Chapter 12 - Harlan Voss’s Version
Voss came to Cedar Basin under a white flag.
Tavan nearly refused to see him.
Elias insisted.
They met beside a narrow stream beneath armed eyes from both sides.
Voss dismounted alone.
He looked at Elias’s splint.
“You keep finding ways to worsen your situation.”
Elias drew his revolver.
Tavan put one hand on the barrel and lowered it.
“Words first.”
Voss smiled.
“Sensible.”
Elias said, “Were you there when Mara died?”
Voss’s face changed.
Not surprise.
Memory.
“Yes.”
“Did you poison her?”
“No.”
“Did Crane?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s convenient.”
“It’s true.”
Voss sat on a rock.
“I was twenty-four. My father sent me to retrieve documents Caleb had taken.”
“The survey.”
“Yes.”
“Crane came with you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He had more to lose.”
“What happened?”
Voss stared at the stream.
“Mara was dying.”
“She survived three days.”
“We believed she was dying.”
“Crane gave her medicine.”
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know.”
Tavan’s voice hardened.
“A brown bottle.”
Voss looked up.
“You remember.”
“I remember everything.”
Voss nodded slowly.
“Crane gave her laudanum.”
Tavan’s jaw tightened.
“Too much?”
“Perhaps.”
“Perhaps?”
Voss looked at Elias.
“Your mother was in terrible pain. Crane said the dose would let her sleep.”
“And then?”
“She never woke.”
Elias wanted to shoot him.
But Mara’s letter stopped him.
Choose people by what they do after they have the chance to betray you.
He needed facts.
“Why was my father killed?”
Voss looked toward the hills.
“My father hired men to frighten him.”
“Frighten.”
“Yes.”
“They burned his cabin.”
“That was not the order.”
“Every rich man says that after poor men do what he paid them to do.”
Voss accepted the blow without argument.
“You may be right.”
Elias had not expected that.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because Crane is trying to bury both of us.”
Elias laughed.
“You forged my deed together.”
“Yes.”
“Stole land.”
“Yes.”
“Foreclosed on families.”
Voss’s face hardened.
“I am not asking you to call me innocent.”
“Good.”
“I am asking you to distinguish greed from murder.”
Tavan said, “Both destroy lives.”
“Yes.”
Voss looked at him.
“But only one hangs.”
Elias understood.
Voss was afraid.
“What does Crane have on you?”
“The original records from the land office.”
“Which prove?”
“That he altered Caleb’s survey before Caleb corrected it.”
Elias stared.
“Then why not expose him?”
“Because they also prove my father paid him.”
“And you inherited the scheme.”
“Yes.”
Voss was trapped by his own fortune.
To destroy Crane, he had to destroy his family’s title.
Elias almost admired the irony.
Voss continued.
“Crane contacted eastern railroad investors without me.”
Tavan frowned.
“He intends to sell the corridor himself.”
“He cannot without Elias.”
“He intends to make the old deed valid.”
“How?”
Voss looked at Elias.
“By getting you to acknowledge it.”
“I won’t.”
“He doesn’t need your willing signature.”
Elias stared.
“What?”
“He needs a court statement establishing that you knew about the 1876 deed and accepted benefits from it.”
“I never received benefits.”
Voss looked toward Silas.
Elias slowly turned.
Silas went pale.
“The payments.”
Voss nodded.
“The money I paid Silas was recorded as distributions to Elias Boone.”
Elias felt sick.
On paper, Silas’s silence money had been Elias’s income.
That could be used to argue he had ratified the transfer later.
Silas whispered, “I didn’t know.”
Voss shrugged.
“You rarely asked questions when cash arrived.”
Silas looked as though he had been struck.
Elias almost pitied him.
Almost.
Tavan asked, “What does Crane need now?”
“The original survey destroyed.”
Elias and Silas exchanged a glance.
Voss noticed.
“You know where it is.”
Nobody answered.
Voss smiled grimly.
“Then Crane will too soon.”
Elias said, “Why?”
“Because Silas Boone has never kept a secret once fear gets close enough.”
Silas stepped forward.
“Go to hell.”
Voss ignored him.
“Crane took something from my office yesterday.”
“What?”
“A list of every Boone family burial site.”
Elias’s stomach dropped.
Caleb’s grave.
Tavan immediately turned toward his horse.
Voss called after him.
“You won’t reach it first.”
Tavan stopped.
“Why?”
Voss looked at Elias.
“Because Crane left Fort Garrett six hours ago.”
Elias stared toward the distant cemetery.
His broken leg no longer mattered.
If the original survey disappeared, the strongest proof of the conspiracy disappeared with it.
Elias hauled himself into the saddle.
Silas grabbed the reins.
“You’ll kill yourself.”
Elias looked at him.
“No.”
He pulled free.
“I spent thirty-three years living inside everybody else’s decisions.”
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Then he kicked the horse forward.
“This one is mine.”
