Chapter 12 - Murder in the Blue House
Clara ran back to the blue house.
Ruth lay at the bottom of the basement stairs.
Her neck was broken.
The cradle had been smashed.
The map and vials were gone.
Jacob knelt beside Ruth’s body with blood on his hands.
Denver officers entered seconds later.
Edwin had arranged the scene perfectly.
Jacob was arrested for murder.
Clara had only the copied journal pages hidden beneath her coat.
Thomas and Jacob were placed in separate cells on the same corridor.
Neither could see the other.
Thomas called his son’s birth name through the wall.
“James.”
Jacob answered with rage.
“That is not my name.”
Thomas rested his forehead against the stone.
“What should I call you?”
After a long silence, Jacob said, “Nothing.”
Clara hired a Denver attorney named Miriam Shaw.
Miriam was blunt, expensive, and unimpressed by respected men.
She studied the evidence and concluded Edwin controlled the police, the judge, and most potential witnesses.
“We do not win by proving he is cruel,” she said.
“We win by proving he is sloppy.”
They returned to the blue house and reconstructed Ruth’s final hour.
A neighbor had seen a milk wagon outside.
The company denied making a delivery.
Miriam found wheel tracks containing red clay.
Only one road near Denver had that soil.
It led to an abandoned Vale silver mine.
Clara believed the ledger had been taken there.
Gideon appeared at the hotel that night, wounded but alive.
He had survived the shot in the creek chamber.
He admitted Edwin had forced him to cooperate by threatening Gideon’s daughter.
He also revealed Sheriff Doyle was coming to Denver with Annie Rose as a hostage.
Clara struck him.
Gideon did not resist.
“You brought this to my child twice,” she said.
“I know.”
“No, you know the words.”
Clara took Miriam’s pistol and left before dawn.
The red-clay road ended at the mine.
Inside she found the missing vials, the map, and Ruth’s coat.
She also found Annie Rose’s ribbon tied to a support beam.
From deeper in the tunnel, her daughter began to sing the wildflower song Clara used at bedtime.
Then Edwin’s voice echoed through the dark.
“Come alone, Clara.”
May you like
“This time, bring the truth.”
