“The Black Canyon dam keeper is missing.”
The dam held the reservoir above Red Mesa.
If its gates opened fully, water would rush through the lower channel and destroy the farms, the freight bridge, and half the town.
Elias looked toward Rusk.
His chair was empty.
They ran outside.
Rusk’s black carriage had vanished.
Elias mounted the nearest horse. Clara climbed behind him before he could object.
“This is not a discussion,” she said.
“For once, I agree.”
Sheriff Vale and six riders followed.
They reached Black Canyon under a sky darkened by an approaching winter storm.
The reservoir gate mechanism stood inside a wooden control house above the gorge. Rusk’s carriage waited near the entrance. One horse had broken loose.
Elias dismounted.
“You stay behind the stone wall.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“He may have Julian’s records duplicated at the dam.”
“He may also have a rifle.”
“So do you.”
“That argument is not comforting.”
They entered together.
Inside the control house, Gideon Rusk stood beside the gate wheel. The dam keeper lay unconscious near the wall.
A lantern burned beside three open kerosene cans.
Rusk held a revolver.
“You should have accepted the settlement,” he said.
Elias moved slightly in front of Clara.
Rusk laughed.
“There is the heroic husband.”
“He is not here to rescue me,” Clara said.
“No?”
“No. He is here because you threatened his town.”
“His town? These people distrusted him for years. They gossiped about his brother. They called him a killer behind his back.”
Elias’s face did not change.
Rusk continued.
“And now he risks his life for them because a beautiful woman offered him a counterfeit marriage.”
Clara stepped beside Elias.
“You still do not understand what defeated you.”
“I have not been defeated.”
“You believed every relationship was a transaction. You purchased judges, clerks, witnesses, surveyors, and frightened relatives. When people obeyed, you thought they belonged to you.”
Rusk touched the gate wheel.
“Belonging is merely obedience described sentimentally.”
“No,” Elias said. “That is why no one remains loyal when your money stops.”
Thunder rolled above the canyon.
Rusk’s revolver shifted toward Clara.
Elias fired first.
His bullet struck the gate wheel beside Rusk’s hand. Rusk fired toward them, then kicked the lantern into the kerosene.
Flames spread across the floor.
He turned the wheel.
Deep inside the dam, gears began to move.
The main gate opened.
Water thundered into the canyon.
Elias tackled Rusk before he could turn the wheel farther. They struck the floor hard. The revolver slid beneath a burning table.
Clara ran to the mechanism.
The wheel would not move.
A locking pin had been driven into the gear.
She seized an iron bar and struck it.
Nothing.
Behind her, Elias and Rusk fought near the open doorway. Rusk was older but driven by panic. He struck Elias’s burned arm and reached for a knife hidden in his boot.
Clara struck the pin again.
It shifted.
Flames climbed the wall.
The roof began to crack.
Sheriff Vale appeared outside but could not fire without risking Elias.
Rusk drove the knife toward Elias’s chest.
Elias caught his wrist.
The two men staggered toward the edge of the platform.
Clara hit the pin a third time.
It fell free.
She threw her weight against the wheel.
It turned half an inch.
Water pressure resisted from inside the dam.
Vale and two deputies rushed to help her.
Together, they forced the wheel backward.
The gate began closing.
Rusk heard the gears.
“No!”
He broke free from Elias and lunged toward Clara.
Elias caught him around the waist.
The burning roof beam collapsed between them and the wheel.
Rusk fell against the railing.
The wood broke.
For one second, he hung above the gorge, one hand gripping a splintered post.
Elias reached down.
Rusk stared at the offered hand.
“You would save me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I am not you.”
Rusk hesitated.
Pride and survival fought across his face.
Survival won.
He grabbed Elias’s wrist.
Elias pulled him onto the platform as Sheriff Vale closed iron shackles around his hands.
The gate sealed.
The river below remained high, but the flood did not reach the town.
They escaped moments before the control-house roof collapsed.
Rain began to fall.
Rusk stood in the mud between two deputies, his cream-colored coat blackened by smoke.
He looked at Clara.
“You believe this makes you powerful.”
“No,” she said. “It proves you never were.”
Chapter Twelve
What the Court Returned
The territorial investigation lasted five months.
Julian Rusk’s records connected Gideon to seventeen false surveys, twelve completed land acquisitions, four bribed officials, two cases of witness intimidation, the Santa Lucía attack, the Copper Bell fire, and the attempted destruction of Black Canyon dam.