Chapter 11 - The Third Man in the Photograph
Edwin Pike had disappeared from public records three years earlier.
That was what Eli remembered.
A territorial surveyor accused of taking bribes.
Resigned.
Moved east.
Or so newspapers claimed.
Thomas said he never left Arizona.
“He changed occupations.”
“To what?”
“Owner.”
Thomas explained.
Voss controlled cattle.
But Pike controlled paper.
Survey corrections.
Water rights.
Lien releases.
Property descriptions.
Mining claims.
A man could own land for twenty years, then discover a line on a map had shifted one hundred yards and his spring belonged to someone else.
Pike had learned something Voss understood immediately.
Violence could take a ranch once.
Paper could take it forever.
“Why would Voss work for him?” Daniel asked.
Thomas shook his head.
“Voss doesn’t work for anyone.”
“Then?”
“They need each other.”
Pike made ownership legal.
Voss made resistance expensive.
Sarah and Nantan discovered the partnership.
The third figure in the photograph was not a fellow investigator.
He had been the enemy before they knew he was the enemy.
Tala stared at Pike’s younger face.
“Our father trusted him.”
“So did Sarah,” Thomas said.
Eli studied Thomas.
“And you?”
“For too long.”
Mira shifted painfully.
“When did Pike learn about us?”
Thomas looked at her.
“When your father recovered the original San Pedro survey.”
“What original survey?”
Tala answered slowly.
“Our father said one map was false.”
Thomas nodded.
The official map showed several springs originating on private ranch property.
The original field notes suggested something different.
The main watercourse began on land historically used communally by Apache families and Mexican settlements, then ran beneath multiple parcels.
If the original record became public, Voss’s exclusive claims could be challenged.
Worse, banks that lent against his land might discover they held inflated collateral.
“Where is the survey?” Eli asked.
“Nantan had it.”
Tala’s expression darkened.
“Then Pike has it now.”
“Maybe.”
Mira said, “No.”
Everyone looked.
She touched the splint around her broken leg.
“Our father gave something to Tala before men came.”
Tala frowned.
“No.”
“A strip.”
Tala suddenly remembered.
The cloth around her waist.
When Nantan arrived injured, he had retied a seam inside her clothing.
She assumed it repaired a tear.
Now she reached beneath the leather belt.
Her fingers found a stiff edge.
Thomas brought a knife.
Tala cut the seam.
A narrow piece of oilskin slid out.
Inside was a fragment of paper.
Survey coordinates.
And a handwritten sentence.
THE ORIGINAL RESTS WHERE SARAH REFUSED TO RUN.
Eli stared.
Copper Wash.
The place Sarah met Nantan.
The place she died near.
Daniel whispered, “He hid the location on Tala.”
Thomas said, “Which means Pike knows she may carry it.”
The bounty suddenly had two purposes.
The sisters knew the underground water route.
And Tala unknowingly carried directions to the original survey.
Alive was worth far more than dead.
Eli rolled the paper.
“When do we leave?”
Thomas stared.
“For Copper Wash?”
“Yes.”
“With Mira unable to ride?”
“She stays.”
Mira immediately said, “No.”
Tala agreed.
Eli shook his head.
“You can’t walk.”
“I can speak.”
“This isn’t about courage.”
Mira’s gaze was steady.
“Our father might be there.”
Thomas said Voss kept a private camp ten miles from Copper Wash.
If Nantan remained alive, that was the most likely place.
Daniel stood.
“My family first.”
Eli looked at him.
Daniel’s wife and son remained leverage.
He could not ignore them.
Neither could Eli.
Family had already been sacrificed too many times to evidence.
They made a plan.
Thomas would use his position to request a meeting with Voss.
Daniel would appear willing to surrender the sisters.
Eli and Tala would use the distraction to remove Daniel’s wife and son from Voss’s house.
Then they would travel to Copper Wash.
Mira objected until Tala knelt beside her.
“You stay with Rosa.”
Mira’s eyes filled with anger.
“I am not a child.”
“No.”
Tala touched the splint.
“You are injured.”
“I know the route.”
“So do I.”
Mira looked at Eli.
“You will bring our father?”
“If he’s alive.”
Tala corrected him.
“When.”
Eli nodded.
“When.”
Before dawn, Thomas prepared to leave.
Eli stopped him.
“One thing.”
Thomas turned.
“Sarah’s body.”
Thomas went pale.
“What about it?”
“Did you see her after the ravine?”
“Yes.”
“Was Rourke there?”
“Yes.”
“Pike?”
Thomas hesitated too long.
Eli noticed.
“Thomas.”
Sarah’s brother looked toward the floor.
“When I reached the wagon, Pike was standing beside her.”
Eli’s hand tightened.
“Alive?”
Thomas’s silence became unbearable.
“Was Sarah alive?”
Thomas finally whispered:
“Yes.”
Eli stopped breathing.
“How long?”
“Minutes.”
“And what did she say?”
Thomas’s eyes filled.
“She looked at me and said, ‘Don’t let him take the book.’”
Eli stepped closer.
“What book?”
Thomas looked toward Sarah’s notebook.
“Not that one.”
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Then he spoke the words that changed everything again.
“Pike left the ravine carrying a leather register.”
