Over dinner that evening, I said to Ma,
“I think it is entirely possible that Walt has gone over to the dark side. Kelly and I observed him doing something that was obviously illegal but we don’t know what yet.”

Ma didn’t flinch. She carried on eating as normal. When she’d finished her plate of food, she put down her fork and said,

“Stands to reason if you ask me. How else could he afford that Car? It looks expensive and a bright yellow one at that? That’s what Vegas does to people. I went there once. It rained so Jimmy and me got back into our car and headed for the coast. Other people get sucked in to places like that and like a whirlpool you can’t get out.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Why should I mind? There is little I can do to stop him. He broke the rules here and was thrown out. When he came calling hoping to get his old room back, I saw through his lies in a flash. He should have known not to lie to his Ma! He has a huge tell. I guess that’s why he could never play a big hand at Texas Hold’em despite Jimmy and me spending hours teaching him. You on the other hand are as stony faced as ever when you hold all the cards. Different as chalk and cheese you two are.”

Ma didn’t wait for anyone to carry on the conversation. He got up and collected the dishes. That what her way. No time for idle chit-chat.

Kelly leapt into action and took over doing the dishes. Ma sat down and picked up her sewing and watched some TV. That was a clear sign that was nothing more to be said on the subject at least that night.

---

I didn’t hear a word from the Feds for more than three weeks. There had been no more sightings of Walt’s or his yellow Camaro. To be honest we had other things on our minds namely, a spate of cattle rustling. This was not old-style rustling but a coordinated campaign where over a period of a week, a few pedigree cattle were rustled from six different ranches around Custer County and two neighbouring counties. We tried our best but with only myself and four deputies we were spread very thin given the size of Custer County. My guess was that the cattle were going to be used to start a breeding herd. Those beasts would probably be smuggled abroad as things were really tightly controlled here and in Canada.

We enlisted some help from the State Police to help patrol our roads but that lasted only one night. Four other counties were also being targeted. Each incident involved just two or three cattle but these were singled out from the various herds. Two Bulls were also rustled. That pretty well confirmed the suspicions I’d had about being stolen for breeding.

After a slightly heated conference call with the State Troopers and the Sheriffs of the other counties, it was agreed that all the incidents were linked. My idea that someone was setting up a new breeding herd but if fell on deaf ears.

Then, as soon as it had started, it was over. No further incidents were reported anywhere in the state or in surrounding states.

With that bit of excitement over life settled down again.

---

[Two months later]
I was surprised to receive a phone call from Agent Hill. The operation we’d done for him and Mrs Pritchard seemed such a long time ago.

“What can I do for you Agent Hill?”

“Ah yes. We can do that. When do you think that the semi’s will honour us with their presence?”

“Ok. I’ve got you. I will keep a look out for my Brother.”

“Understood. As before, hands off. Just observe.”

I chuckled when I heard his reply.

“And take video as before. Gotcha.”

“I will keep you updated. That goes without question.”

“Out of interest, did you trace the plates on the car that my brother was driving?”

“No, I didn’t. A far as I’m concerned, he didn’t break any laws in my county, so it would not really be ethical for me to check out the plates but that does not stop you. Besides, any request for details on an out of state plate gets logged with the state police and my guess is that you don’t want them involved at this stage?”

“Ha-ha.”

“Sorry Agent Hill. I’m happy here. I kinda like the slower pace of life we have in these parts. Besides, the paperwork you guys have to put up with would drive me mad. I was in the Military once so I know the ropes.”

“Yes, not forgetting the odd bit of excitement from time to time.”

“Ok, Agent Hill, I’ll be in touch.”

I put the phone down and sat for a few minutes. I was not looking forward to telling Kelly that our weekend in Chama, New Mexico was going to be a washout. She’d planned a surprise for me to celebrate my birthday. I had a good idea what it was but I didn’t want to let on that I knew. [1]

In the end, I didn’t have to tell her. She took one look at my face when she walked into the Office and she knew. She was just like Ma in having that skill.

“Don’t worry. We can celebrate while on a stakeout. It will be fun!”

