Kate’s Dodge Power Wagon waited for them in Riggins where a driver from Salmon had left it with her keys under the floor mat. From Riggins, they drove to Grangeville and the ER where Snorri’s cut was stitched and his ankle set in a cast. David left him with four hundred dollars and painkillers.
Snorri apologized for scaring Ruby. He never intended to hurt himself, he said. He only wanted to test her love. He was sure he wouldn’t return to Seattle. He thought he might head south to Los Angeles and become an actor. He asked Ruby if she minded if he wrote her.
At the Grangeville police department, Dominic and Quinn filed complaints against Troy Mason and the Jenkins brothers. Mason was wanted in New Mexico on suspicion of murder and eight counts of fraud. He had outstanding warrants in Texas, Florida, Hawaii, and California. Quinn identified the spot on a topo map where Mason was last seen inside an M4A2 Sherman tank approximately four miles northwest of the juncture of the Salmon River’s Main Fork and Bargamin Creek.
FBI agents arrived from Boise. They interviewed all parties about The Adolph Brotherhood, otherwise known as TAB, the brainchild of the Jenkins brothers. In its recruitment literature, TAB claimed credit for assaults on African exchange students in Nevada, death threats to rabbis in Idaho and Oregon, and arson activities at black churches and migrant farm worker camps in California. Since the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, the Jenkinses had been under surveillance. Kidnapping charges were filed against Justice Jenkins by the parents of fourteen-year-old Hazel Alcock and later dropped. That same year, TAB was the subject of a Southern Poverty Law Center investigation, which included interviews with Hazel’s parents. Occasionally, the Jenkinses’ uncle, Henry Fleet, sold information on TAB activities to the FBI and ATF.
Marnie Bass arrived in Boise and drove to Grangeville. She invited everyone back to the homestead in Salmon for a few days of rest, including Dom Gambolli.
Jenkins and his entourage disappeared quickly. Eli hurried to his small ranch near Colorado Springs, Justice to Sacramento. Hazel’s faith in divine providence had been strengthened and the circle of Jesus’s protection expanded to include Jews and colored people. She had two secrets she intended to keep from her husband: three hundred dollars and the telephone number of the clinic in Zamora.
The National Park Service raided Patriot Park and found it empty of human habitation except for Troy Mason. They towed out the tank. They removed the trash and supplies. Troy was taken into custody and airlifted by police helicopter from the Lazy OK to Grangeville.
In Zamora, Elaine Beasley prepared her letter of resignation effective upon Dr. Tanner’s return.
After a half-hearted attempt at suicide, August was now on anti-depressants and under psychiatric care.
Over two weeks had passed since the night Hector Trujillo found Troy Mason shot in the knee and Ruby Ryan vanished. The Spanish farmers were gathered on Zamora’s only blacktop road. Hector stood beside his brothers, cousins, an old uncle, and several lifelong friends. They were waiting for Dr. Tanner, Kate, and Ruby, expected to arrive at sunset, the high desert’s most beautiful moment.
Hector had aired and tidied both households, stocked each larder with milk, tortillas, coffee, and homemade goat cheese. Marie Luisa had watered Dr. Tanner’s roses and fed Kate Ryan’s chickens. In addition, David had insisted that his opera tickets not go wasted. Hector took his wife to hear Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, which he later told Dr. Tanner was even greater than their wedding night.