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The entry listed six head of cattle collected from a Griffith property, held overnight, then delivered west of town.

“Doesn’t say Kincaid or Hollister.”

“That might be the point.”

We turned the page. Cedar Draw showed up again three weeks later. Four horses this time. Then another entry for livestock boarding through winter.

Caroline didn’t say anything for a minute. She ran her finger down the margin, flipped back a page, then forward again.

“These numbers,” she said.

I leaned in. Somebody had written a string of figures beside several of the entries.

“They repeat. I track forty vendors by permit number. When the same number keeps showing up, it’s the same vendor.” She tapped one. “This one shows up three times in four years.”

I looked closer. Next to each one, the same brand had been drawn small in the margin.

“That’s the brand inspection,” I said. “Somebody checked the brand every time the stock moved.”

“So it’s the same animals.”

“Same brand. Different locations.”

The first entry had the animals going into Cedar Draw.

The second moved part of the same group to a Hollister lease.

The third sent them through a Jordan boarding operation before delivery to a Hale property outside town.

Caroline’s hand landed on my arm. “Beau.”

“Yeah, I see it.”

The final notation was short. Hold for D. Hale. Neither of us spoke for a few seconds.

“Do you think that could be Daniel?” Caroline asked.

“Maybe.”

Her phone was already in her hand. “Rachel showed me a photograph a couple of days ago. Margaret Hale with a boy labeled Daniel. They think he was her son, but they haven’t been able to prove the connection.”

The date fit a grown man better than a child. It didn’t prove anything by itself. Neither did an initial and a last name. But it wasn’t nothing.

Caroline sat in Granddad’s old desk chair and pulled up the photo Rachel had sent her. The boy in it couldn’t have been more than ten when the picture was taken.

“If that’s the same Daniel Hale, this could connect him to Cedar Draw.”

I wasn’t ready to jump to conclusions yet, but I couldn’t deny what I was seeing with my own eyes. “Depends what these numbers match.”

“Roman has livestock records. Kaycee has the financial side.”

I tapped the line again. “They’ll need to compare them.”

Caroline looked at me. “Are you okay with that?”

The question surprised me. “These are old records.”

“But they’re your family’s records. And your family’s name is on that boarding line.”