I just shook my head. She was one heck of a woman.

---

The stakeout was a total washout. Apart from the rain, nothing happened and we sat there like lemons from just after dusk until dawn. I was not looking forward to telling Agent Hill about the lack of action.

I dropped Kelly off at home so that she could get a shower and a change of clothes. I headed for the office to get the email to Agent Hill sent as soon as possible.

The next few days were quiet in Custer County. I could not help thinking that it was nothing but the calm before the storm. Agent Hill had not even bothered to reply to my email but as the phone had not been ringing off the hook, I guessed that he’d got the message and was following up some other leads.

---

The storm broke when Mrs Pritchard arrived late one afternoon.

“Please, come into my Office Mrs Pritchard,” I said when I saw the look on her face.

I shut the door behind her.
“Please take a seat,” I said trying to be polite.

“This is not a social call Sheriff. I am here to inform you that Agent Hill was murdered two nights ago. I thought that I should be the one to tell you in person.”

The shit had indeed hit the fan.

“Was it to do with the case that you were working on?”

“I’m don’t know. He had a number of active cases but this one was by a long way, the most important.”

“Is that why you are here? Just to let me know about his death?”

“Yes and No. I have intel that another exchange will be made tonight.”

“Do you want us to observe as before?”

“I’d like to witness it myself and then we will intercept both Semi’s after the exchange has been made.”

“Is this sudden action the result of Agent Hill’s death?”

“Yes, it is. My superiors have in conjunction with the DEA decided that affirmative action is needed.”

I sat back and thought for a moment.

“What resources do you need from us?”

“Nothing apart from what you need to witness the exchange.”

“Very good. What time do you think it will take place?”

“Around 10:00pm.”

“And if there is a third party involved?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like my brother Walt. If you remember, he took a duffel from the back of one of the trailers while the drivers were taking a break.”

Mrs Pritchard thought for a few seconds.

“We let it happen just like before.”

“Ok, you are the boss in this operation. If you need any more help please just ask. My department is at your disposal.”

---

Just after eight that evening, Mrs Pritchard, Kelly and I settled down to observe the Truck Stop. We were parked in almost the same spot as before on Stebbings Lane.

“I can see that this is a very good spot to make our observations,” remarked Mrs Pritchard.

“We think so,” replied Kelly.

“Do you need to check in with your people?” I asked Mrs Pritchard.

“I’ll do that now. They are over at the Truck Stop waiting for my signal. Their cars should be parked behind the Motel.”

She busied herself with her phone.

“All done,” she commented a few minutes later.
“My people will finish their meals and leave just like any other travellers would.”

Five minutes later she said,

“There goes the first one.”

A Black F-250 Pickup with a Truck Top pulled out of the Motel parking lot and headed for the Gas Station.

The driver did a quick splash and dash before heading down the eastbound ramp and into the night.

“Here comes the second one.”

A well tricked up red Bronco left the Motel parking lot and went straight onto the Interstate heading west.

“They will wait at the next intersections to the east and west of here. I’ll message them when the trucks leave here. If we can get the trailer plates so much the better.”

“We’ll try,” I replied.

Just before 11:00pm the two Semi’s arrived. Just as before the drivers went into the Restaurant.

Twenty-five minutes later the two drivers returned and as before they swapped vehicles and drove off into the night.

“They didn’t have any bags or anything,” remarked Mrs Pritchard.

“Just to make it seem perfectly normal perhaps? But the cabs of those trucks were parked real close together. It would be easy to pass them over just before they moved off,” I said.

“That is a possibility,” said Mrs Pritchard.

She texted her colleagues while I looked at the images that had been captured by the video camera.

“Sorry, we can’t make out the plates.”

“Well, thanks for trying. I’ll let my guys know.”

She sent messages about the plates to her team. Then she said,
“Now we wait. It shouldn’t be long.”

The minutes ticked by. The clock on the dash read 12:23am before the first message was received.

“One down. That was the Westbound Truck.”

Ten minutes later, another message was received.

“That’s the other one in custody. The drivers and trucks will be taken to the DEA Office in Santa Fe.”

