Paco Valdez

AR

You veer away from you present course and head for town, hopping the old knee-high wooden fence that surrounds the Vigilante property.

"Stop him!" You hear from behind you. You glance over your shoulder to see the three men who were standing outside the stables charging after you.

Your feet soon fall on the packed dirt road that goes through the center of Fullton, and you follow it all the way to the doorsteps of the building which you swore you would never enter. Printed above the swinging doors was one word: Sheriff.

You ascend the three steps and push through the door looking around frantically and finding a man wearing a golden star sitting behind a desk and smoking a pipe.

"Sheriff," you say, "You have to help me!"

"Shore, I'll help ya, mister.", he says, "But I ain't the sheriff. I'm jus' the deputy. Sheriff Valdez will be back momentarily."

You swallow hard. "I'm sorry," you say, "What did you say the sheriff's name was?"

"Sheriff Manuel Valdez." He says proudly. "Finest man to wear the badge."

Somehow you doubt the deputy's proclamation. Manuel Valdez. Brother to Paco Valdez. You tend to believe that the lawlessness runs in the family and that telling Manuel Valdez that his own brother is sending people after you will do you more harm than good. But maybe this Valdez is the good one. Perhaps the brothers are like night and day. One of them is a sheriff after all. They don't just let anyone become sheriff, do they?

Do they?