Summary

In Chapter 5, Tom, Rusty and Del went to Fort Peck. With the help of a makeshift tent and a tubful of ice-cold beers, Tom persuaded people at the reunion to talk about the past, while Del recorded their stories. Rusty learned that the Blue Eagle had been much livelier than the Medicine Lodge, with taxi dancers (women who danced with men for money) on the premises. The sheriff greeted Tom with frosty disapproval, and Rusty began to realize that his father had not always been a model of respectability. The sheriff told Tom that he had still not solved the case of an adulterous couple who had drowned in the river. As they were about to leave, a woman drove up to them.

In Chapter 6, the woman turned out to be Proxy Duff – a former taxi dancer at the Blue Eagle, and widow...