“Santa Fe?” remarked Kelly.

“Yes. The DEA office in Denver has to be considered compromised in view of Agent Hill’s Murder.”

What she said made perfect sense.

“What now Mrs Pritchard?”

“Can you drop me off in Town? My car is there. I’ll disappear into the night if it is ok with you?”

“No problem,” I replied as I started up the SUV.

---

Nothing more happened for almost a week. Life in Custer County had to go on. Tom and Sue-Ellen made three arrests in relation to the cattle rustling after the thieves came back for more bounty and Kelly took her turn in visiting all the schools as part of a drug prevention campaign. Don’t get me wrong, Custer County is a pretty law-abiding place. Local crime levels are low but making children and young adults aware of their civic responsibilities is well worth doing. Besides, it shows that we are actually working to protect the community.

What we didn’t expect was Walt making another appearance. The sound of his Yellow Camaro circling the town square drew me out of a bit of a post lunch slumber.

I wandered outside the Office just as he parked in a bay marked “Police Vehicles Only.”

That was Walt all over.

As he got out of his car, I was standing there waiting for him.

“Hello Bro!” he said cheerily.

“Don’t Bro me,” I said as I pulled out my phone and called Barney SWA.

“Hello Barney. I have an illegally parked Camaro outside the office. Can you come and tow it?”

“Yes, I’m sure. The driver should know not to park in a space reserved for Police Vehicles.”

“Good. See you soon!”

I hung up and smiled at Walt.

“I’m impounding that thing. You should know better than to park here.”

“But… Bro? Really?”

“Walt Beecher I’m arresting you on suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle. You do not have to say anything but anything you do say will be recorded and…”

He put up his hand.
“I know my Miranda rights. I accept that I have been read my rights.”

He said those words into the Body Camera that I was wearing. We’d bought one for each deputy after we’d seized an RV that was carrying two tons of cannabis as it left Colorado. It might now be legal there but, in this state, it is not. We’d impounded and sold the almost new Winnebago a couple of months before so there was a little money in the kitty for new toys to keep the team happy. I was wearing mine for the first time.

I glanced down and saw that it was indeed recording.

“Brother or not, I have to uphold the law and there is an election not that far away. What brings you back here then? More rendezvous with semi’s on the Interstate?”

The smile disappeared from his face in a flash.

“Yes Bro, I saw you and I have it all on Video. What was it eh? Drugs? Guns?”

He was shaking like a leaf. Slowly he shook his head.

“Well? What was it? What was in that duffel that you removed from the trailer?”

“C4”, he stuttered. He knew that I could tell from a mile away when he was lying. He’d tell another even worse lie to cover up for the truth.

“Walt? What the hell have you got mixed up in?”

I could tell that he didn’t want to say anything so I moved in.

“Anyway Walt, as I said, you are under arrest. You know the way to the cells, don’t you?”

“You can’t arrest me. I’m your brother for heaven’s sake.”

“You stepped over the line and to me that is a step too far. Now if you please?” I said ushering him into the Office.

He didn’t want to go but moved when I started playing with the pouch on my equipment belt that contained my handcuffs.

He walked into the Cells and turned to face me.
“I never thought that you were gay. Not in a million years. But, here you are dating a man posing as a woman! Ma must really have to really bite her lip every time you take that impostor to our home.”

Thankfully, I’d closed the cell door otherwise I might well have socked him there and then and to hell with the consequences.

I managed to return a smile.
“Kelly is legally a woman and is a far, far better officer than you could ever have been. As for Ma, she loves Kelly like the daughter she could never raise.”

I sighed.
“It is you Walt that is out of place here. Those bright light lights of Vegas and Fort Collins have changed you and not for the good.”

He glared back at me.
“Oh, and we are getting married.”

This time, it was Walt’s turn to laugh.
“Not in this state you aren’t.”

His words struck home hard. He was right. Our state was well behind the times when it came to human rights for the LGBT community.

I grinned back at him
“But not in Vegas eh? Sin City for a sinful marriage eh? Don’t fret Walt, you aren’t invited…”

I turned away before he could reply.

