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Cord stood up and came down the ravine, but he told Lilly and the others to stay there until he had a look.
"Where is he?" Cord demanded as soon as he got close to Jason.
"I don't know. It's the truth, check for yourself. We woke up this morning and he was gone."
Cord went inside, cautiously and started running through the rooms, calling Charlie's name, nothing. He wasn't there.
Cord came out and motioned to the others to come down. "What happened? Where's Charlie and your brother Dan?"
"I don't know. I woke up and they were both gone. That's the truth." Jason told him with a frown. "You killed Butch. You killed my brother. You'll go to jail for this Cord."
Cord glanced at the body in the dirt.
"This all could have been avoided, Jason." Cord's mouth firmed and his frown deepened. "You better have some answers quick, because my patience is running thin." Cord leveled his gun at him.
Lilly, Pedro, and Juan came down the hill and Lilly ran to Cord, "Where's Charlie?"
"He's not here." Cord looked around. "Pedro, I want you to take him to town and have the Sheriff arrest him for kidnapping. Check the saloon and see if Charlie went home. I'm going to scout the place out and see if I can find any tracks."
Lilly looked about, "If he escaped he'd go either home or to your place Cord."
"Juan will you ride home and check to see if Charlie is there. If he is send someone out to tell us. We'll stay here for a while."
"Si."
Juan got his horse and took off at a gallup for home. He almost stumbled over Butch's body and he stared for a long moment.
Pedro took Jason in to town after he tied his hands and helped him on his horse.
Lilly and Cord searched the place. They went to the barn and all through it, then a couple of outlying sheds. There was no sign of either one.
When Cord went out back, he found tracks.
"Lilly," he called her outside.
"Did you find something?" She asked, her worry increasing by the minute.
"Yeah, looks as though he's headed for my place." Cord told her.
"Shouldn't we go there then?"
"Yeah, let's follow the road in case someone is out to find us." Cord told her.
"It looks like Charlie's prints and he's definitely headed for my place."
"On foot?"
"Looks like."
They mounted up and headed to Cord's. But Lilly turned around to look at Butch's dead body. "Shouldn't we bury him."
"Later, we need to find Charlie first." Cord insisted.
"He'll get lost." She fretted.
"Let's don't borrow trouble. I've taught him several things about taking care of himself. I have feeling he'll be remembering some of them." Cord assured her. "Things like that kind of spring to mind when you're in a tight spot."
"Oh Cord, why did they do this?"
