Chapter 4 - The Three-Pointed CrownRowan took photographs of every faded crown she could find.
Then she drove into town.
Maren Cole worked at the county records office and possessed a talent Rowan desperately needed: she could find documents everyone else assumed had disappeared.
Blue Mesa had changed ownership.
Bankruptcy records had been scattered.
Shipping records were incomplete.
Maren searched anyway.
Hours passed.
Then she pulled a twelve-year-old manifest from an unrelated file.
“Rowan.”
She turned the page around.
Printed near the bottom were the words:
HIGH PRAIRIE CONSERVATION LINE — RED CROWN HERD.
Rowan took the document to Silas.
He read the words twice.
Then his entire expression changed.
“What?”
Silas sat down.
“If these animals are what this says they are, you didn’t buy forty worthless bison.”
“What did I buy?”
“I don’t know yet.”
He explained what he remembered.
The Red Crown Herd had once been part of a respected conservation program.
The line had been known for cold tolerance.
Strong reproduction.
Ability to survive on marginal grassland.
Powerful maternal instincts.
Perhaps most importantly, some parts of the herd were believed to have unusually low levels of domestic cattle genetic mixing.
Then financial disputes destroyed the program.
Some animals disappeared into private operations.
Others changed hands.
Part of the herd apparently ended up at Blue Mesa.
“And Augustus?” Rowan asked.
Silas hesitated.
“A man like Blackthorn would know that name.”
Rowan went still.
“You’re saying he knew.”
“I’m saying I would be very surprised if he didn’t.”
The auction replayed inside her head.
Augustus laughing.
Calling the herd a burial expense.
Mocking anyone who might buy them.
Then threatening to own them by spring.
Had the laughter been theater?
Without genetic testing, none of it mattered legally or commercially.
The animals remained unregistered bison with incomplete records.
Testing would cost more than twelve thousand dollars.
Rowan nearly laughed when she saw the estimate.
She did not have twelve thousand dollars.
Maren kept digging.
Then she found something worse.
Old emails.
Preston Vale had contacted the Blue Mesa manager before the liquidation auction had even been publicly announced.
The messages suggested Blackthorn had been interested in acquiring the herd privately.
Cheaply.
Preferably after other buyers were discouraged.
Rowan’s impulsive eight-hundred-dollar bid had not simply surprised Augustus.
It may have destroyed his plan.
Days later, Augustus drove onto Hale Ranch.
He carried another offer.
“Two hundred fifty thousand.”
Rowan stared at the number.
“For the ranch?”
“And the herd.”
The offer could erase her debts.
Secure Finn’s future.
End every sleepless night.
Rowan looked at Augustus.
“What does Red Crown mean to you?”
For perhaps half a second, his face changed.
Then the mask returned.
“Nothing.”
“You’re offering a quarter million dollars for animals you said would be dead before Christmas.”
“I’m offering you a way out.”
“You knew about them.”
“A faded brand doesn’t turn stray bison into treasure.”
“Then why do you want them?”
Augustus smiled thinly.
“You’re becoming suspicious because you’re desperate.”
Rowan pushed the offer back.
“No.”
He stood.
“That was your last chance to leave this with your dignity.”
After he drove away, Rowan sat alone for a long time.
The genetic testing still needed money.
Eventually she made the decision she had avoided.
She sold her late husband’s work truck.
When Finn learned, he ran his hand along the fender one last time.
“You okay?” Rowan asked.
He nodded.
“It’s just a truck.”
“It was your dad’s.”
Finn looked at her.
“Dad left more than a truck.”
She swallowed.
“What did he leave?”
“He didn’t quit on things that needed him.”
Rowan looked away before Finn could see her eyes fill.
The truck left the ranch two days later.
Samples from the bison went to the laboratory.
Hair.
Blood.
Documentation.
Six weeks, they said.
Six weeks before Rowan would know whether the faded crowns meant anything.
May you like
Six weeks was a long time.
Especially because the drought arrived almost immediately.
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