“Yes.”
“You knew Thomas said stone moved.”
Silas stopped.
There.
The question.
Not law.
Memory.
Silas looked toward the ground.
“Yes.”
The crowd shifted.
Anna held her breath.
Mara asked:
“Did you know he was right?”
Silas took a long time.
“I knew he might be.”
That was not confession to moving the stone.
It was enough morally.
Mara nodded.
“You chose paper that made you richer.”
Silas looked at her.
“Yes.”
No excuse.
The crowd began shouting again.
Brigg moved forward.
Silas raised his voice.
“I said yes.”
Silence returned.
“I did not move the marker.”
“I did not forge Elias Mercer’s name.”
“I did pay Samuel Creel to make the filing move faster.”
Anna stared.
Creel had described the money as payment tied to the filing.
Silas now framed it as expedition.
Prosecutors could argue later.
He continued:
“I knew the claim was disputed.”
“I decided dispute meant opportunity.”
Reverend Locke closed his eyes.
Silas looked toward Anna.
“I bought your father’s trunk.”
Her stomach tightened.
“Where is it?”
“My ranch house.”
The world narrowed.
“You still have it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Silas laughed faintly.
“Because apparently I keep rubbish.”
Anna did not smile.
“What is inside?”
“I don't know now.”
“Then we are going.”
Marshal Brigg stepped forward.
“Not without consent or warrant.”
Silas looked at him.
Then Anna.
“I consent.”
The ride to Vane Ranch took one hour.
Anna.
Margaret.
Marshal Brigg.
Mara.
Silas.
Reverend Locke insisted on coming until Anna told him too many witnesses could become theater again.
He stayed.
The ranch house was larger than Anna remembered.
White plaster.
Deep porch.
Cottonwoods fed by an irrigation ditch.
Bluewater irrigation.
That detail no longer felt neutral.
Silas led them to a storage building.
The brown trunk sat beneath two saddles.
Dusty.
Broken brass corner.
Anna stopped.
Eighteen-year-old anger returned.
Her father’s things disappearing.
Her mother apologizing.
The weeks after his death when every object seemed like another body being carried away.
Silas opened the trunk.
Inside:
Survey chains.
Three notebooks.
A broken compass.
Receipts.
A tin cup.
Rolled field sheets.
Anna dropped to her knees.
The first notebook was black.