Page 42 of In Her Shadow

“Big Sky...”he whispered, and this time his voice was not just clear, it carried a newfound strength.“Yes, I remember now.”

Jenna leaned closer, her body poised to catch every word that fell from Jasper’s lips.The old historian appeared to draw upon hidden reservoirs of energy

“Big Sky Ranch,” Jasper said, “was Mitch Bishop’s life work.A pastureland paradise sprawling over the Genesius County hills, rich with cattle marked with that tree-shaped brand.His success, however, soured the milk of human kindness,” Jasper’s tone darkened, his words became bitter.“Men of supposed repute—politicians eyeing greener pastures, bankers with ironclad fists, and envious fellow cattlemen—they coveted Mitch’s kingdom.”

Jasper staggered a little, and Frank helped him sit down in a chair.Then the old man continued his tale of treachery.

“They banded together to bleed Mitch dry.Accusations on his character, each one a fabrication.Loans, once given with handshakes and smiles, became impossible to repay.And when those weren’t enough to break Mitch, they poisoned his livestock—the final blow to a man whose soul was bound to his herd.”

Jasper’s narrative halted, a poignant pause before he resumed.“And when all was lost, Mitch stood defiantly in the town square, his pride in tatters but his spirit unbroken.”The old man’s hands mimed the action, breaking an invisible line across his knee.“He snapped his branding iron in two and let the pieces fall to the dirt at his feet.”

Jake leaned forward as he absorbed the information.His eyes met Jenna’s, a silent exchange passing between them—an understanding that they had learned something crucial.

Silence settled over the group, thick with possibility and fear.They sat in the dimming light, pondering the ghosts of Trentville’s past and how they might be manifesting in the present to carry out these grisly murders.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Jenna observed grimly, “Somebody must have found that broken branding iron and brought it back for a horrible purpose.”

“Maybe among family heirlooms,” Frank agreed.“Either repaired the old artifact or made a new one like it.”

“To use it on humans this time,” Jake said.“That’s got to be one of the ugliest methods of murder that I’ve seen, even when I was a street cop in Kansas City.”

“So what’s the connection between our two victims and that brand?”Jenna wondered aloud.She asked Agnes, “Do you have Genesius County family histories in your digital records?I mean, for a lot of generations back?”

“Some of them,” Agnes replied.“I’ve found that the histories of wealthy and well-known families in the county have been conscientiously documented from their beginnings in this area, and even earlier.But records are skimpy for some of the less well-off population.Either they didn’t always bother to register births, or the records were lost in previous decades.”

“Can you check and see if Clyde Simmons or Roger Bates had ancestors involved with Mitch Bishop’s ranch?”

“I should be able to find those.”Agnes said as her fingers returned to the keyboard.“Simmons...Bates...”she muttered as she worked, her focus absolute.

Jenna admired the woman’s methodical nature, so akin to her own when piecing together the tattered remnants of unsolved cases.The way Agnes meticulously examined every detail, no matter how small, spoke to her experience as a judge piecing together the tattered remnants of unsolved cases.

Agnes paused, her eyes narrowing.“It looks like we’re onto something,” she whispered, drawing the trio closer.On the screen, a web of names intertwined in ways that spoke of alliances and betrayals long buried.Jenna’s pulse quickened as she saw the lines connecting, the patterns emerging.

“See here,” Agnes pointed, “the Bishops, the Simmonses, the Bateses – they’re all interlinked, if you go back far enough.”

After another moment, she announced, “Here it is!Roger Bates was a direct descendant of Jupiter Bates.”

“Who was Jupiter Bates?”Jenna asked, her eyes never leaving the monitor.

Jasper stirred in his armchair.His voice, when he spoke, was unexpectedly robust.“Jupiter Bates was one of the ranchers who seized a significant portion of Mitch Bishop’s land,” he said, words tinged with the gravity of history remembered.“The very ranch where Roger lived was once part of the Great Sky Ranch empire.”

“And that was where he was murdered,” Jenna said.

“Great Sky Ranch...”Frank murmured, absorbing the import of Jasper’s statement.

“Thank you, Jasper,” Jenna said, offering a nod of gratitude to the elderly historian.She shifted her gaze to Agnes, whose eyes were narrowed in concentration at the computer screen.“Let’s dig deeper,” Jenna encouraged her.“What about Clyde Simmons?As far as I know, he doesn’t own property in that area.But he was the first one murdered with that branding iron.Can we figure out why?”

“Let’s try,” Agnes replied, almost to herself, as she resumed her work at the keyboard.

Jenna leaned closer to peer at the names and dates that came up on the screen.

“Look here,” Agnes murmured, tapping the screen with a slender finger.“Clyde Simmons...and his sister Mayor Claire Simmons—they share a lineage with Hector Simmons.”

That got Frank’s attention.“Hector Simmons?”he said, the name rolling off his tongue with a familiarity that suggested traces of memories long filed away in the archives of his mind.“That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.”

“Who was he?”Jake asked.

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