PART 5 — THE LITTLE GIRL WHO KNEW HIS NAME

The knock came just before sunset.

Three sharp strikes.

Caleb motioned for Josie to remain behind him.

“Who is it?”

A man’s voice answered.

“Delivery from Black Creek.”

Caleb didn’t move.

“I wasn’t expecting anything.”

“Then perhaps you weren’t expecting this either.”

Something slid beneath the door.

A small envelope.

Caleb waited until the footsteps disappeared before picking it up.

Inside was a pH๏τograph.

A little girl stood outside a wooden schoolhouse, wearing a red coat and holding a rag doll.

She had dark hair.

A small birthmark beneath her left ear.

And the same eyes as Caleb.

Josie watched his fingers тιԍнтen around the pH๏τograph.

“It’s Lydia,” he whispered.

On the back, another message had been written.

Come alone to Black Creek on Friday. Bring no lawman. If your new wife follows you, the child disappears.

Josie felt the room grow colder.

“They know about me.”

Caleb folded the pH๏τograph.

“They know too much.”

That evening, he told Josie the story he had avoided telling anyone for six years.

Martha had been ill for months before she died. During that time, a woman named Eleanor Price had helped care for Lydia.

Eleanor was charming, respectable and well-connected.

Caleb had trusted her.

But after Martha’s funeral, Eleanor insisted that Lydia needed proper schooling in town. She offered to take the child temporarily.

Caleb refused.

Then, one afternoon, he returned from hunting to find both Eleanor and Lydia gone.

He reported the disappearance.

He searched.

He hired men.

Nothing.

Until now.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone you received the first letter?” Josie asked.

“Because I didn’t know who to trust.”

Josie looked down at the pH๏τograph.

“That little girl has been waiting six years for someone to come home.”

Caleb said nothing.

“You’re going to get her,” she continued.

“Not if it puts you in danger.”

Josie almost laughed.

It was a strange sound, unfamiliar even to her.

“Caleb, I’ve spent my entire life being told I was too much trouble for other people. I’m not going to let a little girl spend another night believing nobody wants her.”

He looked at her for a long moment.

Then he placed the pH๏τograph in her hands.

“You’re braver than you know.”

Friday morning arrived beneath a pale gray sky.

Caleb saddled his horse.

Josie stood on the porch, wearing her thickest coat.

He frowned.

“You’re staying here.”

“No.”

“Josie.”

“She is your daughter. And if someone has been frightening her, she deserves to see a friendly face when we find her.”

Caleb studied her expression.

Finally, he nodded.

They rode toward Black Creek.

But they weren’t alone.

From a ridge overlooking the trail, a man in a black hat watched them disappear.

He pulled a folded telegram from his pocket.

Then he smiled.

“Mr. Hayes has brought his new wife after all.”

He mounted his horse.

“Miss Price will be delighted.”