Chapter 5 - The Badge at the Gate
Sheriff Daniel Crowe rode into Broken Spur smiling.
Nobody smiled back.
He was forty-five, broad-shouldered, clean-shaven, with the relaxed confidence of a man accustomed to entering places where everyone else immediately became nervous.
He dismounted.
“What happened?”
Caleb stood near the kitchen door.
“How did you know something happened?”
Crowe’s smile faded slightly.
“Gunshots carry.”
“From town?”
Crowe stared at him.
“I was nearby.”
“Doing what?”
“Sheriff work.”
Mabel stepped outside carrying the ledger behind her back.
Crowe noticed her.
Then Harlan.
Then Eli bleeding beside the kitchen.
His expression barely changed.
“Who shot him?”
Eli said nothing.
Crowe approached.
“Boone?”
Caleb stepped between them.
“Stay there.”
Crowe looked amused.
“You giving orders now?”
“No.”
Mabel spoke.
“I am.”
Crowe turned.
She surprised herself with how steady her voice sounded.
“This is my property.”
Crowe laughed.
Harlan did not.
That made Crowe stop.
He looked at Harlan.
“What happened?”
Harlan stared at him.
“Everything.”
Crowe’s eyes sharpened.
Mabel watched them.
Two men communicating without words.
That told her enough.
Crowe put a hand near his revolver.
“Maybe everyone should calm down.”
Caleb mirrored the movement.
“Maybe you should keep your hand where we can see it.”
Several ranch hands stood.
Crowe looked around.
The balance had changed.
Thirty-two cowboys no longer appeared interested in taking orders from authority simply because it wore a badge.
Crowe lifted both hands.
“All right.”
Mabel walked closer.
“Do you know Blackridge Holdings?”
A pause.
Small.
But present.
Crowe said, “No.”
Mabel opened the ledger.
“Your name appears thirty-seven times.”
Crowe glanced at Harlan.
Harlan looked away.
Mabel continued.
“Payments.”
“That could be anyone named Crowe.”
“Daniel Crowe.”
“There are other Daniel Crowes.”
“With a sheriff’s badge number?”
Crowe stopped smiling.
Caleb muttered, “That’s unfortunate.”
Mabel turned the ledger.
Beside several payments was Crowe’s badge number.
Crowe’s eyes moved toward the horses.
Ben and Hank shifted into his path.
Crowe sighed.
“You don’t understand what you found.”
Harlan laughed bitterly.
“Everybody keeps saying that today.”
Crowe glared at him.
“You were supposed to destroy those books.”
“There were copies.”
“You told me there weren’t.”
Mabel looked between them.
“Thank you.”
Both men realized too late what they had admitted.
Caleb smiled without humor.
“Sheriff, you may want to stop helping.”
Crowe’s face hardened.
“This ranch would have died twenty years ago without Blackridge.”
Mabel frowned.
“Explain.”
“Harlan’s father nearly bankrupted it.”
Harlan snapped, “That isn’t true.”
Crowe ignored him.
“Blackridge moved cattle discreetly.”
“You mean illegally.”
“I mean efficiently.”
“You filed false insurance claims.”
Crowe’s eyes narrowed.
Mabel continued.
“You protected the operation.”
“I protected this county.”
“By stealing?”
“By keeping ranches alive.”
“Which ranches?”
Crowe said nothing.
Mabel understood.
“Not ranches.”
She looked at Harlan.
“Just Broken Spur.”
Harlan stared at the ground.
Crowe suddenly moved.
Fast.
He drew.
Caleb drew faster.
Two guns aimed.
Nobody breathed.
Crowe looked at the thirty-two cowboys.
“You men really going to risk hanging over this?”
Mabel stepped between Caleb and Crowe.
Caleb whispered, “Mabel.”
She ignored him.
Crowe’s gun remained aimed.
Mabel stared directly at him.
“For years, men like you have depended on people being afraid.”
Crowe said nothing.
“You depended on Eleanor being afraid.”
His eyes changed.
Mabel saw it.
“You knew her.”
Crowe’s jaw tightened.
“You were young.”
No answer.
“How?”
Ruth came forward.
