Chapter 6 - The Man With the Silver Tooth
Caleb Rourke did not attack immediately.
That frightened Eli more than gunfire.
Men like Rourke used bullets when bullets solved problems.
When they waited, they were thinking.
Eli pushed Daniel onto the floor beside Mira.
“Tala, stay low.”
“I can fight.”
“You can bleed.”
Her glare could have cut stone.
Eli ignored it.
Outside, a voice called.
“Daniel!”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Rourke.
“You got five minutes before Mr. Voss decides you’re part of the problem!”
Eli looked at his brother.
“You told them you were coming?”
“No.”
“Then how did they know?”
Daniel swallowed.
“My office.”
“What about it?”
“Voss owns the building.”
Eli almost smiled.
Daniel saw it.
“Yes. I know.”
“You built a life inside his pocket.”
“I know.”
Rourke called again.
“Send the women out!”
Tala whispered to Mira.
Eli crossed to the back.
The pantry tunnel remained open.
“They know about the tunnel now.”
Daniel nodded.
“Rourke searched the property after you left.”
“How do you know?”
“He bragged.”
Eli looked around.
The cabin had one advantage.
Everyone outside thought they understood it.
Eli knew the land.
A shallow irrigation trench ran from the rear yard toward a cattle tank fifty yards south.
Usually dry.
Deep enough to crawl through.
He pointed.
“Tala, take Mira.”
“No.”
Eli looked at her.
“No?”
“You leave again. Men chase you. You die.”
Daniel gave a humorless laugh.
“She doesn’t know you very well.”
Tala’s eyes stayed on Eli.
“I know enough.”
That silenced him.
A bullet struck the chimney.
Rourke shouted, “Four minutes!”
Eli considered.
Then turned to Daniel.
“You want to keep me alive?”
“Yes.”
“Prove it.”
Daniel stared.
Eli explained quickly.
Two minutes later, Daniel stepped onto the porch alone.
Hands raised.
“Rourke!”
Five riders stood beyond the fence.
Rourke was in the center.
Lean.
Gray hat.
Silver flashed when he smiled.
A capped tooth.
“Where’s Eli?”
“Inside.”
“The women?”
“Inside.”
“Then bring them out.”
Daniel stepped down.
“I want my debt cleared.”
Rourke laughed.
“You’re bargaining now?”
“Five thousand for the women. My brother is worth nothing. I bring them out, my debt disappears.”
Inside the irrigation trench, Eli crawled through dust.
Tala followed, dragging herself with one arm.
Mira lay on a blanket stretched between two narrow poles, a makeshift litter.
Eli had tied a rope to it.
Every pull made Mira bite her lip.
They reached the cattle tank.
From there, the corral blocked sight from the porch.
Rourke’s men watched Daniel.
Exactly as Eli hoped.
Daniel kept talking.
“What happens to Nantan?” he asked.
Rourke’s smile disappeared.
Inside the trench, Tala stopped.
Eli looked back.
She had heard.
Rourke answered loudly.
“Old man should’ve told us where Sarah put the register.”
Eli’s heart slammed.
Sarah.
Not Voss’s records.
Sarah’s.
Tala whispered, “Register.”
“You know it?”
“Our father said there were two books.”
The drought ledger.
And a register.
Eli pulled them farther.
Behind the corral stood the barn.
His horse was inside.
So were three rifles.
He reached the door.
Then Rourke said something that stopped everyone.
“Sarah Crane died because she wouldn’t tell us either.”
Daniel’s voice changed.
“You said her death wasn’t your doing.”
Rourke laughed.
“I said I didn’t kill her.”
Eli nearly stood.
Tala grabbed his sleeve.
“No.”
He looked at her.
She shook her head.
Not yet.
Daniel kept his nerve.
“Who did?”
Rourke said, “Ask your friend Thomas Bell.”
Eli felt the world narrow.
Thomas Bell.
Sarah’s older brother.
A lawyer in Tucson.
The man who had read Scripture at Sarah’s funeral.
The man who had helped settle her estate.
The man Eli had trusted with everything he could not bear to read.
Rourke was still talking.
“Thomas knew his sister had become a liability.”
Daniel whispered, “You’re lying.”
“Maybe.”
Rourke’s silver tooth flashed.
“Bring out the women and you can ask him yourself.”
Eli moved into the barn.
He loaded his rifle.
Tala whispered, “Your wife’s brother?”
“Yes.”
“Could Rourke lie?”
“Yes.”
“Would he?”
“Yes.”
Eli looked through a crack.
Rourke’s men had spread out.
One toward the barn.
One toward the trench.
They had seconds.
Eli handed Tala a revolver.
“Can you shoot with your right hand?”
She checked the cylinder.
“Yes.”
“No heroics.”
She almost smiled.
“You first.”
The barn door opened.
A gunman stepped inside.
Tala struck him with the revolver before he saw her.
He dropped.
Eli caught him.
Outside, Rourke heard the sound.
His head turned.
Daniel shouted, “Run!”
Gunfire erupted.
Eli fired from the barn.
Tala fired once from behind the stalls.
Horses panicked.
Mira covered her head.
Daniel dove behind the porch steps.
Rourke’s men scattered.
Eli cut the corral gate.
Cattle surged outward into the dusty yard.
Chaos.
By the time Rourke regained control, Eli had Mira on his bay horse, Tala behind her, and Daniel on the captured gunman’s horse.
They rode south.
Rourke shouted after them:
“You can’t outrun Voss!”
Eli looked back only once.
Rourke stood beside the ruined fence.
Then he raised both hands around his mouth.
“Ask Thomas what Sarah screamed before she died!”
Eli nearly turned the horse around.
Tala grabbed his vest.
“Eli.”
He kept riding.
But a new question followed him into the desert.
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Not whether Sarah had been murdered.
Who in his family had helped murder her.
