After the search, Lyons finally spoke, his voice emotionless, beyond despair. "I'm going back to find Flor."

"There's not going to be anything to find, nothing that you'll recognize," Blancanales told him. "Let the fire department do it."

Lyons shook his head. "She's mine. I'll get her ready, I'll…" His voice faded away. Without speaking again, he left his partners. He walked the mile back to the crash site.

Two hours later, when a Drug Enforcement Agency car came for Blancanales and Gadgets, they joined Lyons at the wreckage.

Lyons stood in the desert, his back to the morgue workers who combed the scorched metal. They found only bones and ashes. With plastic gloves on their hands, the morgue workers put the pieces of a proud, brave woman in plastic bags for later positive identification.

Lyons walked east into the desert.