A CEMETERY FOR ONE

Buddy Mills and his eight-year-old son Tommy are exploring the pinyon-juniper woodland on the edge of Fisher Mesa in the LaSal Mountains looking for monarch butterflies to tag and release. Tommy catches one in his net and Buddy teaches him how to tag it. While doing so, he tells Tommy about the Southwest Monarch Study program in which they are participating. After the tagging is completed and the monarch released, they notice that their dog Django is missing.
They search for him and call out his name. They finally find him tugging on a bone protruding from the ground. Can't blame a dog for stopping for a bone, Buddy thought. Then he noticed the skeletal fingers connected to the bone.
Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera investigates and figures it was either a rogue burial or a murder. He soon learns it was a murder committed some twenty years ago. Before he can begin to determine the motive for the murder and the identity of the killer, his immediate problem is how to identify the victim who was buried with no means of identification. It turns out to be the toughest investigation Rivera has ever undertaken.