“Let me find that message,” Baird said. “I grabbed it at the office before I left.” Joe could hear paper being unfolded. “Special Agent Chuck Coon called. He wants me to call him back regarding what we found or didn’t find in the mountains.”

“I know Coon,” Joe said, remembering that the governor had also mentioned federal interest. “He’s a good enough guy, but I don’t know why they’re interested.”

Said Baird, “DCI, FBI, the National Enquirer. You sure as hell know how to stir up a hornet’s nest. For nothing, I might add.”

“They’re up there,” Joe said. “The Grim Brothers, Terri Wade, and the mystery woman. You just didn’t manage to find them. They know those mountains better than anyone alive, and they probably watched you the whole time. Luckily, you had numbers and firepower on your side so they left you alone.”

Said Baird, “They sure as hell did.”

“Come on, sheriff. You’re well aware of all the break-ins and vandalism over the last couple of years. You’ve heard from ranchers who’ve pulled their cattle from leases. You knowthey’re up there.”

Baird was silent.

“Look,” Joe said, “I’m sorry you couldn’t find them. And I’m sorry about your budget. But those brothers will stay up there and something else will happen unless they’re located. We both know that.”

Baird said, “I don’t know a damned thing, Joe, other than I’m pulling into the parking lot of the county building right now where I’ve got to go inside and tell the county commissioners that I’ve blown the entire annual discretionary budget of the sheriff’s department and it’s just September. You want to drive down here and explain it to them with me?”

Joe said, “I can’t leave my house right now.”

“Thought so.”

“But I wish I could,” Joe said. He sounded lame even to himself.

“I need to hang up now. I’ve gotta go let the commissioners peel the bark off me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You sure are.” With that, Baird punched off.

The woman who answered the phone in the state Department of Administration and Information Human Resources office in Cheyenne said, “I’ve got three minutes to help you or you’ll need to call back.”

Joe glanced at the digital clock on his desk. It was 11:57 a.m.

“You go to lunch in three minutes?” Joe asked.

“Two minutes now,” she said.

Joe closed his eyes briefly, took a breath, and asked her to confirm that either Bobby McCue or Robert McCue was employed by the State of Wyoming. Joe knew that although additional information couldn’t be given out regarding personnel information, the state was obligated to provide the names of employees because it was public record.

“Spell it,” she said. Joe tried M-C–C-U-E to no avail. He suggested M-C–C-E-W, then M-C-H-U-G-H. No hits on her computer system. “You’ll have to try back later,” she said.

Said Joe, “I realize it’s noon and noon is your lunch break. But can you please give me five more minutes? I promise I’ll buy you lunch next time I’m in Cheyenne.”

Through gritted teeth, she said she had to go and she did.

At 12:01, Joe called the Department of Criminal Investigation and asked for Bobby McCue’s voice mail.

“We don’t have an employee with that name,” the receptionist said.

“Thank you.” Joe slammed down the phone and moaned. Tube raised his head and cocked it inquisitively.

Joe threw back the curtains and shoved the window open. Nedney looked up, surprised.

“Hey, Ed,” Joe said. “Get off of my lawn.”

Nedney looked down at his feet. The tips of his shoes had crossed the property line.

“Hey, you’re trampling my grass,” Joe said.

“Is that what it is?” Nedney said, slowly removing the pipe from his mouth, a self-satisfied smile on his lips.

“Good one,” Joe conceded and closed the window and put the drapes back in place, already sorry he’d taken his frustration out on his neighbor.

As he limped through the kitchen with his bucket of tools, bound for the mudroom to fix the door that wouldn’t shut properly, he felt he was being watched. Joe paused and slowly turned around. Tube was right with him, as always, but the sensation hadn’t come from his dog.

Had Nedney entered his backyard?

Slowly, Joe raised his eyes to the window over the sink that overlooked his back lawn.

Nate cocked his eyebrows at him from outside. Through the glass, Nate mouthed, “Hey.”

Joe grinned. It had been a long time.

Joe and Nate worked together on dinner. Joe had pronghorn antelope backstraps in the freezer from the previous fall, and Nate rubbed the meat with sage, garlic, salt, and pepper and prepared it for the grill. Joe roasted green beans in the oven and boiled potatoes on the stove for mashing later. Nate said, “This is uncomfortably domestic.”

Said Joe, “This is the least I can do since I’m rattling around the house all day. At some point in the very near future, though, I may need to learn how to do something besides grill red meat every night.”

Nate cocked his head to the side the way a puzzled falcon did. “Why?”

Joe chinned toward the kitchen window where Nate had stood earlier and said, “Why’d you scare me like that?”

“I couldn’t let anyone see me come in the front door,” Nate said, shaping a long sheet of foil to wrap around the meat to catch the drippings. “I’m still a wanted man, remember? I saw your neighbor out front, and by the look of him he seems like the type of guy who would call the cops on me because I look suspicious.”

“You’re right about that,” Joe conceded. “But haven’t things cooled down now since Coon took over the FBI field office?” Joe asked. Coon had replaced Special Agent Tony Portenson, who’d finally gotten his wish and had been reassigned to the East Coast as a reward for breaking the Stenko case the fall before. Although Nate was officially still a fugitive, Coon had told Joe that he planned to redirect the agents previously assigned to capturing Nate to other cases. The same way prosecutors had discretion, bureau chiefs had some leeway on the priorities of their offices, Coon had explained with a slight wink.

“Let’s just say I haven’t heard of any intense efforts to find me lately,” Nate said. “I’ve got a friend or two in the federal building who keep me informed on things like that.”

Joe said, “I don’t want to hear any more.”

Nate smiled and winked. Nate had connections everywhere, and Joe didn’t want to know who they were or how they knew Nate. The less he knew about Nate’s background, means of support, or day-to-day life, the better, he thought. As it was, he knew he could be brought up on charges for harboring a fugitive.

While Joe plucked the potatoes out of the pot to cool, he told Nate the story of what had happened in the Sierra Madre. Nate was intensely interested, but listened in silence while nodding his head. Finally, he said, “I’ve got a couple of questions.”

“I’m sick of answering questions about it,” Joe said. “Nobody seems to believe me, anyway.”

“I can see why,” Nate said, raising his eyebrows. “So I’ll boil them all down to one.”

Joe nodded.

“When are we going up there to find those bastards?”

Before Joe could answer, the front door opened and Marybeth stepped in, trailed by April and Lucy. All three froze when they saw Joe and Nate in the kitchen.

“Oh, my,” Marybeth said, her eyes wide.

“Who is that?” April asked Lucy, taking in Nate from his ponytail to his scuffed boots. Joe saw Marybeth grimace involuntarily at April’s reaction. And he saw April’s face harden into a mask when Sheridan ran across the room and hugged her master falconer.

At the table later, Joe listened as Nate and Sheridan, who’d arrived late due to basketball practice, debated what kind of falcon should be her first to fly. Although she’d lost her passion in the sport for a while because she was angry with Nate, his presence seemed to have rekindled her interest. Sheridan thought she should start out with a prairie falcon, while Nate suggested she get and fly a merlin.