“My proposal is orderly management.”
“The drought is getting worse.”
“Cattle are drinking the creek down.”
“People are cutting channels wherever they please.”
“We need one responsible system.”
“Your system,” Anna said.
Her voice was not loud.
It carried anyway.
Silas turned.
Several people looked back.
Anna stepped through the crowd.
Her hands were shaking.
She hated that.
Silas watched her approach.
“Miss Mercer.”
“Mr. Vane.”
Reverend Locke lowered the deed slightly.
Anna stopped beneath the awning.
“May I see that document?”
Silas smiled.
“It was in your office yesterday.”
“I asked to see it now.”
“This proceeding is almost finished.”
Anna looked toward the reverend.
“Please.”
Locke hesitated.
Then handed it to her.
Silas’s attorney, Frederick Bell, stepped forward.
“There is no reason for a clerk’s assistant to interrupt—”
“I am not interrupting as a clerk.”
Anna unfolded the final page.
There.
Elias Mercer.
The signature was good.
Very good.
The long downward stroke on the M.
The narrow r.
The peculiar little hook her father added beneath official attestations.
Anna’s throat tightened.
Whoever forged it had studied him.
She looked toward the date.
Then at Silas.
“My father did not sign this.”
The crowd quieted.
Silas’s smile disappeared.
Reverend Locke frowned.
“Anna.”
“He couldn't.”
Bell said:
“That is a serious allegation.”
“It is a calendar.”
Anna held the deed higher.
“This attestation is dated October third, eighteen eighty-one.”
She looked toward the crowd.
“My father died August nineteenth.”
Nobody spoke.
Margaret stepped forward.
Her face had gone pale.
“You buried him yourself, Reverend.”
Locke stared at the document.
Then at the date.
Silas recovered quickly.
“Supplemental instruments are often entered after field work.”
Anna looked at him.
“I know.”
“My father could have signed before his death and the filing received later.”
Bell nodded.
“Exactly.”
Anna shook her head.
“This says executed October third.”
Bell reached toward the page.
She moved it away.
He stopped.
Anna continued:
“The witness clause says the parties appeared before Elias Mercer on October third.”
She looked at Silas.
“Did you appear before my dead father?”
A murmur moved through the crowd.
Silas’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
“Then this document is false.”
“You are not qualified to make that determination.”
“I am qualified to know when my father died.”
Reverend Locke took the deed back.
He read the paragraph.
Slowly this time.
Silas stepped toward him.
“Reverend, this is a clerical irregularity.”
Locke did not answer.
“Perhaps the date reflects filing.”
Anna said: