Chapter 5 - The Dead Man Waiting for Caden
Tommy had seen the body.
That ended any hope Reeve’s death was rumor.
“He was at the hotel,” Tommy said. “Room upstairs.”
“Shot?”
“Yes.”
“Who found him?”
“Hotel owner.”
“What was Tommy Bell from Roark ranch doing in Maricopa Wells?” Mara asked.
Tommy looked at her nervously.
“Mr. Silas sent me for medicine.”
“Convenient,” Caden said.
Tommy’s face fell.
“I didn’t kill him.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“You sounded like it.”
Caden crouched.
“Who hit you?”
“Cutter.”
Caden and Mara exchanged a look.
“You know his name?”
“Gault brought him to the ranch.”
“When?”
“Yesterday morning.”
“Why?”
Tommy hesitated.
“Mr. Gault and Mr. Silas argued.”
“About?”
“You.”
Caden’s expression hardened.
“Tell me.”
“Gault said Bell made a mistake using family.”
That matched Miles’s warning.
“What did Silas say?”
“That you weren’t family anymore.”
Caden looked away.
The words should not have hurt.
They did.
Mara watched but said nothing.
Tommy continued.
“Then Gault asked where Mrs. Roark hid the box.”
Caden touched the key in his pocket.
“Elizabeth’s box?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did Silas say?”
“He never found it.”
“Truth,” Caden muttered. “Maybe.”
Tommy shifted uncomfortably.
“Later Mr. Silas packed a wagon.”
“With what?”
“Your mother’s trunk. Clothes. Some books.”
“He planned to leave?”
“Yes.”
“Silas would sooner cut off his hand than abandon that ranch.”
“He was scared.”
“Of Gault?”
Tommy nodded.
“Then Cutter caught me listening outside the office.”
“He hit you?”
“Yes.”
“What did Silas do?”
“Made him stop.”
That complicated things again.
“Then Silas sent you?”
Tommy pulled a folded note from his boot.
Caden read it.
Caden—
Do not go to Reeve. Do not trust anyone wearing a federal badge unless you see proof beyond the badge itself.
If you still carry Bell’s envelope, do not let Gault take it.
Come home only after dark.
—Silas
Caden read it twice.
Mara read over his shoulder.
“Different from what Miles said.”
“Yes.”
“Miles told you Silas may have betrayed you.”
“Yes.”
“This says he is warning you.”
“Yes.”
Tommy added quietly, “He told me one more thing.”
“What?”
“If you asked whether he knew Gault would hunt you, I was supposed to say yes.”
Caden stared.
Tommy swallowed.
“He said he knew Gault sent men south.”
“How long before they shot me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hours?”
“Maybe.”
Caden folded the note.
His brother had known danger was coming.
Had not warned him soon enough.
Yet now was trying to help.
“Why didn’t Silas ride after me?”
Tommy shook his head.
“He said Gault had men watching.”
Mara asked, “Why did Gault leave him alive?”
Tommy looked confused.
Caden was not.
“Because Silas still has something Gault needs.”
The hidden box.
Elizabeth’s records.
Caden looked toward the north.
“We go to the ranch.”
Mara nodded.
Tommy started to rise.
“No,” Caden said.
The boy stopped.
“You ride south.”
“Why?”
“To Florence.”
Caden gave him money and one cartridge.
“Find Miles Danner. If he reaches town, tell him Reeve is dead.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Find Samuel Holt.”
“The deputy?”
“Yes.”
“What do I tell him?”
Caden thought.
“Tell him Bell’s agreement changed.”
Tommy frowned.
“Will he understand?”
“I hope not.”
The boy mounted and left.
Mara watched him disappear.
“You trust him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He could have led the four men here.”
“That is reasonable.”
Caden looked surprised.
“You agreed with me.”
“Do not become comfortable.”
They rode north.
By sunset the distant Roark ranch appeared between cottonwoods.
Caden had not seen it in six years.
The house looked smaller.
The barn larger.
Memory did that.
A black carriage stood near the porch.
Gold letter painted on the door.
G.
Gault.
Mara stopped the mare.
Two men stood on the porch.
One silver-haired.
Horace Gault.
The other broad-shouldered, wearing a dark vest.
Silas Roark.
Caden’s brother.
Even from half a mile away, Caden recognized his posture.
Gault said something.
Silas answered.
Then both men turned toward the ridge.
Toward Caden and Mara.
Mara guided the mare lower.
“Did they see us?”
“Maybe.”
“What now?”
Caden looked at his childhood home.
At the smokehouse ruins.
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At the man he had once worshiped because older brothers always seemed indestructible.
“Now,” he said, “I find out which part of my family Gault already bought.”