As I sat at my desk, I could not get his words out of my mind. How had he found out about Kelly? Could he have run into Lawrence Monaghan[2]? I had no idea. My immediate problem was should I tell Kelly that Walt knew about her?

In the end I decided to let sleeping dogs die and hope that it would not come back to bite me in the ass.

---

With Walt locked up in the Cells, went back outside to give directions to Barney SWA. He’d arrived with his tow-truck.

“To the Police Pound please. I’ll get Tom to give it a good going over.”

“Isn’t this Walt’s car?”

“It is. He’s in the cells.”

“What? You arrested your brother?”

“I did indeed but it is not directly related to the car.”

“Ok Matt, you are the boss.”

I could tell that he wasn’t convinced by what I’d said. I wasn’t either. Walt had not helped the cause either. Telling me that he’d taken some ‘C4’ explosive from the semi-trailer was a pure unadulterated lie. I’d refrained from questioning him further because I was angry, angry at myself. I should have seen that taunt about Kelly coming but I was too keen to give him another chance.

---

Tom gave the Camaro a very good examination. I knew that he’d really gone to town when he didn’t return for nearly five hours. Tom didn’t find anything illegal in the car apart from three different VIN Numbers on the Chassis.

I just shook my head when he said,
“My guess is that it was stolen and the engine compartment VIN number changed and then the back end was replaced. The original paint of the front end is Red and the back end is some sort of metallic lustre blue. This heap of junk is a very, very bad three car ‘cut and shut’ job. This is clearly unsafe and needs to be crushed. The idiot who did this didn’t even bother to align the axles. The left side wheelbase is an inch longer than the one on the right. The tracking can just about manage to compensate for the error but the tyres are clearly showing signs of uneven wear. One of them is illegal by the way. It is a re-tread and part of the new rubber has already come away.”

“Thanks Tom. Can you run the VIN’s and put together a report? Better send it off to the PD’s where the original cars were registered and we can see if anything pops out of the woodwork.”

“Sure, thing Boss.”

“I’ll give Walt the bad news. That’s another few charges to add to the list.”

---

An hour later I had Tom’s preliminary report in my hand. I went to visit Walt to give him the bad news.

“Well Walt, your car is a real piece or work isn’t it?”

“Cool eh?”

“Cool? Now I know that you are mad. Tom found three different VIN numbers on it. It is also a ‘cut and shut’ and according to him, the worst one he has ever experienced especially the way the axles are out of alignment.”

“So?”

“That car will be examined in due course by a State Safety Inspector and I’m sure he’ll agree with us. It will be crushed. You won’t be driving that death trap again even if you were going to get out of here without some serious charges being laid on you. You were really lucky that we did impound it when we did. The gas tank had almost rusted through and would have soon dropped a load of gas right onto the tailpipe. You know what happens then…. Boom!”

He didn’t say anything but his face told me that he was worried.

“Want to make your phone call now?”

His shoulders sank even lower.

“Nah! My people will soon know that I’m in custody.”

“Oh yeah? Who are ‘your people’?”

“Beyond your pay grade I’m afraid.”

I chuckled.

“Are you saying that you are working for the Feds?”

“Yeah. That’s it.”

“Ok, who? DEA? ATF? FBI?”

“DEA.”

I immediately smelt a rat given the contacts I’d had with the DEA.

“I know a few people in the DEA. Who’s your contact?”

“Agent Hill out of Vegas. I spoke with him yesterday. That’s why I’m here today.”

I had to confine my surprise.

“Really?”

“Yes really.”

“Well, if that checks out then I’ll have to think again.”

“Yeah Bro, you do that.”

I left him to it.

---

It didn’t take long for me to ascertain that Walt’s story was a total fantasy, well almost. There wasn’t an Agent called Hill in the DEA in Las Vegas and it was just too much of a coincidence that the Agent we’d worked with and who’d recently been murdered had the same name.

As I sat at my desk I realised that whoever had supposedly recruited Walt had a story that that was very close to the truth to be believable.

I went back to the cells to try to get some more information from Walt.

