Anna stared.
"The courthouse?"
Elias nodded.
"Hale has been keeping the real evidence under the town itself."
They returned to Mercy Falls.
The courthouse was guarded.
But the people had taken control.
The sheriff had fled.
The judge was hiding.
Elias entered the basement.
They found a locked iron door.
Behind it was a room filled with records.
Enough evidence to destroy Hale.
Then a voice came from behind them.
"You finally found it."
Elias turned.
Victor Hale stood in the doorway.
He held a pistol.
"Put your guns down."
Elias raised his hands.
Hale smiled.
"Your father was a coward."
Elias looked at him.
"My father was afraid."
"Same thing."
"No."
Elias shook his head.
"There's a difference."
Hale laughed.
"You think you're better than him?"
"No."
Elias looked at Anna.
"Just less afraid."
The Last Gunfight
Hale fired.
Elias dropped behind the desk.
Anna ran for cover.
Bullets tore through the records.
Pages filled the air.
Hale advanced.
"You should have stayed on your ranch!"
Elias fired back.
Hale ducked.
Then Rusk appeared behind him.
"Hale!"
Hale turned.
Rusk shot him in the shoulder.
Hale stumbled.
Elias stared.
"Why?"
Rusk looked at him.
"Because I finally got tired of being afraid."
Hale shot Rusk.
Rusk fell.
Anna screamed.
Elias fired again.
Hale dropped his pistol.
He crawled toward the exit.
Elias followed.
Outside, dozens of townspeople were waiting.
Hale stopped.
He looked around.
There was nowhere to run.
An old rancher stepped forward.
"You took my land."
A woman said:
"You killed my husband."
Another voice:
"You took my son."
Hale looked at Elias.
"You think this changes anything?"
Elias shook his head.
"It changes everything."
The authorities arrived two days later.
Federal marshals.
Judges from another territory.
Investigators.
They took the evidence.
Hale was arrested.
His empire collapsed within months.
But Caleb Rusk did not survive his wounds.
Before he died, he asked Elias to come closer.
"I spent twenty years following that man."
He coughed.
"I thought power meant never being afraid."
Elias said nothing.
Rusk looked toward Anna.
"I was wrong."
Then he died.
The Ranch That Rose Again
One year later, Morgan Ranch was rebuilt.
The burned house was replaced.
The barn was new.
The fences stretched across the valley again.
But Elias refused to rebuild one thing.
The hidden cellar.
He sealed it.
The evidence had done what it needed to do.
Victor Hale was serving a life sentence.
Several corrupt officials had been convicted.
The stolen ranches were returned.
Mercy Falls had elected a new sheriff.