Red took the calf while Clay helped Nia to her feet. Her dress was scorched. Her hands were red from the heat. Soot covered her face. After that night, no one at Holt Ranch looked at her as merely the cook again.
Across the yard, Dusty appeared, dragging Jeb Slade by the back of his shirt. He caught him trying to reach his horse. Vance snapped handcuffs around the man's wrists and picked up the kerosene can he had dropped. Gus and Cole had escaped, but the tracks, the kerosene, and the prisoner they had taken alive gave Vance more than enough to work with. Deputy Finn Ward arrived shortly before dawn with two armed men.
Jeb refused to say a word. Vance did not seem concerned. "Seth Voss turned over his records this afternoon," he said. "22B of phosphorus compound paid for in cash by a company tied to Western Range Land Trust. He looked first at Rhett, then at NA.
With that, the kerosene, and the attempted arson, I can request warrants for Rafe Crow, Orin Knox, and Bram Cutter. The first pale light of morning spread over Cedar Ridge. The fire was finally under control. Part of the stable had been destroyed, but every animal had survived. Rhett walked toward Nia.
His eyes carried equal parts anger and fear. You could have died, but none of the animals did. That doesn't make what you did all right. Nia held his gaze. I never said it did.
In the distances, Vance mounted his horse. Before noon, Rafe Crow would know the law was coming for him, and a cornered man could still make one final desperate move. Rafe Crow was arrested in Ash Creek before midday. Vance Creed found him outside Voss's supply, trying to climb into a wagon with a suitcase and enough cash to disappear for years. Deputy Finn Ward read the warrant while town's people gathered along the boardwalks to watch.
Rafe did not resist. He only looked up when Rhett Holt and Nia arrived. For weeks he had seen Rhett as nothing more than a desperate rancher, and Nia as an Apache woman with no important name, no powerful family, and no place in the affairs of men. Now they stood in front of him together. This isn't over, Rafe said as Finn tightened the handcuffs around his wrists.
Vance folded the warrant and slipped it into his coat. For you it is. Orin Knox and Bram Cutter were arrested 2 days later. Seth Voss's records, the phosphorus purchase, the hoof prints, the poisoned watering troughs, and the attempted fire formed a chain of evidence too strong to break. Gus Turn and Cole Nicks were captured before they could cross the county line.
Jeb Slade finally began talking when he realized Rafe was not sending anyone to save him. Sheriff Abner Lockach also came under investigation for ignoring complaints and protecting a man he had called a friend for years. But handcuffs did not remove the last threat hanging over Holt Ranch. They still had to prove that the water flowing from Cedar Ridge legally belonged to the property. Miles Avery arrived a week later carrying surveying instruments, rope, notebooks, and the patient manner of a man who trusted measurements more than arguments.
He walked the slope, examined what remained of the old fence, and followed the restored water course all the way to the eastern pasture. He worked for 4 days. When he finished, he gathered Rhett, Nia, Clay, Dusty, and Luke in front of the ranch house. The water followed this route long before that fence was built, he explained. Those deep posts compressed the clay and altered the underground flow.
Removing them didn't divert the water. Miles looked toward Cedar Ridge. It restored its natural course. Rhett slowly released the breath he had been holding. Owen Keiel closed the county complaint that same afternoon.