“Why would a closed freight station need this much food?”
Gideon stared toward the page.
“I don't know.”
Then he noticed another entry.
A smaller delivery.
Paid in cash.
The recipient was listed only as W.H.
He frowned.
Elena looked toward the notation.
“Does that mean anything?”
Gideon shook his head.
Then Rose spoke from the doorway.
“Wait.”
They turned.
The assistant looked uncertain.
“My grandmother used to talk about a man called Will Hart.”
Gideon's expression changed.
“Who?”
Rose hesitated.
“He worked north of town years ago. They said he was found injured after a winter storm.”
The room became silent.
She continued.
“I remember because Grandma called him the lost man.”
Gideon stared.
“Where did he work?”
“Crow's Landing.”
Elena's fingers tightened around the ledger.
Rose continued.
“Grandma said nobody knew where he came from. He had trouble remembering things.”
Gideon closed his eyes.
For a moment, the room seemed to disappear.
Will Hart.
W.H.
A wounded young man with damaged memory.
Food delivered to the remote station for weeks after Matthew disappeared.
And a silver pocket watch carried by a stranger who claimed to be his brother.
Gideon opened his eyes.
His voice was barely audible.
“Matthew.”
Elena reached toward his hand.
Then she noticed something tucked between the ledger pages.
A small envelope.
It had been flattened beneath years of paper.
On the front, Lydia had written:
For Gideon Hale, if he ever learns to ask the right question.
Elena stared.
Then slowly looked toward the man beside her.
“Gideon.”
He turned.
She held up the envelope.
“I think my aunt was waiting for you.”
Gideon took the envelope as though it might burn his hands.
For several seconds, he simply stared at his name.
The writing was unmistakably old. The ink had faded, and one corner of the paper was stained with what appeared to be flour.
Elena watched him carefully.
“You don't have to open it alone.”
He looked toward her.
Then slowly nodded.
They sat beside the storeroom table.
Rose closed the door to give them privacy, leaving them with a lamp, the blue ledger, and the envelope Lydia Whitmore had preserved for years.
Gideon opened it.
Inside were three folded pages.
The first began with a confession.
Lydia wrote that she had never been certain whether the injured man at Crow's Landing was Matthew Hale.
She had seen him only twice.