Everyone went silent.
“What color?”
“Red.”
Elias’s pulse accelerated.
Daniel kept a small red field notebook constantly.
Elias had not found it after his death.
“Harrow has it.”
Mara said:
“Maybe.”
Elias looked at her.
“What else?”
“Someone else could.”
“Who?”
Frank answered.
“McNair’s widow.”
The former sheriff’s widow lived outside Tucson.
According to Frank, Daniel had left the station furious. Sheriff McNair followed him outside. The two spoke privately.
Three days later McNair left town unexpectedly.
A month after Daniel died, McNair resigned.
Two years later he died of fever.
Elias had never connected any of it.
“His widow kept his papers.”
Frank nodded.
“Maybe.”
Tomás smiled.
“Another box.”
Elias looked offended.
“I’m beginning to hate boxes.”
They rode for Tucson at dawn.
Frank accompanied them.
Not officially.
He claimed he was investigating stolen property.
No one believed him.
Sheriff Tolliver would be furious.
Frank said:
“He already is.”
The trip took two days.
Elias worsened.
Fever came the second night.
Mara sat beside him while the others slept.
He woke to find a wet cloth across his forehead.
“You again.”
“Unfortunate.”
“Could have left me at the rocks.”
“Yes.”
“Still considering it?”
“Sometimes.”
He smiled weakly.
Then looked toward the fire.
“Why did you save me?”
“You asked.”
“I’m asking again.”
Mara was silent.
Finally:
“Because I remembered my father.”
Elias waited.
“When Red Willow was fenced, we returned once.”
“To cut it?”
“To water horses.”
“What happened?”
“Harrow’s men found us.”
Elias’s jaw tightened.
“No shooting.”
She saw his assumption.
“They pointed rifles.”
Mara looked toward the darkness.
“One man opened the gate.”
“Who?”
“I do not know.”
“Younger?”
“Yes.”
“Dark hair?”
“Yes.”
Elias’s breath stopped.
Mara looked at him.
“He said, ‘Water the horses and go before Harrow sees.’”
Elias stared.
“Daniel.”
“Maybe.”
“It was Daniel.”
“You cannot know.”
“I know.”
Mara almost corrected him.
Then did not.
“He gave my father water when he could have followed orders.”
Elias looked toward the fire.
“So you saved me because you thought I might be his brother.”
“No.”
He looked back.
“I knew you were.”
“When?”
“Before I came close.”
“How?”
“You have the same eyes.”
Elias laughed weakly.
“So all that talk about leaving me…”
“I considered it.”
“Comforting.”
Mara’s expression softened.
“I wanted to know whether you were like him.”
“And?”
“I still do.”
The next morning Elias’s fever broke.
Tucson appeared by late afternoon.