Michael McGarity - Mexican Hat

Nobody moved until Edgar crawled out from under the truck. He stood rooted to the ground.

Karen covered Cody from danger with her body, and Molly was hunched down with Elizabeth wrapped in her arms. Karen picked up Cody and started running toward Molly and Elizabeth.

Edgar didn't move an inch.

Kerney's eyes followed Karen. She checked Elizabeth to make sure the girl was all right before turning to take another look at the blazing fire. Then she walked with Cody in her arms and Elizabeth and Molly at her side to cut off Doris Cox and her children, who were running full-tilt across the pasture.

With Molly, Karen held Doris back and herded everybody away.

Stiles and Kerney joined Edgar. He said nothing until the porch roof caved in and Eugene's body started to burn. The second story blazed.

Heat stung their eyes and blew hot against their faces.

"I can't believe what I did," Edgar finally said.

"You did the right thing," Kerney replied.

"There were women and children to protect," Edgar said softly.

"I know," Kerney answered.

Edgar's blue eyes snapped back to the burning house. Images sixty years old blended with the sight of his dead brother burning in the fire.

"No, you don't know," he said in a bitter voice.

"You don't know the half of it."

"Maybe I do," Kerney responded.

"Eugene told me a very interesting story."

Edgar stared at Kerney for a long time before he broke eye contact.

"Good. I'm glad. It's time everybody heard that story."

"Mind telling me?" Jim inquired.

"After I talk to my daughter," Edgar replied.

"Fair enough."

Edgar dropped the Winchester, turned on his heel, and walked away.

Jim and Kerney moved back from the intense heat. The structure burned like a massive, billowing bonfire. Small-arms rounds randomly exploded inside the house.

"Where is Phil?" Kerney asked.

"If Edgar's truck still runs, I'll show you."

"What happened to Karen?"

"I'll fill you in on the way."

They cleaned the glass off the aeat, and Kerney drove. The clouds lifted from the top of Manaas Mountains, and a dim red light flashed from the lookout station. Whoever was up there probably had every piece of fire equipment in the district rolling.

The wail of sirens carried by the breeze confirmed it.

Jim looked at his arm. Blood soaked the sleeve where the stitches had given way. The adrenaline rush had ended, and the wound throbbed like hell.

"Karen is no lady to mess with," he began, grimacing in pain.

"Tell me about it," Kerney replied. after Jim's briefing and a quick check of Phil Cox, who wasn't going anywhere, Kerney took control of the arriving fire crews. He posted two Forest Service firefighters with rifles on the hill above the ranch to keep spectators away. Then he called Carol Cassidy by radio, gave her a quick rundown on the situation, and asked her to send every law enforcement specialist from the Luna and Reserve districts as backup until the state police arrived. He wanted no repeat of the Elderman Meadows fiasco, and enough cops around to keep the locals at bay, especially any militia members who might show up and cause trouble.

He left Jim with a paramedic and went looking for Karen. He spotted her hurrying across the horse pasture from Phil's house.

"Are you all right?" he asked when she reached him.

"Fine. How about yourself?"

Kerney smiled.

"I'm okay."

"You're limping badly."

"It will pass."

She smiled grimly.

"My father told me what happened between him and his brother at Elderman Meadows. He said you heard something about it from Gene. Is that true?"

"Gene told me one hell of a story, and I believed every word of it."

"What do you know?" Kerney recounted what Eugene had told him.

"It's quite a family I've got, isn't it?" Karen said.

"The part of it I like seems pretty solid."

She smiled with her eyes, stood on her tiptoes, and gave him a quick kiss.

"Thanks."

"I should be the one thanking you."

"We can sort that out later. I need your help."

"What can I do?"

"Work with me on this," she replied, pointing at the burning remnants of Eugene's house.

"I need a smart cop at my side."

"What you need is a special investigator," Kerney replied, smiling down at her.

"I've got one. You."

"I resigned, remember?"

"I never officially accepted your resignation."

"That puts a different spin on it," Kerney admitted.

Karen took him by the arm.

"You're on the payroll. Ready to go to work?"

"Why not?" Kerney answered.

It took five days, working eighteen-hour shifts, before Kerney, Karen, and Jim had everything sorted out. Phil Cox caved in after learning that his father was dead. He confessed to murder, attempted murder, and a host of additional felony charges.

Karen offered to drop some of the lesser charges if he rolled over on the militia, and without the iron will of Eugene Cox to shore him up, Phil capitulated.

Following Phil's directions, Kerney searched his house and found records that identified the militia members who had built the bombs that had been scattered around the wilderness, as well as the device used to kill Doyle Fletcher. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents took the ball and ran with federal indictments against the bombers, while Kerney worked on state felony arrest warrants.

He also came away with the militia membership list and a scrawled note from Eugene to Phil with his recommendations for targets of assassination. Kerney was number one on the list, followed by Charlie Perry and Jim Stiles.

Doris Cox snapped as a result of the shoot-out at the Slash Z and had to be hospitalized with severe depression in Silver City. Kerney interviewed her just before she was discharged. Tonelessly, she told him of sexual assaults and physical beatings by Phil that made his stomach turn.

She took the children and left for an extended visit with her sister in Idaho. With Karen, Kerney saw her off. PJ looked desperately in need of a good therapist.

Completely shut down, the boy refused to talk and had an angry belligerence stamped on his face.

All ofGatewood's deputies were militia members, along with six seasonal Forest Service employees from the Luna and Reserve offices. The deputies were suspended and Karen arranged for a contingent of state police to provide law enforcement protection during the investigation.

Carol Cassidy placed the Forest Service workers on administrative leave and started an internal probe.

Amador Ortiz was found in San Diego, hiding out with a cousin, and brought back to face charges. He corroborated Gatewood's role in setting up the Padilla Canyon ambush.

Scooped up by the FBI for his complicity in the Leon Spence-Steve Lujan case, Ortiz was bound over in both federal court and state district court on accessory charges.

Kerney and Jim coordinated the interviews and interrogations, using state attorney general investigators and state police agents to do the leg work. They concentrated on the militia leadership, a group of twelve men that included a county commissioner, several lesser officials, prominent businessmen, and two of the biggest ranchers in the county. Because they had authorized the plan to kill Kerney, conspiracy-to-commit-murder complaints were in the works on all twelve.

Kerney handled the Eugene Cox and Omar Gate- wood shooting-death investigations. He took the evidence to a hastily convened special grand jury.

Jim Stiles was quickly exonerated, and the panel ruled that the killing of Eugene Cox by his brother was justifiable self-defense.

The night before the grand jury met, Kerney attended a Cox family discussion where Edgar, Margaret, and Karen debated publicly disclosing the sixty-year-old crimes of rustling, homicide, and Edgar's assault on his brother.