Chapter 6 - The Judge Behind the War
Judge Elias Pritchard was supposed to be in Santa Fe.
Instead he sat on the ridge firing into Red Knife Canyon.
Benjamin survived the first bullet.
Barely.
It passed through the upper shoulder.
Clara dragged him behind the wagon while Nokoni returned fire.
Tahka sent two warriors around the eastern side of the ridge.
Pritchard fled before they reached him.
Silas watched the escape with a strange expression.
Not relief.
Fear.
Clara noticed.
"You thought you were in charge."
Silas looked away.
She crouched in front of him.
"You weren't."
"Go to hell."
"How long has Pritchard been using you?"
Silas laughed without humor.
"You think I worked for him?"
"I think you're terrified of him."
That silenced him.
Clara leaned closer.
"What does he want?"
Silas said nothing.
Amos did.
"The railroad."
Everyone turned.
Amos Vale sat with his hands tied behind him.
He looked exhausted.
"The survey isn't just about water," Amos continued. "Pritchard bought land east and west of the canyon through fake names. Once the railroad route is approved, everything triples in value."
Samuel Bell stared.
"Silas clears the canyon."
"Pritchard sells the corridor."
Amos nodded.
Silas cursed him.
Amos shrugged.
"You were going to hang me anyway."
Clara looked toward the ridge where Pritchard disappeared.
A judge had authority.
Connections.
Respectability.
Silas had been the visible monster.
Pritchard was the man who made monsters useful.
By midmorning Reverend Hale arrived.
And with him came four federal deputies.
Marshal Everett Sloan rode at their head.
He was fifty, sunburned, and unimpressed by almost everyone.
Clara had never been happier to see a stranger.
Sloan listened.
He read the ledgers.
Examined the deed.
Questioned Cal Pike.
Questioned Amos.
Questioned Silas.
Then he looked at Clara.
"You realize half this evidence will be challenged."
"I assumed criminals disliked paperwork when it disagreed with them."
The marshal's mouth twitched.
"Your husband kept good records."
"He was irritating that way."
Sloan folded Thomas's letter.
"Pritchard is the problem."
"He just shot Benjamin."
"We need him alive."
Clara nodded.
Silas laughed from the ground.
"You won't find him."
Sloan turned.
"Why?"
Silas smiled.
"Because he already knows where she's going."
Clara stiffened.
"Where am I going?"
Silas looked at her.
"Home."
Her blood cooled.
The cabin.
"What is there?"
Silas's smile widened.
"Ask Thomas."
Clara was on her horse within two minutes.
Sloan ordered two deputies to accompany her.
Nokoni came despite his wound.
Tahka insisted too.
They reached Clara's cabin shortly before sunset.
Nothing looked wrong.
That frightened her more.
The door was closed.
The stable empty.
Clara dismounted.
Nokoni touched her arm.
"Wait."
He pointed.
A boot print.
Fresh.
Near the porch.
Clara drew her revolver.
They entered.
Everything had been searched.
Mattress cut open.
Cupboards emptied.
Thomas's trunk smashed.
Pritchard had been looking for something.
Clara stared at the destruction.
Then noticed Thomas's old rocking chair.
It had been moved.
Beneath it, one floorboard sat slightly higher than the others.
Clara knelt.
She pried it open.
Inside was a narrow tin cylinder.
Her name had been scratched into the metal.
Clara.
Her throat tightened.
She opened it.
Inside lay a rolled document and a smaller letter.
The document was a sworn statement signed by Thomas and Benjamin.
It detailed Silas's staged raids, Coyle's involvement, and Pritchard's instructions.
At the bottom were the names of two territorial officials prepared to receive the evidence.
This wasn't just a ledger.
It was testimony.
Pritchard could not survive it politically or legally.
Clara opened the letter.
My love,
If you found this, then men I hoped would never reach our home have already done so.
Clara sat on the floor.
Nokoni and Tahka remained silent.
Thomas continued.
I hid the strongest evidence where I believed you would eventually look, because you always noticed what I moved and pretended not to.
A laugh escaped her through tears.
He was right.
There is one thing I never said enough.
You were never the reason I feared dying.
You were the reason I feared leaving.
Clara pressed the paper to her mouth.
Then footsteps sounded on the porch.
A deputy shouted.
Gunfire followed.
Clara rose.
Judge Pritchard stepped into the doorway holding a pistol against Reverend Hale's neck.
Clara froze.
Hale looked furious rather than frightened.
"Sorry," the reverend muttered. "He followed us."
Pritchard looked at Clara.
"Give me the statement."
"No."
"I'll kill him."
Hale sighed.
"Mrs. McKe, please don't make poor decisions on my behalf."
Pritchard shoved the gun harder against his head.
Clara held the document.
"What happens after I give it to you?"
"You walk away."
Clara almost laughed.
"Silas said similar things."
"I'm not Silas."
"No."
Clara looked at him.
"You're worse."
Pritchard's face hardened.
"That territory needs development."
"So you murdered people."
"I moved obstacles."
Tahka's expression became stone.
Clara said, "People aren't obstacles."
"History disagrees."
Pritchard extended his hand.
"The paper."
Clara slowly raised it.
Then Reverend Hale stomped backward onto Pritchard's foot.
The judge cursed.
Clara threw herself sideways.
Nokoni lunged.
The pistol fired.
Hale fell.
Tahka struck Pritchard's wrist.
The gun dropped.
Clara grabbed it.
"Enough!"
Pritchard froze.
Hale groaned from the floor.
Clara rushed to him.
The bullet had grazed his arm.
The old man looked offended.
"I liked this coat."
Clara laughed from sheer relief.
The deputies bound Pritchard.
Marshal Sloan arrived an hour later.
By nightfall, the conspiracy was finished.
Or so Clara thought.
Then Sloan read Thomas's sworn statement again.
His expression changed.
"What?"
Sloan looked at her.
"This page is missing."
Clara frowned.
"What page?"
"Thomas refers here to an attached witness list."
Benjamin, pale from blood loss, lifted his head.
"There was one."
"Who was on it?" Clara asked.
Benjamin looked toward Silas.
Silas looked suddenly nervous again.
Benjamin said, "Everyone who saw Pritchard order the first staged attack."
"How many?"
"Seven."
"Where are they?"
Benjamin's face darkened.
"Six are dead."
Clara understood before she asked.
"And the seventh?"
Benjamin stared at her.
"The seventh witness is someone you know."
Silence filled the cabin.
Then a horse stopped outside.
A woman stepped onto Clara's porch.
She carried the missing page.
Clara recognized her immediately.
It was Silas Rourke's wife.
May you like
And the first words she spoke changed everything.
"Silas didn't order Thomas McKe killed..."
