could
never have left Mary. I'm telling you, if my husband were alive,
he'd have contacted me. If not because he loved me—and he did—then
because he loved our Mary."

"Our mother left us." The pain in Michael's face made
Cara ache with the need to comfort him.

"Maybe she didn't." Patrick met his brother's gaze
with a steely-eyed certainty.

Michael ran a hand through his hair. "This is insane.
Now you want me to believe that my mother and the mule—Loralee's
husband—are dead?"

"It's not impossible, Michael." Cara spoke
tentatively, unsure of his reaction.

"The hell it's—"

"Hear me out." She covered his hand with hers. "What
if there were an accident? You said yourself the roads are bad. And
you said yourself how dangerous a muleskinner's job could be. A
single flick of the whip often controlled the fate of the wagon,
right?"

Patrick nodded enthusiastically. "Hell yeah, I've
seen them practically make a curve on two wheels and still wind up
with cargo and driver in one piece."

Cara met Michael's gaze. "The point is, maybe Zach
and Rose didn't make it down the mountain. Maybe Amos Striker found
them and the silver."

A faint glimmer of hope dawned in Michael's eyes.

"Maybe they had a little help meeting their maker."
Patrick's voice was sharp.

"Amos Striker." Loralee said the name as if it were
poison.

"But what about the stagecoach? The station master
told us they'd boarded the stage at Antelope Springs." Michael
looked at his brother.

"Maybe it was a set up." The two men turned to look
at Cara. "Well, it's possible. Say Amos did find them and…"

"And killed them." Patrick finished for her.

"Right. Well, it would follow that if anyone found
them, there would be questions about the silver. So he could have
arranged for it to look like they ran away. It wouldn't have taken
much."

Loralee leaned forward caught up in the idea. "And
then he would have hidden the silver. There's no way it could have
turned up around here all at once."

Cara nodded. "So all he had to do was stash the
silver somewhere."

"But he wouldn't have hidden it in the Promise. We
were still living up there."

Cara met Michael's skeptical gaze. "Maybe he moved it
there later. I mean you have to admit there's a certain touch of
brilliance to hiding it right under your noses."

Patrick nodded in agreement.

Michael wasn't so easy to convince. "And what about
the bodies."

"Hell, Michael, you know as well as I do that a body
doesn't last long out here. Between the wild animals and the
weather there usually isn't much left." Patrick waved his hands,
emphasizing his words.

Loralee winced and Cara laid a soothing hand on her
arm.

Michael drew in a long breath. "So what you're all
trying to say is that Amos Striker either intentionally or
accidentally came across the silver, disposed of Zach and our
mother, and eventually hid the silver in a tunnel at the
Promise."

Cara nodded taking up the story. "And your father
found the stash, but before he could tell either of you, Amos
figured out and murdered him."

"Mistaking you for Father and almost killing you in
the process," Patrick added.

"And then somehow, Amos managed to lose the
treasure." Cara concluded.

"Which is where this tale starts to get fanciful."
Michael's tone conveyed his skepticism.

"Not necessarily." Cara chewed on her lower lip,
thinking about the twenty-first century part of the story. "We know
the silver was lost. Nick confirmed it. That's what he was looking
for. It all fits."

"So what, my father moved it?"

"It seems possible." Their gazes collided and he
sighed.

"The only man with all the answers is Amos Striker.
We find him, we'll find the truth. I'll set out first thing in the
morning."

Patrick opened his mouth to argue, but Michael
stopped him with an I'm-older-than you-look. "You need to head for
Silverthread. Someone's got to talk to Owen. If the silver is up
there, part of it belongs to him. He deserves to know what's going
on."

Patrick reluctantly nodded his agreement. "All right.
But as soon as I talk to him, I'm coming up there."

"I'm counting on it."

"I'm coming with you." Cara met Michael's gaze,
lifting her chin defiantly.

"No. I want you to stay here where it's safe."
Michael held her gaze, the message there perfectly clear.

"In the middle of nowhere, a hundred years before I
was born?" Cara ground her teeth together, feeling anger surge
through her veins. "I said I was in this to the end, and I meant
it. Have you forgotten who it was that shot Joe Ingersoll?"

Michael glared at her, but she knew she'd won.
"Fine."

"I'll ride into town with Patrick," Loralee said.
"Pete needs to see the doctor."

Michael pushed away from the table. "Then it's a
plan. We leave at first light."

*****

"I need to talk to you." Michael stood in the
doorway, his hand resting against the doorframe, his stance
deceptively casual.