Skeleton Canyon

On the far side of the platform, near the top of a ramp that had been built to accommodate a wheelchair, sat David O’Brien. He was involved in a conversation with Alvin Bernard, Bisbee’s chief of police.

It was the first time Joa

Two days after Bria

Observing the man from the sidelines, Joa

The intervening days had brought some surprises in terms of the Aaron Meadows/Alf Hastings investigation. Meadows’s plea-bargained confession was making life difficult for Marco Marcovich. In terms of bringing down a friend of the governor, Aaron’s word alone might not have carried that much weight, but Maggie Hastings, threatened with coconspirator status, had also joined the plea-bargain parade. She had come forward and had named names of some of the other people Alf Hastings had dealt with in Marco’s behalf. In addition, she had contributed one more important piece of the puzzle.

One of the reasons Marco had helped his cousin Alf get the job at Green Brush Ranch had been the expectation that eventually Aaron Meadows’s smuggling route through the Peloncillos would end one way or the other. When that happened, Marco had expected Alf to have an alternate route already in place-one that would have continued to ferry Freon into the country from Mexico directly across David O’Brien’s well-fortified property and without any member of the O’Brien family knowing a thing about it.

Poor guy, Joa

Composing herself, Joa

“Hello there,” she said, shaking hands with them both. “From the looks of all the cars circling around in search of parking, it should be a great crowd.”

“Chief,” somebody called from across the platform. “Chief Bernard. Could I talk to you a minute?”

Alvin excused himself, leaving Joa

“Five minutes.” O’Brien answered without bothering to glance at his watch. “Although I don’t suppose we need to worry about being late. The display won’t get under way until I give the official signal to turn off the ballpark lights.”

“I see,” Joa

It pleased her to hear a hint of the old imperiousness back in David O’Brien’s voice, even though he no longer had Katherine to cater to his every whim. “If you’ll excuse me, I guess I’ll go find my chair,” she added.

“No, wait,” O’Brien said. “I’m glad the two of us have a moment to talk. I wanted to ask a favor of you.”

“A favor? What kind?”

David O’Brien reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet-covered jewelry box. “Here,” he said. “1 found this box in Bria

Popping the lid open, he held out the tiny black box, cradling it in the palm of his hand, offering it to Joa

“I believe you know the young man who gave my daughter these, don’t you?” David O’Brien asked.

Joa

“I’ve read Bree’s journal,” O’Brien continued huskily. “In it she usually referred to him as Nacio. I was wondering, would you mind seeing to it that these are returned to him? Now that I’ve had them repaired, I thought he’d probably like to have them back. I certainly have no use for them.”

Carefully, Joa

“I understand this Nacio wants to be a doctor someday,” O’Brien went on. “He expected to go to school on a football scholarship, but that’s impossible now. The opportunity evaporated when he was injured in that football game last November.”

“Yes,” Joa

“Would you mind giving him a message from me?” David asked.

Joa

“Tell him I have some college monies set aside that I don’t want to see go to waste. Tell him my banker, Sandra He

Looking at the man’s ravaged face, it was easy for Joa

“It’s from Bree,” Joa

“Come on,” Agnes Pratt interrupted, tapping Joa

As soon as Joa

A few minutes later, the crowd was asked to stand for the playing of “The Star-Spangled Ba

“Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light…”

As the music swelled and washed over the crowd, Joa

Here was a man who had lost everything that mattered to him-lost it not once, but twice. And yet he had somehow found the courage to go on. He had figured out a way to turn his personal tragedy and culpability into something else-into something good for other people, for a townful of children who otherwise would have been disappointed by missing the magic of a Fourth of July fireworks celebration. Not only that, David O’Brien was also finding a way to break free of a life-long history of prejudice in order to reach out to someone else.