Chapter 10 - Eagle Tooth
Reed died before dawn.
They buried him beneath stones.
Colter said little.
Cade recognized the silence.
Guilt taking shape.
Nalin watched the military camp below Eagle Tooth Ridge.
Thirty soldiers.
Two wagons.
One officer’s tent.
No reason for them to be there.
Unless the second ledger mattered enough to move federal troops unofficially.
Father Ruiz whispered, “You cannot fight them.”
Cade nodded.
Nalin said, “We do not need to.”
Colter looked at her.
“What are you thinking?”
“The burial place is above them.”
She pointed toward a narrow rock line climbing behind the ridge.
“Can horses make it?”
“No.”
Cade said, “Good.”
They left the animals hidden with Ruiz.
The priest objected to remaining behind.
Nalin said, “You move too loudly.”
He looked offended.
“I am a priest.”
“Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“I do not know. But you move loudly.”
Cade almost laughed.
They climbed before sunrise.
Cade’s arm limited him badly.
Twice Nalin had to help.
Neither commented.
Colter followed.
Halfway up, he whispered:
“She hates you.”
“Yes.”
“Yet helps.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Ask her.”
Nalin called from above:
“Because if he falls, the noise gives us away.”
Colter smiled.
By first light they reached the top.
Below lay an old Apache burial ground disturbed decades earlier by soldiers and scavengers.
Nalin stopped.
Her face changed.
Cade stayed back.
This was not his place.
Colter did too.
Nalin moved among stone cairns until she reached one near a dry channel.
She knelt.
Touched three stones.
Then walked toward a crack where rainwater once cut through limestone.
“Here.”
They searched.
Nothing.
Cade began to wonder whether they had misunderstood.
Then Nalin removed Taza’s medallion.
The sunburst matched a shallow carving in the rock.
She pressed it against the mark.
Colter leaned closer.
“It’s a key?”
“No.”
Nalin traced lines radiating from the carving.
One pointed toward another stone.
They moved it.
Beneath lay an iron box.
Cade’s heart quickened.
Eleven years.
Taza had hidden it while wounded.
Somehow later transferred the clue to family.
Nalin lifted the lid.
Inside were oilskin-wrapped papers.
The original ledger.
Army manifests.
Letters.
One photograph.
Cade picked it up.
Silas Creed.
Lieutenant Voss.
Three railroad investors.
And Colter Thorn.
Dated seven years earlier.
Cade looked at his brother.
Colter went pale.
“Nalin.”
She turned.
Cade handed her the photograph.
Colter spoke quickly.
“I can explain.”
Nalin’s laugh was empty.
“Every guilty man in Arizona says that.”
Cade looked at him.
“You knew Voss.”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“I represented him.”
“You said Creed.”
“Creed introduced us.”
Nalin removed the ledger.
“Were you involved in the original weapons scheme?”
“No. I was twenty-five and nowhere near Fort Grant.”
“Later?”
Colter hesitated.
Wrong choice.
Cade stepped closer.
“Later?”
“I helped restructure companies.”
“What companies?”
“Creed’s.”
“To hide old transactions?”
“Yes.”
Nalin stared.
“You knew what he had done.”
“Not at first.”
“When did you know?”
“Nine years ago.”
“And stayed.”
“Yes.”
Cade felt anger rising.
Not righteousness.
Recognition.
The same excuses.
Money.
Land.
Debt.
Pride.
“Why set the saloon trap if you already knew the evidence existed?”
Colter’s voice tightened.
“I knew a ledger existed. Not where.”
“You used Nalin to find it.”
“Yes.”
“And me?”
“I knew you had Taza’s medallion.”
Cade froze.
“How?”
“Voss told me.”
Cade’s mind moved backward.
Only a handful of people had seen Taza hand it over.
Unless someone watched from distance.
“Voss saw.”
“Yes.”
“He knew I kept it.”
“Yes.”
“Then why wait eleven years?”
Colter looked at the iron box.
“Because nobody knew what the medallion meant.”
Nalin understood.
“Until my uncle’s letter.”
“Yes.”
Cade’s voice became cold.
“So you needed me and Nalin together.”
“Yes.”
“That was the saloon.”
“Yes.”
Nalin raised Vale’s revolver toward Colter.
Cade did not stop her.
Colter looked at the barrel.
“I planned to take the evidence, destroy Creed, force Voss into retirement, and keep the railroad deal.”
Nalin stared.
“You thought that sounded different from them?”
Colter’s face tightened.
“I thought I could clean it.”
“With secrets.”
“Yes.”
“With threats.”
“If needed.”
“With my blood on Gabe’s floor.”
“No.”
“You put me there.”
Colter swallowed.
“Yes.”
Below them, a bugle sounded.
They froze.
Another call answered from farther east.
Soldiers were moving.
Cade looked toward the ridge edge.
General Voss emerged from the officer’s tent.
He was older now.
White-haired.
Straight-backed.
He held field glasses.
He raised them toward Eagle Tooth.
Directly toward them.
“He sees us,” Cade said.
Colter cursed.
Nalin gathered the documents.
“No.”
Cade looked at her.
“What?”
“He sees three people.”
She put the papers back into the iron box.
“But he does not know who holds the truth.”
She divided the contents.
Ledger to Cade.
Letters to Colter.
Manifests inside her dress.
Photograph under a stone.
“Three directions,” she said.
Colter stared.
“You trust me with evidence?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because if you destroy yours, Cade will know.”
Cade nodded.
“And if Cade destroys his, you know.”
Colter almost smiled.
“And you?”
Nalin tucked the manifests against her body.
“I trust myself.”
Fair.
Shots cracked from below.
A bullet struck stone near Cade.
Soldiers were climbing.
Nalin pointed west.
“Separate.”
Cade started after her.
She stopped him.
“No.”
“What?”
“They expect you to protect me.”
Cade remembered the saloon.
Predictable.
Nalin looked directly at him.
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“Stop being predictable.”
Then she ran east alone.
