Chapter 9 - Gault’s Office
The irrigation ditch smelled of mud and rotting reeds.
It also hid them.
They left the horses beneath a bridge after dark and entered Maricopa Wells on foot.
Caden kept his hat low.
His side still ached, but the wound had begun closing.
Gault’s office stood near the freight yard.
One-story brick.
Rear window.
Silas picked the lock.
Caden stared.
“Ranching taught you that?”
“Business.”
“Your business worries me.”
“So it should.”
Inside, Silas moved directly to the back room.
A portrait of Horace Gault hung above the safe.
Caden looked at it.
Gault appeared respectable.
That irritated him more than a villainous face would have.
Silas turned the combination.
Twenty-three left.
Eleven right.
Thirty-two left.
Click.
The safe opened.
Empty.
Silas swore.
“They cleared it.”
Mara examined the desk.
“Maybe not everything.”
She found a folded telegram trapped behind a drawer.
Caden opened it.
TO H. GAULT
ROARK COURIER SURVIVED FIRST CONTACT. WOMAN ASSISTING. REEVE ARRANGEMENT COMPLETE. CONTINUE HERDING ROARK TOWARD WELLS.
—BELL
Caden’s fist tightened.
There it was.
Bell had directed them.
Mara took the telegram.
“First contact means canyon.”
“Yes.”
“Reeve arrangement complete.”
“Murder or frame.”
Silas searched another drawer.
“Look.”
A second telegram.
FROM DISTRICT ATTORNEY VALE
ONCE ROARK IS FOUND WITH REEVE MATERIAL, WARRANT WILL ISSUE. DESTROY ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE AFTER TRANSFER.
Caden laughed quietly.
“They planned everything.”
“Not everything,” Mara said.
She pointed to another notation in the margin.
E.R. BOX STILL MISSING. S.R. CLAIMS NO KNOWLEDGE.
Silas went pale.
“S.R.”
Caden looked at him.
“Silas Roark.”
“I told them I never found it.”
“So this proves you were talking to Gault.”
“I admitted that.”
“It proves you discussed Mother’s evidence.”
“To keep him from searching the smokehouse foundation.”
“You didn’t know where it was.”
“No.”
Caden realized he had raised his voice.
Mara placed a hand against his arm.
“Later.”
Footsteps sounded outside.
A key entered the front lock.
All three froze.
The door opened.
Edwin Bell stepped inside.
He closed it behind him.
Saw Caden.
Saw the open safe.
Saw the telegram.
Then sighed.
“You always were curious.”
Caden drew his revolver.
“Hands.”
Bell raised them.
Silas lifted the shotgun.
Mara moved toward the side wall.
Caden held up the telegram.
“You sent this.”
“Yes.”
“Reeve’s dead.”
“Yes.”
“You gave me forged evidence.”
“Yes.”
Caden cocked the revolver.
“Give me one reason.”
“Because Gault reads my telegrams.”
Silence.
Caden frowned.
Bell continued.
“The message had to look real.”
“You told Gault to herd me toward a dead man.”
“Yes.”
“Still waiting for the reason.”
Bell looked at Mara.
“You found Elizabeth’s box.”
Nobody answered.
“I know because you are alive.”
“That logic needs work,” Caden said.
Bell slowly reached inside his coat.
Silas raised the shotgun.
“Easy.”
Bell removed a folded paper.
Not a weapon.
A telegram from Washington.
Gault inquiry reopened. Suspected territorial corruption. Special examiner dispatched under confidential identity.
Caden read it.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I don’t know who in my office is loyal to Gault.”
“You?”
Bell’s expression hardened.
“I was.”
Mara stepped forward.
“My father wrote your name.”
Bell looked at her.
“What was his name?”
“Nantan.”
Bell’s face changed.
“I remember him.”
“Good.”
That single word carried years of anger.
Bell lowered his eyes.
“I delivered the notice.”
“With false seal.”
“Yes.”
“You arrested him?”
“No. Territorial deputy named Kell did.”
“You helped.”
“Yes.”
No excuses.
Caden found that more unsettling than denial.
Bell continued.
“I spent twelve years working for Gault before I tried to get out.”
“Why?”
“Because a Mexican family lost a child after we fenced their well during a heat wave.”
Mara’s face hardened.
Bell did not soften the story.
“The child died before they reached another water source.”
Caden said, “So one death changed you?”
“No.”
Bell met his eyes.
“One death forced me to admit what many earlier ones should have.”
Caden lowered the revolver slightly.
“What about Reeve?”
“Working with Gault.”
Silas stared.
“What?”
“Reeve demanded money to authenticate the forged packet.”
“Gault killed him?”
“I believe so.”
“Proof?”
Bell shook his head.
“Not yet.”
Caden held up the telegram.
“This makes you look guilty.”
“That was the point.”
“You planted evidence against yourself?”
“To survive inside Gault’s circle long enough to find the original records.”
Caden laughed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
Bell pointed toward the safe.
“I expect you to believe paper when it matches action.”
Footsteps sounded outside.
More than one man.
Bell’s face changed.
“They followed me.”
“Who?”
“Gault’s men.”
“How many?”
Bell drew his pistol.
“Enough.”
Silas looked toward the back window.
“Six.”
Mara found a trapdoor behind the desk.
Bell nodded.
“Freight tunnel.”
Caden stared.
“You know everything about this office.”
“I helped Gault build it.”
The front window shattered under gunfire.
They dropped through the trapdoor.
Caden went last.
Before closing it, he looked at Horace Gault’s portrait.
The respectable face stared down at bullet-riddled walls.
Then Caden shut the door above them.
The tunnel went dark.
Bell’s voice came from ahead.
“Move.”
Caden followed.
May you like
![92 The Girl They Called Broke Was a Billionaire’s Daughter—But Her Father’s Arrival Exposed a Secret Powerful People Had Buried for Years]](https://cdn.treeiq.biz/site_590/2026/11/clone-0-0915d882-53d7-4d17-b43a-a010ca1a1068.webp)
Not because he trusted Edwin Bell.
Because sometimes survival required walking beside a man whose guilt was still being measured.
