Breaking Point

confirming his worst suspicions, and signaled for Underwood to come over to him. Joe watched the exchange with interest. Underwood approached Reed and Batista and said, “Sheriff, we’re taking possession of this crime scene. I need you to get your men to stand down until we can get our people in place.”
    Reed said evenly, “That’s not going to happen, gentlemen. I know how this works. This is my county and my jurisdiction. We’re in the middle of a murder investigation, and we’re gathering evidence and securing the scene. When you show me a court document signed by a judge ordering me to turn over my county to you, I might consider it.”
    Batista glared down at the sheriff but seemed too surprised to speak. He looked over anxiously to Underwood, who was stone-faced.
    “Until that happens,” Reed said, “I need you and your . . . assistant to move out beyond the crime scene tape and stop interfering with our work.”
    Batista said, “Mr. Underwood is not an assistant, Sheriff. He’s our chief of law enforcement operations, and he brings years of experience from the FBI, the CIA, and Special Operations. There’s no one we can trust more to carry out an investigation like this.”
    Joe assessed Underwood, who looked both cold and capable. Underwood showed no reaction to Batista’s praise.
    Batista took a half-step back, and turned to Chuck Coon, obviously anticipating backup.
    Out of the corner of his eye, Joe saw Coon shrug. Batista looked as if he’d been slapped.
    “You have nothing to worry about,” Reed said, loud enough that his men could hear. “We know what we’re doing. We’ll get the bad guy, and we’ll do it right. We might even request federal law enforcement assistance from Mr. Coon here,” he said, nodding toward the agent, “but that’s our call, not yours.”
    “This is a federal crime,” Batista said. “Two officers of the U.S. government were murdered in cold blood. This has never happened before in my agency—
never
. I can’t run the risk of turning it over to a local Barney Fife and his band of amateurs. I hope you understand. This isn’t personal, but you have a small department. I can bring in the manpower and expertise of the federal government.”
    Joe saw Reed’s face flush red, but the sheriff kept his calm. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Mr. Batista, but you’re not taking over this investigation. Up here, we don’t care if a murder victim is a federal employee or a local cowpoke. We treat all crimes seriously, and we vigorously investigate and prosecute them. Besides, I’m not exactly sure the shooting of two
armed men
can be considered murder in cold blood.
    “At this point, Mr. Batista,” Reed continued, his tone icy, “we don’t know what happened yet. We are hoping you and your agency might be able to shed some light on the situation, in fact. We don’t know if these two poor fellows showed up without warning on private land and waved their guns around in the air and got shot in self-defense, or perceived self-defense, or if they were ambushed or what. That’s why we do an investigation.”
    Joe considered Julio Batista. The man looked apoplectic. His hands shook. Underwood reached out and placed his hand on Batista’s shoulder to calm him. Batista shook it off.
    “I will have your job for this,” he said to Reed.
    “No need for that kind of talk,” Reed said calmly. “There are elections for that. Now please take Mr. Underwood and clear the crime scene so we can get to work. We want to make sure there aren’t other bodies in that hole, and we’re gathering any physical evidence we can find.”
    Again, Batista looked to Coon for assistance. Coon said calmly, “We might want to do that, Director Batista. We’re losing our light, and it might be best to let these guys do their work while they still can.”
    Batista glared at Coon, obviously feeling betrayed. To Reed, Batista said, “I want you to put all of your effort and resources into finding this Butch Roberson. I want him thrown in a cage quickly for what he did to my men.”
    “We’ll do our job,” Reed said through clenched teeth.
    “I’ll make it known that we want this man,” Batista said. “We want an example set of what happens to people when they murder public servants. I’ll make it known that we’ll reward anyone who comes forward with information leading to his immediate arrest.”
    “You’ll offer a
reward
?” Reed asked, incredulous. He took a deep