Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(12)
“Where do you want us?” Josie asked.
“One of my guys said there were some structures, maybe a barn, burnt over on the western edge of the fire. We used Prentice Canyon Road as a firebreak. I didn’t think anything burned west of that road last night. Check that area first.”
Josie nodded.
“Just assure me you won’t go poking around buildings that may still be smoldering. You could have a roof that looks fine collapse, or a floor cave in. I’ve seen it happen.”
*
Several thousand acres of ground were intentionally burned each year throughout Arroyo County. Ranchers set fire to their lands to keep the dead brush to a minimum. The bigger ranches used spray rigs to water down their cattle and take care of small fires on their properties. Seeing burned land was nothing new, and with the summer rains the vegetation would come back in a matter of months. But to see homes and livestock buildings burned was a different matter. Neither Josie nor Otto had seen the affected areas of the county on their drive into town to meet with Doug that morning. Now, driving north along Prentice Canyon, the edge of the fire, they began to see smoldering barns and charred ground the color of coal.
“I’d hate to see what the mudflats look like,” said Josie.
The road curved along through the desert hills, but she noticed that the fire hadn’t crossed the gravel expanse.
“This road saved the western part of the county,” Otto said, noticing as well. “Why don’t we have mandatory firebreaks? We’d at least have some protection from smaller fires.”
“Who’s going to tell these ranchers they have to give up acreage for a firebreak? They use their own brush trucks and stock ponds to keep their land safe. They don’t want the county telling them what to do.”
“Not every rancher takes care of business. The fire finds the void and spreads.”
It was an old conversation. What appeared to be a simple solution would turn into a court battle that no one was prepared, or had the money, to fight.
She pulled down the driveway of the first ranch they reached. A sign that read NEW MOON RANCH hung over the end of the driveway. She drove several miles down the dirt lane back to the ranch house before passing two buildings that were blackened, but didn’t appear to be seriously damaged by the fire.
Josie pointed her finger out her side window. “You can see where the flames licked up the side of that barn. There just wasn’t enough fuel to let it catch.”
“Those grass fires burn like hell. But they burn so fast, they can pass by the big stuff.”
Josie slowed her jeep. “There’s somebody walking around the side of the barn.”
They both watched a man walk through the dusty lot. Josie drove down the dirt lane toward him. He wore blue jeans and a ranch shirt, and both were covered in black soot. Josie pulled her jeep up beside him and rolled down her window. His face was streaked with black. He put a hand out and Josie shook it through the window.
“I’m Joe Gutiérrez. I’m a ranch hand for Mike and Shelly Morris.”
“Chief Josie Gray, and this is Officer Otto Podowski. Your horses and cattle make it through the fire?” she asked.
“Every one of them.” He pointed to a field that lay beyond the barn. “The horses, I stayed with last night. We got the cattle to a clearing. Kept the fire back with water from the stock pond.”
“We’re glad to hear it. You need any help checking outbuildings this morning?”
“No, we’re fine. I heard the house up the road got hit hard. You might check there.”
“Will do. Take care,” she said.
Josie turned her jeep around in the barn lot and drove out along the ranch lane. “The next house up the road is the Nixes’.”
“That’s the country music people?”
“Billy Nix. He’s a singer, plays guitar. You ever heard him play?”
Otto made a dismissive noise. “Everybody drinking beer and crying and leaving. I have to put up with that nonsense with the yahoos we drag to jail. I don’t need it in my music.”
Josie smiled. “He’s pretty good. I’ve heard him at the Hell-Bent a few times. He’s hardcore country. Tries to come off like Waylon Jennings and David Allan Coe.” She glanced at Otto and saw by his blank expression that he had no idea who she was talking about. “Anyway, his wife, Brenda, is also his manager.”
“How’s a boss lady for a wife work for a hardcore country guy?”
“I don’t know. I hear she’s all business, all the time. Rumor is she’s negotiating a recording contract.”
About two miles past the New Moon Ranch they saw that the road had not stopped the fire from spreading west as Doug had thought. Scorched earth slowly spread out from the edge of the road into the pasture.
“Doug said the wind was gusting from the northeast. And everything we saw driving over here supports that. How would embers jump the road against the wind here?” Josie pointed off to the other side of the road. “It’s mostly sand and clumps of scrub brush.”
“One ember blowing in a crosscurrent could catch a clump of that grass,” Otto said.
As they drove another two miles down the road, the remnants of the fire spread farther into the field and down into a ravine. The steep valley made it impossible to see how far west the fire had traveled. This area of the county was sparsely populated, with no houses beyond the Nixes’. Another mile and the road ended at the base of Helio Mountain, which was part of the several-thousand-acre Oler ranch. The Nixes’ home wasn’t part of the ranching operation, and Josie was worried that it had been burned with no firefighters or ranchers to offer protection.