Page 99 (1/1)

PROLOGUE

NOAH CHANDLER GLOWERED at the file that lay open on his desk Failure was unacceptable He still couldn’t figure out how and why the bunch of fossilized,jackasses that constituted his city council had shot down his candidate for the job of police chief and chosen so him to make the offer

By God, he was going to choke on it

Noah had been trying to ta When he had won the election in November and had taken over the mayor’s office, he had known he would have to deal with a council coood ol’ boys incapable of objective, forward thinking So far he’d succeeded in inal inclination What he couldn’t figure out hy the rebellion had co so critical

Corruption ran deep in the Angel Butte Police Department, and this town needed someone fully competent to root it out, not a yeehaho knew Southern California gangs and hookers but had next to no adht set off the interstate and fill up the gas tank Had the city councilat all? Or were they interested only in thwarting him?

A third option had presented itself, and Noah liked it least of all What if a couple of those fine citizens serving on the council, influential with their peers, had real personaltrafficking and illegal payoffs floundered?

Fu, he picked up his phone and dialed

Three rings and a brusque male voice answered, “Raynor”

Noah unclenched his jaw “Lieutenant Raynor” His voice cael Butte, Oregon I’ to offer you the position of police chief You were the final choice of our city council”

There was a moment of silence that lent him hope The weather had been bitterly cold when Alec Raynor, a hoeles Police Departel Butte for the interview A blizzard had shut down the airport, delaying his departure for a day Maybe in the past week he’d rethought the whole idea of accepting the job here For all the line of bull he’d fed the the job were still a mystery to Noah

“What about you?” Raynor asked unexpectedly “Was I your choice?”

Noah swiveled in his desk chair to stare out theat a partial view of Angel Butte, one of the small cinder cones that dotted this volcanic country in central Oregon A nineteenth-century el, imported all the way froo, before Noah’s arrival in town, the angel had been given a granite pedestal to hoist her higher, maybe so she could keep a better eye on errant townsfolk

“No,” he said, blunt as always “I was in favor of a candidate who had significant administrative experience The job here doesn’t have much in common hat you do down there in LA We don’t have a lot of homicide cases to close Our proble, budget andour probably too-low-paid cops honest, he thought but didn’t say “Politicking to bring in the money Do you kno to do any of that, Lieutenant?”

“On a smaller scale, yes” There was a pause “Did you have experience in city government when you won the election, Mayor?”

Noah rubbed the heel of his hand over his breastbone to settle the burning coal beneath it “I’ a city isn’t all that different fro a business”

Raynor didn’t have to say, In other words, no

“This may not be what you want to hear, Mayor, but I accept your offer” The steel in Alec Raynor’s voice sounded like a challenge to Noah “As I indicated, I need to give notice here Is your acting police chief willing to stay on for another month?”

That was the next call Noah had to make: the one to Colin McAllister, to let hi offered the pero over well McAllister had every reason to think he had it in the bag