Crowe looked at her.
Recognition.
Ruth whispered, “You.”
Mabel turned.
“You know him?”
Ruth shook her head slowly.
“I know his father.”
Crowe closed his eyes.
Harlan muttered a curse.
Ruth stared at the sheriff.
“Thomas Crowe.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“My father is dead.”
“He drove the stagecoach.”
Silence swallowed the yard.
Mabel looked toward Daniel.
“Your father was driving when Eleanor crashed?”
Ruth nodded.
“He survived.”
Eli spoke weakly.
“He did.”
Mabel turned.
“You knew?”
Eli nodded.
“Thomas caused the wreck.”
Daniel shouted.
“No!”
Every gun lifted.
Daniel stopped.
Eli continued.
“The road wasn’t washed out.”
“What happened?”
“Thomas followed orders.”
Mabel looked at Harlan.
He shook his head immediately.
“Not mine.”
Eli stared at Daniel Crowe.
“His father worked for Silas’s father.”
Ruth frowned.
“But Silas’s father wanted Eleanor protected.”
“Yes.”
“Then why?”
Eli swallowed.
“Because somebody else wanted the ranch.”
Mabel stared.
“Who?”
Eli looked toward the ledger.
“Blackridge existed before Silas used it.”
Caleb frowned.
“Who owned it?”
Eli closed his eyes.
“I never knew.”
Crowe said, “Stop talking.”
Eli laughed weakly.
“You’re still afraid of them.”
Mabel heard one word.
“Them?”
Crowe’s face gave him away.
Blackridge was not one person.
Perhaps not even one family.
Mabel asked, “Who owns Blackridge?”
Crowe said nothing.
Mabel stepped closer.
“Who?”
“People you should never meet.”
Caleb said, “Threatening her isn’t helping.”
“I’m warning her.”
Mabel looked around.
Everything had started because Caleb offered her a chair.
Now fraud, inheritance, murder, and corruption surrounded them.
She was tired of warnings.
“Tie him up.”
Crowe laughed.
Then saw that nobody else did.
Ben removed rope from a saddle.
Crowe raised his gun again.
Thirty rifles clicked.
All around him.
Cowboys who had ignored Mabel for years were suddenly standing behind her.
Not because she fed them.
Not because Caleb told them to.
Because they had chosen.
Crowe slowly lowered his weapon.
Ben took it.
They tied Crowe to a post beside Harlan.
Harlan complained.
Mabel ignored him.
Ruth spread Eleanor’s documents across the table.
The men gathered.
This time Mabel sat among them.
Not at the end.
In the middle.
Caleb placed coffee beside her.
“Thank you.”
Two ordinary words.
Yet Mabel noticed several men glance toward one another.
They were learning.
The ledger showed shipments routed through three companies.
Blackridge.
North Star Freight.
Cedar Agricultural Trust.
Caleb traced them.
“All connected?”
Ruth nodded.
“Likely.”
Mabel studied dates.
Something caught her eye.
“Wait.”
She compared an old Blackridge transaction with a recent one.
The account number was identical.
“What?”
“This company is still active.”
Caleb nodded.
“We know that.”
“No.”
Mabel pointed.
“The bank account hasn’t changed in twenty-seven years.”
Ruth understood.
“So?”
“So whoever created Blackridge may still control it.”
Sheriff Crowe laughed from the post.
“You have no idea.”
Mabel turned.
“Then tell me.”
Crowe smiled.
“You think Silas is the powerful man here?”
Harlan glared at him.
Crowe continued.
“He isn’t.”
“Who is?”
“You’ve already met him.”
Mabel’s skin went cold.
She looked around the ranch.
Thirty-two men.
Ruth.
Eli.
Caleb.
Harlan.
Crowe.
“Who?”
Crowe smiled wider.
“He’s been eating your food for years.”
Every cowboy froze.
Mabel slowly looked toward the long table.
Thirty-two faces stared back.
Then one man was missing.
His chair was empty.
His plate was still warm.
Caleb whispered the name.
“Roy.”
May you like
From inside Mabel’s room came the sound of a drawer opening.
Someone was searching her things.
