Caleb read the first paragraph.
Then stopped.
"This is a payment authorization."
Jonah nodded.
"For what?"
"Compensation to the men involved in securing the northern valley."
Mara's face hardened.
"Securing?"
"That's the word they used."
Caleb continued reading.
At the bottom were several names.
Voss.
Bell.
Pike.
Grady.
And one more.
A name Caleb had never expected to see.
Samuel Mercer.
He looked up.
"My father signed this."
Jonah nodded.
"Yes."
Caleb stared at the page.
"Why?"
"Because he helped arrange the meeting at Black Mesa."
The words struck like a hammer.
Mara felt Caleb's body stiffen.
Jonah continued quietly.
"Father believed Harrow was going to negotiate a lawful purchase of the valley."
"Was he?"
"No."
"Then what happened?"
Jonah looked toward the dark horizon.
"The surveyors discovered that the company had been diverting water from land still under protected family claims. They threatened to report it."
Mara listened intently.
"Harrow ordered them killed?"
Jonah shook his head.
"Not directly."
Caleb frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"It means Harrow was careful. He never gave an order that could be traced to him."
"Then who did?"
Jonah looked at the document.
"That's what the testimony reveals."
For a while, the only sound was the steady rhythm of hooves.
Then Mara asked, "How did you find out Daniel was alive?"
Jonah's expression changed.
"Because he helped me."
She sat straighter.
"What?"
"Three months ago, I returned to Red Hollow looking for Father. Daniel had been investigating the same land transfers."
"You met him?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"At the old grain warehouse."
Mara's voice trembled.
"Why didn't he tell me?"
"He was afraid you'd become a target."
"I was already a target."
Jonah looked at her sadly.
"I know."
"What happened?"
"We found a hidden accounting book in the company office. Daniel recognized the names of families who had lost their land."
"And then?"
"Someone saw us leaving."
"Voss?"
"One of his deputies."
Mara's breathing quickened.
"Daniel disappeared the next morning."
Jonah nodded.
"I tried to find him."
"And you couldn't?"
"Not until last week."
Mara looked away.
Eleven months.
Eleven months of searching, pleading, and being told her brother had abandoned her.
All the while, he had been imprisoned beneath the sheriff's office.
Caleb reached back and covered her hand with his.
She did not pull away.
Jonah watched them for a moment.
Then he looked toward the east.
"We need to reach Red Hollow before the train."
Caleb nodded.
"How?"
"There's an old cattle trail through Dry Bone Pass."
"That trail's dangerous."
"Only if you don't know it."
Caleb looked at his brother.
"You've changed."
Jonah smiled faintly.
"So have you."
Caleb studied him.
"Not as much as I thought."
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Jonah said, "I never stopped looking for you."
Caleb's throat tightened.
"I thought you were dead."
"I know."
"I'm sorry."
Jonah shook his head.
"You don't owe me an apology."
Caleb looked toward the stars.
"Maybe not."
Then he turned back.
"But I owe you seventeen years."
Jonah's expression softened.
"Then let's make sure we both live long enough to collect."
They rode into the night.
Behind them, Silas Rook discovered the empty irrigation channel.
He stared at the tracks leading north.
Then he swore.
One of his men approached.
"What now?"
Rook mounted his horse.
"We ride to Red Hollow."
"Why?"
"Because Mercer isn't running away."
He looked toward the distant mountains.
"He's coming home."
Daniel Tolan had learned to measure hope in inches.
An inch of loosened stone.
An inch of daylight beneath a locked door.
An inch of space between the iron bars and the wall.
For eleven months, he had lived beneath the Red Hollow jail, surrounded by damp stone and silence.
He had been beaten.
Threatened.
Starved.
Promised freedom in exchange for the location of the original land records.
But he had never told Sheriff Voss what the man wanted to hear.
Because Daniel knew something Voss did not.
The records were not simply evidence of stolen land.
They were proof of a much larger conspiracy.
One that reached beyond Red Hollow.
Beyond the county.
Perhaps even into the territorial government itself.
Daniel had discovered the first clue while working as an assistant bookkeeper at the development company's grain warehouse.
He had noticed payments made to men who were officially dead.
Surveyors.
Railroad inspectors.
County clerks.
At first, he assumed the entries were mistakes.
Then he found the same names appearing in property transfers.
Land that had supposedly been abandoned.
Land sold under false signatures.
Land acquired for a fraction of its value.
And always, somewhere nearby, a new irrigation ditch, mining claim, or railroad survey appeared.
Daniel had begun copying the records.
He had hidden the copies inside old grain sacks.
Then he had contacted Jonah Mercer.
Together, they had followed the money.
And what they discovered had nearly cost them both their lives.
Now Daniel lay on the cold floor of his cell, working a broken spoon beneath the loose stone.
He had spent months widening the opening.
The drainage tunnel beyond it was barely large enough to crawl through.
But he had reached it.
He could feel fresh air.
He could hear water moving somewhere far below.
Freedom was close.
Then footsteps sounded above.
Daniel froze.
The iron door opened.
A lantern appeared.
Sheriff Voss descended the stairs.
He was accompanied by Horace Bell.
The land commissioner looked nervous.
His face was pale, and his hands trembled as he held a leather portfolio.
Voss stopped outside the cell.
"Good morning, Daniel."
Daniel remained silent.
Bell glanced around the chamber.
"This is where you've kept him?"
Voss looked at him.
"Where did you imagine?"
"I thought he was being held at the county jail."
"He is."
"Not officially."
Voss smiled.
"Officially, Daniel Tolan left town eleven months ago."
Bell swallowed.
"This is dangerous."
"Only if you keep talking."
Daniel rose slowly.