“I don't know.”
“You do.”
“I swear.”
“What did Vernon do?”
Caleb shook his head.
“I only heard them arguing.”
“When?”
“Week before Samuel got sick.”
Ruth froze.
Samuel had died after four days of fever.
At least that was what the doctor called it.
Fever.
Stomach pain.
Weakness.
She remembered Vernon bringing him medicine.
Her blood went cold.
Jonah saw her face.
“Ruth.”
She stepped backward.
“No.”
“Don't.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don't decide something without evidence.”
She looked at him.
Jonah’s voice softened.
“You taught me that.”
That stopped her.
They turned Caleb over to the territorial marshal the next morning.
The Marshal listened carefully.
Then frowned at Ruth’s ledger.
“Pike’s got friends.”
Jonah understood.
“So do I.”
The Marshal looked at him.
“Friends are not evidence.”
Ruth placed Samuel’s receipt on the desk.
“This is.”
The Marshal read.
Then the other entries.
Then Caleb’s written statement.
Slowly, the case took shape.
Cattle theft.
Fraudulent freight records.
Illegal use of Willow Ford.
Possibly more.
But the claimed debt still remained.
Vernon produced a promissory note with Samuel’s signature.
Three hundred dollars.
Ruth examined it.
The signature looked right.
Too right.
She knew Samuel’s writing better than anyone.
The shape was copied.
But the pressure was wrong.
The “A” in Alden was too narrow.
Samuel widened it when signing quickly.
Ruth said so.
Vernon laughed.
“You expect a court to trust a widow’s memory?”
Jonah stood beside her.
The Marshal did not answer.
Ruth did.
“No.”
“I expect them to trust Samuel’s other signatures.”
She produced six freight contracts.
Every one showed the wider “A.”
The promissory note did not.
The town clerk compared them.
Then the bank manager.
Then an attorney from Cheyenne whom Jonah paid to travel west.
The note was likely forged.
Vernon became less pleasant.
One evening a message arrived at the ranch.
A single page.
No signature.
Leave Red Willow business alone.
Jonah burned it.
Ruth watched.
“You should keep that.”
“For evidence?”
“Yes.”
He stared at the flame.
Then cursed under his breath.