be seven or eight miles beyond the Redington junction.'
'Can you tell what the situation is on the ground?' she asked.
'I was told to make just a single pass,' Todd Kries said, 'so that's what I did. It looks like he's down in a wash. He may have a flat tire. The truck is sitting funny, like maybe it's jacked up or something.'
'And the ATV is still in the back?'
'Can't tell. The back doors are open but I can't see inside. What do you want me to do now, Sheriff Brady? I’m alone at the moment, but if you'd like me to, I could go back as far as Tanque Verde Road, where Pima County is setting up a roadblock. They're supposed to be bringing in some sharpshooters. Maybe I could fly one of them out here with me, along with some additional fire power, too.'
'Good idea,' Joanna said. 'Do that. It'll give my deputy and me a chance to get closer. But don't go in until I give the word, understand?'
'Got it. You don't have to convince me,' Todd Kries said. 'If the guy's packing a fifty-caliber, I'm not in the market to be a hero. I've got a wife and two point three kids at home.'
Joanna jammed the gas pedal all the way to the floor. She was just getting up a head of steam when the Blazer rounded a curve and came face-to-face with a small herd of foraging cattle. The Herefords-wild-eyed yearlings, mostly-seemed astonished to find a vehicle bearing down on them on that seldom used road. They stood in the middle of it, stricken and staring, before finally kicking up their hooves and leaping out of the way at the last possible second.
Out of the corner of her eye Joanna saw Frank Montoya grip the hand rest as the last calf, bare inches from the Blazer's front bumper, dashed to safety. 'Hold it there, fireball,' he said. 'If we're going to be in a fight, I'd as soon be alive when we get there.'
Usually Joanna would have balked at the idea of some-body backseat driving, but this time she knew she was pushing the envelope. 'Sorry about that,' she told him. 'I'll slow down.'
'Thanks.' Picking up the radio mike, Frank checked in with Dispatch. 'Did everybody hear what's going on with Pima County?' he asked.
'We've got it,' Larry Kendrick said. 'We'll pass the word on to everybody else.'
'What are you going to do?' Sonja Hosfield asked from the backseat.
Trying to listen to the radio transmissions, Joanna was annoyed to have Sonja talking to her. Carrying on a conversation was an unwelcome distraction. She answered all the same.
'We're going to try to get as close to Ryan's truck as we can. When we stop and Chief Deputy Montoya and I jump out, you're to stay put, Mrs. Hosfield. Understand? Under no circumstances are you to set foot outside the car until either he or I give you the all-clear.'
Sonja, however, gave no indication she had even heard. 'Is Ryan going to die?' she asked.
'That depends,' Joanna said.
'On what?'
'On how well we plan the confrontation, for one thing,' Joanna told her. 'It depends on whether we're able to get there before he knows we're coming. And,' she added pointedly, 'it depends on whether Frank and I have any distractions.'
'I don't want him to,' Sonja said. 'Live, I mean. If Jake's dead, Ryan should be dead, too.'
'That'll be up to the courts,' Joanna said. 'To a judge and a jury. Based on what I know about Ryan Merritt, he sounds like a good candidate for death by injection. Or at least life without parole.'
'I want to see him dead now,' Sonja insisted.
'Please, Mrs. Hosfield. I can't talk anymore. I've got to concentrate. Frank, what are you carrying?'
'I've got my nine-millimeter,' he said. 'And my Glock.'
'Great,' Joanna said. 'Between us we have two Glocks, a nine-millimeter, and a Colt 2000. That's not much when you're stacking them up against a deer rifle, at least one fifty-caliber, and God knows what else.'
'So we're a little outgunned,' Frank returned. 'Maybe even
'Great. Any bright ideas?'
'We could always wait,' Frank suggested. 'Give our reinforcements a chance to come on-line.'
'Waiting would also give Ryan a chance to take up a defensive position and dig in. No, that won't work.'
'So we keep going instead,' Frank said. 'We get as close as we can, then we ad-lib like crazy.'
'Did you ever take any drama classes in school?' Joanna asked.
'Drama?' Frank echoed. 'Me? Are you kidding?'
'Well, I did. At good old Bisbee High. Mr. Vorhees, the drama instructor, always used to tell us, 'Ad-libbing is for amateurs.' '
Even though she had to fight to keep the Blazer on the washboarded road, Joanna glanced in Frank Montoya's direction long enough to catch some of the heat from the scathing look he leveled in her direction.
'With all due respect,' Frank returned, 'when Mr. Vorhees said that, I doubt he was looking down the barrel of a Barrett fifty-caliber.'
Surprisingly enough, Joanna and Frank both laughed then, hooting and giggling.
'How much farther?' Sonja asked.
'We can't tell,' Joanna said. 'We probably won't know until we get there.'
Just then Todd Kries' voice boomed out of the radio and made her jump. 'Sheriff' Brady, I'm coining back now. I've got myself not one but two armed deputies. Both of them with high-powered rifles and night-vision sights for when the sun goes down. We're just now crossing back over the top of the pass. How close are you and where are your reinforcements?'
'The reinforcements are still a long way out,' Joanna told him. 'They're passing Cascabel now. As for me, I don't know where the hell we are. The speedometer is showing seven miles since we turned onto Redington Road. Maybe we've already missed him. He may have finished changing his tire and moved on.'
'I don't think so. I've been keeping an eye out for traffic on the road. According to my estimate, you're almost there. Do you want me to go in and take another look?'
'No,' Joanna said. 'Hang back a little. The sound of a helicopter can carry a long way out in the middle of nowhere. Wait until Frank and I have actually made visual contact. As soon as we do, I'll call you in.'
'Okey-dokey,' Todd Kries said. 'We'll just sit up here and twiddle our thumbs until you give the word.'
The Blazer rounded a sharp curve. After that the road dropped away like a plunging roller coaster. At the bottom of the steep drop, sitting crookedly across a sandy wash, was Ryan Merritt's blue truck.
'We've got him,' Frank shouted into the radio. 'Come on in, Officer Kries. Bring in your troops. Now's the time.'
Earlier, Todd Kries had said the panel truck was sitting crooked. It still was. At first Joanna thought it might be stuck in the sand rather than up on a jack. And there, plain to see, was Ryan Merritt himself, standing at the back of his truck and trying to wrestle the ATV out of the bed through the open back doors at the end of the truck. As the Blazer came over the rise, he must have heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. He turned briefly and looked at them, then turned his attention back to the truck. In the next few seconds Joanna realized that they had arrived just at the critical instant of his unloading the vehicle. He was balancing most of the ATV in midair. Had he relaxed his hold, he might have dropped it.
As he continued to wrestle the ATV, Joanna slammed on the brakes. 'Hit the bricks, Frank. I'm right behind you.'
To Joanna's dismay, Frank didn't respond with instant compliance. Instead, he thumbed down the speak button on the radio one more time. 'We're out of the Blazer, Kries. I'm going right. Sheriff Brady's going left. Tell those sharp-shooters of yours to go after
With that Frank threw the radio down and bailed out of the truck. Joanna paused long enough to look back at Sonja. 'Remember, stay down!' she ordered. 'If you see things are going bad-if you see that Frank and I are losing it-put the Blazer in reverse and get the hell out of here. Understand?'
Sonja nodded wordlessly.
Leaving the engine running and drawing her Colt, Joanna dropped out of the Blazer. She hit the ground rolling,
