“While I handled contracts.”
“Collected fees.”
“Managed roads.”
“And every time you married, everything transferred back to you.”
Penny said:
“So the wives became interruptions.”
Silas looked at her.
His eyes said yes before his mouth did.
Declan whispered:
“You let them die.”
Silas snapped:
“I didn't put poison in the mountain!”
“No.”
Penny answered.
“You simply made sure nobody repaired what was killing them.”
Silas stared.
She continued:
“And when somebody came close to discovering it?”
Helen.
Abigail.
Silas looked away.
Declan moved.
Penny stood between them again.
“No.”
“He murdered them.”
“I know.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Declan looked at her as if she had betrayed him.
Penny touched his chest.
“If you kill him, those women become gossip forever.”
“Let him speak.”
“Let the court hear it.”
“Let their families know.”
Declan’s breathing shook.
Silas laughed.
“You think the court will believe her?”
Penny turned.
“No.”
Silas smiled.
“Probably not by herself.”
A voice came from the doorway.
“But they might believe me.”
Thomas Reed stood outside.
Samuel beside him.
Behind them:
Two county deputies.
Silas went completely still.
Penny exhaled.
Her father looked toward her clothing.
Then Declan.
Then the cabin.
A father noticing context at the worst possible moment.
Penny said quickly:
“Not now.”
Samuel looked offended.
“I said nothing.”
“You were about to.”
Thomas entered.
“We followed Silas.”
Penny frowned.
“Why?”
“Bank clerk reported he withdrew cash yesterday.”
“Bought a rail ticket south.”
Silas’s face changed.
Thomas smiled without humor.
“Bad timing.”
Silas was arrested.
The investigation lasted months.
Helen Frost’s body was exhumed.
Old fractures consistent with a violent fall, though whether pushed or not could not initially be proven.
Abigail’s supposed avalanche death proved worse.
Her remains had been found far from the recorded avalanche zone.
A broken skull occurred before burial by snow.
Silas eventually confessed to both murders in exchange for avoiding hanging.
He denied directly poisoning the others.
Penny believed him partly.
The first deaths likely came from genuine contamination.
Then Silas discovered that widowhood gave him money.
He stopped repairs.
Encouraged use of the well.
Replaced tank seams with high-lead solder whenever Declan considered remarriage.
A small crime repeated until it became murder by patience.
The court convicted Silas of two murders, fraud, and multiple counts connected to deliberate poisoning.
He went to territorial prison.
Declan did not attend sentencing.
He stayed at the cabin.
Penny found him repairing the fence around the seven graves.
She approached.
He did not look up.
“Court finished.”
“I know.”
“Thomas sent word?”
“Yes.”
Penny waited.
Declan continued hammering.
She said:
“Silas received life imprisonment.”
Hammer.
“Declan.”
Hammer.
She grabbed it.
He looked at her.
“Stop.”
His eyes were wet.
“What do I do now?”
Penny’s anger vanished.
“With what?”
He looked toward the graves.
“All this.”