“Walt? Do you have a number for Agent Hill? The Vegas DEA don’t seem to know anything about him?”

Walt smiled.
“Oh, that’s easy. He’s on secondment from Denver.”

I managed to hide my surprise at that bit of information.

I handed him a pen and a pad.
“Write down his number and I’ll give him a call.”

Walt wrote down a cell-phone number. From the area code I could tell that it wasn’t in Vegas nor Denver but in Cheyanne, Wyoming. The mystery deepened. Or rather the lies just got worse.

The phone number proved to be a bust. It was out of service. That was not exactly unexpected.

“Walt, that phone is out of service,” I said with sadness in my voice.

“What? It can’t be?”

I handed him the phone.
“You try it then…”

He did just that.

“I can’t understand it?”

“Walt, it seems to me that it is pretty obvious to me that you were conned. There is or rather was an Agent Hill with the DEA in Denver but he was murdered more than a week ago so there was no way you could have spoken to him Yesterday.”

“But…?”

“Better not say anything Walt. You are in deep shit and you don’t want to get in any further now do you?”

Wisely, he didn’t say anything.

I went back to my desk and called Mrs Pritchard.

“Hello? Sheriff Matt Beecher here.”

“Yes, we are fine.”

“Do you remember the first video we did for you?”

“Yes, that one. I have my brother in Custody. He will be charged with some other offences relating to the vehicle he was driving that night and again today.”

“You really need to know that he says that it was some ‘C4’ that he removed from the trailer. I know that he is lying so you can ignore that. He has a tell that makes him a bad poker player. That tell told me that he was lying and he knows that I know that he is lying. He also hinted that he was working with the DEA and that his handler is an ‘Agent Hill’ and that he spoke with him recently. This was after the real Agent Hill had been murdered. Something is not right but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“No, I asked him and that’s what he said. No coercion was used. He knows that he can’t lie to me. I can read him like an open book.”

“Yes. A full report will be on its way to you by the end of the day. His Camaro is a cut and shut job with donors from three different states. We will be getting an order to crush it once my forensic people are done with it and the State Inspector has agreed.”

“I understand. Was there anything of significance in the trailers?”

“I do understand. Investigations of that sort can take a lot of time. If you need our assistance in the future, we are always willing to help out.”

“Thanks for the update. Goodbye.”

I sat still for a few minutes before going to give the good news to my brother.

“Walt, I have some news for you.”

“Are you letting me out?”

“Not yet. We are still chasing up the history of your car.”

“What is it then?”

“You are off the hook for what you did with whatever it was that you took from that trailer. The Feds are still wrapping up a case regarding the semi’s they intercepted the other day.”

I’d told him a bare faced lie but it was always the easiest way to get him to admit things he’d done.

Walt didn’t look very happy.

“A lot of very powerful people will be interested in those charges and you really do need to charge me. Otherwise…”

Then he did an impression of someone slitting his throat.

“Aren’t you being rather melodramatic?”

“Go look up the killing of Dwayne … Dwayne Wilson in Reno six months ago. Then think again.”

“I’ll do that but, in a couple of hours, Ma will be along later with your dinner. Expect to get an earful as well as the food. Don’t give her any lip understand!”

“Yeah right.”

“Just think about what I said ok?”

I didn’t wait for him to respond.

Once I was back I my office, I looked up the killing that Walt has referred to.

For once Walt was telling the truth. The Local PD thought it was Drug related but to me the wording that they’d use seemed to be a general catch-all that is used when they don’t have a clue. What was worrying was that it was an assassination that bad been carried out in broad daylight right outside one of the major Casino’s. Everything had been caught on CCTV but it had not deterred the assailants. They’d escaped in a tricked-up Charger that was found burnt out close to I-80 east of Elko.

There was nothing for us to do and besides any strangers coming into town would be noticed. This back of beyond place is nothing like Vegas or Reno.

---

Tom came back with a full report on Walt’s car the next day.

“I found all sorts of bits from a variety of cars in that death-trap.”

I began to read the report and was soon shaking my head in amazement.

“It is a wonder that it lasted this long,” I said to Tom when I’d finished.

