The lead rider called out.
"Elias Morgan!"
Elias recognized him.
Caleb Rusk.
Victor Hale's right hand.
"We're looking for a woman."
Elias rested the rifle against his shoulder.
"There's no woman here."
Rusk smiled.
"Don't lie to me."
"I wasn't."
Rusk looked toward the house.
"Search it."
Elias raised his rifle.
"Try."
The riders stopped.
For several seconds, rain was the only sound.
Then Rusk smiled.
"This isn't over."
Elias watched them disappear into the storm.
When he returned inside, Anna was standing beside the fireplace.
"You lied for me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Elias looked at her.
"Because six armed men came to my house at midnight."
He paused.
"That usually means the person they're hunting deserves to be heard."
Anna's eyes filled with tears.
"You have no idea what you've just stepped into."
Elias looked toward the window.
"Maybe."
He loaded another cartridge into the rifle.
"But I intend to find out."
The Dead Marshal
By sunrise, the storm had passed.
Anna told Elias everything.
Marshal Thomas Reed had been investigating missing cattle and stolen land deeds.
For months, ranchers had complained that their property was being taken through fraudulent contracts.
Every trail led back to Victor Hale.
Reed had gathered evidence.
Then, two nights earlier, Anna saw Hale and three men meeting behind the old Blackwater mill.
She had followed them.
She saw Reed arrive.
She saw an argument.
Then Hale shot him.
"I ran," Anna said.
Elias stared into the fire.
"Why didn't you go to the sheriff?"
"The sheriff works for Hale."
Elias nodded.
That was the problem.
Anna reached inside her coat.
She removed a small leather pouch.
Inside was a silver badge.
Marshal Reed's badge.
Elias recognized it.
"Why do you have this?"
"Reed gave it to me."
"When?"
"Before he died."
Elias examined the badge.
There was blood on the edge.
"He told me to find someone named Elias Morgan."
Elias looked up.
"Why?"
"He said you were the only man in the territory Hale couldn't buy."
Elias laughed bitterly.
"I've never met Reed."
"Apparently he knew you."
Elias looked at the badge.
Then at Anna.
"There's more."
She nodded.
"He told me to find the church."
"What church?"
"Saint Mary's."
Elias knew it.
The old mission stood twenty miles east.
Abandoned for years.
"What did he say was there?"
Anna shook her head.
"He didn't get the chance."
Elias saddled his horse.
They left within an hour.
By noon, they reached the mission.
The building was half-collapsed.
Elias searched the interior.
Nothing.
Anna walked toward the altar.
She stopped.