Mercer laughed.
“Ask him why his name is in that book.”
Thomas turned sharply toward Martha.
“You opened it.”
“Yes.”
“What did you see?”
“Your name.”
Thomas looked away.
That hurt more than if he had denied it.
Martha whispered:
“Thomas.”
Mercer enjoyed every second.
“He wasn't always the lonely hero in the woods.”
Thomas walked toward the door.
Martha blocked him.
“Where are you going?”
“Away from him before I forget you asked me not to kill him.”
“Then answer me.”
Thomas looked at her.
She saw shame.
Not guilt exactly.
Something older.
“I worked for Sheriff Baines.”
“When?”
“After the war.”
“How long?”
“Eight months.”
“Doing what?”
Thomas stared at the floor.
“Whatever they told me.”
Mercer smiled.
Martha turned on him.
“If you speak again before I ask, I will put you back on the pea-covered stairs.”
Mercer closed his mouth.
Thomas continued.
“I came home from war with no money.”
“No land.”
“No idea how to sleep without a rifle.”
“Baines offered work.”
“I told myself I was enforcing contracts.”
“Then one day Gideon showed me who the contracts belonged to.”
“Widows.”
“Families.”
“Men paid in company notes they couldn't spend anywhere else.”
Thomas looked sick.
“I quit.”
Martha glanced at the ledger.
“The payments?”
“Wages.”
“And ‘Gideon contained’?”
Thomas’s face changed.
“I don't know.”
Mercer chuckled.
Martha raised the skillet.
He became silent again.
Thomas sat near the stove.
“When Gideon stole the books, Baines blamed me.”
“I thought Gideon used my name to protect himself.”
“He disappeared.”
“I never saw him again.”
“You believed he betrayed you.”
“Yes.”
“And he let you believe it for twenty years?”
Thomas looked toward Eli.
The boy’s eyes were wet.
“I don't know.”
Mercer finally spoke carefully.
“You want to know?”
Thomas looked at him.
“Gideon didn't betray you.”
Eli stepped forward.
Mercer continued.
“He bargained.”
Thomas’s brow tightened.
“With what?”
“Baines wanted the original ledger back.”
“Gideon offered copies.”
“In exchange, your name disappeared from the murder warrant after Old Man Foster died in company custody.”
Thomas stared.
“That warrant was dropped because there was no evidence.”
Mercer laughed.
“That what they told you?”
Thomas stopped breathing.
Mercer nodded toward Eli.
“Your brother kept you alive.”
The cabin became very quiet.
Thomas stood so abruptly the chair fell behind him.
“You are lying.”
“Maybe.”
Mercer smiled.
“Or maybe your brother spent twenty years running because he knew if he came near you, Baines would reopen everything.”
Thomas looked at Eli.
The boy whispered:
“Father talked about you.”
“What did he say?”
“That you hated him.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Eli continued.