“Oh, about ten or so.”
“Your shift starts at seven, that right?”
“Uh huh.”
“Takes an hour to get to Presidio.”
“There about.”
“It takes about ten, maybe fifteen minutes to get from Presidio to where you found him.”
“Probably.”
Hunter took a sip of beer. “You were the first one at the scene, I’m guessing?”
“Oh yeah. Nobody else around. I was working solo, so I didn’t have anybody with me.”
“What’d the area look like?”
“What I said in my report. Wayne went to the river and got shot.”
Hunter took another sip and said, “It’s mostly sand down there. Easy tracking”
“Uh-huh. That’s why it was so easy to follow that single set of tracks.”
Hunter put her arm around his neck, kissed his cheek, then rested her head on his shoulder.
“What I figure,” Raymond said, “I’ve got twenty-four years with the Patrol, and another one to six to go, depending if I have two bad days in a row or not after next year. After that, you can tell me some stories.” He closed the enormous grill’s lid and adjusted the smoke coming out of the flue. “Want to watch the rest of the game, see who wins?”
Hunter couldn’t speak. She smiled a little and nodded.
Raymond pushed the play button and asked her, “Well, who are you gonna root for?”
“Iowa. For you, always Iowa.”
There was a special report on the ten o’clock news that night. Pepper Easton stood in front of a large picture of Sheriff Wayne Rockman. She talked with feeling, from the heart, telling of the Sheriff rescuing her in Mexico, of his incredible bravery. Her voice broke on several occasions, but it made her more appealing. She wasn’t acting, and it was evident. Pepper ended by saying the country had lost a true hero, and he was the last of a breed.
She turned off the television. Pepper hadn’t mentioned anyone but Rockman and herself. Hunter breathed deep and relaxed a little. You never knew about some people, about who was going to come through for you.
Two months later, the Border Patrol reinstated Hunter.
***
It was November when the letter came. PAIC Carl Horton dropped it on the desk beside Hunter as she finished a report.
“Came in the mail today,” he said.
She looked at it. There was no return address, but the postmark was Denver, Colorado. Hunter tore it open and read the note, written in Spanish.
I HAVE READ YOUR HEMINGWAY. HIS HEROES REMIND ME OF YOU.--ANDA
~~***~~
EXCERPT
Thanks for purchasing Outlaw Road, the second book in the Hunter Kincaid Mystery series. I hope you enjoyed it. Here is a short excerpt from the third Hunter Kincaid novel, The Empty Land:
CHAPTER 1