It happened in Kernville one blistering, hot day in mid-summer. A dark complexioned woman, her features hidden behind a heavy veil, rented a Surrey at the livery stable. She drove south on Main Street, until she reached the shade of a large cottonwood tree, where she was joined by two men; Lenny Crater, whose nervous voice betrayed a constant state of inner fear, and Big Mike Monahan, the woman's husband.