Chapter 10 - The Truth About Emmett Doyle
“Drop it,” Vain said.
Emmett lowered his revolver.
Odessa remained perfectly still.
Vain smiled.
“Your husband learns quickly.”
“He isn’t afraid of you,” Odessa said.
“He should be.”
Rafe laughed.
Thomas looked terrified.
Vain demanded the ledger.
Emmett tossed the satchel.
Rafe opened it.
Blank paper.
His face changed.
Emmett smiled.
“You think I brought evidence to men who burn barns?”
Vain struck Odessa with the rifle stock.
She staggered.
Emmett moved.
“Don’t!”
Vain aimed.
Odessa straightened slowly.
Blood touched her lip.
Then she smiled.
Vain looked confused.
That was his mistake.
Odessa drove her elbow backward.
Vain lost the rifle.
Emmett attacked Rafe.
Thomas rolled away.
Shots exploded from the trees.
Judge Avery’s posse.
Rafe fled toward the ravine.
Emmett chased him.
They fought at the edge.
Rafe pulled a knife.
“You were always easy to frame.”
Emmett blocked him.
“You picked a grieving man.”
“I picked a weak one.”
Emmett hit him.
“No.”
Again.
“You picked one who survived.”
Rafe slipped.
His boot went over the edge.
Emmett caught his wrist.
Rafe stared up.
“You’d save me?”
“I’m not you.”
Deputies hauled Rafe up.
Vain escaped on horseback.
Again.
But Rafe was finished.
Under interrogation he finally broke.
He confessed to cattle theft.
Brand alteration.
Arson.
Framing Emmett.
Assaulting Elias.
But he insisted Vain pushed Elias from the ravine.
“I hit him,” Rafe said. “Vain killed him.”
Odessa heard the confession.
No satisfaction came.
Only exhaustion.
Emmett’s name was formally cleared.
Bar Seven offered his job back.
He refused.
“My home is Kesler Ridge.”
Odessa heard him.
That night she found him on the porch.
“You called this home.”
“It is.”
“Because of the ranch?”
He looked up.
“No.”
Odessa sat beside him.
“You realize our marriage agreement no longer matters.”
“I know.”
“The foreclosure is frozen.”
“I know.”
“You could leave.”
“I know.”
She frowned.
“You’re making this difficult.”
“I’m waiting for you to ask the right question.”
Odessa looked at him for a long moment.
“Do you love me?”
“Yes.”
The answer came easily.
Her eyes filled.
“Then I suppose I love you too.”
“You suppose?”
“Don’t ruin it.”
He laughed.
She kissed him.
For a few hours, there was peace.
Then Deputy Collins arrived near midnight.
They had found Vain.
Or his horse.
Saddled.
Blood on the reins.
No rider.
A search party followed tracks toward North Creek.
There they found Vain’s coat.
And beside it, a freshly dug hole.
Inside was a metal strongbox.
The lid carried one name.
KESLER.
Odessa unlocked it with Elias’s old desk key.
Inside was a document bearing her signature.
A signature she had never written.
May you like
It transferred Kesler Ridge to Barton Vain.
And the witness signature beneath it belonged to Sheriff Puit.
