Chapter 14 - Colonel Pierce
Colonel Nathan Pierce arrived expecting a battlefield.
He found seven people beside a spring.
Jonah.
Naelli.
Judge Kell.
Marshal Crowley.
Two newspaper men.
Dr. Mercer.
No Apache formation.
No ranch army.
No barricades.
Hartwell Consolidated workers stood farther down the road.
Vane waited with them.
Pierce rode forward.
“Who commands here?”
Judge Kell answered.
“No one.”
Pierce frowned.
“I received notice of armed obstruction.”
Kell handed him the temporary order suspending work.
“I ordered the obstruction.”
Pierce read.
Vane approached.
“Colonel, with respect, the judge has exceeded—”
Kell snapped.
“Finish that sentence carefully.”
The newspaper men smiled.
Pierce looked irritated.
He noticed Naelli.
“You the woman accused in Finch’s death?”
“Yes.”
“Why aren’t you in custody?”
Crowley answered.
“Evidence places her elsewhere.”
“Who killed Finch?”
“Suspect identified. Duncan Shaw.”
Vane’s expression tightened.
Pierce noticed.
Good.
Jonah handed Pierce the covenant.
“This is the title dispute.”
Pierce barely looked.
“I am not a land judge.”
“Then you have no reason to involve soldiers.”
Vane said, “My crews were threatened.”
Naelli pointed toward the cut fence.
“Your crew detained people unlawfully.”
Pierce looked at the freed riders’ statements.
Then at Vane.
The scene was not matching his telegram.
Jonah watched certainty weaken.
Vane tried another route.
“This is about regional development. Hartwell needs water. Mines create employment.”
Jonah answered.
“Then negotiate with actual owners.”
“We did.”
“With Silas.”
“Yes.”
“He doesn’t own the spring.”
“That is disputed.”
“Exactly.”
Judge Kell said, “Which is why work stopped.”
Pierce exhaled.
He did not like being used.
That was becoming clear.
Vane leaned toward him.
“Colonel—”
Pierce turned.
“Did you request troops knowing a territorial judge had already stayed work?”
Vane hesitated.
“I requested protection before receiving formal notice.”
One reporter scribbled.
Pierce noticed.
Then Silas arrived.
Carriage.
Shoulder still bandaged.
Jonah had not expected him.
Neither had Vane.
Silas stepped down.
“You should have stayed in bed,” Mercer said.
Silas ignored her.
Pierce recognized him.
“Mr. Reed.”
Silas handed him a ledger page.
“Your payment.”
Pierce stared.
Vane went pale.
“What is this?”
Silas explained P. Holdings.
Pierce’s face hardened.
“I have never received money from Hartwell Consolidated.”
Silas looked at Vane.
“Then someone used your name.”
Vane snapped, “This is absurd.”
Pierce read again.
The payment had gone to a company controlled by Pierce’s brother-in-law.
Pierce knew.
His silence revealed it.
Jonah felt disappointment.
So he had benefited.
Pierce looked furious.
But at whom?
Vane?
Himself?
Silas?
Pierce folded the paper.
“This matter will be investigated.”
Vane laughed.
“By whom? You?”
Pierce’s expression changed.
That insult was a mistake.
Vane realized too late.
Pierce turned to his soldiers.
“No interference with Judge Kell’s order.”
Vane stepped closer.
“You came here to restore access.”
“I came to prevent violence.”
“You were paid—”
Pierce’s eyes flashed.
“Careful.”
Now everyone heard.
The reporters definitely did.
Vane stopped.
Pierce ordered his men to camp outside Hartwell and remain neutral.
Not justice.
Not yet.
But no militia enforcement.
Vane’s plan failed.
Again.
That evening, Hartwell was tense.
Silas stayed at the clinic.
Elias joined Jonah near the livery.
“You handled Pierce well.”
Jonah looked at him.
“Stop trying to father me through compliments.”
Elias almost smiled.
“Understood.”
Jonah sighed.
“Did you know about the silver vein?”
“No.”
“Silas says Vane wants it.”
“I believe him.”
“Why?”
“Because Vane asked me to sell him my claims twenty years ago.”
Jonah turned sharply.
“What claims?”
Elias looked uncomfortable.
“There it is again.”
“What?”
“You always have another thing.”
Elias nodded.
“Yes.”
“Tell me now.”
“I own a fractional mineral interest in Cedar.”
Jonah stared.
“How?”
“Jacob divided mineral rights differently from surface land.”
“How much?”
“Twenty-five percent.”
Jonah laughed in disbelief.
“So you disappear for forty years and still own a quarter of what’s underneath my ranch?”
“Yes.”
“Who owns the rest?”
“Your mother held twenty-five. Silas twenty-five. Family trust twenty-five.”
“Miriam’s share?”
“Passed to you.”
Jonah calculated.
He owned twenty-five plus surface land.
Elias twenty-five.
Silas twenty-five.
Trust twenty-five.
“Vane needs control from several of us.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why he tried the mortgage.”
“Yes.”
“And why he needs you discredited.”
“Yes.”
Jonah rubbed his face.
“Why does every piece of dirt have six secrets attached?”
Elias smiled sadly.
“Because land outlives arguments.”
Jonah looked toward the ridge.
Naelli approached.
She carried the silver medallion.
“My father says the second half is missing.”
Jonah frowned.
“What?”
They had both medallions after the cemetery.
“Who had them?”
“Judge Kell’s evidence satchel.”
They hurried to his room.
The satchel lay open.
Covenant copies remained.
One silver medallion remained.
The Reed half was gone.
On the floor, a drop of blood.
Not much.
Then a scrape at the window.
Someone had stolen the piece containing the Reed survey marks.
And outside the hotel, a horse was missing.
Silas’s horse.
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Jonah turned toward the clinic.
His uncle’s room was empty.
