Page 67 of Wellspring
“Mr.Reichardt never talked to us hands himself.”Collier shrugged.“We got our orders from Sanders and Carter.You’d have to ask them where they got them from.”He grinned.“Oh, except how they’re dead.”
“That’s enough sass from you.”The judge frowned.“Do you have anything else to add?”
“If Mr.Reichardt goes free, will I too?”Collier asked hopefully.
“Considering you were caught red-handed trespassing and shooting up Wellspring property, the answer to that is no,” Parnell answered.“Come on, back to jail with you.”
“Marshal Parnell, do you have any other witnesses to call?”the judge asked when Parnell returned.
“One more, Your Honor,” Parnell said.“Otto Ulrich.”
A babble of shocked voices broke out.Cade hadn’t seen the other rancher in the crowd, but he’d apparently arrived at some point, walking up to the witness chair from the back of the church.
“What the hell?”Reichardt snarled, his face red with rage.
“We may have been friends, but I’m not about to hang with you,” Ulrich replied.Reichardt continued to fume as Ulrich related the conversation Cade and Erick had overheard in Austin.He made tracks out of the building as soon as the judge excused him.
“That was my last witness, Your Honor,” Parnell said when the door closed behind Ulrich’s back, “though I do have a written statement from Mr.Heller, who is not well enough yet to make the trip back into town, confirming everything Mr.Webster and Mr.Ulrich have said.”
The judge glanced over Erick’s statement and set it beside him on the desk.“Very well, then.Mr.Reichardt, do you have any evidence you wish to present in your defense?”
Reichardt stood, smiling broadly, though to Cade his casual attitude seemed a bit forced.Still, Cade supposed he’d gotten so used to having Lutz in his pocket that he didn’t realize Parnell and Judge Morrison were a different class of men.“Well, Your Honor, unfortunately most of the men I would have called as witnesses are dead, gunned down by Wellspring in an unprovoked attack.”
“Excuse me,” Parnell interrupted, “but most of your men were killed on Wellspring property, by men—and women,” he added with an apologetic smile to Miz Roarke, “who had every right to defend their land against trespassers.”
“What right does Wellspring have to hoard the water other ranches need to survive?”Reichardt countered.“If Mrs.Roarke would stop acting like an emotional female and listen to reason, all this unpleasantness could have been avoided.”
“Mrs.Roarke,” Judge Morrison asked, “would it be possible to ride out and see the spring and creek in question?It’s been a fairly dry summer this year, so I’d be able to see the situation for myself.Not that using water on land that’s been in your family for generations gives Mr.Reichardt a right to harass your employees, much less attack you outright, but it would help me understand his supposed grievance and give me a chance to speak with your employees who weren’t able to be here today.”
“This is highly unusual, Your Honor,” Marshal Parnell began.
“One of the benefits of age and position, my boy, is the right to be unusual when it suits me,” the judge replied.“It won’t hurt anything to delay my judgment by another day or two, and if it makes it a fairer one for everyone involved, then all the better.Would that be agreeable to you, Mrs.Roarke?”
“Of course, Your Honor,” Miz Roarke said.“Although I can’t promise how well we’ll eat tonight.Trujillo is our usual cook, and he’s been here in town all day.His assistant is less proficient.”
“Inedible slop,” Payne muttered next to Cade.
“I can ride ahead and get something ready,” Javier offered.
“I’ll go with him,” Cade said, “if the rest of you want to stay and ride back with the judge.If you’re finished with us, Your Honor?”
“Yes, you’re dismissed,” Judge Morrison said.
Cade only stopped himself from bolting from the church by sheer force of will.The moment they were free of the building, he tore the tie from around his neck and opened half the buttons on his shirt.“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said to Javier.
They made their way back to the mercantile where they’d left their horses, since Jock was one of the spectators in the crowd.Cade swung up onto Nahnia’s back and only barely resisted the urge to spur him into a gallop, anything to get away from the oppressive feeling of the trial and the layer of filth that seemed to cling to him after being around Reichardt all day.Only the knowledge that Javier and his horse couldn’t keep up held him back.Granted, with the JR decimated and Reichardt in jail, Javier would probably be fine on the ride back, but Chel would never forgive Cade if he rode off and something happened.
They made it back to Wellspring in good time, even at the slower pace set by Javier’s gelding, and everyone clamored around them, demanding to know how the trial had gone.
“Let Cade tell you,” Javier roared.“I’ve got to get dinner going.The judge is coming to talk to Erick and to see the spring for himself.”
And just like that, Cade found himself the center of attention once more.At least this time it was just his friends staring at him, not a room full of people he only sort of knew and barely trusted.Before he could do more than take a breath, Erick was there, not touching him, just at his side, and all the tension bled out of him.“Let’s go somewhere in the shade and I’ll tell you all about it,” Cade said with a cocky grin.
CADE WASN’Tsure what the judge gained by riding out to the source of the spring, though he seemed impressed by the orderliness of the Wellspring buildings and the demeanor of its hands.Not that any of them dared to approach him.He, Miz Roarke, and Erick ate dinner together in the main house, so Cade didn’t get to hear what Erick told him, though he knew it would only back up his own testimony.If nothing else, it would let Erick feel that he’d done his part to build the case against Reichardt, and Cade knew how much that meant to him.
He didn’t know how Reichardt could have mentioned anything he might suspect about Wellspring to the judge without everyone knowing about it, but he couldn’t stop the tension from mounting at the base of his skull the longer the judge was there.They were careful when outsiders were around, but any mistake could cost them all dearly.
He’d taken his dinner plate—meat loaf and mashed potatoes, and Cade was amazed that Javier had managed to throw it together so quickly—and chosen an empty table, looking to put all the pieces together the way he hoped the judge would to determine Reichardt’s guilt, when Burke dropped down into the seat beside him.
