by C. J. Petit
He managed to make one last stealthy trip into Fort Benton to tell her about his father’s prohibition. After a few minutes of heavy petting, he finally managed to explain. the situation and had no doubt that she would agree to run off with him. But when he told her of his plans to take his own money and elope, Kay had been shocked. She quickly suggested that she could accompany him back to the Elk while he apologized to his father for his behavior. She believed that if she met his father, she would be able to convince him to change his mind and approve their marriage. Jake was deeply disappointed and told her he could never apologize, nor could he live under his father’s shadow.
She finally explained that she couldn’t leave her family even if she wanted to go with him. She told him that her mother was deathly ill, and she had to help care for her younger sister and brothers after she passed. Jake hadn’t seen her mother in a couple of months and was almost ashamed of himself for asking Kay to leave her family. Even if she did come with him, he knew that she’d always harbor some measure of resentment. It was part of one of his mother’s lessons about women.
So, he’d returned to the ranch and told his mother of Kay’s decision. She knew he was heartbroken, but he was still only eighteen and she suspected that Kay Smith would just be the first in a long line of women who might disappoint him.
Jake hadn’t even told his mother of his new plan to enlist in the army. He had simply entered the actual fort of Fort Benton and talked to a sergeant who had given him some forms. It was on the evening before he was supposed to report for duty that he told his parents. His father’s reaction was as he had expected. He launched into a tirade of threats while his mother sat next to him without showing any reaction at all. His father had calmed down much sooner than usual, and Jake had been surprised that his father hadn’t threatened to disown him. He was of age now, so if his father suddenly died, then the ranch would be his. It was only later, when he was apologizing to his mother for keeping his enlistment secret that he learned why his father’s rage had ended so quickly. She told him that his father expected that the army would make Jake into a man capable of taking over the Elk.
As he lay on his bunk, Jake continued to review the memories of those almost daily shouting matches with his father. Jake knew that his father had been right in many of those fights but believed that the root cause for most of them was that his father wished his only son to become a dominating, almost cruel man. But the one thing that marked them as almost unique in common father and teenaged son confrontations was the lack of physical violence. No matter how angry his father was, he never even raised a hand to his firstborn.
As he stared at the shadowed ceiling above him, it was his father’s control over his anger that made it difficult for Jake to believe that his father had murdered his mother. When he returned to Fort Benton, even before he went to the ranch, he’d visit Sheriff Zendt to get more details.
_____
The next morning, Jake stood on the foredeck of The Ottawa as the medium-sized sternwheeler plowed against the powerful current of the Missouri River. He had been fortunate that the riverboat had been delayed because of a broken paddle. The next scheduled steamer wasn’t due for another two weeks.
He was no longer wearing his heavy woolen army blouse. He bought a light brown jacket before he left but his light blue denim britches and army boots didn’t identify him as a soldier. His blue cavalryman’s hat wasn’t that different from the Stetsons worn by many of the male civilian population. Only its color was different from those bought in the shops.
But what he wore or carried didn’t matter. The only thing that was important to Jake now was what had happened on the Elk Ranch and where his murdering father was. It had been three weeks since he had killed his mother and run off, so he could be anywhere by now. He expected to arrive in Fort Benton in three days and then he’d decide what he needed to do.
CHAPTER 1
July 22, 1881
Jake waited for the riverboat to bump against the rope-wrapped piles and the crew to secure it to the dock before he grabbed his duffle and hurled it onto the dock. He didn’t wait for them to lay the boarding plank down before he leapt across the gap and landed on the weathered wood surface.
He hung his duffle over his left shoulder then began walking quickly to dry land. It was just a little after the noon hour on a Friday, so Sheriff Zendt should be in his office. For the two days and nights he’d spent on board The Ottawa, Jake had tried to understand what had happened and nothing seemed to make any sense. While his parents’ personalities were completely different, he had never heard them fight. They argued sometimes, but never nearly as often or as loudly as he and his father had. Jake simply found it hard to believe that his father would hurt his mother, much less kill her. But within the hour, he’d have his answer.
He soon stepped onto the boardwalk and took long, rapid strides to reach the jail. Sheriff Zendt had been elected to the job three years before Jake enlisted, and Jake knew him well. He’d met his two deputies a few times, but neither of them seemed to like him very much. He assumed it was a case of poorly disguised jealousy because Jake was the only son of a powerful man who was born into a life of privilege. The sheriff knew better. He treated Jake for who he was, not for any perceived notions. He also knew full well that Jake had anything but an easy life on his father’s massive ranch.
As Jake approached Smith & Sons Feed and Grain, he felt a twang of envy vibrating deep within him. His mother had passed along the news that Kay Smith had married Homer James in November of ’78, just two months after he enlisted. Homer was the oldest son of Henry James, who owned the largest grain mill in the county. Jake assumed that they had their own house now, but his mother never mentioned it in any of her letters.
His deep thought and inattention then created a real world episode of deja voux when he almost ran down a young woman leaving the feed and grain’s door carrying a tray. He stumbled but managed to avoid smashing into her or losing his duffle. He stepped back and swore he was staring at Kay Smith, but she had dark blonde hair rather than Kay’s sandy brown and her blue eyes were noticeably darker.