“My guess is that if you were to drive another few hundred miles and the apology for a gas tank would have leaked right onto the hot exhaust. Game over if that happens. I prodded it with a screwdriver and it went straight through and I got gas all over me. I looked at the tank and it is from a ’63 car. There was a serial number on the top that included a year of manufacture. The mounting was another shit piece of work. One of the welds had already fractured. Not good Matt, not good.”

“Can you take this report to Walt. He deserves to see it in all its glory. Perhaps then he’ll give us some help?”

“Sure thing boss.”

---

Tom reported that Walt had been angry but was not forthcoming with details on who had sold him the car or anything related to the trucks. It looked like he was a dead end and that we’d have to charge him with offences relating to the Camaro and then let him go but with less than fifty bucks in his wallet he wasn’t going to get very far and I was not going to open mine to help him. Brother or not, I’d done that far too many times in the past and he’d not even bothered to say thank you the last few times.

With a feeling of inevitability, I drew up the charge sheet and presented it to him.

“Are you going to let me out now?”

“I will once you provide verifiable evidence of your address. The one on your Nevada Driver’s License is an empty lot and has been since a fire destroyed the building more than ten years ago...”

He looked at me with incredulity.

“Google Earth is a wonderful tool. Perhaps you should use it before falsifying documents? Then the Clark County Records Office have put all their records online so it was easy for me to verify that the lot is indeed empty but belongs to a Company registered in the Pacific Island of Tuvalu. I am legally bound to inform the relevant people in Nevada so be careful when you get back to Sin City eh?”

“Give me a pen and I’ll give you an address and a phone number. They’ll vouch for me.”

He wrote the details on the report about his car. I could see that he was past caring.

“Thanks. I’ll check these out right away.”

My checking out involved calling the Police in Las Vegas. After a bit of explanation, I was put through to a Detective Saperstein who turned out to be a soft-spoken woman.
“Hello Detective. This is Sheriff Matt Beecher of Custer County. I’m wondering if you have anything on a Walt Beecher?”

“Yes, he’s my brother but I have him in custody at the moment.”

“Yes, I’ll hold.”

I waited around twenty seconds. I could hear the click of a keyboard in the background. Then she started speaking.

“He was driving a yellow Camaro. We found that it is three car cut and shut job.”

“Yes, that’s it. Why?”

“Oh, I see. We are going to get it crushed one we have had it formally safety inspected. To be honest, he was darned lucky to get it this far. The Gas Tank was about to leak all its contents over the hot exhaust.”

“Yes sure, I’ll email you the report my team have put together on it.”

I wrote down her email address.

“His Nevada license is either a fake or the address is wrong. The address is a vacant lot in the north of the city. He has since given me a second address and contact name. If you could check him out then I’d be most grateful.”

“Thanks Detective. The email will be on its way within half an hour.”

---

“Now Walt, you seem to have been up to no good in Vegas,” I said wryly.

“Whadya mean?”

“Las Vegas PD say that the heap of junk that you were driving was reported stolen a week before you came back here the first time. It was stolen from a used car lot. The owner wants it back. I’ve sent the report on it to the PD. I can’t send it back as it is an illegal vehicle and totally unsafe to drive. As I said before, it will be crushed here once Tom has done a formal inspection and written his report and the State Inspector has verified it. That will be happening tomorrow. The Vegas PD are running a check on those license and other contact details you gave me right now.”

Walt became angry.

“You have really fucked me over… Again. Why could you not just have let me go eh? But no, you have to do things by the book. You really don’t know who you are messing with do you?”

“Perhaps my dear brother, you might like to enlighten me?”

He sat down looking totally dejected and didn’t say another word.

I left him to stew.

Ma gave him a good number of choice words when she came by with his food. “good for nothing SOB” was about the most innocent of the phrases she used in her tirade.

When she returned to the office, she asked,
“Is he going to be released?”

