Nathan looked toward her.
“Bunkhouse.”
“Room?”
“End room.”
They walked there.
Nathan opened the door.
Empty.
Bed made.
Too neat.
Bella entered behind him.
A dresser.
One chair.
Washbasin.
Boot hooks.
Nothing personal except two shirts and a razor.
“He planned to leave,” she said.
Nathan opened a drawer.
“Looks that way.”
Bella looked beneath the bed.
A box.
“Wait.”
Nathan crouched.
Pulled it out.
Locked.
He reached for a knife.
Bella stopped him.
“You own keys.”
“I own impatience.”
She looked toward the top drawer.
“Housekeeping keeps duplicate trunk keys.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
“Of course you know that.”
“I clean rooms.”
Bella found the ring behind the drawer liner.
Third key fit.
Nathan opened the box.
Inside were papers.
No money.
No weapon.
Ledgers.
Bella’s eyes sharpened.
Nathan noticed.
“You recognize something?”
She lifted one.
Supply purchases.
Feed.
Medicine.
Fence timber.
Normal.
Then another.
Cattle transport.
Normal.
Third.
Cash expenditures.
Not normal.
Bella sat on the bed.
Nathan remained standing.
She read.
Twenty dollars.
Forty.
One hundred.
Small enough to vanish inside ranch operations.
Repeated.
Same initials.
V.H.
Bella looked up.
“Victor Hale.”
Nathan’s expression did not change.
“Maybe.”
“Who else?”
“Virgil Hanson.”
“Who?”
“Blacksmith.”
“Does he receive hundreds in cash every week?”
“No.”
Bella turned pages.
“What is this code?”
Nathan leaned closer.
“South lot.”
“No.”
“What?”
“These numbers repeat.”
She pointed.
“Twenty-eight. Sixteen. Twelve.”
Nathan stared.
Bella continued.
“Not dollar amounts.”
“What then?”
“Head counts.”
He looked at her.
“Cattle.”
“Yes.”
Her pulse quickened.
Paul had recorded cattle leaving.
Not being sold.
Transported.
But no matching income appeared.
Nathan took the ledger.
“Twenty-eight head on March fourth.”
“Sixteen March eighteenth.”
“Twelve April second.”
“Total?”
Bella calculated mentally.
“Fifty-six.”
Another page.
“Seventy-three by May.”
Another.
“Ninety-one.”
Nathan’s expression hardened.
“Stolen cattle.”
“Maybe.”
“No.”
His voice changed.
“I know the herd counts.”
“You knew animals were missing?”
“Over winter, yes. We attributed it to storms, broken fences, predators.”
Bella looked back at the initials.
V.H.
“Victor.”