"Lee, Rachel - Lost Warriors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lee Rachel)

Cal Simi mons, the two EMTs, emergency medical technicians, on

Lost Warriors duty. They were keeping busy drinking pop and polishing the
wax on the ambulance.

A good day to go fishing down by the creek or walking along some backcountry
road. Maybe he could coax Marge into it, Nate thought as he stepped into the
cool office. Not that Marge seemed to want to do a whole lot lately, he
admitted Maybe it was getting on high time he asked her if something was
wrong.

The coffeemaker stood on a file cabinet beside Yuma's desk. It was
reasonably clean; a man didn't have to be reluctant to touch it to fi. c a
pot. It hadn't always been that way around Yuma, Nate recalled with a slight
shake of his head. Not always.

Just as the coffee was finishing up, Yuma stepped into the office, wiping his
hands on a rag. He was a tall, rangy man with a ravaged face and a limp he
couldn't always conceal. Looking at Yuma, a man knew he was looking at
someone who had an intimate acquaintance with hell.

His hair was still dark, though, and he'd filled out some in the past few
years, and his color was healthy as a man's ought to be, Nate thought. Yuma
was on the mend physiy , q p call at least. Well, mentally, too, or he
wouldn't be iloting the county's Medevac chopper.

Yuma scrubbed up quickly in the men's room and then joined Nate for a fresh
cup of coffee at the desk. Putting his feet up, he gave Nate a faint,
cockeyed smile. " " Just don't tell me the budget's been cut. We're on a
shoestring already. "

Nate shook his head. "Nothing so terrible. At least, not yet."

Yuma wasn't fooled. For Sheriff Nathan Tate to come out here in the middle
of the day, during duty hours, meant he was here on business. Obviously it
wasn't an emergency, but it was important or Nate would have picked up the
telephone When the radio on his hip squawked, Nate turned it down. No
interruptions. Yuma tensed inwardly, knowing somehow that he wasn't going to
like this at all.

"There's been some theft at some of the outlying ranches," Nate said. "More
than the usual stuff, I'm afraid.

And folks are blaming your friends up in the hills. " , Yuma's " friends up
in the hills" were homeless Vietnam veterans, men who had been unable to
readapt to society and a normal way of life. Until a few years ago, Yuma had
been one of them. Now, recovering, he did whatever he could to help them out.

"Nate, damn it, you know-"