Chapter 12 - The Missing Witness
Samuel confronted Sheriff Bell.
Bell finally admitted the truth.
Nathaniel Carter had suspected Elias Rourke's father.
But Bell had refused to investigate.
"Why?"
"I was young."
"That's not an answer."
Bell looked exhausted.
"My wife was sick. Rourke paid the doctor."
Samuel stared.
"So you sold my father."
"I didn't know what would happen."
"My father died believing he had no one."
Bell's eyes filled with regret.
"I know."
Samuel turned away.
Bell then revealed one final secret.
Nathaniel Carter had not been the only witness.
There had been a surveyor.
A man named Henry Vale.
Vale had disappeared twenty years earlier.
But Bell believed he was still alive.
"Where?"
"New Mexico."
Samuel looked at Red Willow.
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They needed to find him.
Because Henry Vale might possess the original survey proving the valley's water system belonged to more than one ranch.
