Rusty Redtail, a Mescalero Apache, rookie FBI agent is dispatched to remote western New Mexico to solve the brutal murder of Federal BLM Ranger Jimmy Hanson.
This out-of-the-way area is plagued with unsolved murders, disappearances and other, unexplained events ranging from the mysterious disappearance and suspected murder of county sheriff Bucky Tuttle back in 1955 to the death of a Chicago cattle buyer at the Hoof Highway railhead way back in 1897.
There are two common connections: the powerful—but presumed extinct—Wolf family, and their secret repository, the legendary Eagle Well. Ranger Jimmy Hanson, an amateur treasure hunter, had been searching for this so-called well and the rumored fortune of old gold eagle coins and stash of incriminating information hidden in it. Had he found it—or died trying?
Rusty believes this illusive Eagle Well holds the keys to his solving all the old, and even this new, crime. But does it?The grisly murder of Federal BLM Ranger Jimmy Hanson is an unusual event in the remote New Mexico county of San Agustin. Major crimes here are rare – so is solving them. Rusty Redtail, a young, Apache FBI agent, digs deep by peeling open information from old, unsolved cases such as the disappearance of the sheriff in 1955 and even the death of a cattle buyer in 1897. Two links unite then and now: the once-dominant Wolf family and the gold coins claimed to be hidden in the elusive Eagle Well. Problem is, the Wolf clan is believed to all be dead and Eagle Well is generally thought to be mere local lore.