didn’t answer, but only hissed a long breath through his nose. “La Sal County has 1,658 people in it, Officer Wager, and 1,280 square miles. I got four patrol deputies and myself to look after that many square miles and the people therein, twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not complaining. I ran for this office, and I’ll keep running for it as long as me and the people think I can do the job. What I’m telling you is me and my deputies get called to everything from hippies camping out on somebody’s range land to robberies and killings, plus the court’s business in this county, as well as running my four-room, free-rent hotel, which tends to get pretty full on payday weekends. To do all that with what little support the county commissioners let me have, Wager, means I got to have a system—I have to do things my way if they’re going to get done at all. Now,” another long breath, “I’m happy to work with those people any time they want to work with me. But I’ll be damned if I have the time or the resources to turn me and my people over to Special Agent Durkin so things can be done the way him and Washington, D.C., think they should be done. To the people that put me in office, Wager, moving them hippies off the land they squatted on is a hell of a lot more important than whether or not Special Agent Durkin’s confidential informant was a homicide. And that, Wager, is the way it is and the way it is going to be.”
And that gave Wager his angle. “Which is the other reason I was sent out: I’m a homicide detective—been one for almost ten years. I might be able to help you out if you want me to, and you can still run your county your way.”
“I didn’t ask for no help, damn it!”
“No, you didn’t. Neither did Durkin. He thinks he can do it all by himself. Henderson’s the one who had the sense to make the phone call, Sheriff. He’s the one who doesn’t give a damn who gets the credit as long as he can find a way to solve the murders. And personally, I think he’s got the right attitude: forget the politics and get the job done. And do it before another man is killed and somebody else’s wife and kids have to stand around staring at a fresh grave.”
The strips of sky above the window well must have been interesting because the sheriff took his time studying them. When he began speaking again, it seemed off the subject. But Wager knew the man well enough by now to understand that that was the way the sheriff worked toward something he was angry at or wasn’t really comfortable with. “We have a real population boom in La Sal County. Have had for the past few years—four or five new people move in each year, most of them from California. Looking for God knows what. Some of them don’t find it and leave pretty quick, and some hang around and try to change things so they have whatever it is they’re missing. Whatever will make La Sal County into what they ran way from: Orange County, or whatever. Can’t just let things be.”
Wager waited through the long pause. He had expected the sheriff to be a redneck who shared his constituents’ suspicion of federal officers and outsiders in general, and maybe the man did, down deep. But so far, all Wager had seen was a sheriff who figured he knew how to run his county, and damn well knew how the law defined his authority. And he didn’t intend to let Durkin or Henderson or Wager poke their noses into the way he ran his office. It was a territorial attitude Wager had seen before and one he could understand.
“More than half my county belongs to the federal government, Wager, and it don’t pay any local taxes—national parks, national forest land. And we got some bits and pieces of the Indian reservation, but they’re not my worry, thank God. And now we got people want to build great big retirement communities on the edge of the forest land—say that’s where money’s going to come
And that gave Wager his angle. “Which is the other reason I was sent out: I’m a homicide detective—been one for almost ten years. I might be able to help you out if you want me to, and you can still run your county your way.”
“I didn’t ask for no help, damn it!”
“No, you didn’t. Neither did Durkin. He thinks he can do it all by himself. Henderson’s the one who had the sense to make the phone call, Sheriff. He’s the one who doesn’t give a damn who gets the credit as long as he can find a way to solve the murders. And personally, I think he’s got the right attitude: forget the politics and get the job done. And do it before another man is killed and somebody else’s wife and kids have to stand around staring at a fresh grave.”
The strips of sky above the window well must have been interesting because the sheriff took his time studying them. When he began speaking again, it seemed off the subject. But Wager knew the man well enough by now to understand that that was the way the sheriff worked toward something he was angry at or wasn’t really comfortable with. “We have a real population boom in La Sal County. Have had for the past few years—four or five new people move in each year, most of them from California. Looking for God knows what. Some of them don’t find it and leave pretty quick, and some hang around and try to change things so they have whatever it is they’re missing. Whatever will make La Sal County into what they ran way from: Orange County, or whatever. Can’t just let things be.”
Wager waited through the long pause. He had expected the sheriff to be a redneck who shared his constituents’ suspicion of federal officers and outsiders in general, and maybe the man did, down deep. But so far, all Wager had seen was a sheriff who figured he knew how to run his county, and damn well knew how the law defined his authority. And he didn’t intend to let Durkin or Henderson or Wager poke their noses into the way he ran his office. It was a territorial attitude Wager had seen before and one he could understand.
“More than half my county belongs to the federal government, Wager, and it don’t pay any local taxes—national parks, national forest land. And we got some bits and pieces of the Indian reservation, but they’re not my worry, thank God. And now we got people want to build great big retirement communities on the edge of the forest land—say that’s where money’s going to come
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