Chapters (110)
- Cover
- ALSO BY J. TODD SCOTT
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- PROLOGUE
- I
- II
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- PART TWO
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- PART THREE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- PART FOUR
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EIGHTY-TWO
- EIGHTY-THREE
- EIGHTY-FOUR
- EPILOGUE
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Excerpt from LOST RIVER
- LITTLE PARIS
- DILLON
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
Then he walked off the porch and into the desert.
PART FOUR
BAJADORES
SIXTY-TWO
The problem between Johnnie and Danny Ford had started eight months before, not too long after Danny had been hired on by the Big Bend Sheriff’s Department. Johnnie didn’t know anything then about Danny’s time with Texas DPS—how he’d been some hot-shit undercover detective for them—or about his years in the army. To Johnnie, he was just another wet-behind-the-ears cowpoke deputy, and fuckers like that were a dime a dozen.
More brawn than brains, and other than the Tejas unit, the sort of guy Johnnie had pushed around for years.
It happened during Operation Violent Tide, a U.S. Marshals nationwide operation. The marshals staged the big fugitive sweep every year, spending a solid week rounding up pervos and murderers and arsonists and other fine upstanding citizens. They always asked for local support, so it had become a lucrative gig for Johnnie and his crew, who spread out around Terrell County and for a small fee let some of the likely targets know that shit was rolling downhill and they needed to get out of its way (and out of town) for a while. They didn’t extend the early-warning courtesy to everyone, only those who had the means to buy their way out of the misery. In fact, Johnnie needed some of those guys out and walking around, because they made good snitches and fences for the dope he ripped off. But his boys had always made a fine show of it anyway, busting doors and heads for a few days with the federal government’s blessing. It always got them in the paper—trophy pictures—and his daddy liked that.
This year’s Violent Tide preoperation briefing was at a Texas Army National Guard armory up in Crockett, and that’s where Johnnie ran into Danny Ford. Part of the briefing was given by a young female U.S. marshal, a pretty thing who in the right light reminded Johnnie of Rae, and he made some jokes about that very fact with the other members of the Tejas unit who were there with him—Ortiz and Ringo. Danny, who was sitting behind them, heard it all, and took exception, and said as much in the parking lot afterward as the briefing was breaking up.
At first, Johnnie figured the guy was just fucking with him and was about ready to crack a few jokes of his own about that fine bitch. But it was soon clear Deputy Danny Ford saw himself as some sort of Boy Scout, a real knight in shining armor, and he was definitely most serious about the issue, leaving Johnnie no choice but to laugh it off and tell him—loudly and right to his face—to go fuck himself. He didn’t need the opinions or approval of some shit-heel deputy out of the Big Bend.