Cole held up Wade’s ledger.
“Why twenty-two?”
The question was translated.
The leader remained silent for a long time.
Then he answered.
The interpreter’s face changed.
“What?”
Cole asked.
The young man looked at the women gathered near the fort.
Then back at Cole.
“Those women were not only witnesses.”
Cole waited.
“They were chosen.”
“For what?”
The interpreter swallowed.
“Each lost someone at Red Mesa.”
Cole felt his stomach tighten.
“Husbands?”
“Some.”
The interpreter pointed carefully from woman to woman.
“A husband. Two sons. A brother. A father. A sister.”
Cole looked along the line.
Twenty-two faces.
Twenty-two families.
The interpreter continued.
“Three years.”
Cole’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean?”
“Your brother’s men have been killing people for three years.”
Cole stared toward Wade’s cell.
The interpreter spoke more softly.
“The people believed the attacks were random. Some blamed soldiers. Some blamed miners. Some blamed other Apache groups.”
He pointed toward the Maddox iron plate.
“These women discovered the truth.”
Cole finally understood.
“They volunteered to come.”
“Yes.”
The chief spoke again.
The interpreter listened.
Then turned toward Cole.
“He says when you arrived with water, some of the warriors wanted to kill you.”
Cole was not surprised.
“You carried the name of the man who murdered their families.”
The words struck harder than Cole expected.
The leader continued speaking.
“He stopped them.”
“Why?”
The interpreter looked toward Isana.
The girl was feeding Dust a piece of dried fruit.
“Because he watched you give away enough water to kill yourself.”
Cole said nothing.
“He did not know if you were like your brother.”
The interpreter paused.
“So he gave you the twenty-two women.”
Cole almost corrected him.
Then realized what the young man meant.
Not ownership.
Not payment.
A test.
“He gave me their voices.”
“Yes.”
“And if I had refused?”
The leader answered.
The interpreter smiled faintly.
“He says then he would know there were two Wade Maddoxes.”
Cole looked away.
The sunrise burned red across the desert.
For years, Cole had believed his brother was the victim of Apache violence.
That belief had shaped everything.
His anger.
His wandering.
His suspicion.
Even the rifle he carried had once been purchased with the intention of finding whoever killed Wade.
But Wade had never been the victim.
Wade had created the story himself.
And Cole had almost spent his life hating innocent people because of it.
The investigation lasted months.
The scandal reached newspapers from Tucson to San Francisco.
Wade’s ledger exposed bribery, murder, fraudulent land claims, poisoned wells, staged raids, and illegal contracts involving several businessmen and two government officials.
Captain Bell was court-martialed.
Three mining investors fled the territory.
One federal Indian agent resigned before investigators reached his office.
Wade Maddox stood trial in Prescott.
Twenty-two Apache women testified.
Some spoke through interpreters.
Some used the English they knew.
