Chapter 10 - The Commissioner’s Brother
Rebecca Sloan did not hide the relationship.
“Daniel is my older brother.”
Marshal Cole watched carefully.
“What does he do?”
“Assistant registrar for western development permits.”
Matthew’s expression hardened.
“He approved Meridian Plains filings.”
Rebecca looked through records.
“Yes.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
Elias asked:
“Would he have access to Arthur Hale’s survey?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
The missing treaty.
Altered maps.
Rail permits.
Vale had influence at every level.
Rebecca sat.
“My brother lives in Prescott.”
Cole sent a telegram immediately.
No accusation.
A request to appear.
Sarah watched Rebecca.
“You believe he took bribes?”
“I believe paper exists.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
Sarah respected the answer.
The next morning, a reply arrived.
Daniel Sloan had left Prescott two days earlier.
Destination unknown.
Rebecca closed her eyes.
That looked bad.
But appearances had misled everyone before.
Marshal Cole searched office archives.
They found five permits Daniel approved for Vale.
Three used altered survey coordinates.
Two predated his employment.
Someone may have added his signature later.
Complicated.
Noah sat quietly until he noticed something adults missed.
“Why is the ink different?”
Rebecca looked.
One signature was brown-black.
Another blue-black.
Not unusual over years.
But two documents dated the same day used different inks.
Cole called a clerk.
Different pens could explain it.
Still, the clerk remembered Daniel Sloan was left-handed.
The questioned signatures slanted like a right-handed writer.
Forgery.
At least some.
Vale forged government signatures just as he manipulated Benjamin’s.
Rebecca exhaled.
Not innocence yet.
But doubt.
Then a rider arrived from Prescott.
A message from Daniel.
Not sent by telegraph.
Hand-carried.
Rebecca, do not trust office wires. Vale has a clerk reading government traffic. I left because I found the original Carter cancellation registered under a false index.
Sarah stood.
Benjamin had delivered it?
Daniel’s letter continued:
The document reached Prescott two days after Benjamin Carter died. Someone intercepted it and filed it under a mining number so no land clerk would find it.
The cancellation existed.
Legally received.
Vale’s sale claim was dead.
Sarah’s hands shook.
Noah hugged her.
For the first time, their home felt truly theirs again.
But the question remained:
Who mailed Benjamin’s cancellation after he died?
The document envelope could answer.
Daniel had taken it with him.
He was traveling toward Fort Grant.
Cole estimated one day.
That night someone set fire to the records shed.
Smoke woke the fort.
Soldiers formed a water line.
Sarah and Noah carried buckets.
Elias ran inside with Cole to save the survey chest.
The fire was contained before destroying the main office.
But one cabinet burned completely.
Meridian files.
Deliberate.
A guard saw a man leaving.
Caleb Voss.
Again.
Vale was no longer defending a land transaction.
He was destroying evidence.
Federal charges expanded.
Then Elias noticed something disturbing.
The survey chest remained intact.
But Hale’s diary was gone.
Sarah’s heart dropped.
They had copied some pages.
Not all.
The most important original evidence vanished.
Who had access during the fire?
Marshal Cole.
Commissioner Sloan.
Matthew.
Jonas under guard.
Elias.
Sarah.
Noah.
Several soldiers.
Too many.
Elias hated suspicion returning.
Sarah said:
“We don’t start accusing people because we’re scared.”
He nodded.
She had learned from him.
Now she reminded him.
Then Noah opened his satchel.
“I have the diary.”
Everyone stared.
Sarah nearly fainted.
“What?”
“Mr. Elias gave it to me yesterday.”
Elias looked confused.
“I did not.”
Noah produced the book.
Elias examined it.
“This isn’t Hale’s.”
Same leather cover.
Different contents.
A decoy.
Someone had switched it before the fire.
The real diary was already gone.
Noah frowned.
“Then what’s this?”
Inside were blank pages except one.
A message.
STOP DIGGING OR BENJAMIN CARTER’S REAL DEATH RECORD GOES PUBLIC.
Sarah stared.
“Real death record?”
Noah looked at her.
“Ma?”
Sarah had seen Benjamin’s body.
She had buried him.
But she suddenly remembered something.
The county doctor never performed a formal examination.
Sheriff Trent brought the body home.
The coffin remained closed after preparation because the injuries were severe.
Noah whispered:
“Was Pa killed different than they said?”
Elias looked at the threat.
“No fake death. No mystery body.”
Sarah looked at him.
“What?”
“Whoever wrote this isn’t saying Benjamin survived.”
He pointed to the wording.
“They’re saying the official cause is false.”
Sarah swallowed.
Benjamin’s death had always been called a fall from a horse.
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The threat implied something else.
And Gideon Vale apparently believed the true cause would shame or implicate Benjamin himself.
