Chapter 1
--She wore her scars as her best attire.
A stunning dress made of hellfire.--
-Daniel Saint-
Buddy McFarlen spotted Hunter Kincaid driving a Border Patrol vehicle along Terlingua’s Ghost Town Road near the Starlight Theater, and waved at her like a school kid trying to catch the teacher’s attention. She slowed and stopped beside him, “What’s up?”
“There’s a car loaded with drugs, I think.”
“You think?”
“Yeah.”
“Where?”
“Not far, on highway one-seventy about a mile from here, the lot where the Sheriff’s Office parks the abandoned cars.”
Hunter cleaned off the passenger seat by moving an unopened Snickers bar, a half-eaten pack of corn nuts, and an almost empty, blanket-covered aluminum two-quart canteen with enough water left to slosh when she moved it. Buddy slid in and Hunter drove in the direction he pointed, “Is it coke, or marijuana?”
“I don’t know,” he hesitated before continuing, “and it may not be drugs.” Hunter raised her eyebrows.
“Either it is or it isn’t.”
“It’s something. I’m sure of that.”
“Buddy, you’re giving me a headache.”
“I know, I know, but bear with me.” He pointed, and Hunter drove in that direction.
Five minutes later, Buddy indicated two rows of abandoned cars and pickups on a caliche lot. “See the one on the left, the dark green Ford, that’s it. I haven’t checked these in months and just went by again this morning.”
“And you found the drugs today?”
Buddy didn’t answer. She drove to the lot and parked, then followed Buddy on foot to the rear of the forest green vehicle. He tapped on the trunk with the edge of his pocket knife. “Hear that?” He tapped on it again, making a muffled, odd sound.
Hunter said, “Where did you get this one?”
“It was caught in the big flood six months ago, came down the Rio Grande. I pulled it out of the water with the wrecker and parked it here.”
“Nobody claimed it?”
“No. The plates were gone, torn off in the flood, I guess.”