Page 58 of Inventions of the Heart

Jilly leapt to her feet before the door slammed shut. “He picked up your satchel, Josh, not his. He stole it.”

Zane charged after him. “Josh, stay with the women—and the bags.”

Michelle wasn’t going to sit here while Zane took on that thief alone. “Watch my bag, too.” She ran after Zane and reached the station platform just as Zane dove at Kelton and tackled him. The two of them were too close to the platform edge and went tumbling to the ground below.

Michelle dashed down the steps as Loyal staggered to his feet and aimed one of his fancy boots at Zane’s head. She screamed.

The noise distracted him for a split second.

Michelle screamed again, “Stop! Thief!”

Zane rolled sideways as Kelton’s boot swung at him and grazed his shoulder instead of landing square on his head.

Michelle, wishing she had a trusty volume of Tolstoy, slammed into Kelton with her shoulder. The man was solid. He barely staggered back a pace.

Then a conductor responded to her screaming. Zane was on his feet and slammed a hard fist into Kelton’s face. Michelle thought he was swinging with the desire to avenge his sister as well as to get his gold back.

A second punch knocked Kelton back so hard his feet flew out in front of him, and he landed hard on his back. His head hit the wooden sidewalk with a sickening thud. He didn’t move again.

Zane’s lip was bleeding, and he clutched at his shoulder. Under his breath, he said to Michelle, “I think we need to move fast more than we need to get the law involved with this.”

She heard the question in his statement. “It doesn’t sit right, but we do need to move fast.”

She turned to the conductor. “He stole my brother-in-law’s satchel. It was very deliberate, not a mistake. He took it and ran. Since we got it back, this can end here if it’s all right with you. Do you want us to call the law?”

“We’d prefer to have no trouble with this,” the conductor said.

A crowd had begun to gather, including their own group, with Josh and Jilly each carrying two satchels. Michelle had to wonder when Kelton had noticed the overly heavy bags. Had he really come to Lodi on his way to Beth Ellen? Or had he seen her, recognized the bags as weighty enough to be suspicious, and faked his apology to get close to the satchel?

Michelle suspected Kelton would pretend it was all an innocent mistake. He’d picked up the wrong bit of baggage. She doubted they’d even be able to have him arrested if they’d had the time.

“I’ll hire a wagon.” Josh left quickly, carrying Zane’s andAnnie’s satchels. Michelle took hers from Jilly, and Zane took the one Kelton had dropped.

“We’ll meet Josh at the baggage car. Let’s move.” Zane led the way.

“His father should be arrested for naming his son so poorly,” Beth Ellen muttered.

“Why would the son of a wealthy banker steal from us?” Zane reached the car that held their trunks of gold and stood at the door.

Michelle watched Josh come toward them leading a wooden wagon pulled by two tired-looking Percherons.

“I asked the driver to let me handle the reins. I paid him well to pick up his horses at the Wells Fargo bank. He’ll follow along. We need to get out of here before we draw any more attention, or Kelton wakes up and decides to try again.”

---