CHAPTER 28
Chaco, Margo, and Rocky dug a grave. Russell, weak from grief, clung to his wife and granddaughters and watched. The men swaddled Jude in a blanket, pushed him into the hole, and covered him with shovelfuls of soil. They piled stones and logs high over the mound.
“We need to make certain coyotes can’t get to Jude’s body,” Chaco said.
Rocky stripped two slender branches, and bound together with a bootlace, fashioning a cross. On a separate piece of flat wood hewn from the trunk of a cedar, he carved a message. Here lies Jude Walker, beloved son, husband, father, and a veteran who served his country. He nestled the wood among the rocks on the mound.
Abigail refused to see her son’s body shoved into a grave. “No, I can’t. And I don’t want the children to see it, either. They’ve
