The notebook was mostly useless.
Weather.
Breeding records.
Repairs.
Then Mara noticed three pages had been stitched together near the back.
Elias cut the thread.
Inside was a hand-drawn map.
The ranch appeared in the center.
North of the house, beneath a low limestone hill, Nathaniel had marked a series of lines.
One traveled toward the northern springs.
Another east.
Another south.
Beside them was written:
OLD WATER COURSE.
DO NOT BLAST EAST RIDGE.
Dosela closed his eyes.
Mara whispered something.
Elias stared at the map.
"Underground water."
Dosela nodded.
The springs were connected.
Not perfectly.
Not enough that one person could turn a valve and control the whole valley.
But the underground limestone system carried water across miles.
Blasting one section could alter another.
Blocking one channel could lower several springs.
San Aurelio was not simply purchasing dry property.
Someone appeared to be helping make it dry first.
Then Elias saw something else written on the map.
A name.
BARTON.
Charles Barton.
Elias knew the name.
Everyone did.
Charles Barton owned San Aurelio Development.
He also had been Nathaniel Ward's closest friend.
Barton attended Nathaniel's funeral.
Barton helped Elias negotiate his first cattle loan.
Barton sent a bottle of whiskey every Christmas.
Elias stared at the name.
"What did my father know?"
Dosela answered quietly.
"Enough to die afraid."
Elias looked up.
"My father died when his horse threw him."
Dosela said nothing.
Elias stood.
"What?"
Mara looked at the old man.
Dosela finally spoke.
"That is what you were told."
Elias felt anger rise immediately.
"By whom?"
"Many people."
"Who told you something different?"
"Your father."
The room became silent.
Three days before Nathaniel Ward died, he had ridden north and met Dosela's father.
Nathaniel believed Barton had learned about the underground water routes.
A mining engineer employed by Barton had proposed blasting sections of limestone, then capturing the redirected flow in reservoirs located on land Barton intended to purchase.
Nathaniel refused to sell Ward Ranch because the deepest accessible shaft in the entire system sat beneath his property.
The well.
Without Ward Ranch, Barton could not control the southern outlet.
Nathaniel began copying survey notes.
Then he died.
Elias shook his head.
"No."
He remembered the body.
The broken neck.
The saddle dragged through brush.
The sheriff saying Nathaniel's horse had spooked.
"You think Barton killed him?"
"I do not know."
Dosela was careful.
"Your father believed Barton might."
"That's different."
"Yes."