Chapter 8 - Page Five Hundred and Twelve
Mercer survived.
Barely.
The bullet entered his shoulder rather than his chest.
Silas dragged him inside while Jacob’s group escaped toward the river.
No one pursued immediately.
That worried Jacob.
Whoever fired from the ridge had changed Silas’s priorities.
They stopped before sunrise in a grove of cottonwoods.
Tomas posted Daniel and Asa at opposite approaches.
Amos checked the horses.
Jacob opened the ledger.
Page 512.
Eli sat beside him.
The entry was twenty years old.
Before Western Meridian.
Before Clara married Daniel.
Before Eli was born.
E.H. — Transfer authorization — Coyote Spring collateral — $8,000.
Jacob stared.
E.H.
Elias Hayes.
His father.
Attached was a folded copy of an agreement.
Elias had borrowed eight thousand dollars against “all Hayes-controlled water rights adjoining Red Mesa.”
The lender:
Parker Consolidated Mining.
The company no longer existed.
Jacob remembered his father as a hard man, but honest.
At least that was the story Silas had told him.
Elias died in a blasting accident when Jacob was twelve.
Silas raised him afterward.
Jacob had spent twenty-two years building an identity around his father’s integrity.
Now a ledger suggested Elias had pledged water he may not have owned.
Eli whispered:
“Maybe he didn’t know.”
Jacob wanted desperately to believe that.
Tomas examined the page.
“The date matters.”
“Why?”
“Two months later, our old headman recorded that the southern channel was fenced.”
Jacob frowned.
“By my family?”
“Yes.”
“My father?”
“We believed so.”
Jacob rubbed his face.
“So Silas wasn’t the first.”
“No.”
“He inherited it.”
“Maybe.”
Jacob heard the caution.
“What?”
Tomas pointed to the amount.
“Eight thousand dollars was enormous.”
“So?”
“If Elias received it, where did it go?”
Jacob thought.
His childhood had not been wealthy.
The ranch struggled.
After Elias died, debts remained.
Silas had supposedly paid many of them.
“There should’ve been money.”
“Yes.”
Jacob turned pages.
The transfer never appeared as a deposit.
Only an authorization.
“So maybe it never happened.”
“Or someone took it.”
Eli pointed at the initials beside the witness line.
S.H.
Silas Hayes.
Jacob stared.
Silas had witnessed Elias’s agreement.
Again.
Always there.
Tomas said quietly:
“You know only what Silas told you about your father’s death.”
Jacob looked up.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Nothing yet.”
But the thought had already formed.
Another accident.
Another dead Hayes.
Another set of documents Silas controlled afterward.
Jacob hated where his mind went.
He also knew ignoring it would repeat every mistake he had made.
Amos approached.
“Rider coming.”
Everyone reached for weapons.
A lone rider emerged.
Woman.
Gray hat.
Dust-covered coat.
She raised one hand before approaching.
Jacob recognized her.
Martha Vale.
Schoolteacher in Red Creek.
Also the woman who had taught Eli arithmetic.
“What are you doing out here?”
She dismounted.
“Looking for you.”
“How did you know?”
“Clara told me where to go if Silas ever started asking about the ledger.”
Jacob stared.
“Clara trusted you?”
Martha gave him a tired look.
“Clara trusted a lot of people you never bothered to ask about.”
He deserved that.
She handed him a packet.
Letters.
Clara’s.
Addressed to the Federal Land Office.
Copies.
“I kept these.”
“Why?”
“She asked.”
Jacob opened the first.
Clara described suspected forged deeds.
The second detailed Coyote Spring’s disputed ownership.
The third mentioned something new.
A safe deposit box in Tucson containing a copy of the original compact.
Jacob looked at Tomas.
“The compact survived.”
“Maybe.”
Martha nodded.
“Clara believed so.”
“Why didn’t you give this to authorities after she died?”
“I tried.”
“To whom?”
“Marshal Boone.”
Jacob swore.
“What happened?”
“He returned them.”
“Why?”
“He said land matters belonged in Santa Fe.”
“Then?”
“I mailed copies.”
“To the Land Office?”
“Yes.”
“Those are what triggered the inspector.”
“I hope.”
Jacob studied her.
“You sound unsure.”
“The reply came yesterday.”
She handed him a telegram.
Inspector Samuel Whitaker dispatched. Arrival Red Creek Sept. 24.
Tomorrow.
Jacob exhaled.
Finally, something external.
Something Silas could not easily control.
Martha said:
“There’s more.”
Of course there was.
She removed a small key.
“Clara’s Tucson deposit box.”
Jacob stared.
“Why give it to me now?”
“Because she told me not to unless Eli found the medallion.”
Everyone looked at the boy.
Eli whispered:
“She planned this?”
Martha shook her head.
“She feared it.”
“What’s in the box?” Jacob asked.
“I don’t know.”
Tomas said, “Tucson is too far to reach before the inspector.”
Martha nodded.
“That’s why Clara left a second instruction.”
She unfolded a note.
If I die before I can finish this, do not open the box first. Make Silas believe you already have.
Jacob frowned.
“Why?”
Martha gave him another envelope.
On the front Clara had written:
FOR JACOB, ONLY IF SILAS MOVES AGAINST ELI.
Jacob opened it.
Three lines.
Jacob, Silas does not fear the compact most.
He fears the old Hayes accounts.
If he thinks you opened Tucson Box 19, he will go to the one place where he hid the truth about Elias.
Jacob reread it.
Tomas understood first.
“Clara left you a trap.”
Jacob looked toward Red Creek.
A trap designed by a dead woman for a man who always needed control.
Martha added:
“Silas cannot know the box is still closed.”
Jacob folded the letter.
“How do we make him believe otherwise?”
Eli spoke.
“Tell Edwin Mercer.”
Jacob looked at him.
Eli’s expression was steady.
“He changes sides for money, right?”
Jacob began to smile.
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The boy had been listening.
And perhaps, finally, Jacob had learned to listen back.
