Chapter 11 - The Price of Water
They escaped Maricopa Wells before dawn in a freight wagon.
Mae hid beneath tarps with the ledger.
Bell drove.
Caden, Mara and Silas rode separately as escort.
Their destination was Dasoda’s homestead north of the Gila.
Mara’s aunt.
The place where Nantan’s surviving papers were kept.
Caden asked why they needed them.
Bell answered, “Original documents matter.”
“Elizabeth’s copies aren’t enough?”
“Defense lawyers will say she fabricated them.”
“The master ledger?”
“Gault will say Mae altered it.”
“Caleb’s affidavit?”
“A copy.”
Caden sighed.
“Law seems designed to make truth exhausted.”
Bell nodded.
“Yes.”
Mara looked at Caden.
“Now you understand why my father stopped believing paper.”
They reached Dasoda’s home by afternoon.
The gray-haired woman came outside holding a rifle.
She saw Mara first.
Then the Roark brothers.
Her expression became stone.
Mara spoke with her in Apache.
Caden waited.
Finally Mara said, “She remembers your father.”
“I assumed.”
“She says he had a heavy hand and a light conscience.”
Silas muttered, “Accurate.”
Caden said, “Tell her I am not asking her to like us.”
Mara translated.
Dasoda replied.
“She says good.”
They entered only after surrendering weapons.
Dasoda brought out a wrapped packet.
Inside was the original fraudulent notice served to Nantan.
The seal matched Bell’s envelope.
Broken feather.
Bell looked sick.
“I carried one like this.”
Dasoda spoke sharply.
Mara translated.
“She remembers you.”
Bell lowered his head.
“I remember her too.”
He spoke slowly while Mara translated.
“I helped Gault steal land. I cannot repair what happened to your family. I can testify.”
Dasoda listened.
Then answered.
“What?”
Caden asked.
Mara looked at Bell.
“She says testimony is cheaper than water.”
Bell nodded.
“Yes.”
Dasoda turned over Nantan’s notice.
Pencil notes covered the back.
Names.
Dates.
Descriptions.
Bell.
Caleb.
Harlan Voss.
Gault.
One line made Mara stop.
“My father wrote that Caleb came back two years later.”
“Why?”
Mara listened to Dasoda.
“To apologize.”
Silas looked up.
“Father?”
“Yes.”
“What did Nantan do?”
“Refused money.”
Caden smiled bitterly.
“That sounds like both men.”
Mara continued reading.
Caleb told Nantan he had begun copying Gault’s records.
He warned him not to trust Bell.
Bell closed his eyes.
“He was right then.”
Mara read another line.
“Caleb said Gault planned to move everything into a company tied to his children.”
Caden touched the ledger Mae carried.
Roark Springs Holdings.
Then Dasoda produced a letter.
Written by Caleb to Nantan.
Caden recognized his father’s hand.
Nantan—
You were right about me.
I believed fear for my ranch justified silence. It did not.
I cannot return years of water or undo arrests carried out because I signed paper I knew was false.
I am collecting what I can.
If I fail, Elizabeth knows where records are hidden.
Do not trust my sons because they are my sons. Trust only what they choose to do when the truth costs them.
Caden read that sentence twice.
Silas looked away.
Mara folded the letter.
Bell spoke.
“This helps establish Caleb changed course.”
Caden almost snapped at him.
Then stopped.
Everything could not be about the case.
Some things mattered because people had once written them.
That evening, they sat outside Dasoda’s house.
Mae showed Mara the railroad option.
Mara read the price.
“Two hundred fifty thousand.”
“Yes.”
“For access to water people already use.”
“Yes.”
Mara handed it back.
“And if the railroad buys?”
Mae said, “Gault receives most. Roark Springs Holdings disappears into the transfer.”
“What about users?”
“Railroad promises continued local access.”
Mara laughed once.
Caden knew that laugh.
No humor.
Bell said, “A contract could protect—”
Mara interrupted.
“A contract written by people who forged the last contracts?”
Bell stopped.
Fair.
Silas looked at the spring map.
“If we stop Gault, who owns it?”
Everyone became quiet.
Caden said, “Not us.”
Mara looked at him.
“That is easy to say.”
“I mean it.”
“Then who?”
Caden had no answer.
Dasoda spoke from the doorway.
Mara translated.
“She says that question is why men keep killing each other.”
Caden nodded.
“Smart woman.”
Mara’s aunt gave him a look.
Mara translated again.
“She says you are slow.”
Even Silas laughed.
Later that night, hoofbeats sounded in the distance.
Four riders.
Then more.
Bell counted silhouettes.
“Nine.”
Gault was done sending only the original four.
He had brought reinforcements.
Caden drew his revolver.
Mara took the rifle.
Dasoda loaded hers.
Caden looked at the old woman.
“I’m sorry we brought this here.”
She answered before Mara translated.
Mara smiled slightly.
“She says save apologies until after shooting stops.”
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The first bullet hit the adobe wall.
And the battle over old paper became a battle over living people again.
