Murder at the Sundown Ranch. A Diego Parker Mystery

A quiet family breakfast shatters when Sheriff Diego Parker is called to Bum's Jungle, where two boys have found a dead man in the brush near the infamous Sundown Ranch. The victim is Danny Green, son of one of San Ramon's most powerful families, and the riverbank immediately begins telling the wrong story. There is no blood where Danny lies-only tire tracks, raw cotton clinging to his clothes, and a broken mirror that points toward a killer trying to hide the truth.
Diego follows the evidence from the Green ranch to the Sundown Ranch and then into the cotton yard, where every clue tightens around Danny's brother, David. David's red Ford is missing a mirror, its passenger side freshly washed, and Russell McElroy finally admits he saw David drag Danny from his truck near the Southwest Cotton Gin. In the cotton bales, Diego finds the scene of the killing: blood, shotgun pellets, drag marks, and tire evidence buried in the dust.
But in San Ramon, truth is not enough when power has something to lose. County attorney Donny Davidson moves quickly to protect the Green name. He blocks the evidence, removes Diego and Spinny from the investigation, and builds a cleaner, crueler lie: that Silvy, the bruised woman Danny assaulted at the Sundown Ranch, murdered him in revenge. Lola and Charlie are threatened into helping sell the false story, and Silvy becomes the sacrifice a respectable town is willing to make.
With the law twisted against the innocent, Diego and Rosa choose the only justice still within reach. They arrange Silvy's escape by bus to Los Angeles, sending her toward freedom with money, a new chance, and the mysterious Tohono ghost Wegi watching over her. Diego returns to City Hall knowing David may never answer for Danny's murder, but also knowing that saving Silvy from becoming another buried truth may be the bravest act left to him.