Scavengers

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Posadas County Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman parked her Expedition between the deputy’s unit and the chain-link fence surrounding the gravel pit. She sat for a few minutes with the engine switched off and the driver’s-side window open. Five hundred yards east, Deputy Jackie Taber stood on a slight rise in the prairie, waiting.

With the radio on the short-range frequency, Estelle pushed the transmit bar. “Do you need anything from your vehicle, Jackie?” Given the choice whether to jolt and jar over the prairie in the stiffly sprung department unit or walk, it was predictable which route the deputy had taken. It wouldn’t have surprised Estelle to see Jackie sitting on a rock, sketch pad in hand.

“That’s negative, ma’am.”

“I’ll be over in a few minutes.” The radio barked static twice by way of confirmation. In the distance, a raven vented a single raucous croak of his own, irritated at being driven away from his lunch. The sound floated clear and clean with no wind to play tricks. Beside the Expedition, a few sparse wands of prairie grass stood delicately motionless, their seed hulls long since blown.

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