Danny snapped his fingers twice at the other deputy to get his attention, to focus him, while he motioned at Amé to stay alert on the unseen river behind him. “He’s all right, just get him cuffed up. He was bolting for the river but something spooked him, sent him right back into my arms.”

Dale nodded, still unsure, but reaching for his cuffs. “Well, I’d ask him, but you righteously knocked his ass out . . .”

Amé stepped over Eddy and got up close to Danny, not taking her eyes off the cane or lowering her gun. “Any idea?”

Danny shrugged. “No, maybe nothing? Eddy seeing things?”

Now that she was out of Dale’s earshot, Amé leaned in: “You okay?”

Danny made a face, embarrassed. “Yeah, he caught me by surprise. Hit me with a goddamn skillet.”

“I figured,” she said, trying to hide half a smile, there and gone again. “There’s still egg in your hair.” She reached up and brushed it away, her touch quick and light. If she let it linger, Danny couldn’t tell. His hair had grown out in the last year—not too long, but regular, civilian length. It had been shaved down to nothing when they first met, and he didn’t want her to ever see him like that again. He didn’t ever want to be that person again.

“Now what?”

Danny nodded toward the path through the cane. “I’m going down there, and you’re going to stay wide of me, off to my right.” He looked around, pointed. “Work your way to that palo verde, see if I flush anything back toward you. Someone could have snuck out of the trailer while I was talking with Eddy.”

“You mean while he was distracting you?”

“Yeah,” Danny said through gritted teeth. “That.”

She eyed his Colt, the small one he’d carried for this deal. It was easy to hide but it wasn’t meant for something serious, and neither of them knew exactly how serious this was. “You want me to go back to the truck, get the rifle?”

“No, I’m good. Let’s just get in there and get this over with.”

“Bien, vamos a hacerlo.”

He nodded, uncertain. He’d tried here and there to learn Spanish, not like Sheriff Cherry, who’d been studying seriously for months, and still only understood half the things she said.

But she tapped him once on the shoulder before moving off, sharing that half smile again. Their secret. It was a smile he’d grown used to since those days when she came to sit with him in the hospital after Jesse Earl; a smile he’d miss if he didn’t see it at least once a day.

A smile that had kept him in the Big Bend, and would, for as long as she was here.

“Ten cuidado, Deputy Ford. Keep an eye out for skillets . . .”

—

DANNY MOVED INTO THE CANE.