KILLING THE OLD COWBOY: A Pioneertown Murder (The Morongo Murders Book 3)

Liz Jameson had a history of going to crime scenes before the bodies were rolled. Not many deputy district attorneys considered it a part of their job, but crime scene investigators and most homicide detectives loved her for it. But the scene in Pioneertown was different. Pioneer had been a permanent movie set established by Gene Autry, Dick Curtis, and Roy Rogers during the mid-20th Century, not just store front but a functional town, with a motel, a bowling alley, post office, dance hall and saloon, and during the years when traditional westerns flourished, so did the town. The lead actors lived there during filming, and many of the supporting actors were local. One of them was a handsome man with chiseled features and a perennial tan named Ray Grant, who looked nothing like the octogenarian billionaire high-tech entrepreneur whose body was posed at the entrance to the dilapidated office/tack room at the replica of Tombstone, Arizona’s O.K. Corral. The body was costumed in western dress, complete with a six thousand dollar pristine white Stetson Diamante on his head and a Peacemaker on his lap. The entire crime scene had been staged. It was no less bizarre than the fact that the network news crews hovering at the perimeter of the evidence tape had been tipped off by their news desks before the sheriff’s received a 9-1-1 call . Liz was standing with her case agent when sergeant Gonzales asked the pathologist if he had any observations or advice to offer after doing a cursory in situ examination, and his one word response was “Retire”.