Chapter 14 - What Cole Came to Burn
I drove too fast.
Sheriff Talley told me to slow down twice over the phone.
I didn’t.
When I reached the ranch, Cole was sitting on the porch steps beside the gas can.
Not pouring it.
Not doing anything.
Just sitting.
I got out.
“What the hell are you doing?”
He looked up.
His eyes were red.
“Waiting.”
“For what?”
“You.”
I glanced at the gas can.
“It’s diesel.”
I stared.
He gave a miserable little shrug.
“I panicked at the station. Diesel doesn’t even burn right.”
That was so stupid I almost yelled.
Instead I sat down two steps above him.
Snow had started again.
Tiny dry flakes.
He said, “Harlan called me.”
My jaw tightened.
“When?”
“After you left the bank.”
“What did he say?”
“That you found the notebook.”
I looked away.
Cole laughed without humor.
“So much for protecting me.”
“What’s on the tape?”
He rubbed his hands together.
“I don’t remember all of it.”
“Try.”
He stared at the yard.
“When I was nineteen, Dad told me Red Basin was a way to buy distressed properties. He put documents in front of me. I signed.”
“That part I know.”
“Then one night Mom found out her business line of credit had been pledged against a Red Basin loan.”
I waited.
“She lost it. I’d never seen her that angry.”
“What did you do?”
His mouth tightened.
“I lied.”
There it was.
Not confusion.
Not fear.
A choice.
“I told her I didn’t know anything.”
“But you did.”
“I knew Dad was moving money around. I knew my name was on the company. I knew he told me not to mention it to her.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because I liked being the son he trusted.”
Simple.
Ugly.
Human.
Cole wiped his nose with his sleeve.
“I was nineteen and I thought it meant I was special.”
“What happened at the meeting?”
“Mom said she was going to the bank. Dad said if she did, Red Basin would collapse and I’d get dragged into it.”
“So you asked her not to.”
“I begged her.”
He swallowed.
“She looked at me like she didn’t know me.”
That hurt him.
Good.
Some things should.
“What loss did you decide she would take?”
Cole’s voice dropped.
“Her company took the default. Dad refinanced the family house. Harlan moved some stuff. I don’t know exactly.”
“You signed?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I don’t remember.”
“That’s convenient.”
“I know.”
His voice sharpened.
“I know, Nora.”
We sat in the cold.
Finally I asked, “Why the gas can?”
He looked at it.
“Dad called me. Said if the notebook exists, it ruins everything. Said Mom wrote lies because she was sick and angry.”
“And?”
“And for about ten minutes, I wanted to believe him so badly I bought gasoline.”
“Diesel.”
He almost smiled.
“Yeah.”
Then his face collapsed.
“I came here to burn Mom’s records.”
I said nothing.
He looked at me.
“I didn’t.”
“No.”
“But I came.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
That mattered.
Not forgiveness.
Truth.
Then headlights appeared at the end of the drive.
One vehicle.
Fast.
Cole stood.
“Is that Talley?”
I looked.
Black SUV.
Dad.
He stopped twenty feet from us.
Got out.
And held up a small black case.
“You two want the truth?” he shouted.
His voice cracked in the cold.
“Fine.”
He opened the case.
Inside was a pistol.
And the missing second page of my mother’s letter.
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