Mineral Springs, Nevada.

Small town off Highway 80 in the heart of the state's northern gold mining district — something of a desert boomtown now with the current price of gold at $1,250 per troy ounce and a dozen nearby working mines large and small producing millions of ounces per year. County seat of sparsely settled Bedrock County, population 4,300 at the last census, its nearest neighbor of any size, Battle Mountain, more than thirty miles distant. Blue-collar place, most of its residents involved in the mining industry or in cattle ranching and agriculture. Two small casinos, one licensed brothel, and a clutch of motels on its six-block-long main drag, small businesses on sidestreets and in outskirt strip malls, and a big box-type mall under construction near the highway. Not much else to recommend it unless you were into prospecting, off-road vehicle runs, exploring the crumbling ruins of old ghost towns, or yearned to have a fling at backcountry gambling.

That was pretty much all I knew about Mineral Springs, courtesy of Tamara and the Internet, when I pulled in there at six-thirty on a cold, clear Tuesday night in late autumn. The four-hundred-and-fifty-mile drive from San Francisco had taken more than eight hours, with a couple of rest and refueling stops along the way, and I was gritty-eyed, all-over stiff, and pretty damn weary. Too old to be making long, straight-through drives like this. What my body craved now that it was over was something to eat and then eight or nine hours of uninterrupted sleep. But it would be a while before I crawled into bed for the night. Maybe a long while.

I drove down Main Street, past the neon glitter of the casino signs, looking for the Goldtown Motel — Mineral Springs' best-rated hostelry, according to Tamara's searches. There were stop signs at the intersections, but no stoplights. No parking meters, either, that I could see. As early as it was, most of the side-street storefronts were dark. The casinos, the motels, three or four restaurants and taverns, the brothel, a service station — they were the only businesses that seemed open behind bright winks and shimmers of neon and sodium vapor lighting.

What would it be like to live in an isolated place like this? Not bad for some, but for a woman like Cheryl ...

I put the thought out of my head. Now that I was here I could feel a thin edge of tension building in me that had nothing to do with the long hours behind the wheel, and I didn't need to ramp it up with idle speculation.

The Goldtown was on the fourth block east, a Hail Mary pass's distance from the state-sanctioned whorehouse called Mama Liz's. Two stories built in an L shape around an asphalt parking area and shaded by a small oasis of trees; an oversized neon sign in front emblazoned its name on the night sky. Otherwise there was nothing to distinguish it from a small-town motel anywhere in the country.

The lobby was small and cramped, but they'd still found room for one of Nevada's ubiquitous one-armed bandits. A middle-aged woman with carrot-colored hair located the reservation Tamara had made for me and said effusively after I'd registered, "We have you in number nine, ground floor rear, one of our nicest rooms." Right. The accolade was accurate only if you considered a blandly decorated unit marred by a couple of wall dents, a somewhat threadbare carpet, and an armchair with a taped tear in the seat to be a nice room.

It was clean, though, thanks to such liberal use of Lysol that the air seemed choked with its odor. In the bathroom I doused my face with cold water, scrubbed my eyes free of grit. The tub-and-shower looked inviting, but I didn't give into the lure just yet. The double bed turned out to be comfortable if you liked sleeping on a mattress as hard as a brick bench. Not even a slight give when I sank down on it.

I half expected not to get a signal when I flipped open my cell phone, but life is full of little surprises. I tapped my home number, and as if she'd been waiting close to the phone, Kerry answered on the second ring.

"Well, I'm in Mineral Springs," I said.

"Good. I was starting to worry a little." Another electronic surprise: her voice came clear and sharp. "How was the trip?"

"Long and tedious. But uneventful."

"Uneventful is always the best kind." Pause. "Have you seen her yet?"

"No. Just checked into the motel. I wanted to check in with you first. Everything okay there?"

"Fine." Another pause. "I hope ..."

"What do you hope?"

"That you can do something to help her. That you haven't traveled all that distance for nothing."

"So do I. But now that I'm here ... I don't know, I'm not so sure it was the right decision."

"Why not?"

"Not because it means seeing Cheryl again, I don't mean that. The SOS itself, the situation, the nature of the crimes. A mining town in the middle of nowhere, a place full of strangers ... I'm out of my element."

"You've worked in rural environments before," Kerry said. "You know people and you know your business."

"Not this kind of business."

"Are you trying to talk yourself out of going ahead with this — now, after driving four hundred and fifty miles?"

"No. It's too late for that."

"Well, you seem to be having second thoughts."

"Not really," I said, which wasn't quite true. "I'm just tired, that's all."

Kerry knew when to let a subject drop. She said, "Call me again when you can. And don't forget your promise."

The promise, a solemn one made to her after I'd had yet another close brush with lethal violence in September, was that I'd do everything in my power to stay out of harm's way in the future. I said, "Don't worry, I won't forget."

That was all except for an exchange of good-byes. I wanted to tell her I loved her, but it wouldn't have sounded right under the circumstances; we rarely exchanged endearments over the phone. She knew I loved her, she didn't need constant reassurance any more than I did of her love for me. And she knew, too, that she had nothing to worry about, now or ever, where my fidelity was concerned.

I unpacked my suitcase, stripped, took a hot shower to get rid of the driving fatigue, put on a clean shirt and slacks. And then went out and sat once more on the brick-hard bed.

"I know I have no right to ask for your help after what happened twenty years ago, but there's no one here I can turn to and I don't know anyone else. You're my only hope."

Cheryl's voice on the agency phone. An anxiety-ridden voice that I hadn't recognized until she identified herself. What had I felt then? Surprise, a few moments of unbelief and confusion until she explained why she was calling after two decades of silence. But that was all. No pangs of nostalgia, no pulse quickening, no emotional reaction of any kind. Too much time had passed. What had been and almost been between us belonged to a part of my life that seemed so remote now it was as if someone else had lived it.

"It's not me I'm asking for, it's my son Cody. He's only nineteen, he's all I have in the world. He didn't do what they say he did, but no one believes him except me. I know that sounds like a mother's blind faith but I swear to you he's innocent."

Only nineteen and all she had. She must have borne the boy a year or two after the tragedy that ended our relationship. Cheryl Rosmond, she'd said on the phone...