Chapter 7 - Sarah’s Brother
Thomas Bell lived behind a white fence in Tucson.
The house had two stories, imported glass windows, and a carriage house larger than Eli’s cabin.
It was the kind of place built by a man who charged for every minute of his attention.
Eli hated it on sight.
They reached Tucson the following afternoon.
Mira could not safely ride farther.
Daniel arranged a room above an old stable owned by a Mexican widow named Rosa Álvarez, one of the few people he claimed he trusted.
Eli no longer accepted the word easily.
Before leaving, Tala caught his sleeve.
“You go alone?”
“With Daniel.”
“That is not alone?”
Eli looked toward his brother.
“No. It’s worse.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Almost.
Thomas opened his own door.
He had aged well.
Silver hair.
Trim beard.
Black vest.
He stared at Eli first.
Then Daniel.
His expression changed.
“Good God.”
Eli stepped inside without invitation.
“We need to talk about Sarah.”
Thomas closed the door.
“That conversation is four years overdue.”
“You told me her wagon lost a wheel.”
“It did.”
“You told me she died before anyone reached her.”
Thomas’s eyes narrowed.
“What happened?”
Daniel said, “Rourke.”
Thomas became still.
Eli saw it.
“You know him.”
“Everyone involved with Voss knows him.”
“You’re involved with Voss?”
“I represent several of his companies.”
Daniel muttered, “That’s a delicate way of saying yes.”
Thomas ignored him.
“Where are the women?”
Eli moved closer.
Thomas immediately understood.
“I’m not asking because I want them.”
“Then why?”
“Because if they are alive, you have less than a day before half the hired guns in the territory start looking.”
“The bounty’s already out.”
Thomas looked genuinely surprised.
“Publicly?”
Daniel placed the notice on the table.
Thomas read it.
His face lost color.
“This was not supposed to happen.”
Eli caught the sentence.
“What wasn’t?”
Thomas looked up.
For the first time, his practiced calm broke.
“Sarah found evidence that Voss and three partners manipulated water access across more than forty ranches. But land fraud isn’t why men are killing people.”
“What is?”
“The money behind it.”
Thomas poured whiskey with an unsteady hand.
He did not drink.
“In 1876, Voss created holding companies using names of dead investors. He borrowed against land he did not legally control. Eastern banks provided credit. Territorial officials approved surveys. Everyone took a share.”
Daniel swore.
Thomas nodded.
“If the original records surface, Voss doesn’t just lose ranches. Banks lose collateral. Officials face prosecution. Men with far more power than Voss lose fortunes.”
“And Sarah found those records.”
“Part of them.”
“Then you told Voss.”
Thomas slammed the glass down.
“No.”
“Rourke says you killed her.”
“Rourke says whatever creates the most damage.”
“Did you?”
Thomas looked directly at Eli.
“No.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Eli wanted to believe it.
That frightened him.
“Then tell me what happened.”
Thomas sat.
“Sarah came to me because she needed legal language interpreted. Deeds. liens. water claims. Federal survey corrections.”
“You helped her?”
“At first.”
“At first.”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“When I realized who was involved, I told her to stop.”
“Everyone told Sarah to stop.”
“She had no sense of self-preservation.”
Eli’s anger flashed.
“She had more courage than anyone in this room.”
Thomas accepted the blow.
“Yes.”
He opened a cabinet.
Inside were legal files.
He removed one thin folder.
On the tab:
CRANE, SARAH — PRIVATE.
Eli stared.
Thomas placed it on the desk.
Inside was a copy of Sarah’s will.
Eli had seen it.
But beneath it lay another document.
A partnership agreement.
Sarah Crane.
Nantan.
And a surveyor named Edwin Pike.
Together they had formed something called the San Pedro Water Trust.
Eli frowned.
“A trust?”
“Not a company,” Thomas said. “A legal mechanism. Sarah wanted disputed springs and wells placed under shared stewardship so no single cattle concern could own the entire watershed.”
Tala and Mira’s father had been a trustee.
So had Sarah.
Eli looked at Thomas.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Sarah told me not to.”
“Convenient.”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“She believed your cavalry history made you dangerous to the work.”
Eli stepped back as if struck.
“What?”
“She was afraid that if you knew, you’d solve it with a rifle.”
Daniel looked at Eli.
Neither spoke.
Because both knew Sarah had not been entirely wrong.
Thomas continued.
“Then she found the register.”
“What register?”
“A record of every bribe, false survey, foreclosure, and payment.”
“Where?”
“I never knew.”
Eli watched him.
“Tala’s father is being held because they think he knows.”
Thomas stood abruptly.
“Nantan is alive?”
“So Rourke says.”
Thomas crossed to the window.
A carriage had stopped outside.
His face changed.
“Eli.”
“What?”
“You were followed.”
Men stepped from the carriage.
Not cowboys.
City clothes.
Revolvers beneath coats.
Thomas closed the curtain.
Daniel drew his gun.
Eli stared at Sarah’s brother.
“Whose side are you on?”
Thomas opened a hidden compartment in his desk and removed a revolver.
His answer came quietly.
“Four years ago, I chose the wrong one.”
A fist hammered against the front door.
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Thomas looked at Eli.
“And your wife died before I could change it.”
