Huebner David A Huebner

The Grulla Paint Murders Huebner David A Huebner

Ben Pike, Saguaro County's most notorious citizen has been brutally murdered. Deputy Evan Coleman of the Saguaro Sheriff's Department finds him at his hunting camp in the mountains adjacent to his ranch. Puzzled by the circumstances and condition of the body, Evan calls the Colorado CSI. Led by Doctor Cheree Nicoletti, investigators join Evan at the remote mountain crime scene early the next morning. Two clues point to a perpetrator, a strawberry blonde riding a grulla paint horse. Intrigued by both the case and Deputy Coleman, Dr. Nicoletti involves herself in the hunt for the perpetrator. The search leads to a young woman, Sarah Browning, who was brutalized by Pike and his two sons as a teenager sixteen years earlier. She has means and opportunity, but Evan is not willing to accept her as guilty. Soon after, Ben's elder son, Abel, is also murdered. Raleigh Pike, Abel's estranged wife, provides additional information that leads Evan back to Sarah and her brother Jake. Jake has motive, means and opportunity, too. Also the strawberry blonde hair is a genetic match to Sarah's young daughter, and Jake is acquainted with Raleigh. After pursuing some additional dead ends, including Jason Pike, Ben's younger son, and his girlfriend, a strawberry blonde named Veronica Valdez, Evan arrests Jake for the two murders. Believing he's been framed by Jason, Jake escapes custody and goes to the Pike place to confront Jason. At that point, everything deteriorates rapidly including the weather and Evan is forced into a gunfight during a raging snowstorm.