Hayward is a sleepy Southwestern town full of cattle, trucks, and tumbleweeds. Virgil Dalton’s been the sheriff for over a dozen years and has lived there all his life. It’s a place where everybody pretty much knows everybody—but they don’t know each other’s secrets…

Buddy Hinton is just a good ole boy. So when he disappears after a night drinking at the Black Bull, his friends just figure he went down to Mexico to find himself a girlfriend and eventually will come back. But this case quickly becomes a homicide after the sheriff discovers the missing man floating in one of his stock tanks.

For a man who wasn’t known to have enemies, Buddy clearly upset someone. Figuring out who that was will require Virgil and his deputy, Jimmy, to retrace Buddy’s last steps—and to remain a step ahead of a murderer who may have no qualms about killing again …