Choden’s eyes went round as he opened the folder. “You?” he blurted in disbelief, then reconsidered. “I mean congratulations.” He hesitated. “But you want to work with Colonel Tan? You know the stories. The hellhound, the iron fist, the tormentor, they call him.”

“Colonel Tan wants to work with me,” Shan said.

Choden offered a grim, sympathetic nod. “So, you are moving to Lhadrung?” he asked, unable to keep the hope out of his voice.

“No. I will work out of this station, and I will remain the constable here. I will only work on special cases.” Shan did not miss the disappointment in Choden’s eyes. It wasn’t that his deputy yearned for a promotion, he simply wanted a superior with more spit and polish. “But I will be away more often,” Shan offered in consolation. “You’ll be in charge when I am gone and you’ll have full use of the old truck.”

Choden brightened. “Can I use it to haul sheep for my cousin?”

Shan rolled his eyes. “Just clean out the back afterward and don’t let the Committee of Leading Citizens spot you with livestock in the constable’s truck.”

Yara awaited him at the back of the town’s only garage, sitting on an old car seat. Surprisingly, she greeted him with a quick embrace. “I can make the trip this weekend,” she said with a smile that lifted her dimples. “My grandmother’s coming to watch my son.”

“I have a new car,” Shan announced, returning the smile. “A better heater and no smell of tobacco.” She laughed, and he warmed at the prospect of another long drive with Yara for a visitors’ day at Ko’s prison. They would share stories of their very different childhoods. Sometimes, after silently gazing up at the high mountain pastures, she would break out in one of the old herder’s songs.

“I’ll try to keep my grandmother and her cigars away from it,” Yara said with a grin, and led him into the junkyard.

The entrance to the path they took was concealed between two overlapping truck wrecks, and when they entered the junkyard Shan had to take out his flashlight to guide them through the many twists and turns that the owner had designed to throw off anyone trying to follow. Finally, they reached a deep shadow between the five-foot-high copper head of a Buddha and a pair of giant clasped hands, both salvaged from old temple statues. Shan followed Yara down the set of narrow stairs.