Chapter 10 - The Buyer
Malcolm Vane owned Hartwell without holding public office.
Mining companies employed nearly half the town.
Vane controlled the largest.
He financed the hotel, freight office, water pumps and three members of the county board.
Silas was powerful.
Vane had money powerful men borrowed.
Vale told them enough to save himself.
Vane learned of Elias’s surviving evidence six months earlier when Silas approached him about the Cedar sale.
Vane hired men to find Finch.
Silas knew intimidation was occurring but claimed he never authorized murder.
Vale did.
According to Vale.
“Why should we believe you?” Jonah asked.
Vale spat blood into snow.
“Because I don’t want to hang for Finch.”
“Did you stab him?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Duncan Shaw.”
One of Vane’s security men.
“Where is Shaw?”
“Hartwell.”
Jonah tied Vale’s hands.
The former deputy complained.
Naelli ignored him.
She looked weaker.
Jonah noticed immediately.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I am fine.”
“You’re not.”
Her bandage had darkened.
The cemetery confrontation reopened part of the wound.
Jonah swore.
Naelli gave him an irritated look.
He helped her into the church.
Her father remained outside with Vale.
Jonah heated water over the small stove.
“You should have stayed at camp.”
Naelli sat on a bench.
“And let Vale take the papers?”
“Maybe.”
“No.”
“You could die.”
“So could you.”
“That’s different.”
Naelli stared.
“How?”
Jonah opened his mouth.
Nothing useful appeared.
She nodded.
“Exactly.”
He cleaned the wound.
No severe bleeding.
But inflammation worried him.
“You need a doctor.”
“I need rest.”
“You need both.”
“Town doctor?”
“Hartwell has one I trust.”
Naelli raised an eyebrow.
“You trust someone in Hartwell?”
“One.”
Dr. Abigail Mercer had stitched Jonah’s shoulder after a cattle accident.
She hated Silas openly.
Good enough.
They moved toward Hartwell under escort.
Before entering town, Naelli’s father took the original covenant.
Jonah kept certified copies.
They agreed never to keep all evidence together again.
Learning.
In town, Vane already knew something had changed.
Men stood outside Hartwell Consolidated.
Silas stood with them.
Jonah could not tell whether he was guest or prisoner.
Dr. Mercer treated Naelli in her clinic.
She examined Jonah’s work.
“Not bad.”
Jonah almost smiled.
“Thank you.”
“I wasn’t complimenting you. I was expressing surprise she survived.”
Naelli smiled.
Jonah did not.
Mercer gave antibiotics available in that era? Wait antibiotics not yet. Need historical. Could use antiseptic, fever monitoring, maybe carbolic acid, quinine not for infection. In late 1800s germ theory known; use carbolic, clean dressing. No antibiotics. Let's correct.
Mercer cleaned the wound with carbolic solution and replaced the bandage.
“No deep infection yet,” she said. “But fever means trouble.”
Naelli remained overnight.
Jonah went to the jail.
Elias still occupied his cell.
“You found it.”
Jonah stopped.
“How?”
“Silas came by.”
“What did he say?”
“That you robbed Miriam’s grave.”
Jonah laughed.
“We moved a stone beside it.”
“He was always theatrical.”
Jonah held up the covenant copy.
Elias gripped the bars.
For the first time, relief broke across his face.
“She kept it.”
“Yes.”
Jonah handed him Miriam’s letter through the bars.
Elias read.
His hands shook.
When he finished, he sat.
“She was right.”
“About what?”
“I kept asking her to join my exile instead of ending it.”
Jonah leaned against the wall.
“Why did you really stay away?”
Elias looked at him.
“I told you.”
“Not all of it.”
Silence.
Jonah knew.
“There’s always more.”
Elias rubbed his face.
“When Silas and I were young, I helped him alter one land filing.”
Jonah froze.
“What?”
“Not Cedar.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to the story.”
“Then tell it.”
Elias explained.
A neighboring rancher died without clear heirs.
Silas believed the land would be abandoned.
He persuaded Elias to witness a backdated grazing agreement allowing Reed cattle access.
“It seemed harmless.”
“Was it?”
“No.”
“The heirs returned?”
“A daughter.”
“And?”
“She lost the claim because our document suggested her father had already granted rights.”
Jonah stared.
“You helped steal land.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to her?”
“She left.”
“Name?”
“Ruth Mercer.”
Jonah thought of the doctor treating Naelli.
“Mercer?”
Elias nodded.
“Abigail is her daughter.”
Jonah closed his eyes.
No wonder Abigail hated Silas.
“Did Mother know?”
“Yes.”
“Naelli’s father?”
“Eventually.”
“How much of our lives were built on things no one told me?”
Elias answered quietly:
“Too much.”
Jonah walked away from the cell.
Outside, he found Silas waiting.
Alone.
“Vane wants the covenant,” Silas said.
Jonah laughed.
“You too.”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Silas stepped closer.
“I want the sale.”
“Same thing.”
“No. Vane no longer wants only water.”
Jonah stopped.
“What else?”
“Silver.”
“Hartwell already has silver.”
“Not like this.”
Silas looked toward the mountains.
“Surveyors found a vein beneath the western ridge.”
“Whose land?”
Silas looked at Jonah.
“Yours.”
Jonah stared.
“And Vane knows?”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
Silas nodded.
“For how long?”
“Three months.”
Jonah felt fresh disgust.
“That’s why you called the mortgage.”
“Yes.”
“You planned to take my ranch, sell the mineral rights and call it debt collection.”
“Yes.”
The honesty stunned Jonah.
“Why admit it?”
Silas looked toward Vane’s office.
“Because Vane intends to kill both of us once he has clear title.”
Jonah’s hand moved toward his revolver.
Silas shook his head.
“You still think I’m the largest problem.”
“You lied to me my entire life.”
“Yes.”
“You stole land.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened my father.”
“Yes.”
Silas looked older suddenly.
“And now I am telling you the man I partnered with is worse than I calculated.”
Jonah laughed without humor.
“That is not redemption.”
“No.”
“Good.”
Silas handed him a key.
“What?”
“Blackstone strongroom.”
“Why?”
“Inside are Vane’s letters.”
Jonah did not take it.
Silas pressed the key into his hand.
“If I disappear, read them.”
Then he walked toward the hotel.
Jonah stared after him.
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An hour later, a gunshot sounded from the second floor.
And Silas Reed did not come back down.
