Chapter 18 - Sarah’s Letter
They had minutes.
Voss moved toward the back door.
Rourke blocked him.
“Stay.”
“If Pike sees my horse—”
“He already knows you’re here.”
Voss stopped.
Eli shoved the register pages into his vest.
Tala helped Nantan toward the pantry tunnel.
Daniel went with them.
“Where’s Eli?” Nantan asked.
Tala looked back.
Eli remained at Sarah’s table.
The unopened letter from the garden box lay in his hand.
He should move.
Instead he opened it.
Eli,
If you found this, then the garden is gone or you finally learned to dig where I told you not to.
He almost smiled.
Outside, horses approached.
He read faster.
Sarah confessed that she had hidden her work because she knew Eli’s history.
During his cavalry years he had participated in raids he regretted.
He carried anger and guilt.
She feared Pike could provoke him into violence, then dismiss everything he knew as vengeance.
But over time, she realized she misunderstood what Eli had become.
You no longer reach for a gun first, she wrote.
You reach for the person who is hurt.
Eli thought of the creek bed.
Mira unconscious.
Tala bleeding.
His rifle dropped into the dirt.
Sarah had known him better than he knew himself.
The next lines broke him.
If I die before I can tell you this, I am sorry I made trust into another form of protection. Love without truth becomes a locked room. I put you inside one.
Eli closed his eyes.
A fist hammered at the door.
Pike’s voice.
“Mr. Crane.”
Eli kept reading.
Do not avenge me.
Finish what I was trying to do.
Make the truth impossible to buy.
The final sentence:
And if someone comes to your door wounded, help them before you ask whose side they are on.
Eli folded the letter.
The door opened.
Pike entered.
Two gunmen pushed Thomas ahead.
Eli sat at the table.
Voss stood by the stove.
Rourke had hidden behind the bedroom wall.
Tala and the others were beneath the pantry floor.
Pike looked around.
“Where are the sisters?”
Eli lifted his coffee.
“Gone.”
Pike glanced at Voss.
“Harlan?”
Voss said, “Rourke lost them.”
“Rourke?”
“Dead.”
Behind the wall, Rourke silently rolled his eyes.
Pike pushed Thomas into a chair.
Thomas looked at Eli.
One eye nearly closed.
“I’m sorry.”
Pike smiled.
“Everyone in this story is sorry.”
Eli thought of Sarah’s line.
Love without truth becomes a locked room.
He was tired of rooms.
He placed the register pages on the table.
Pike’s eyes sharpened.
“You want these?”
“Yes.”
“Then Thomas walks out.”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
Eli ignored him.
“And Nantan.”
Pike smiled.
“You don’t have Nantan.”
“Neither do you.”
That was the first crack.
Tiny.
But visible.
Pike had not known Rourke freed him.
Voss noticed too.
Eli continued.
“And the bounty disappears.”
“Paper can disappear.”
“Not enough.”
“What else?”
“Every debt tied to my ranch.”
Pike laughed.
“You are bargaining for property?”
“No.”
Eli leaned back.
“I’m seeing how badly you want the pages.”
Pike stared.
Then slowly removed his gloves.
“Very badly.”
“Why?”
“Because they are misleading.”
“Meaning true.”
“Meaning incomplete.”
That mattered.
Eli pushed.
“What’s missing?”
Pike said nothing.
Eli tapped the register.
“Voss’s crimes are here. Rourke’s. Daniel’s. Thomas’s. Yours only appear as initials.”
Voss watched closely.
Eli understood.
Pike’s archive at Red Mesa might be the missing link.
Pike believed these pages could still be controlled.
He needed the index and original survey too.
“You don’t have enough to convict me,” Pike said.
“Then why bring twenty men?”
“Because uncertainty irritates me.”
Eli smiled.
“Sarah irritated you.”
For the first time, Pike’s calm slipped.
“She was sentimental.”
“She beat you.”
“She died.”
“And you’re still chasing her papers four years later.”
Silence.
Thomas looked at Eli.
Voss’s mouth twitched.
Pike’s face hardened.
“Where are the sisters?”
Eli heard a faint sound below.
Mira?
No.
Not Mira.
Tala.
The pantry hatch shifted.
A mistake.
One gunman saw it.
He raised his rifle.
Rourke stepped from behind the wall and shot the weapon from his hands.
Chaos erupted.
Tala burst through the hatch.
Daniel followed.
Nantan behind him.
Pike stared at Rourke.
“You.”
Rourke smiled, silver tooth bright.
“Retirement.”
Gunfire exploded outside.
But not toward the house.
Riders were attacking Pike’s men from the ridge.
Eli looked out.
Apache riders.
Not hundreds.
Maybe thirty.
Enough.
Tala smiled for the first time.
“Our family.”
Pike backed toward the door.
Eli raised his rifle.
Pike stopped.
Then Voss suddenly pointed a revolver at Eli.
Everyone froze.
Voss said quietly:
“Sorry, Crane.”
Eli looked at him.
Voss’s expression was unreadable.
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Then he turned the gun.
And aimed it at Edwin Pike.
