Chapter 3 - The Secret Beneath Black Mesa
The shooter escaped.
That fact bothered Elias almost as much as the bullets.
Black Mesa had riders everywhere, yet whoever fired from behind the barn knew exactly how to disappear through the cottonwood ravine before Rourke's men could surround him.
Elias stood beside the shattered porch post.
“Your own man?”
Rourke's eyes hardened.
“Maybe.”
“That's comforting.”
“You think I find it comforting?”
Elias looked toward the ravine.
“You said my father found forged deeds.”
Rourke motioned toward the house.
“Inside.”
Elias hesitated.
Every instinct warned him not to enter.
Then he remembered the leather beside his family's burned barn.
He followed.
Rourke unlocked an iron box in his office.
Inside were papers yellowed with age.
Maps.
Receipts.
Letters.
And a folded document with Daniel Ward's signature.
Elias recognized his father's handwriting instantly.
His throat tightened.
Rourke placed the paper on the desk.
“Your father found evidence that several ranchers and territorial officials were falsifying claims to water and grazing land.”
“Who?”
“Some are dead.”
“Some?”
Rourke looked at him.
“Sheriff Amos Bell is not.”
Elias thought of Aayoka's words.
The sheriff drank coffee with Rourke.
“You work with Bell.”
“I tolerate Bell.”
“Difference?”
“A large one.”
Rourke poured whiskey.
Elias refused it.
“My father confronted them?”
“Yes.”
“Then his ranch burned.”
“Yes.”
“And you expect me to believe you had nothing to do with it?”
Rourke's expression darkened.
“I was a coward, Ward. Don't confuse that with being the murderer.”
Elias said nothing.
“I knew what they were doing. I knew Daniel planned to expose them. I told him to forget it.”
“Why?”
“Because I had children.”
“So did he.”
Rourke flinched.
Elias saw it.
“I've lived with that sentence for twelve years.”
“Good.”
Rourke accepted the cruelty without protest.
Then he pushed another paper across the desk.
It showed water rights across several thousand acres.
Including the Apache settlement.
Elias stared at the signatures.
“Bell wants this land.”
“Bell and several investors.”
“And you?”
Rourke's jaw tightened.
“I wanted the water. I offered to buy access.”
“You sent men to frighten two women.”
“No.”
“Your brand was beside their wagon.”
Rourke stared at the leather.
“Caleb Voss.”
Elias looked up.
“My foreman.”
“He said you remembered my father.”
“I told him after he described you.”
“Did you tell him about the deeds?”
“No.”
That meant Voss knew more than he should.
Elias immediately headed for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Back.”
Rourke stood.
“If Voss is involved, don't ride alone.”
“I arrived alone.”
“And somebody just tried putting a bullet through your skull.”
Elias stopped.
Rourke called two trusted men.
Elias disliked accepting protection.
But Aayoka's voice returned to him.
Suffering is a competition you've already won.
Maybe refusing help wasn't strength.
Maybe it was simply habit.
They rode hard.
By sunset they reached the settlement.
Elias smelled smoke before he saw the cabin.
His stomach dropped.
He kicked Copper into a gallop.
The smoke came from a storage shed.
Men were throwing buckets of water.
The sisters' cabin remained standing.
Elias jumped from the saddle.
“Aayoka!”
She emerged through the crowd.
Alive.
Nara followed.
Something inside Elias unclenched so violently that he nearly staggered.
Aayoka saw it.
For one unguarded second, neither moved.
Then Elias crossed the distance.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Nara?”
“Fine.”
“What happened?”
“Someone set the shed on fire.”
Elias looked toward the flames.
A warning.
Or a distraction.
Nara approached.
“They came to the cabin first.”
“Who?”
“Two riders.”
“What did they want?”
“You.”
Elias went still.
“They asked when you would return.”
Aayoka added, “We said we didn't know.”
“And?”
“One said perhaps you wouldn't.”
Elias's face hardened.
“What did he look like?”
Nara described him.
Elias recognized the description immediately.
Caleb Voss.
That night he told the sisters everything.
His family.
The fire.
The brand.
The documents.
The attack at Black Mesa.
For once, he did not reduce his past to a sentence.
He told them how his mother used to sing while making bread.
How his younger brother Samuel cheated at cards.
How his father built their kitchen table.
How Elias had returned from town to find the horizon glowing red.
When he finished, the cabin was silent.
Aayoka sat beside him.
Not touching.
Simply present.
“I left the next month,” Elias said.
“Because staying hurt.”
“Yes.”
“And leaving?”
He stared at the fire.
“Hurt differently.”
Nara's voice came softly.
“Then perhaps you've been choosing between two kinds of pain.”
Elias looked at her.
“Maybe.”
Outside, a branch snapped.
All three froze.
Elias reached for the Winchester.
A knock sounded.
Three slow knocks.
He opened the door carefully.
The elder stood outside.
And beside him was a boy holding something wrapped in cloth.
“Found this near the burned shed.”
Elias unfolded it.
A ledger.
Partially burned.
Inside were names.
Payments.
Dates.
Sheriff Bell.
Caleb Voss.
Several territorial officials.
And then Elias found an entry dated twelve years earlier.
Beside his father's name were four words:
WARD PROPERTY — PROBLEM RESOLVED.
His hands began shaking.
Below it was a payment.
Five hundred dollars.
Recipient:
A. BELL.
Elias looked up.
The sheriff who was supposedly responsible for protecting the settlement had apparently been paid after his family died.
May you like
And Bell was still wearing a badge.
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