Death on the Rig

Sheriff Milt Kingston has worked oil deaths before. Men slip, harnesses fail, and the company safety man writes it up neat. But when roughneck Jared Pike turns up impaled on a derrick beam under a clear winter sky, the scene won't lie the way the paperwork wants it to. The latch is wrong. The weld is fresh. And Jared was the careful one.

In a Basin where the Church, the rigs, and the courthouse all share the same potluck tables, calling a death "suspicious" sends ripples. Company supervisors push for an accident ruling. Ward leaders talk about keeping the peace. Milt's own family feels the strain as neighbors pull back and a fast, generous settlement tempts Jared's widow into silence.

Milt and his deputy, Clara Ray, follow what they can touch and prove: tool marks on steel, grease on a rail, a backdated weld receipt, phantom "safety bonuses" in a payroll ledger, and a camera that just happens to go dark. Every clue points higher than a roughneck with a temper. To solve Jared's murder, Milt will have to walk a tight line between the law he swore to uphold and the community that raised him-and confront a safety manager who treats one "bad fall" as the cost of doing business.