Chapter 12 - No One Gets All the Evidence
The attack lasted twelve minutes.
It felt like an hour.
Gault’s men fired from the ridge.
Dasoda’s two adult sons returned fire from behind a stone wall.
Mara moved between windows.
Silas guarded the rear.
Caden stayed low, conserving his three remaining revolver cartridges.
Bell shouted from the doorway.
“They’re not trying to rush.”
“What do they want?” Caden asked.
“The records.”
“Then why shoot?”
“To make us move.”
Caden understood.
The road south was open.
Too open.
“They’re pushing us toward Maricopa.”
Bell nodded.
Same tactic as Arroyo Seco.
Herd the target.
Mara called from the window.
“Riders east.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
“West?”
“Clear.”
Dasoda spoke quickly.
Mara translated.
“There is an old irrigation trench west.”
Silas looked at Caden.
“Again?”
“Arizona apparently has many useful ditches.”
The plan was simple.
Which meant it would probably fail.
Dasoda’s sons rode east wearing borrowed coats.
Silas joined them.
From a distance, three riders looked like Caden, Mara and Silas.
The gunmen pursued.
Meanwhile, Caden, Mara, Mae and Bell slipped west carrying divided evidence.
Dasoda kept Nantan’s original notice and Caleb’s letter.
Caden objected.
“If they come back—”
“She chooses,” Mara said.
Caden looked at Dasoda.
The older woman nodded firmly.
No argument.
They reached the trench.
Miles appeared unexpectedly from the west with another horse.
Caden stared.
“Do you ever stay where you’re sent?”
“No.”
Miles saw Bell.
His face hardened.
“You.”
Bell nodded.
“Miles.”
Miles punched him.
Bell fell into the ditch.
Caden almost smiled.
Bell sat up, bleeding from the lip again.
“I assume that was for something other than the horse.”
Miles stared.
“Nathan Cole.”
Bell’s expression changed.
Caden asked, “Who?”
Miles answered.
“A clerk who copied survey certificates. Gault’s men killed him.”
Bell looked at the dirt.
“I gave Gault his name twelve years ago.”
Miles’s anger trembled.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“You handed him over.”
“Yes.”
Miles wanted to hit him again.
Mara stepped between them.
“Later.”
Miles breathed hard.
Bell said quietly, “He’s right.”
“Later,” Mara repeated.
They divided evidence further.
Mae gave portions of the master ledger to Miles.
Bell took copies of Elizabeth’s pages.
Mara carried Nantan-related documents.
Caden kept the forged envelope and Caleb’s affidavit copy.
“No one has everything,” Mara said.
“If Gault catches one—”
“He gets part.”
Caden nodded.
“Smart.”
Silas rejoined at sunset.
He had lost the pursuing men in cattle country.
One of Dasoda’s sons had taken a bullet through the hat.
Otherwise unharmed.
Caden felt relief.
Silas looked at Bell.
“So he is alive.”
“Unfortunately,” Caden said.
Bell ignored him.
Silas pointed toward the distant hills.
“Gault himself is coming.”
“How do you know?”
“Black carriage on the stage road.”
Miles frowned.
“He never travels for dirty work.”
“Then he thinks the stakes are high enough.”
Mae touched the railroad contract.
“They are.”
Bell studied the terrain.
“We cannot outrun nine riders while protecting records.”
Caden looked toward Arroyo Seco.
Original field notes.
False seal.
The strongest physical evidence remained at Gault’s old survey station.
“What if we stop running?”
Mara met his eyes.
“What are you thinking?”
“Gault wants us moving south.”
“Yes.”
“Then we go north.”
“To Arroyo Seco?”
Silas understood.
“Take the originals.”
Miles shook his head.
“That station will be guarded.”
“By how many?”
“Unknown.”
Caden smiled slightly.
“Better than nine known.”
Bell objected.
“You’re wounded.”
“Everyone keeps noticing.”
Mara looked toward the red horizon.
“If we get the field notes and false seal, Judge Avery can freeze the sale.”
Bell nodded reluctantly.
“Yes.”
Caden turned to Miles.
“You go to Florence.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“What message?”
“To Samuel Holt. Tell him to get copies to San Francisco and Washington.”
“And Bell?”
Caden looked at the disgraced deputy.
Bell said, “Tell Holt everything. Including me.”
Miles seemed surprised.
Bell met his eye.
“No more arrangements.”
Silas looked at Caden.
“Father said trust choices.”
“Yes.”
“You trust Bell?”
“No.”
“Then why let him come?”
“Because he knows where the station is.”
Bell gave a faint smile.
“That is the nicest thing you’ve said about me.”
They rode north at dusk.
Behind them, Horace Gault’s men searched roads leading south.
Ahead waited the place where Caden’s horse had died.
The canyon where the story had begun.
This time Caden was not carrying one envelope alone.
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He was riding with people who knew the truth.
And that made Gault more dangerous than ever.
