Page 60 of Rangers Last Promise

I believed the man responsible was dead.

Now the final numbers are gone.

Mara takes the case from me and examines the bottom.

“Someone scratched something into the metal.”

She turns it toward the light.

Three words cut across the black surface.

MILLER GAVE THE ORDER.

Wolf swears.

Trigger lifts his head despite the blood running down his face.

“Captain Miller sent us into that valley.”

“Grant wrote not to trust the man in command,” Mara says.

Sheriff Tate studies the message.

“That seems like an answer.”

“No.”

Everyone looks at me.

“The shooter risked walking into a tavern surrounded by deputies. He let us find the journal clue, painted the numbers on the SUV, and stole only the coordinates from my box.”

“You think he wants us focused on Miller,” Mara says.

“I think he wants us to believe the mystery is solved before we discover what Grant hid at those coordinates.”

“Then Fred Miller may not be the traitor.”

“He may be. But he isn’t the only one involved.”

A deputy enters through the rear door.

“Sheriff, we found blood behind the church, but the trail ends at the road. Looks like he had another vehicle waiting.”

Tate issues orders to establish roadblocks while Wolf helps Trigger outside.

Mara remains beside me.

“You saved Parker.”

“I stopped the bleeding.”

“He could’ve died.”

“He didn’t.”

“Because you were here.”

I close the metal case.