“Yes, first thing in the morning. The charges relating to that death trap he called a car will have to be answered for at a later date at Clark County Court, so we have no reason to keep him here. I’ve arranged for him to get a lift to Denver Airport from Harry Wong who is going to Denver to visit a sick relative. Where he goes from there, I don’t really care but I’ll make him understand that he is not welcome in the future unless he gets his life sorted out.”

Ma looked at me and then smiled. She knew that I could not show any favours towards my brother.

“I guess it is just Kelly and me tonight?”

“Sorry Ma. Harry Wong will send something over for me later.”

“Just make sure it isn’t a burger and fries!”

I smiled as she picked up her purse and went home.

The Vegas PD sent an email a bit later. His new address checked out but they’d be looking for him if he dared come back to ‘Sin City’ in relation to the theft of that car and using a fake driving license.

---

Sometimes being a Sheriff is a real PITA. That night was one of them. It seemed that just as finished one call my phone started ringing again. In all, I had four lengthy calls before I gave up on sleep and got dressed. It was just after 3:00am. I looked at the couch in my Office and sighed. Normally I’d get at least a few hours of sleep while looking after a prisoner but tonight that was going to be out of the question.

I went into the main office and put some coffee on to brew while I waited for the next call. This one was going to be lengthy.

I looked at the clock on the office wall once again and swore at myself. The night was half over before it had begun.

I left the coffee to brew and went outside for a breath of air. It was one of those late September nights that was still warm but there was a bit of a chill in the air. That told me that the season was changing.

The lights in the Office were burning brightly but the rest of the square was in darkness apart from a cooler in the Store. Only a few more hours of acting as nursemaid to Walt and then he’d be gone or rather he’d not be our problem any longer but… for how long. Like a bad penny, he seemed to keep returning.

I stood outside and thought for a moment. Walt had really screwed up my life again. I really could not understand why he’d come back again. He must have been mad to come back to a place where it had been made clear that he was not welcome.

Then I sighed. That was Walt all over. He never knew when to fold at poker or just shut up when it was clear that he was flogging a dead horse.

I went inside to take part in a conference call even though I was not sure that I’d be able to contribute much at all.

The reason for the odd hour for the call was that the person from Homeland who had been assigned this case was on vacation on Maui. Naturally, Homeland being Homeland… everyone else had to bend to their will and this person was not rushing to give up his vacation…

An hour later, I closed the call and wondered what all the fuss was about and why there had been the need for the call in the first place.

The ‘good’ people at Homeland had decided right from the start that there really was nothing for them in the case and tossed the ball right back into the DEA and everyone else’s court. Nothing that anyone else could say or do would shift them from their intransient position.

At one point, I’d gotten so mad with several of the people on the call that I had to mute my phone while I went outside and calmed down. The pure unadulterated cover-my-ass-and-I’m-not-going-to-make-any-decisions verbal garbage that was coming out from people who had not been involved on the ground with this case just made me sick. Then there was the fact that a Federal Agent had been murdered seemed to go right over Homeland’s head.

It was at that point, I remembered a word that a British Army MP had said to me in Baghdad. He’d used the word ‘Numpty’ to describe a fight involving some troops from the British and American forces that had taken place right outside the office of the base commander. I managed a smiled as I thought it a very apt description of those people at Homeland.

The behaviours shown by some people on the call also reminded me of many times in Iraq when so called Officers would not make decisions that inevitably ended up costing lives usually those of innocent civilians but all they were interested in was getting out unscathed and climbing the greasy pole that inevitably ended up in a safe Senate seat somewhere in the future. Having served at least one operational tour looked good on their Resume’s unless you happened to be one of those poor unfortunate sods who suffered at their hands.

When I returned a bit calmer, my absence had been noted.

“Sorry, call of Nature,” I said as my excuse.

I was still sitting in my chair some minutes after the call had ended when my phone rang again. The caller-id told me that it was coming from Washington DC.

“Hello?”

“Oh! Hi Mrs Pritchard.”

I listened to what she had to say.

“I agree. That was a total waste of time. Homeland bottled it big time. What’s next? After all there is still the murder of Agent Hill to solve which somehow seemed to have slipped Homeland’s mind did it not?”

