The Forsaken

“It would be in y’all’s best interests.”

“How do you figure?” Qui

“Mr. Stagg has a proposition.”

“Should have said it tonight,” Qui

“You’re a hard one, Ranger,” Ringold said. He gri

“Good night,” Qui

“Which battalion?”

“Third Batt,” Qui

Ringold nodded. “I knew some of you,” he said. “You know Ricardo Perez?”

“I do,” Qui

“I figured,” he said. “I knew him at Fort Bragg.”

Qui

“Can I ask you something, Sheriff Colson?”

Qui

“Ain’t it hard to slow down?” Ringold said. “Some days, I feel like I’m just itching out of my skin for a little action.”

“What you do now is your call.”

“And what is it that I do?” Ringold said, a streetlight shining off his bald head. He rubbed the stubble on his beard and gri

“You walk behind Stagg,” Qui

“Sure,” Ringold said. “But not too far, Sergeant.”

Qui

“So you’re saying no to a meet?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Mr. Stagg is a man of compromise.”

“We could sit here for the rest of the night and debate what Mr. Stagg is a man of,” Qui

From the reflection in his truck’s side mirror, Qui

Ringold nodded to Qui

“Just what was that all about?” Ophelia said, staring.

“He wanted to give himself a proper introduction,” Qui

Do you think we might have a normal night, Qui

“I’ll turn off the sca

“I guess you’re right,” she said. “Son of a bitch. I better, too. I just figured I’d try.”

Ophelia had on a pair of faded Levi’s and a tight black shirt. She’d twisted her brown hair up into a bun at the top of her head and had kicked off her shoes. Her toenails a bubble gum pink.

“What’s for supper?” Qui

“Well,” Ophelia said, “I’m not cooking that greasy old Southern food like your momma. How about some pasta and a healthy salad? I have a bottle of red wine somewhere around here. We can sit on the couch and watch The Bachelor, forget all about those shitbag supervisors, Joh

“What the hell’s The Bachelor?”

“It’s a show where one guy gets to date twenty-five women over a few weeks,” she said. “At the end of the show, the bachelor gets to decide which one he’s going to marry.”

“In a few weeks?”

“Yeah, but they go on a bunch of dates at beaches, travel to exotic countries, and listen to a lot of crappy bands the producers are trying to promote. If you get picked each week, he gives you a dethorned rose. The only trouble comes when the bachelor, or sometimes it’s a bachelorette, starts to make out and grub with multiple folks. You’ll see drunk crying, catfights, people screaming at each other and throwing shit.”

“I want to see that, I’ll just go back on patrol.”

“What’d you rather see?”

“I heard 3:10 to Yuma is on tonight,” Qui

“Don’t you watch anything else besides westerns?”

“When I was younger, I used to watch a lot of action movies from the seventies,” Qui

“What about war movies?”

Qui

“Suit yourself,” Ophelia said. “But you’d really like The Bachelor. Half the time the women are wearing flimsy little clothes or bikinis. They had one girl a few weeks ago that walked around the house without a stitch of clothes on. Of course they had her privates all blacked out. But, can you imagine doing that on national TV?”

“Pasta?”

“And salad,” Ophelia said. “And red wine.”

“Just me and you?” Qui

“And Hondo, too.”

Hondo was already on the couch, making himself at home, resting after a long day of roaming the farm and chasing deer, cattle, and rabbits. Ophelia uncorked a bottle, Qui

“I don’t want to complicate plans,” Qui

“I found something in that file you gave me,” Ophelia said, chopping and slicing carrots with a lot of dexterity and speed. “May not mean anything given the time frame. We can talk about it later, if you like.”

Qui

“There was some correspondence between your uncle and the FBI office in Jackson,” she said. “In the letters, it appeared that he’d sent them the remains of the dead man’s burned clothes and a pair of boots that were pretty much intact. It seems like old Dr. Stevens did take a dental record or at least tried to. The body was a mess and back then there wasn’t any DNA testing or reason to take tissue samples.”

“What happened to the body?”

“Potter’s field,” Ophelia said.

Qui

“Gracias.”

She poured the rest of his wine in her glass and then got out a pot to boil some water. Qui