Hunter said, “That’s what Sam shoots.”
Lee continued, “I found a shell casing under the edge of the fridge, it was .45 auto, so somebody fired a semi-auto in Sam’s kitchen. No blood anywhere, though.”
“We found a little blood at the edge of the porch,” she pointed, “and I found a few dog hairs.”
“Chula,” Lee said.
“It was.” She pointed to the little grave with the deer antler resting on top of it. “We followed sign from the blood to that little grave over there. I checked. It’s Chula.”
“Who buried her?”
“One of the guys who attacked this place.”
“Huh, I wouldn’t have expected that.”
“Me neither.”
Lee rubbed his chin, “How many total?”
Raymond said, “Six, all in and around the house, and one down the road there who was the last one to leave. I think he was watching the place for a while after the others took off. Another person, and we’re thinking it was Sam, came out of the house and went into the foothills.”
Lee said, “And no tracks of Sam coming back?”
Hunter pointed, “Nope. Just the ones going into those rocks.”
Raymond said, “So what now?”
Lee said, “I left Sam a note on the kitchen table to call me. Not much else I can do.”
Raymond said, “We’ll be around, if you need us.”
“Where are you two going from here?”
“Down on the river, then cut sign for a while before calling it a day. We’ve been finding markers on the roads where dope smugglers set them to tell the drivers where to pick them up.”
“You still working RATS?”
Hunter said, “Yeah, Roving Agents Targeting Smugglers. Usually a good deal, but we’ve been doing more walking and tracking this week than if we were working on the sign-cutting unit.”
Raymond said, “But the prestige, don’t forget that.”
Lee grinned, “That counts for a lot.”
“Don’t you know it.”
As Hunter drove away, she glanced back several times. “What?” Raymond asked.
“The place looks sad without Sam and Chula there.” She thought Raymond would kid her for such thoughts, but he didn’t.
***
Sam returned to the cave carrying a one-gallon collapsible water jug filled to the brim. He said, “I set some snares and traps near the water. We may have something in the morning.” He sat by Miguel and they were both silent, watching out the mouth of the large shelter for any signs of movement. Other than two javelinas and a few buzzards circling, they saw nothing. When sundown came, they built a small fire the size of a hat and heated a can of beans, eating them with corn tortillas and a few peppers Miguel had picked from Sam’s garden.
Hours later, when moonlight changed the landscape to shades of gray, Miguel nudged Sam, “Could this be why they want to kill me?” He held out the falling man’s beat-up wristwatch.
Sam took it, “This was from the man that fell?”
“Yes. I did not bury it with him because I found it after I covered him.”