She laughed and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you coming.”
“No. It’s my fault I was walking too quickly and not paying attention.”
Her eyes grew wider as she asked, “Is that really you, Jake?”
Jake didn’t have to guess her name once the shock of the near collision had passed.
“Hello, Sara. I almost didn’t recognize you. You’ve grown up quite a bit since I left.”
Sara smiled and said, “You’ve changed too, Jake.”
Then her smile slowly faded as she said, “I’m sorry what happened to your mother, Jake. It was a terrible thing.”
“I didn’t even know about it until three days ago. Sheriff Zendt sent the telegram to the War Department and it took a while to reach me. I’m going to stop in the jail to ask him for details before I head out to the ranch.”
“How long are you staying before you have to go back to the fort?”
“I’m no longer in the army, Sara. I was mustered out a few months early.”
“That was thoughtful of them to let you out because you needed to take over the ranch.”
“I doubt it they were being compassionate. It’s not in any of their books of regulations. Now that the Indian wars are pretty much over, they had too many soldiers and were probably just looking for any excuse to get rid of few.”
“Whatever the reason, I’m very happy that you’ll be staying. I’ll let you talk to the sheriff, but don’t be a stranger, Jake.”
Jake nodded and managed a smile before Sara crossed the street. He watched her until she was safely across, then saw her look back at him before she turned left and headed back to her family’s home. It was a strange but very nice welcoming.
He shifted his duffle’s thick canvas strap before he resumed his march to the jail. It was only another two blocks and soon turned into the open doorwa
y.
Sheriff Arvin Zendt was sitting behind the front desk when he heard someone enter and quickly looked up. He identified Jake Elliott but was surprised by his physical changes that had taken place during his three years in the army.
He still grinned, rose from the chair and extended his right hand as he said, “It’s good to see you again, Jake.”
Jake shook the sheriff’s hand then lowered his duffle to the floor, removed his hat and sat down on one of the two chairs in front of the desk as Arv Zendt returned to his seat.
“I’m really sorry about your mother, Jake.”
“Thank you, Arv. Why did you send the telegram to the War Department?”
“Nobody on the ranch knew where you were. I reckoned the army would be able to forward it to your post.”
“It took them a while. But the telegram didn’t tell me much. I was shocked to learn that my mother had been murdered but found it almost impossible to believe that my father had killed her. But they cut me loose, so I’m a rancher again. Tell me what happened.”
“I have Dave Forrest’s statement in my office if you want to read it, but I know it almost word for word. He told me that he returned to the ranch Saturday afternoon because he wasn’t feeling very well. All the ranch hands and the cook were still in town because they’d just been paid. As he rode past the ranch house, he heard your father and mother arguing. Dave said it was louder than he’d ever heard before. They were still fighting after he unsaddled his horse. He said it wasn’t his business, so he went to his foreman’s house to lay down to calm his gut.
“About an hour later, he had run to the privy. The house was silent, but he didn’t pay much attention because he had to avoid having an accident. He stayed in the little house for a while, then when he came out, he saw your father riding away. He said that he was surprised for two reasons. Your father wasn’t riding Emperor and he was leading a heavily loaded packhorse. Both animals were plain brown geldings with almost no markings and your father had them moving fast. Dave said it bothered him, but after your father had turned onto the westbound road, he had to run back to the privy. By the time he came back out, your father was gone.
“Dave said he almost returned to his own house because he didn’t want to bother your mother. He thought she’d be crying and upset. But your father’s unusual behavior bothered him enough to make him go to the ranch house. He found the front door still open and tapped on the doorjamb. When your mother didn’t answer, he took one step inside and found your mother lying on the floor near the main fireplace. He rushed to help her, but she was already dead. She’d been beaten badly. Dave then covered her with a blanket and hurried into town to tell me what happened.”
Jake was being shredded by conflicting emotions as he listened. He was angry and saddened by what his father had done and ashamed of himself for not being there to protect his mother. But he had to put all of his emotions aside. He needed to have a clear mind now more than ever before.
“Did anyone see if my father continued west?”
Sheriff Zendt shook his head as he replied, “Nope. That’s probably why he headed that way. Before I rode out to the ranch with Dave to start my investigation, I sent Joe Farley to try to find your father. But it had already been more than two hours, so I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t even spot him.”
Jake had many more questions but thought that he’d get better answers from Dave Forrest.
After Jake hadn’t said anything for a few seconds, the sheriff asked, “Do you have a horse?”
“No. I took a steamboat. I was going to walk to the ranch. It’s just a good stretch of the legs.”
“It’s more than five miles to your ranch house, Jake. Borrow one of our horses out back. We keep them saddled in case we need to get away fast.”
“Thanks, Arv. I’ll have one of the boys bring him back in a little while.”
“There’s no rush. We have spares.”
Jake stood, shook the sheriff’s hand, then pulled on his hat and grabbed his duffle before leaving the jail.
