CHAPTER 62
When they entered Solitude Lane, the darkness of dawn and the fog covered the valley between the hills. The agonizing sound of howling coyotes and the hooting of owls made their souls shudder. The solitary cross and the human bones all over the land showed that the dead rested there.
Bill, with his hand on the gun in his holster. It was already unlocked and ready to shoot anyone who came along. There had been a massacre against the mountie team. He had just entered the lane of solitude and would soon be at the dreaded Agony Curve.
His horse walked slowly, the terrain was full of boulders; the cold early morning air made everything blurry, preventing him from seeing a meter away. He knew that the mountie had already searched the place, apart from the prisoner, two mountie were missing, and Bill saw the ambush site at that moment... getting off his horse, he saw two slaughtered horses. The mounties had lost their animals right there. Bill knew that those responsible for rescuing Charles weren't just any bandits, they were intelligent people who knew about the mountie's way of transferring things and their way of thinking, someone who knew how to strategize.
Dismounting from his horse, Bill stood at the door of the cave. There was an agonizing silence, and the horrible smell of blood showed that just a few hours ago there had been the scene of a great massacre.
Bill saw moments in the lane of solitude, it was far away, but he knew someone was coming. Kneeling behind a rock at the beginning of the cave corridor, Bill waited for the attack. A few minutes later, Bill saw the signal with lights being made... It was someone from the mountie; Bill lit his lighter and made his signal in response. That's when he heard his name...
It was Wynn...
Bill stood up and waited for the two men to come together and enter the cave. Wynn was a great strategist, Bill was a great Florence investigator and Frankison was one of the best mountie trackers, they would make a great team.
They entered and lit a torch they found in the corner of the wall. The place was ready for people or fugitives.
There was a lot of blood on the floor, but Bill noticed two bloody footprints in the opposite direction. Someone had entered that passage through the wall after the massacre. It was a tight place, and the three of them had to duck their heads to get through, they came out in a cave that led to a waterfall.
And to their surprise, lying there were two men in mountie's clothes.
When they were close, one of the men pulled out a revolver and pointed it at them; the boy's eyes were glazed over and he didn't seem to hear what they were saying. It was only his protective instincts that were on alert. He had lost a lot of blood, from the pale color of his face, but he was trying to protect his partner.
Bill and Wynn walked over and talked to the mountie, he seemed oblivious to everything. He must have lost a lot of blood. Frankison followed behind with his gun in his hand.
- We're not going to do anything to them. They're wounded and have no idea what's going on around them. Wynn said.
Both Bill and Frankison agreed with him, they needed to help those men, because they would be able to tell them what had happened;
They walked very slowly and kept talking, and that's when Bill heard the mountie speaking:
- I won't let you hurt him. I won't let you catch him.
And Bill saw the boy aiming a shot...
Bill pushed Wynn and was hit instead, falling to the ground.
Frankison took advantage and disarmed the mountie, who was delirious...
Wynn rushed over to Bill and compressed his shoulder wound. Frankison removed the weapons from the wounded mountie and ran to help his father. They put a compression bandage on Bill so that they could get to the doctor in Hope Valle.
Wynn looked at Bill and said seriously:
- You're crazy. What would Elizabeth do if you died?
Bill smiled;
- Wynn, I couldn't let Elizabeth lose her real father before she even met him. Just as I couldn't let something happen to you, and let you lose all the pleasure of feeling that girl's love.
- We're two proud fathers, aren't we, Bill?
- Yes, Wynn; we are lucky and blessed parents to have a daughter like her.
Frankison was open-mouthed and wide-eyed... his surprise almost made his voice disappear.
- Real father? Are you two saying that Elizabeth is my sister?
Wynn stood up, seeing all the emotions flashing across his son's face...
- Dad, I...
- I know, son. It's a hard story to believe. Me, Bill and Jack, we put the pieces together, the conversations with your mother and Beth and, on top of that, she has the birthmark of the Thatcher women.
- So she's my sister?
- Yes, my son. By all accounts, the children were swapped at birth, and she's your twin sister.
- I... stammered Frankison... I don't know what to say.
Bill, sitting on the floor, decided to explain to Frankison everything they had discovered, and that until everything was settled, mother and daughter couldn't talk about it. He, as mountie, would have to keep it a secret, as this was an official investigation.
Wynn and Frankison carried the wounded, but Bill, with his flashlight looking at the walls, noticed that the mountie had left a note written in blood on the wall.
- Wynn! Frankison, come here quickly.
When the two men got close, Bill shone his torch on the wall where it said:
"Rescue of Charles III; mountie and pinkertons and bandits together; Spurlok head of the gang. Elizabeth danger. Lek and Mack."
They looked at each other, even though they were seriously wounded, those two mountie had been trying all along to fight for justice to prevail. They needed to save their lives and they needed to go home, Elizabeth's life could be at risk. Besides, now they had to start investigating, there were rotten eggs inside the mounties and the pinkertons. Men who were supposed to fight for the people by upholding the law were now allied with crooks.
Wynn and Frankison, each on his own horse, carried one of the wounded mounties, while Bill rode on, holding the reins with his right hand and his left shoulder in a makeshift sling. His wound was hardly bleeding any more.
On the way, which would have taken at least a couple of hours at that pace, it was then that Wynn realized... Bill had told him that he was a father. Elizabeth was his daughter, his little girl, whom he had never been able to embrace as his own. He had always loved her very much, but he had always been her uncle... "I wonder if one day I'll hear your Beth calling you Dad."
Frankison, too, couldn't stop thinking about everything that had happened a few moments ago. He had always loved Elizabeth, but now he understood why this love was so great, she was his twin sister, his half. That was why, years after years, he felt incomplete and only smiled again after meeting her again. Now he understood, because when he looked into her eyes, he found himself. It was funny, because he had heard Jack say that when he looked at his wife he lost himself in her eyes, but Frankison found himself in them. They both loved Elizabeth; Jack was her love, but as a man, his love as a husband was pure and true, as for him, it was the love of a soulmate brother, he had a bond, he was like her half. But it would be very difficult to see her and not tell her that she was his little sister, but he would obey his father's orders, until they found out if it was all an accident on the day of the birth or if it had been caused by someone else.
And so they continued in silence, that hard ride.