“But I know what people look like when they're about to fall.”
She smiled faintly.
“You're not very charming.”
“I wasn't trying.”
“I know.”
They continued.
Behind them, gunshots echoed faintly.
Anna stopped.
“Do you think they followed us?”
Cole shook his head.
“Pike knows about the tunnel.”
Rose looked worried.
“Then why aren't they here?”
Cole's face changed.
“Because they're waiting.”
“For what?”
“For us to come out.”
Anna's voice became quiet.
“Then where do we go?”
Cole looked ahead.
“There used to be another exit.”
“Used to?”
He nodded.
“On the other side of the ridge.”
“And now?”
“Now it's inside Whitmore territory.”
The sisters looked at each other.
Rose sighed.
“Of course it is.”
They reached the end of the tunnel two hours later.
Cole pushed aside the fallen branches.
Sunlight flooded in.
They were standing above a valley.
Below them was a massive ranch.
White fences.
Large barns.
A stone mansion.
A private lake.
And hundreds of cattle.
Anna stared.
“My father's house.”
Cole looked at her.
“You didn't know this was here?”
“No.”
“Then why did you come this way?”
Anna held up the leather notebook.
“Because the key isn't to something outside.”
Cole frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Anna opened the notebook.
Inside was a map.
A crude hand-drawn map.
Cole recognized the valley.
The ranch.
The mansion.
Then he saw a small circle beneath the house.
A room underground.
Rose looked at him.
“What?”
Cole pointed.
“That's a cellar.”
Anna shook her head.
“No.”
She turned the page.
“The cellar is here.”
She pointed to another mark.
“This is underneath it.”
Cole stared.
“What is it?”
Anna whispered:
“The room Judge Monroe found.”
Suddenly, Lily spoke.
“I know where that is.”
Everyone turned.
She looked terrified.
“Our father took me there once.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“What did you see?”
Lily swallowed.
“Bodies.”
Silence.
Cole looked toward the mansion.
“How many?”
Lily shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Anna closed her eyes.
“Then that's where we're going.”
Cole stared at her.
“You want to walk into your father's house?”
“We have to.”
“No.”
Anna looked at him.
“No?”
“You three stay here.”
Rose crossed her arms.
“And what will you do?”
“Get the evidence.”
Anna shook her head.
“We're coming.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you're not soldiers.”
Rose laughed.
“And you are?”
Cole looked at her.
“No.”
He checked his revolver.
“But I know how to get shot without complaining.”
Rose smiled.
“That makes four of us.”
They entered the Whitmore mansion after midnight.
Cole had expected guards.
There were none.
That frightened him more.
The house was too quiet.
Anna led them through a side entrance.
The three sisters knew the building well.
They moved through hallways they had grown up in.
Past portraits of ancestors.
Past expensive paintings.
Past rooms that had once belonged to them.
Lily stopped beside a staircase.
“This way.”
They descended.
At the bottom was a stone cellar.
Anna searched the walls.
“Nothing.”
Lily walked toward a wooden cabinet.
She pressed a hidden latch.
The cabinet moved.
Behind it was a steel door.
Cole looked at the sisters.
“You said your father owned cattle.”
“He does.”
“Does he also own a prison?”
Anna inserted the key.