Chapter 10 - The Last Night of Sarah Crane
Daniel did not resist when Eli shoved him against the brick wall.
“Talk.”
People passed at the far end of the alley.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Not here.”
Eli pressed harder.
“You had four years.”
“And I hated every day of them.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Daniel looked at the half-register.
“Sarah came to my office the night she died. She said she had to reach Copper Wash before sunrise.”
“Why?”
“She was meeting Nantan.”
“And?”
“She needed a wagon.”
Eli’s anger sharpened.
“You gave her one.”
“Yes.”
“You told Rourke.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Eli punched the wall beside his head instead of Daniel.
Brick cut his knuckles.
Daniel flinched.
“I thought Rourke would take the papers. I swear.”
“You keep saying what you thought.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
Daniel drove Sarah partway toward Copper Wash.
Near midnight, another rider appeared.
Thomas Bell.
Sarah’s brother.
Thomas demanded she return to Tucson.
They argued.
Sarah refused.
Daniel became frightened and left.
“You abandoned her?”
“Yes.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Who else was there?”
“Thomas.”
“And Rourke was following.”
“I didn’t see him.”
“But you told him the route.”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“Yes.”
Eli stepped back.
For years he had imagined Sarah’s final hours as an accident in darkness.
Now he saw a circle of people who loved her, feared her, used her, and failed her.
His own brother among them.
Daniel said, “The next morning Thomas told me the wagon went over a ravine.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
That was the first honest sentence Eli heard.
They returned to Rosa’s stable.
Tala listened without interruption.
When Daniel finished, she asked one question.
“Why did Sarah trust you before?”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“She didn’t.”
Mira spoke from the cot.
“Our father did.”
Everyone turned.
She explained that Nantan had once told her about “the younger Crane.”
A man who wanted to be important.
A man who could open doors because rich men considered him harmless.
Nantan had used Daniel’s freight routes to move letters and records.
Daniel stared.
“He knew?”
“Yes.”
“Then why never speak to me?”
Mira’s answer was merciless.
“Because you sold information.”
Daniel looked away.
Eli unfolded Sarah’s letter from the bank box.
Tala read the names while he translated what she could not.
When they reached C. Rourke — S. Crane — $800, Tala’s face hardened.
“Payment for killing?”
“Maybe.”
“Or following.”
“Maybe.”
The uncertainty was maddening.
Then Eli noticed a notation beside the entry.
Three letters.
C.W.R.
Copper Wash Register.
Sarah’s index.
He opened the notebook found beneath the trunk.
The same letters appeared beside several coded numbers.
Eli laid both documents together.
They matched.
Sarah’s notebook was not merely a drought ledger.
It was the index.
The missing key.
Tala leaned closer.
Eli traced an entry.
Barker Ranch.
Notebook: B-17 / CW 31
Register: Voss payment / survey adjustment / B-17
Another.
Cullen Ranch.
Notebook: C-9 / CW 44
Register: Rourke / intimidation / C-9
Together, the records proved intent.
Daniel whispered, “Jesus.”
Mira looked toward the doorway.
“What?”
She had heard something.
Everyone went still.
Hoofbeats.
One horse.
Then a voice from below.
“Eli Crane.”
Rosa answered cautiously.
A man climbed the stairs.
Eli aimed his revolver at the door.
Thomas Bell entered.
His left arm was bandaged.
Blood stained the sleeve.
“You survived,” Eli said.
“Barely.”
Thomas saw Daniel.
His expression hardened.
“You.”
Daniel stood.
“You told me Sarah died in an accident.”
Thomas’s face went pale.
Eli placed the register on the table.
“Rourke says you ordered the bounty.”
Thomas stared at it.
Then at Tala and Mira.
“I did.”
Tala drew her revolver.
Eli moved between them.
“Why?”
Thomas sat heavily.
“Because I needed Voss to think I was still useful.”
Eli laughed bitterly.
“You put five thousand dollars on two women to maintain appearances?”
“I wrote capture alive because the order before mine was kill on sight.”
Silence.
Thomas looked at the sisters.
“My bounty was supposed to replace the first.”
Tala’s face remained cold.
“Men shot us.”
“I know.”
“Your paper made us valuable.”
“Yes.”
“It also made every greedy man hunt us.”
“Yes.”
Thomas did not excuse himself.
Eli asked, “Who issued the kill order?”
Thomas looked toward the half-register.
Then answered.
“Not Voss.”
That surprised everyone.
“Who?”
Thomas’s eyes met Eli’s.
“Edwin Pike.”
The third man in Sarah’s photograph.
The surveyor they had assumed was her ally.
Thomas swallowed.
“Pike built the entire system.”
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And according to Thomas, Harlan Voss was not the man at the top.
He was the man paying to stay beneath it.
