“Thank you again, gentlemen.” Luke walked Archie and Sanders to the door. “I’ll be in touch, Mr. Sanders.”

“I’ll speak to my wife and let you know what she says.”

Luke laughed. “Maybe I should be offering her something as well.”

Sanders chuckled. “She has her eye on a new icebox.”

“Well, tell her it’s hers if she’ll let you go back to work,” Luke promised, laughing.

The men left, and Luke sobered and turned to face Sedgwick. “I think we should talk.”

He walked to his office and sat at his desk. For a moment he wondered if Theodore would join him, but finally the secretary appeared. He was still quite pale.

“Please have a seat.”

Sedgwick did as instructed. He gripped his knees and kept his head slightly bowed.

“Do you know why I’ve asked you to come for this talk?”

“I believe I do.” Theodore still refused to look up. Instead he began twisting at his pant legs and rocking ever so slightly back and forth.

“Do I understand correctly that you are the one responsible for changing the numbers on the engineer’s plans for the route from Forest Lake to Fond du Lac?”

Sedgwick’s breathing quickened. “It did no harm.”

Luke nodded, though his secretary still would not look him in the eye. “Perhaps not, but that wasn’t your original plan. Was it? You wanted to do harm.”

When Sedgwick raised his face, Luke was shocked at his contorted expression. “You killed my dearest friend, and you talk to me of harm?”

Luke’s eyes narrowed. “I killed your dearest friend? Who was this person? Was it someone in the war?”

Theodore jumped up, knocking the chair over backward. “You never even cared about what you did.” He paced back and forth. “He hadn’t hurt anyone, and yet you saw to it that he was imprisoned.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Rafael Clarington.”

Luke shook his head as he scrambled to remember the name. Who was this man?

“You don’t even remember him! That’s how much it meant to you. He was nothing—no one. You didn’t care that he wasn’t able to endure the hardship of prison. He was an old man, and you killed him as surely as if you had put a gun to his head.” Sedgwick’s voice raised to a screeching cry. “And I will make you pay. I will. You and your father. I will see you both pay.”

He pulled a gun from his pocket.

Luke had never expected such action from this seemingly mild-mannered man. He held up his hands. “Please, Theodore. Tell me more. I want to understand.”