“At night?”
“The station manager owes me.”
Bella gathered papers.
Then stopped.
“Owes you what?”
“Several favors.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
“That sounds criminal.”
“It sounds western.”
The rail office at Black Rock was nearly empty.
Station manager Edwin Shaw was fifty and nervous around Nathan.
He became more nervous when Bella asked questions.
“Manifest number 7714.”
Edwin checked.
“Drake Valley.”
“Forty head.”
“No.”
Bella looked at him.
“What?”
He turned the book.
“Eighty.”
Nathan’s expression darkened.
Bella checked the ranch copy.
“Forty recorded.”
Edwin swallowed.
Nathan asked:
“Who submitted the ranch paperwork?”
Edwin looked uncomfortable.
Nathan leaned closer.
“Name.”
“Victor Hale.”
Silence.
Bella kept writing.
Next manifest.
Sixty ranch record.
Ninety-two station.
Another.
Twenty-five ranch.
Fifty-one station.
They added.
Hundreds of cattle.
Stolen gradually.
Nathan stood near the window.
Bella watched him.
He had gone very still.
Edwin looked terrified.
“Mr. Drake, I thought you knew.”
Nathan did not turn.
“Why?”
“Victor said you were moving cattle through private accounts.”
Nathan looked back.
“My private account?”
“Yes.”
“Which bank?”
Edwin hesitated.
Bella noticed.
“Nathan.”
He looked at her.
“Let him answer without fear.”
Nathan stared.
Then stepped backward.
Edwin exhaled.
“Frontier Trust.”
Bella wrote.
Account name?
Edwin checked older forms.
“DVR Holdings.”
Nathan frowned.
“Not ours.”
Bella felt her pulse increase.
Another shell.
“Who signed?”
Edwin turned the form.
Victor Hale.
And another name.
Thomas Vale.
Nathan stared.
Thomas had not simply discovered the fraud.
He was inside it.
Or appeared to be.
Bella spoke softly.
“Maybe that explains the payment.”
Nathan looked at her.
“He was being paid.”
“Maybe.”
“Or sharing.”
Nathan’s expression hardened.
“Find him.”
They found Thomas Vale the next morning.
Alive.
In jail.
Not Wyoming.
Colorado.
Arrested for carrying a forged rail bond.
Nathan arranged release into his attorney’s custody.
By evening Thomas sat inside Drake Valley’s library looking like a man who expected murder.
Bella sat beside Nathan.
Victor had been told Nathan was away on business.
Thomas looked at Bella.
“Who is she?”
Nathan answered:
“The reason you’re not lying to me.”
Bella glanced at him.
That was a lot of confidence.
Thomas swallowed.
“I didn’t steal cattle.”
Nathan placed copies of the manifests down.
“Your signature.”
“Forged.”
Bella leaned forward.
“Possibly.”
Thomas looked at her.
She continued.
“But the payment to you wasn’t.”
His face changed.
There.