“You've been digging into matters you don't understand.”
Penny’s voice remained calm.
“I understand lead.”
“Arsenic.”
“Revenue.”
“And timing.”
Silas looked toward the door.
Declan moved between him and it.
Silas sighed.
“Declan.”
“You've always been emotional.”
Declan’s jaw tightened.
Silas continued:
“This woman is filling your head with nonsense.”
Penny almost laughed.
“She killed seven wives from inside my head?”
Silas glared.
Penny continued:
“Maybe you didn't create the contamination.”
“That part may truly have been accidental.”
Silas relaxed slightly.
Wrong.
Penny saw it.
“But once you discovered women living here became sick while Declan survived, you understood the pattern.”
“No.”
“You controlled the trust whenever he became widowed.”
“No.”
“Timber contracts increased every widow period.”
“Business continued.”
“You repaired the water system with lead solder.”
“Everyone used lead solder.”
“Freshly.”
Silas’s eyes hardened.
Penny moved closer.
“Then there is Helen.”
The name hit.
Silas looked toward the letters.
Penny picked one up.
“She noticed you visited when Declan was away.”
Silas’s voice became flat.
“Helen was unstable.”
Declan lunged.
Penny grabbed his arm.
“Don't.”
Silas took a step backward.
Penny looked at him.
“Helen fell.”
“Yes.”
“Did she?”
Silence.
Penny had not possessed evidence that Helen was murdered.
She had suspicion.
Silas’s face answered too much.
Declan saw it.
“You pushed her.”
Silas laughed nervously.
“No.”
But he was already moving toward the door.
Declan blocked him.
Silas reached inside his coat.
Penny shouted:
“Declan!”
Too late.
Declan seized his wrist.
A revolver fell.
Silas swung with the other hand.
Declan hit him once.
One punch.
Silas collapsed against the table.
Penny grabbed the revolver.
Declan stood over his cousin.
Every muscle shaking.
“Seven.”
Silas wiped blood from his mouth.
“You think they were saints?”
Declan went still.
Penny heard the confession forming before Silas understood he was making it.
Silas continued:
“Agnes was already sick.”
“Margaret too weak for mountain life.”
“Louise walked under a tree in lightning.”
“Mary couldn't survive childbirth.”
“You blame me for weather now?”
Penny asked:
“And Helen?”
Silas looked toward her.
Penny waited.
“And Abigail?”
Silence.
Declan’s voice became deadly quiet.
“What did you do?”
Silas stared at the floor.
Then something ugly appeared.
Resentment accumulated over decades.
“You inherited everything.”
Declan frowned.
Silas laughed bitterly.
“Frost Pass.”
“Timber.”
“River rights.”
“Road access.”
“Because your father was born eleven months before mine.”
“That was all it took.”
“Eleven months.”
Declan stared.
Silas continued:
“You didn't even want it.”
“You lived like an animal.”
“Trapping.”
“Sleeping in snow.”