“Now’s not a great time,” she said, gasping for breath. Her lower back was screaming from two hours of fruitless digging. This particular canyon with its whistle-pig holes and spindly trees and stupid, big rocks hadn’t even warranted a name on the map. But she was certain it would have a name by end of day.

“Maybe you could grab a shovel and help, Madam Deputy Mayor,” Silas suggested, climbing out of the ninth hole he’d dug. He leaned down and dragged Maggie out of hers. “Drink break,” he insisted.

“Why am I the only one digging?” Cody complained.

“Because your back is twenty years younger than mine,” Silas called from the striped lawn chair he’d collapsed into.

The August sun cast a special kind of swelter over the land as mirages blurred the landscape of dust and scrub brush.

“This was a stupid idea,” Maggie said. The cold water in her canteen chased the grit from her throat.

“Not stupid,” Silas insisted, dragging his sweaty, dirty T-shirt over his head and dumping water over his chest.

“Definitely not stupid,” she murmured, admiring the show.

“Are we on a break, people?” Wallace demanded from under his Panama Jack hat. He gave his face and mustache a sassy spritz with a spray bottle.

“Are you on some kind of deadline?” Silas asked, refilling his tumbler with water from the cooler.

“As a matter of fact, I invited Florence to dinner tonight.”

“We’re in the middle of a treasure hunt,” Maggie complained. “How the hell are we supposed to find the treasure and get you back to Kinship for dinner in time?”

“Don’t forget you also have to cook dinner,” Wallace insisted.

“What?” Silas asked. “Where is this dinner you’re hosting?”

“The Old Campbell Place, of course. Where else?”

“I’m gonna bury him in one of these holes,” Maggie whispered.

“I’ll help,” Silas said, throwing his shirt in the back of his pickup.

“Yoo-hoo!” Kressley called, waving with an iPad. “I’m working on the press release. Who wants to hear it so far?”

“Press release for what?” Cody asked.

“For finding the gold, of course. Here’s what I have so far,” she said, clearing her throat. “Kinship Idaho native Deputy Mayor Kressley Cho solved the century-and-a-half-old mystery of the Dead Man’s Canyon stage robbery after discovering a historic trove of gold.”

“New plan,” Maggie said. “I’ll hit her with a shovel, and you take Wallace.”

“Deal,” Silas said.

While Wallace and Kressley bickered over the wording and Silas forced Cody into a hydration break, Maggie picked up the photocopy of the topographical map for the hundredth time.