As Mrs Pritchard outlined her and the DEA’s plans I began to warm to her. It seemed that her frigid exterior did have a heart beating somewhere inside it.

“No, he’s still here. As we agreed, we are releasing him in the Morning. I’ve arranged a lift as a far as Denver Airport for him. Where he goes from there is his business.”

“He should be there by midday. Why?”

“Denver Airport is a huge place. Without a tail on him before he gets there it will be next to impossible to follow him. There will be a lot of Football fans arriving as well. The Broncos are playing the Forty-Niners tomorrow.”

I looked at the date on the wall clock.

“Sorry tonight. They are playing later today.”

“As I have said before, I think he might head north to Fort Collins. He can get a shuttle bus over there from any of the terminals.”

“Ok, I’ll leave it to you good people. If you need any more help you know where we are.”

“Bye!”

I hung up and sat still for a while. It seemed that Walt was still a person of interest to the Feds. Good luck to them in tailing him. If Walt is good at one thing in his life, that is blending into the background when he needs to. I’ve met a few people like that in my life. They are called ‘grey-men’ in official jargon. The problem is that Walt likes to be noticed. Normally, you would not notice him in a crowd but sometimes he’d wear something or do something that would make people notice him. That gave him a lot of satisfaction.

It was too late to go home and get any more sleep so I dozed in my office for a couple of hours. Sue-Ellen would wake me up with some fresh coffee when she arrived to take over in a few hours.

---

Harry Wong was waiting to take Walt into Denver but before he left I had a few words with him.

“Now Walt, you know when you have to be back for your court appearance.”

“Yeah,” he replied in a totally disinterested voice.

“And you know what will happen if you don’t appear?”

“Yeah, I know,” he repeated.

“Good. As long as you understand the consequences of you not appearing at the Clark County Courthouse on the second of next month.”

He didn’t answer.

“I won’t ask where you are going but wherever it is, do it quietly. You never know who might be tailing you.”
I tapped my nose.

He smiled back at me.
“Gotcha Bro.”

I smiled back at him.
“Now get the hell out of town and to be honest, neither Ma nor myself don’t care if you never come back. Got it?”

“Yeah I got it.”

I watched as Harry Wong drove off in the direction of the Interstate and then to Denver. He’d let me know where he’d dropped Walt off upon his return.

Perhaps I’d made a mistake in giving him that tip off but after all, he was my brother. As long as he kept out of my county I’d be happy.

[Postscript]

With Walt gone and the Feds doing whatever it was that they did on the case which we were naturally not privy to, life settled down to normal again in the county. The last of the harvest was brought in and everywhere you could see preparations for Winter taking place. I did my part by stacking the three cords of wood that had been delivered to my home. That is backbreaking work but it did take my mind off from worrying where Walt was and what trouble he was getting into now for at least a few hours.

Life in the County and beyond carry’s on despite the little distractions that come and go. It has to otherwise the Equilibrium of the world would be disrupted. Without those distractions, I would not have a job now would I eh?

Part of working in law enforcement is accepting that despite your best endeavours and a lot of hard work nothing comes of many cases that appear on your desk. Luckily, we don’t get many of them here in Custer County unlike say, New York. For that I’m eternally grateful and so is Kelly for that matter.

Walt never returned for his court date in Clarke County. As a result, he has a ‘failure to appear’ arrest warrant out in his name posted on the wall at every PD in the state. A rather sad state of affairs for a former Police Officer.

That’s life I guess but he should have known not to return here where he was clearly not wanted in the first place.

Oh, and we kept one eye open for more Semi’s changing drivers at the Truck Stop but we never found any evidence of another handover. That is not to say that they didn’t happen but we didn’t see them. My department is rather small and we can’t have eyes and ears everywhere now can we eh?

Oh, and unlike all those cop shows on TV, real life does not always lead to someone doing the ‘Perp Walk’ and going to Jail. If it did, pretty soon half the population would be ‘doing time’ wouldn’t they?

[The end]

[1] Google for ‘what to do in Chama, New Mexico’ and you will soon see what I mean…
[2] See ‘County Sheriff – An Unwelcome Visitor’