She continued.
“And this…”
She held up Bell’s telegram.
“This is evidence.”
Nathaniel’s anger replaced shock.
“You cannot use private correspondence.”
“Watch me.”
He reached for it.
Elias stood.
Nathaniel stopped.
Emma folded the telegram and placed it inside her bodice.
“Try.”
Nathaniel looked at Elias.
Then Emma.
He sat.
Slowly.
“What do you want?”
“Every Harper Brokerage record you have.”
“No.”
Emma smiled.
“Then I send the tax records from our marriage to the territorial revenue office.”
Nathaniel stared.
“You said those were part of the divorce settlement.”
“I said I would not use them if you honored the settlement.”
“You did.”
“You are now assisting a man attempting to defraud my husband.”
Nathaniel looked toward Elias.
“Husband?”
“Yes.”
His face changed strangely.
Not jealousy.
Recognition that Emma had built a life beyond him.
That, perhaps, offended him more.
He looked back at her.
“You always were vindictive.”
Emma smiled.
“No.”
“I became organized.”
Elias laughed into his coffee.
Nathaniel gave them the records.
Harper Brokerage had purchased more than fifty thousand dollars in distressed farm notes from Mercy Bend Bank over five years.
The average purchase price:
Thirty-eight cents on the dollar.
Then Bell or associated cattle companies acquired foreclosed land.
It was a machine.
Inflate debts.
Force default.
Sell paper.
Buy land.
Emma and Elias returned to Mercy Bend with copies.
Bell learned they had gone to Topeka.
By the time they arrived home, the ranch office had been searched.
Nothing obvious stolen.
Drawers opened.
Desk disturbed.
Emma’s account ledger missing.
“Bell,” Elias said.
“Or Amos.”
Emma looked around.
Then smiled.
Elias stared.
“What?”
“That was the copy.”
He blinked.
“Where’s the real one?”
Emma pointed toward the flour barrel.
Elias laughed so hard he had to sit.
“You hid bank evidence in flour?”
“Men like Bell do not cook.”
“Neither do I.”
“Exactly.”
The next night, someone tried to burn the barn.
Ben smelled smoke before midnight.
Elias ran outside barefoot.
Levi shouted.
Flames climbed one outer wall.
Emma woke to bells and yelling.
She pulled on a wrapper and reached the yard.
“Water!”
Elias shouted.
Ranch hands formed a bucket line from the trough.
Emma saw a smaller flame near the office window.
Separate.
Not spread from the barn.
“Elias!”
He turned.
She pointed.
Someone had set two fires.
Not accident.
Emma moved toward the office.
Elias caught her arm.
“No.”
“The records.”
“I’ll get them.”
“You don’t know where—”
“The flour barrel.”
He remembered.
Elias ran inside.
Smoke thickened.
Emma grabbed the handcart used for feed sacks.