Arv watched him leave and wished that it hadn’t taken the dual family tragedy to bring him back. But having Jake out of the army and in control of the Elk Ranch gave him a measure of relief. Jake may have been almost as tall when he left Fort Benton, but he had been just a big boy. Now he was a big man and Arv was sure he was up to running the spread even better than his father had.
Jake rode west out of Fort Benton ten minutes later. He hadn’t bothered adjusting the stirrups because it was just a thirty-minute ride. As he rode, he envisioned a map of the territory. If his father had continued riding west, he would have reached the end of the road at Fort Shaw. Then he’d either have to ride north to the small settlement of Woman’s Breast or take the longer and more mountainous southern route to Helena. He was sure that his father would go south. He realized that he should have asked the sheriff if he’d sent a telegram to the largest town and territorial capital to be on the lookout for his father. He hadn’t even asked the sheriff if they’d issued an arrest warrant. He’d been too lost in his thoughts. Maybe Dave Forrest could answer both of those questions.
He soon left the same road his father had taken to make his escape when he turned onto the Elk’s long entrance road. It began at the southeastern corner of the Elk Ranch and was more than a half a mile long. He spotted the ranch house at about the same time and felt his gut tighten. He hadn’t seen his home since he enlisted. Knowing that he wouldn’t see his mother’s joyous face when he opened the door drove home the permanence of his loss.
Aside from that overpowering sense of emptiness, the ranch itself seemed unchanged. He could see some of the ranch hands in the large corral between the two barns. He couldn’t see any of the herds yet, but knew they’d be grazing somewhere on the ranch’s almost fifty thousand acres. It was an almost ideal setting for a cattle ranch. The only area that was inaccessible to the cattle was a quarter-section patch surrounded by a rocky border and filled with a scattering of pines and more rock formations. The scattered pines merged into a healthy forest to the north that ended at the Teton River. He had used the place as his personal playground before he was put to work by his father. Then when he and his father entered their confrontational years, he began using it as his private sanctuary.
He searched the ranch for Dave Forrest, who was usually easy to identify, even from a distance. Dave usually rode a bright white gelding he named Cloud. But that was three years ago, so Jake wasn’t sure that the foreman still rode the same animal. He was confident that Dave wouldn’t have dared to take Emperor after his father had gone.
The black stallion was not only the most magnificent animal on the ranch, but he was also very particular about which human he allowed to sit in his saddle. His father had been the one who’d managed to get the Emperor to accept the bit but never was able to tame him into anything approaching docile. Jake was sure that it was intentional. Of course, when Jake was sixteen, he decided to try to ride Emperor. After he’d been thrown four times, the big stallion must have been impressed with the skinny boy’s persistence and let him stay in the saddle.
Jake had then fallen into typically foolish young man behavior and committed the egregious sin of riding Emperor to the western herd to show his father. His father never rode the proud stallion when he was working as he considered the Emperor to be too special to be used for mundane purposes. He was a stud stallion and was only ridden when his father rode into town.
When Jake spotted his father, he waved and even expected his father to be proud of him for having the courage to ride the Emperor. He soon learned otherwise. His father had him dismount, remove his boots and socks then told him to return to the house. The ranch hands had all laughed as he pulled off his boots and socks and thought he’d never earn their respect. Jake walked the three miles in bare feet with a powerful mixture of shame and anger. It was only later that Dave told him that they laughed because they knew that his father expected it. Dave told him that every man
on the ranch not only respected Jake, but were very proud of him, too. Dave could always find a way to make him feel better.
But now, when he desperately needed to talk to Dave, he still hadn’t seen the foreman before he dismounted in front of the ranch house. He tied off the sheriff’s borrowed horse, pulled down his duffle and stepped onto the wide porch. He stopped before the door and hesitated to turn the knob. Even though he knew the house was empty, he wasn’t sure if there was any residual evidence of what had happened to his mother. There wasn’t another woman on the ranch to do the cleaning, and he couldn’t imagine Dave or even the cook removing any blood stains. The ranch house was the family home and only someone with the Elliott surname could enter without invitation.
Jake took a deep breath and opened the door. He didn’t even inhale again as he entered and dropped his duffle on the floor. He didn’t want to detect the scent of death. He slowly turned and looked at the floor before the fireplace and was relieved to find nothing but bare wood. He noticed the open windows before he resumed breathing. It had been almost three weeks since his mother had been murdered and it was as if she had never set foot in the house.
He left his duffle where it was but pulled off his cavalry hat and hung it on his usual peg near the door. He stepped across the large front room and entered the hallway, then turned into his parents’ bedroom. He stopped just past the doorway and studied the room. It was still tidy as his mother always kept it and even the dresser drawers were closed. He had expected to find them still open after his father had quickly packed his things to make his escape. Jake then walked past the foot of their bed to the large chest of drawers and pulled the lowest drawer out. His father kept his clothes in the bottom two drawers, and if Jake found any remaining inside, he’d burn them. It was empty, so he closed it then opened his father’s second drawer. It was empty as well, but he didn’t want to see his mother’s clothes, so he turned and walked to the closet. After opening the door, he only took a few seconds looking at his mother’s coats and shoes before he closed it again.