“That won’t be necessary, Jake. But when you’re about to return, send me a telegram. Okay?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll still write those letters if I’m gone for more than a couple of weeks.”
“You’d better. I know it’s early, but I’m already hungry. Will you escort me to Finney’s so I can stuff my stomach. I suddenly have an urge to have a more voluptuous figure.”
Jake laughed then said, “I told Kay that I wouldn’t care if you were as skinny as a fence post, but trust me, I’m more than pleased with your figure just as it is.”
Sara was still smiling as they stood and began walking to the restaurant.
As they passed Vulcan, Sara said, “You left Mars in the barn to give him a day’s rest before you leave in the morning.”
“Yes, ma’am. One of Kay’s many unusual questions was when she asked me if I would give her a horse, too. I told her she could have whichever one she liked from the remuda.”
Sara looked at him as they continued walking along the boardwalk and said, “That’s odd. I never saw her ride before. I’d be surprised if it was a genuine request.”
“It doesn’t matter. If she visits the Elk to find a horse, you’ll already be in charge of the place.”
Sara laughed and took his hand.
_____
Jake returned to the ranch early in the afternoon after having a long and pleasant lunch with Sara. They had avoided talking about Kay or his pending departure and kept the conversation about what they hoped would happen when he returned. Because they limited their topics to their future, Jake never mentioned Jerome’s disturbing revelation about his father. But after he watched Sara enter her parents’ house after escorting her home, he felt a surprisingly powerful sense of loss when he realized that he wouldn’t be seeing her again until he returned. Not knowing when that would be only added it its intensity.
Before he walked Vulcan into the barn, Jake had only seen Bill Jackson as he inspected the horses in the corral. He could hear Big Tom working in the smithy but assumed Charlie was in the cookhouse and the others were all out with the herds. It was just as well because he wanted some time to think about all he’d learned that morning. He needed to find answers for the new questions that had been generated as well, but suspected they’d remain unsolved unless he found his father. He left the Kay issues to Sara and was confident she could deal with her sister better than he could.
After unsaddling Vulcan and returning him to his stall, he brushed down his coat before he chatted with Mars for a minute or so to assure him that he was still his favorite. He then hefted his weighty saddlebags but didn’t hang them over his shoulder. He left the barn carrying the saddlebags in his left hand and two empty panniers in his right. He glanced to the north before heading to the house but didn’t see any riders, so Dave must not have seen him return.
He soon entered the office, stepped behind the desk and set the saddlebags and panniers on the floor before he sat down. He opened the bottom desk drawer and pulled out the latest ledger, then opened it to the last page that contained entries. He didn’t see any large expenses other than the payroll for the entire month of June. He closed the ledger and returned it to the drawer. He didn’t know how much money had been in the safe before his father emptied it, so he wouldn’t be able to balance the books. But Jerome had told him that he had paid off Mrs. Kemper’s mortgage and added the five hundred dollars to her bank account and there was no reason for the lawyer to invent the story. There were only three people who could access the ranch’s bank account: his parents and himself. Now only he could withdraw the ranch’s money.
He leaned back and absently stared at the rifles as he reviewed the timing of the month’s events. If his mother had discovered the unreported withdrawal somehow, she probably asked his father about it and that might have been the catalyst for the explosive argument. He may have confessed the affair which would be the only revelation that would ignite his mother’s fury. Maybe she’d tried to hit him with some nearby heavy object, and he’d blocked her assault and, in his rage, hit her even harder.
It may all be logical and almost predictable, but to Jake, it was still no excuse for what his father had done. He may have found a theory, but he still desperately wanted to talk to his father and have it confirmed.
After another couple of minutes of reflection, Jake began moving the boxes of cartridges that he wouldn’t be bringing with him to the desk. He stood and began shifting the extra Sharps cartridges and all of the Martini-Henry ammunition to the cabinet’s drawers with their brethren.
Five minutes later, he was in the kitchen with his Winchester, the Sharps and five boxes of ammunition on the table. One was for the Sharps and there were two each for his Colt and Winchester. Like Sam Bannister said, there’s no such thing as too much ammunition. He removed his Colt from his holster and set it alongside the repeater and the breech loader. He was tempted to take his father’s Winchester ’76 rather than use his own just in case their confrontation came to a shootout but decided to keep his. Besides, his father’s repeater was a
