...here he stood in the sweltering Shenandoah Valley his shirt already damp at nine-thirty in the morning and a whole day ahead of him. Sheriff Ike Schwartz duly elected by the people and sworn to enforce the laws of the United States the State of Virginia the County of Rockbridge and the incorporated town of Picketsville. He was also expected to bend those laws here and there overlook the kids with a keg in Craddock's woods the incestuous family of Craddock himself and turn a blind eye to the broken speed limits parking violations and certain cash transactions entered into by members of the Town Council. An easy life all in all. He reckoned as negligible the number of serious crimes difficult cases or dangerous situations he experienced. And then...