Chapter 4 - The Secret Mian Carried West
Silas did not draw his gun.
That disappointed Voss.
Silas could see it.
Men like Caleb Voss preferred anger because anger created mistakes.
“What are you doing in Boon's office?” Silas asked.
“Same thing as you.”
“Looking for Boon?”
“Concerned citizen.”
Silas glanced at the blood.
“Very concerned.”
Voss smiled.
“You accusing me?”
“Not yet.”
Silas walked past him.
Voss whispered, “Those women will destroy you.”
Silas stopped.
“No.”
He looked back.
“You're destroying yourself.”
Silas returned to the ranch before dark.
Mian knew immediately something was wrong.
“Sheriff?”
“Missing.”
Her face changed.
Atseli stood.
“Because paper?”
“Maybe.”
Mian became pale.
Then she said something Silas had not expected.
“There are more papers.”
Silas stared at her.
“What?”
She reached beneath the floor of the small room where she slept and removed an oilcloth bundle.
Inside were ledger pages.
Dozens.
Silas looked at her.
“You've had these the entire time?”
Mian nodded.
“Why give Boon only one?”
“Need know if trust.”
Silas almost laughed despite the circumstances.
“You were testing the sheriff?”
“And you.”
That humbled him.
The documents contained names, debts, payments and land transactions.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Caleb Voss.
Another appeared almost as often.
Reverend Amos Pike.
Silas felt cold.
“The minister?”
Atseli nodded.
“He finds people.”
“What people?”
“People alone.”
Immigrants.
Widows.
Native families.
Orphans.
Anyone unlikely to be defended.
Voss trapped them in impossible debts.
Pike provided legitimacy.
Sometimes land changed hands afterward.
Silas understood why the town had turned against the women.
This wasn't merely prejudice.
Prejudice was being used as camouflage for theft.
If people believed Mian and Atseli were dangerous outsiders, nobody would listen to what they knew.
Silas spread the pages across the table.
“We need Boon.”
Atseli shook her head.
“We need find him first.”
They did.
At dawn, Silas followed wagon tracks from behind the sheriff's office toward an abandoned mine north of town.
Atseli insisted on coming.
“You stay with Mian.”
“No.”
“This isn't an argument.”
“Then stop arguing.”
Silas looked at her.
She raised an eyebrow.
For the first time in years, Silas remembered what marriage had taught him.
Some arguments could not be won.
They reached the mine before noon.
A faint sound came from inside.
Silas drew his revolver.
They entered.
Boon lay behind a stack of rotten timber.
Alive.
Barely.
His head was bleeding.
His hands were tied.
Silas cut the rope.
Boon opened one eye.
“Ward?”
“Who did this?”
Boon coughed.
“Deputy.”
Silas froze.
“Deputy Harlan?”
Boon nodded.
The conspiracy was inside the sheriff's office.
Atseli looked toward the entrance.
“We leave now.”
Too late.
A shadow crossed the opening.
Then a voice echoed into the mine.
“Should've stayed on your ranch, Ward.”
Deputy Harlan had found them.
May you like
And he had brought men with him.
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