Gaines sputtered, clucked for another minute, and died. Ditch looked over at Pritchard, holding his crying sister. Had Idelle not been present, he would have spit on the murderous deputy’s corpse. He was relieved to find no trace of the shadow that had haunted his friend since the day he’d pulled him, half-dead, from an unmarked grave, so many years before.

Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Pritchard, Ditch, and Idelle stood together in the cemetery long after the pastor and the other mourners departed. Paul Clemson had been buried that morning, next to his parents’ adjacent plots.

Dovie Pritchard had been laid to rest a week previously, alongside her husband Thomas, in a plot overlooking the pond on what was once again Pritchard land. There’d been quite a few funerals in Atherton during the past two weeks.

Pritchard and Idelle wired the governor and had gone to Jefferson City to meet with him. Retired Texas Ranger Captain Tom Franchard contacted the governor of the Republic of Texas, who in turn reached out to Missouri’s governor and personally vouched for Pritchard’s character and service. Once details of Burnell Shipley’s reign in Atherton, based on affidavits from Ditch Clemson, the Nettleses, and many other residents, were revealed, no charges were levied against Pritchard, Ditch, or Idelle.

Dovie’s dying words came true. She’d carefully ensured, over the years, that all necessary documentation to cement Idelle’s status as her legal heir had been properly filed.

Idelle Pritchard, not yet twenty years old, was now the sole owner of two hotels, a saloon, a general store, a railroad depot, the stockyards, docks, a sawmill, and most of the buildings and the property they sat on, in not only the town of Atherton, but Jackson County. Samuel Pritchard, also Dovie’s son and heir, could have filed legal papers to become co-owner along with Idelle, but refused.

Idelle’s first order of business, after renaming “Shipley’s Mercantile” to “Pritchard’s Mercantile” and removing Shipley’s name from anywhere else in town, was to fire storekeeper Oliver Manning and have him run out of town.

The trio strolled leisurely back into town, with Idelle and Ditch holding hands. Pritchard’s leg was healing nicely, and he walked with only a slight limp.

“What now?” Pritchard asked them.

“I sent a telegram to Alejandro,” Ditch said, “down in Texas. He’s now officially in charge of the SD&P Ranch. I authorized him to purchase another herd of cows, so we’ll see him again next spring when he and the boys bring up another load of beef to Abilene.” He looked at Idelle, who smiled up at him. “I’ve decided to stay here in Atherton.”

“What’s a layabout like you going to do for a living?” Pritchard asked him.

“By coincidence,” Ditch said, squeezing Idelle’s hand, “I’ve just been hired by a local businesswoman. I’m going to help run her stockyards.”