He passed by his observation boulders and less than a minute later, passed out of the refuge and found Sara looking at him. He didn’t say a word as he stepped to Mars, slid his Winchester into its scabbard then took down his canteen. After taking a mouthful of water and spitting it out, he took a few more swallows, then hung it back on the saddle.
As much as she wanted to run to Jake and try to comfort him, Sara hadn’t moved since she’d first spotted him. When she saw his tortured eyes, she decided to give him time. She still couldn’t determine how much he’d been impacted, but when he did the simple tasks of returning his rifle and then drinking from his canteen, she hoped he would be all right.
After hanging his canteen, Jake stepped around Mars and approached Sara. He looked into her sorrowful blue eyes and knew that she understood why he had sent her away and what he’d found.
He still didn’t say a word as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Sara held him tightly and felt his chest expanding and contracting. Neither shed a tear, nor felt the need to talk for more than a minute. They simply held each other in silence.
When Jake felt it was time, he released her and quietly said, “I need to get someone’s attention.”
Sara just nodded and stepped back a couple of feet before Jake pulled his Colt from his holster. He cocked the hammer and pointed it over the tops of the pine trees to the north.
Then he did something he’d never done before. After he fired the first shot, he held the trigger back and fanned the pistol’s hammer, firing all five rounds in less than three seconds.
As he turned to look east, he lowered his smoking Colt and slipped it back into his holster. Less than three minutes later, he spotted a couple of ranch hands riding towards him, so he pulled off his hat and waved back and forth to let them know he wanted them to keep coming before he pulled it back on.
Sara then stepped close to him and took his hand waiting for him to say something.
Jake looked at her and said, “I dug a hole in that loose dirt and about three feet down, I found what I knew had to be there. I exposed the tip of a boot. I suppose I was lucky not to uncover my father’s face staring back at me, but I’ll see it soon.”
Sara didn’t ask how he felt or what he might do, but simply said, “I’ll stay with you now, Jake.”
Jake had shifted his eyes to the east again as he said, “I know you will, Sara. I need you even more now.”
Sara didn’t reply as she waited for the two ranch hands to reach them.
When John Hatcher and Pack Oliver pulled up, Jake didn’t even give them a chance to dismount or ask any questions.
He quickly said, “Pack, I want you to ride into town and get Sheriff Zendt. Tell him that I don’t want him to send one of his deputies. Then after you see him, visit the mortician and have Mister Redmond bring his hearse and a casket to this spot as soon as possible. John, I want you to find a couple of the others and have them send all of the men here before you head back to the barn and find me a shovel. Tell Charlie that we’ll be delaying lunch for a while, but have him, Big Tom and Bill Jackson come back with you when you bring me the shovel.”
The combination of Jake’s orders gave John and Pack a good idea of the reason Jake had fanned his revolver, so neither man asked a question before nodding and wheeling their horses about and riding off in different directions.
Jake then walked with Sara to a low, flat rock and waited until she sat down before he sat beside her.
“I’m still trying to accept the reality of what I found, Sara. It only took me a few seconds to understand why someone would have cut the branches and made that long pile to cover the disturbed ground, but I may never understand why Dave Forrest killed my parents.”
Sara quietly asked, “Will you try to find him?”
Jake shook his head as he replied, “No. That’s why I wanted the sheriff to come here. When my father’s body is exhumed, I want the sheriff to witness everything. I expect that my father was shot, probably in the back. Sheriff Zendt’s report should be enough to issue an arrest warrant for Dave Forrest. He should be charged with two counts of murder.
“Then it will be up to the law to find him and return him to Fort Benton for trial. I hope that he isn’t killed before I have a chance to ask him why he did it. But even if I do get to talk to him, I doubt if he’d tell me the truth. He did nothing but lie to me since I returned, and I never suspected that he had anything but sympathy for my mother’s death.”
“Jake, he was your good friend for a long time before you left, so it’s only natural that you would believe him.”
“I know, but I still feel like a fool. Even after Mrs. Benton asked why I so easily believed that my father was a murderer and trusted the only man who had witnessed the crime to be innocent, I still couldn’t believe that Dave was lying. Did you suspect the truth?”
“I thought about it. But the fact that the foreman was still here when you returned from the army, and we all believed that your
