Chapter 8 - Two Reed Brothers
Hartwell woke before sunrise.
By breakfast, everyone knew Elias Reed was alive.
By noon, three versions existed.
In one, Elias had been hiding after committing murder.
In another, he returned with Apache riders to seize Cedar Pass.
In the third, Jonah had joined his father in a scheme against Silas.
Truth had barely entered town before stories outran it.
The marshal, Thomas Crowley, locked Elias in the town jail.
Not for any proven crime.
For “public safety.”
Jonah stood outside the cell.
“You can’t hold him for being alive.”
Crowley rubbed his forehead.
“I can hold him overnight while I verify identity.”
“Silas verified it.”
“Silas says he may be an impostor.”
Jonah laughed.
“He called him Elias in the alley.”
“Without witnesses who matter.”
“I matter.”
Crowley looked tired.
“You matter to yourself.”
Naelli waited beside the doorway.
The marshal’s eyes moved to her.
“And she’s wanted for questioning in Caleb Finch’s death.”
“She was twelve miles away.”
“At what time?”
Jonah stopped.
He did not know Finch’s exact time of death.
Naelli said, “I will answer questions.”
Jonah turned.
“You don’t have to.”
She looked at him.
“I do if I want the accusation ended.”
Crowley gestured toward a chair.
She sat.
Her father had entered town with six riders by then.
The rest remained outside.
Tension sharpened.
Crowley asked Naelli when she last saw Finch.
“Three months ago.”
“Where?”
“Cedar Pass.”
“Why?”
“He carried messages.”
“For Elias?”
“Yes.”
Crowley looked toward the cell.
“You knew Elias Reed was alive?”
“Yes.”
Jonah hated how many people had known.
Crowley continued.
“Where were you when Finch died?”
“I do not know when he died.”
The marshal gave the estimated window.
Naelli answered.
“At least two hours north, being chased.”
“By whom?”
She described the attackers.
Jonah identified one as a man seen leaving the freight office.
Crowley wrote the name from Jonah.
“Martin Vale.”
Silas employed him occasionally as a range guard.
That mattered.
Silas arrived an hour later with an attorney.
The attorney produced a territorial arrest warrant for Elias Reed.
Jonah stared.
“For what?”
“Fraud.”
The warrant dated thirty-eight years earlier.
Elias laughed from the cell.
“I wondered if that still existed.”
Jonah turned.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
The accusation concerned falsified cattle receipts from 1880.
Elias claimed Silas had forged them using his name.
Silas’s attorney claimed Elias fled prosecution.
The dead-man story had covered a legal disappearance.
Jonah asked, “Did Mother know about the warrant?”
Elias answered.
“Yes.”
Another cut.
Naelli touched Jonah’s arm.
He pulled away instinctively.
She removed her hand.
He regretted it immediately.
The marshal said Elias would remain held until a territorial judge arrived.
Two days.
Silas left satisfied.
Jonah followed him outside.
“You set the warrant.”
Silas turned.
“I didn’t create it today.”
“You created it forty years ago.”
“Prove that.”
“I will.”
Silas smiled.
“With what? Stories from Elias?”
Jonah stepped closer.
“With records.”
Silas’s smile faded slightly.
“You’re beginning to sound like him.”
“Good.”
“No.”
Silas lowered his voice.
“That man will burn everything you have because he cannot admit he abandoned it.”
Jonah looked toward the jail.
“Maybe.”
Silas seemed surprised.
“You agree?”
“I’m not defending him.”
“Then listen to me.”
“I am listening.”
Silas took a breath.
“Elias did not leave only because of threats.”
Jonah waited.
“He left because Miriam chose me.”
Jonah stared.
Silas continued.
“Not as husband. Not then. But she trusted me more.”
“Why?”
“Because I stayed.”
That sentence hurt.
Silas knew it.
“After Elias disappeared, Miriam needed money, cattle, men to repair fences, someone to negotiate creditors. I did those things.”
“And took a mortgage.”
“Yes.”
“Convenient.”
“Necessary.”
“Did you love her?”
Silas looked away.
Jonah understood.
“Yes.”
Silas did not deny it.
“Did she love you?”
“Not how I wanted.”
Jonah almost pitied him.
Almost.
Silas continued.
“When Elias wrote years later asking her to leave, she showed me the letter.”
“Why?”
“Because she was angry.”
“And you told her?”
“That he was dangerous.”
“Was he?”
“Yes.”
“To whom?”
Silas looked at Jonah.
“To certainty.”
Then he walked away.
Jonah returned to the jail.
Naelli waited outside.
“You pulled away.”
Jonah frowned.
“When?”
“When I touched you.”
“I was angry.”
“At me?”
“No.”
“Then do not punish me for another person’s lie.”
Jonah stared.
She was right.
Again.
“I’m sorry.”
Naelli nodded.
Accepted without making it easy.
They sat on the jail steps.
Her father joined them.
He carried the silver medallion.
Jonah looked at it.
“Why did Elias give you that?”
The older man turned it over.
“Because it was part of a pair.”
“A pair?”
He nodded.
“Jacob Reed made two medallions when he signed the Cedar covenant. One remained with his family. One with mine.”
Jonah frowned.
“I’ve never seen another.”
“Silas has.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he tried to buy this one twenty years ago.”
Jonah looked sharply toward Blackstone road.
“Why would he want it?”
Naelli’s father answered:
“Because the two medallions together contain the survey marks identifying the original spring boundary.”
Jonah stared at the silver disk.
Half a map.
“Where is ours?”
The older man said, “Your mother had it.”
Jonah thought of Miriam’s grave.
The wedding stone.
The hidden covenant.
Silas had seized the ranch because he believed the evidence was there.
But he might be searching the wrong place.
Jonah stood.
“We ride tonight.”
Naelli nodded.
“To Cedar.”
“Yes.”
They looked toward Elias’s cell.
Jonah said, “Without him.”
Elias heard.
He approached the bars.
“Jonah.”
Jonah turned.
“If we find the covenant, you get your chance to explain everything.”
“And if you don’t?”
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Jonah looked at the man who should have been his father.
“Then for once, you wait.”
