Chapter 5 - The Sheriff With a SecretHayes pushed us against the wall.
“Stay down.”
Another shot.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
He moved toward the ladder.
“No.”
I grabbed his arm.
“They know you're coming.”
He looked at me.
Then nodded.
He took the longer route through the old tunnel system.
There was another exit.
We crawled through a passage barely wide enough for our shoulders.
It opened behind the creek bank.
We emerged in the cold evening air.
No shooter.
No truck.
Nothing.
We returned to the barn after the area was secured.
The red folder was still there.
Hayes stood beside it.
“You're going to tell me what's in it.”
He looked exhausted.
“I don't know.”
“Your name is in it.”
“I know.”
“Money next to it.”
“I never took a cent.”
“Then explain.”
He rubbed his face.
“Two years ago, the county started receiving complaints from landowners about forced access requests.”
I listened.
“Developers wanted roads through private property.”
“And?”
“I refused several.”
“You were paid?”
“No.”
“Then why your name?”
He looked at the document.
“Because I was investigating them.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because every time I pushed, someone above me buried the case.”
“Who?”
He looked at Karen.
Then at me.
“The county commissioner.”
Karen froze.
“Gerald Voss?”
Hayes nodded.
“He's been pushing the development project for three years.”
I remembered Voss.
Polished suits.
Perfect smile.
Always shaking hands at local events.
Hayes continued.
“He wanted your ranch.”
“And you knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
He didn't defend himself.
That made me angrier.
“What else are you hiding?”
He hesitated.
Then reached inside his jacket.
He pulled out a second envelope.
“I found this in my office yesterday.”
He handed it to me.
Inside was a photograph of my late wife.
My hands started shaking.
She stood beside the creek.
It had been taken nineteen years ago.
Months before her death.
On the back was written:
She knew.
I looked at Hayes.
“What did she know?”
“I don't know.”
I sat down.
My wife had never talked about water rights.
Never talked about developers.
Never mentioned anything strange about the ranch.
At least not to me.
Karen gently picked up another photograph.
“This was taken the same week.”
It showed my wife with an unknown man.
A tall man in a dark coat.
I studied his face.
I didn't recognize him.
Hayes did.
“That’s Raymond Kessler's father.”
I stared.
“Kessler?”
“Yes.”
“This is twenty years old.”
“He worked in water infrastructure.”
I looked at the creek.
A thought formed.
“What if the ranch wasn't targeted recently?”
Hayes said nothing.
“What if they've wanted this land for twenty years?”
No one answered.
Then Karen opened the final document from the red folder.
A legal agreement.
It listed a company I'd never heard of.
Blue River Holdings.
At the bottom were several signatures.
One belonged to Kessler's father.
One belonged to Gerald Voss.
And one belonged to my wife.
I couldn't breathe.
My wife had signed something.
Something connected to the water beneath my land.
Something she had never told me about.
Then I noticed the date.
The agreement had been signed four days before our wedding.
Karen whispered, “Frank…”
I turned the page.
A handwritten note appeared at the bottom.
If Frank discovers the reservoir, they will come for the boys.
I stared at the sentence.
Every sound disappeared.
Then my phone rang.
It was Luke.
I answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
His voice was shaking.
“Dad…”
“What happened?”
“I think someone's outside the house.”
My heart stopped.
“Lock the door.”
“We did.”
“Stay upstairs.”
“Dad…”
“What?”
“Ben isn't here.”
I froze.
“What do you mean?”
“I thought he was with you.”
I turned toward the house.
May you like
It was six hundred yards away.
I started running.
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