Chapter 4 - Footsteps Outside the Barn
They watched Mara's cabin burn from a ridge half a mile away.
Neither spoke.
The flames rose above the cottonwoods.
Orange against black.
Mara stood rigid.
Elias remained several steps away.
He wanted to tell her a house could be rebuilt.
He didn't.
Some things were technically true and still cruel to say.
That cabin wasn't lumber.
It was Thomas's hands on the doorframe.
It was winter mornings.
Meals.
Arguments.
Laughter.
A life that had already been taken from her once.
Now Harlan had burned what remained.
When the roof collapsed, Mara finally sat.
Elias gave her his coat.
She accepted it.
That mattered.
“They'll say it was an accident,” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“Sheriff Boone will believe them.”
“He'll pretend to.”
She looked at the papers.
“We can't take these to him.”
“No.”
“Then where?”
“County marshal?”
“Two days south.”
“Judge?”
“Circuit judge comes next month.”
Mara laughed bitterly.
“A month.”
“We make copies.”
“With what?”
“Red Mesa has a newspaper?”
“One man. Jonah Bell. Prints twice a week.”
“Trust him?”
“I don't know.”
“Good.”
Mara frowned.
“Good?”
“People you trust without knowing them are usually where trouble starts.”
She studied him.
“You trust no one.”
“Not true.”
“Who?”
Elias thought.
“Samson.”
Despite herself, Mara smiled.
It disappeared quickly.
“What happened to you?”
He looked toward the burning cabin.
“Long story.”
“We have time.”
“No, we don't.”
Hooves sounded below.
Elias stood.
“Move.”
They spent the rest of the night traveling west instead of south, deliberately creating a false trail.
At dawn they circled toward Red Mesa.
Mara thought he was insane.
Elias agreed.
It was also their best chance.
Harlan would expect them to flee.
So they would go back.
By midmorning they reached the abandoned barn again.
Mara stared at him.
“This is the first place they'll look.”
“Which is why they already looked.”
“That is terrible logic.”
“Probably.”
“You say that often.”
“Been accurate so far.”
Inside, Elias examined Thomas's copied pages.
The records were detailed.
Dates.
Cattle counts.
Altered brands.
Land payments.
Payments to Boone.
But one name appeared beside several unexplained transactions.
Abigail Shaw.
“Who is she?” Elias asked.
Mara went still.
“Schoolteacher.”
“Why would Thomas write her name?”
“I don't know.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Then we find out.”
They waited until evening.
Elias entered town alone.
Red Mesa felt different.
People watched him.
Word of the confrontation had spread.
So had news of the fire.
At the general store, conversation stopped when he entered.
The proprietor stared.
“You're either brave or stupid.”
“Been called both.”
“Your Apache woman burned her own cabin.”
Elias's expression hardened.
“Who told you that?”
“Harlan.”
“And you believed him?”
The proprietor looked away.
That answer disappointed Elias more than a yes.
“Where does Abigail Shaw live?”
The man's head snapped up.
“Why?”
“Need to ask her something.”
“Don't.”
“People keep telling me that.”
“And you keep ignoring them.”
“Where?”
The proprietor sighed.
“House behind the school.”
Elias turned.
“Ward.”
He looked back.
The proprietor lowered his voice.
“Be careful who sees you.”
Elias paused.
“What’s your name?”
“Samuel Pike.”
“Thank you, Samuel.”
Pike looked almost ashamed of being thanked.
Elias crossed town after dark.
Abigail Shaw answered after his second knock.
She was perhaps fifty.
Gray beginning in her hair.
Sharp eyes.
She recognized his description before he introduced himself.
“You're the stranger.”
“Apparently.”
“You helped Mara.”
“Yes.”
“Is she alive?”
Elias studied her.
“Yes.”
Abigail closed her eyes briefly.
“Thank God.”
“Thomas Ward—”
“Thomas Grey Hawk.”
Elias corrected himself.
“Thomas Grey Hawk wrote your name in records he kept.”
Abigail's face changed.
She pulled him inside.
“Do you have them?”
“Copies.”
“Where?”
“Safe.”
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
Abigail locked the door.
“Thomas came to me three weeks before he died.”
Elias listened.
“He said he discovered Creed was stealing cattle and falsifying deeds. He wanted me to write letters.”
“To whom?”
“Territorial authorities.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“They never arrived.”
“How do you know?”
“Because one came back.”
She opened a drawer.
Inside was an envelope.
The wax seal had been broken.
“Someone intercepted it.”
“Boone?”
“I believe so.”
Elias took the letter.
“What happened to Thomas?”
Abigail's eyes met his.
“You were told fever.”
“Yes.”
“He wasn't sick.”
The room seemed suddenly smaller.
“What are you saying?”
“I saw him the day before he died. He was healthy.”
Elias stared.
“Then how?”
“I don't know.”
A floorboard creaked outside.
Both froze.
Elias extinguished the lamp.
Footsteps crossed the porch.
A shadow stopped outside the window.
Abigail whispered, “Back door.”
Elias shook his head.
The front door exploded inward.
Sheriff Boone stood there.
Behind him were two deputies.
His badge caught the moonlight.
“Elias Ward,” Boone said.
“You're under arrest.”
“For?”
“Kidnapping Mara Grey Hawk.”
Elias almost laughed.
May you like
Then Boone added:
“And for murdering her husband.”
