“And Samuel?”
The doctor began crying.
“The boy drank from her cup.”
Eli could hear his own heartbeat.
“Samuel drank it?”
Bell nodded.
“I tried to save him.”
Eli seized the doctor’s collar.
“He was five years old.”
“I know!”
“Rebecca begged you to help him!”
“I know!”
Eli slammed Bell against the wall.
“You watched them die!”
Bell sobbed.
“Dugan threatened my family. He said if I told anyone, he’d kill my daughters.”
Eli’s revolver was suddenly in his hand.
Bell stared at the barrel.
“Please.”
Eli saw Samuel’s small face.
Rebecca’s pale hands.
The grave beneath the cottonwood.
He wanted to pull the trigger.
Every part of him wanted it.
Then he remembered Nara’s words.
You do not have to choose only one feeling.
He lowered the gun.
“You’ll write a confession.”
Bell stared.
“Everything. The medicine. The payments. Dugan’s orders.”
“He’ll kill me.”
Eli’s voice was cold.
“Then you’d better decide whether you want to die hiding the truth or live long enough to tell it.”
Bell sat at his desk.
He began writing.
But before he finished the second page, a rifle cracked outside.
The window shattered.
Bell jerked backward.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Eli threw himself to the floor.
A second shot struck the wall.
Then another.
He crawled to the window.
Across the street, a mounted gunman was already riding away.
Eli recognized the horse.
It belonged to one of Dugan’s deputies.
He turned back.
Bell was dying.
The doctor gripped Eli’s sleeve.
“There’s something…”
Eli leaned close.
“What?”
Bell coughed blood.
“The records…”
“Where?”
“Courthouse…”
His eyes widened.
“Basement…”
Then he whispered four words that Eli would never forget.
“Your father kept copies.”
Bell died before he could explain.
Chapter Nine: The Woman in the Courthouse
Eli escaped through the doctor’s rear door.
By noon, Dustwater was buzzing with rumors.
Sheriff Dugan announced that Dr. Bell had been murdered by an Apache outlaw.
He issued warrants for Nara and Eli.
A reward of five hundred dollars was offered for their capture.
Dead or alive.
Back at the ranch, Eli packed ammunition.
Nara watched him.
“You’re going after Dugan.”
“I’m going after the records.”
“He expects that.”
“I know.”
“Then he will kill you.”
Eli loaded his rifle.
“Not if I get there first.”
Nara stepped in front of the door.
“Listen to me.”
He stopped.
“My mother spent her life looking for you,” she said. “She wanted you alive. Not avenged.”
Eli’s expression twisted.
“He killed my wife.”
“Yes.”
“He killed my boy.”
“I know.”
“He stole my life before I was old enough to remember it.”
Nara’s voice softened.
“Then do not let him steal what remains.”
Eli looked at her.
For a moment, his anger broke.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Fight him with the truth.”
He shook his head.
“The truth didn’t save Rebecca.”
“No,” Nara whispered. “But it may save the next family.”
They devised a plan.
Eli would enter Dustwater through the old creek road.
Nara would approach the courthouse from behind, where a narrow cellar window opened beneath the stairs.
They waited until nightfall.
But when Nara reached the courthouse, she discovered someone already inside.
A woman sat at the sheriff’s desk, sorting papers by lamplight.
She was middle-aged, dressed in a dark green traveling gown.
Her silver-streaked hair was pinned neatly beneath a hat.
Nara raised her pistol.
“Don’t move.”
The woman looked up.
Instead of screaming, she smiled sadly.
“I wondered when you would come.”
Nara froze.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Margaret Vale.”
“Why are you here?”
Margaret opened a leather case.
Inside were documents, official seals, and a small metal badge.
“Because I’ve been investigating Silas Dugan for six years.”
Nara stared.
“You’re a marshal?”
“Not exactly.”
Margaret produced a letter bearing the seal of the territorial governor.
“I’m an appointed investigator. And I’ve been waiting for someone brave enough to bring me the final evidence.”
Nara lowered her pistol slightly.
“How did you know about me?”
Margaret’s smile vanished.
“Because I knew your grandmother.”
Nara stepped backward.
“Seya?”
Margaret nodded.
“She contacted me before she died.”
“Then why didn’t you help her?”
“I tried.”
Her voice cracked.
“Dugan intercepted my first messenger. My second disappeared in the mountains.”
She looked toward the door.
“And now he’s planning something far worse than another raid.”
“What?”
Margaret unfolded a map.
Red lines marked the mountains east of Dustwater.
“He’s going to destroy the mine.”
Nara stared.
“Why?”
“To bury the records. And everyone who knows about them.”
“How?”
Margaret pointed to several symbols.
“Explosives. Enough to collapse the entire eastern ridge.”
Nara felt cold.
The ridge stood above a narrow valley.
A valley containing homes, farms, and a small settlement.
“If that ridge falls…”
Margaret nodded.
“The floodwater behind the old mining dam will wipe out everything below it.”
Chapter Ten: Fire in the Rain
By the time Nara returned to the ranch, the storm had begun.
