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Graham gathered his phone and scrolled to some pictures.

“I know this isn’t much, but I looked around the sculptures and found something at both of them.” He held the phone toward me. “Matching heel prints, from a boot.” He lifted his own foot. “Unfortunately, it’s just like the one you told me that everyone buys. I got some too, but … maybe this will lead to something at some point.”

“It might. Show Calloway.”

“Right, I did. It isn’t much anyway. Even all the experts who came out to gather the sculptures didn’t look around much.”

“Really?”

“IDing the bones is Calloway’s priority. That’s what they were there for.”

“Sure.”

“What about the extra finger bones?”

I shrugged. “I haven’t been given a chance to look at them.”

“Damn. No one from Tucson has said a word. I’ll ask if they know anything more when I talk to them again.”

We both scanned the desert. A dust devil swirled up in the middle distance.”

“Hazel, you really haven’t heard from your father in all these years?” Graham asked.

“Not a word.”

“Do you think he’s still alive?”

Sometimes people who investigate crime or gruesome scenes weren’t careful with their words. It wasn’t that we were intentionally careless, we just knew we needed to get answers as quickly as possible. The question didn’t bother me, but it surprised me a little.

“I have no sense of it at all. I don’t ‘feel’ him, dead or alive. I wish I did.”

“What about your mother?”

That question surprised me even more. “She died in childbirth.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” Graham blinked as if maybe he was trying to go back in time and not ask that question. “Loss of a loved one can ruin you.”

I didn’t explain my complicated feelings about my mother. I’d never met her, so the loss of her wasn’t what he was talking about, but it was real, nonetheless. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Right. All right. You’re from here, and this place is …”

“Different?”

“It is that, but every place has its quirks.” He paused. “This place has something running through it that is … I wouldn’t say evil, but certainly unwelcoming. I feel like there should be a sign saying, “Go Away” or some such deterrent. A real black vulture eyed me as I entered.”

My first thought was that I hadn’t noticed what he was talking about. I wanted to defend my hometown because people liked to defend where they lived. But he wasn’t completely wrong.

“It’s brutal out here,” he continued. “Even with the modern amenities, it seems like it would be easy to get away with murder. There’s so much open space.”

He had another good point. I nodded. “Do you have any idea if the authorities have found a kill site? Where at least the first set of bones became defleshed? Maybe a place where the sculptures were created?”

Graham shook his head. “Calloway says they have no idea.”

“The bones didn’t just put themselves there, but I can see how someone could work unbothered, unnoticed for a few days. My impression is that someone worked somewhere else and then put the sculptures out there, put together.”

“I agree, but I’ll keep looking around. I’ve run into plenty of wildlife. Snakes, scorpions, javelinas—they stink. Bats.” He nodded toward the caves.

“You’ve been busy.”