Kisses With KC (Cowboys and Angels Book 11)(32)

13





KC Murray



“They’re buying land for pennies on the dollar, but they’re buying it.” KC paced around the Turleys’ living room, thinking through the latest piece to the mystery. He stopped pacing and looked at Grant. “That makes it legal. They offer a price. The homesteaders sell. No laws are broken.”

“What about Baldwin? He couldn’t have sold if they’d killed him. That’s what the letter implies. Someone died,” Eliza said.

He resumed his pacing. “Can we prove it? Where’s his body? They could be arrested for murder. They’d swing for that.” He stopped in front of Ellis as he pondered out loud. “They’ll swing for that only if there is also evidence that they were the ones who killed him, not just because he’s dead.”

Ellis interrupted. “There’s more to this. Why are they buying land, but not doing anything with it? Why the desperation? Why those pieces of land?”

KC sat back down in the chair next to Eliza and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “There’s more that I found out at the land office and when I went to see Arthur Jameson.” He told them about the telegram that was sent reporting the purchases. “I’d bet my donkey those were land purchases.” He heard MayBelle bellow at that from the backyard but continued. “That day in the land office, I looked at a map of the homesteads on the list you gave me, Eliza. They line up together like beads on a necklace. They share borders and take up the prime land on the road all the way from Creede to Lake City. Mr. Anders’ name is on nearly every parcel now.”

“If Baldwin was dead, how did Anders get his land?” Louise asked. “Isn’t that fraud?”

“Anders might get his hands slapped for fraud or buy his way out of that conviction,” KC answered.

“Our homestead is on that line,” Eliza’s ma said.

The room was completely silent. These were the people the angel had sent him to help. Who would be run off or die next? As much as it hurt to admit it, he said, “It is.”

“But none of the land we filed last week is on it,” Ellis added. “We’re back from that road quite a ways.”

KC was pacing again. “I kept asking myself, ‘Why does he want that route?’” He stopped in the middle of the rug. This group was too big to let out the secret of the last piece he’d gotten from Mr. Jameson. He would wait to tell that when the group was smaller. “I needed to know where the messages were being sent and when.”

“Mr. Jameson keeps a log,” Grant said. “I can try to get that information.”

“You need to be on a train. It’s the best way to keep you safe. Go to Springs,” KC said.

“They’ll think you’re doing what they demanded,” Ellis added. “And it gives us a day to figure out the rest.”

“You think they’ll believe that?” Louise asked. She wrung her hands in front of her.

KC nodded and noticed that Mr. Turley and Ellis did as well. “I think they’re very confident that their scheme will work,” KC said. “It has so far.”

The group continued to talk and formulate a plan, but KC just listened. All of that would be revised in a few minutes.

The Fillans went home. Mrs. Turley helped the cousins and Kailin get settled into bed. Michael went to stand guard. Then KC broached the subject of the missing piece. The smaller group sitting at the kitchen table included Mr. Turley and his brother Ted, Ellis, Eliza, and KC.

“I already know who offered to purchase the land and why they want it—Silver County & Denver Railroad,” KC said.

Ted whistled low, and Ellis asked, “How did you find out?”

“That’s not for me to say, but Marshal Wheeler was there when I got it, so we’re fine on that account.”

“They’re buying up ground to put a line in from the mines in Creede to Lake City,” Mr. Turley said.

“I think that’s exactly what they’re doing. Mr. Anders is behind this. Little Archie is along for anything that will make his inheritance grow, and the Holman boys are the hired guns.” KC saw the angel wink into sight by the back door. He looked around the table, but no one else seemed to notice, not even Eliza.

The old miner threw his thumb over his shoulder. “Got something to show you in the morning, and you ain’t gonna like it. It’ll help this investigation along a mite, though. Maybe you could continue this meetin’ later tomorrow. You’ll have some big news to tell.”

“What are you suggesting we do about them?” Mr. Turley asked.

“Let’s set our guards tonight and talk again after breakfast. I have one more lead to check out, and I’ll know more by then.”

The next day—well, he wouldn’t exactly call it day—the horizon had only started turning gray when he and the angel left. He rode Merlin out to his new property, following the old miner. He had plenty of time to think about this investigation. There’d been many times when some type of intervention had preserved his life. KC hadn’t made it to Kirt Alpin’s place the other night, having stopped when he heard Eliza shooting. He’d probably be dead now if he’d gone there alone. Or he might have been shot if Mr. Fillan hadn’t stopped at the Alpins’ on Sunday to see if they needed a ride. He should even count the first night he met MayBelle and the miner. He was spared that night, too.