Chapter 7 - The Dead Woman’s Claim
The document appeared impossible.
Ruth was dead.
Asa had buried her.
Yet someone had filed a claim using her name.
The challenge centered on an old technicality in the deed.
If successful, Asa could lose the ranch.
Sahale studied the document.
“Voss?”
“He’s awaiting trial.”
“He had partners.”
That proved correct.
A land speculator named Horace Bell had purchased several of Voss’s questionable claims.
Bell believed Asa’s spring could support a cattle operation worth thousands.
The forged Ruth Rich claim was designed to trap Asa in court until Bell could seize control.
Sahale became furious.
“They are trying to take your home.”
“Our home,” Asa said.
She stopped.
He had never said it before.
Our.
Sahale folded the document.
“Then they chose the wrong home.”
The legal fight took them to Santa Fe.
For Sahale, the journey was overwhelming.
Crowded streets.
Hotels.
Courtrooms.
People staring at her eye and limp.
She hated it.
But she refused to hide.
The hearing lasted two days.
Bell’s attorney argued that Ruth had signed a competing deed before her death.
Asa knew the signature was false.
Proving it was another matter.
Then Sahale noticed something.
Ruth’s supposed signature was dated during a month when Asa and Ruth had been hundreds of miles away visiting Ruth’s sister.
“Can she prove it?” the judge asked.
Asa thought not.
Sahale remembered the box beneath Asa’s bed.
Old letters.
One was postmarked from Tucson during the exact week the forged deed claimed Ruth had been in Red Bluff.
The evidence destroyed Bell’s case.
The judge dismissed the claim and referred the forgery for investigation.
Outside the courthouse, Asa looked at Sahale.
“You saved the ranch.”
“Our ranch,” she corrected.
Asa smiled.
“Yes.”
On their return journey, they camped beneath cottonwoods.
Asa lay awake beside the fire.
Finally he said, “Sahale.”
“Yes?”
“I have something to ask you.”
She turned toward him.
He looked terrified.
That made her heart race.
But before Asa could finish, a gunshot echoed in the distance.
May you like
Their horses panicked.
And from the darkness came the sound of approaching riders.
