"You all did such great work solving cases in Ivywood, especially you, Adalet!" Chief Marquez congratulates crossing her arms with a wink, "but it's time to leave the glamour and glitz behind . . . We're headed to Rhine Canyon, the desert district. Rhine Canyon is a beautiful wilderness, if a little harsh . . . But it's also an excellent place to hide if you're breaking the law. The district's law enforcement could use our expertise. It appears that the officers there are a little overwhelmed . . ."

"Rhine Canyon . . . That's the place with all the UFO sightings, right? There seems to be one every week . . ." Frank commented.

"We don't need to be overly concerned about UFOs. There are more important issues, I'm sure..." she replied with an eye roll, "Adalet, I want you and Frank to head out to Rhine Canyon first to get a feel for the place."

"Great! It'll be like living in a country song. Let's head out on the road again!" he cheered.

"Make sure we have a full tank of gas this time!" Adalet calls after her partner as she rushes to catch up.

"Could our luck be any worse? A flat tire on a desert highway?!" Frank kicked the offending tire furiously, "give me a break!"

"And our phones have no reception, of course . . .'' Adalet rolled her eyes as she re-pocketed her phone.

"Adalet, could you check the trunk for a spare tire?" he asked kneeling to get a better look at the flat.

"Hang on a second, Frank," she says squinting in the harsh midday sun, "there's something off about that cactus over there..."

He groaned, "what now? You've spotted something odd? Well, I'll take care of the tire while you go investigate . . ."

While Frank stayed with the car and began working on changing the tire, Adalet and Hunter moved closer towards the cacti. It was a gruesome sight that they came upon; impaled in the cactus was the body of a young man whose face was frozen in fear. A quick check for a pulse revealed that there was no hope of saving him. Near the body, Hunter found a plastic badge that had faded due to its time spent in the intense sunlight. Adalet also spotted some skid marks on the road most likely from the killer driving away from the scene as fast as possible.

"Whoa!" Frank exclaimed as he appeared behind his partner, "some poor kid's been impaled on a cactus!"

"And there's no way a cactus did this on their own . . ." Adalet pondered, "which means this man was murdered!"

"What are the odds that we'd break down right by a dead body? Did you see anything else, Adalet?" he asked, the captain held up the badge, "a faded plastic badge, huh? The top of it says, "Red Stone Army Base" . . . Wonder what it's doing out here? I'm sure you'll unveil the missing information. You always do . . ."

"There's also that tire track," she adds, gesturing to the road.

"And that tire track wasn't left by our car," he jerked his thumb over his shoulder to point at their vehicle, "so it must have been left by the killer's! Let's have a look at the database to see which car it matches with!"

Adalet examined the faded ID badge first. She dusted along the face of the badge and recovered the missing information. A familiar face was printed on the badge in blank and white, with the person's name accompanying the picture.

"Holy horny toads! Is that Colonel Spangler on the badge you found on the crime scene?!" Frank shouted, "the last time we met Spangler, he was running the Army's crazy weather machine project in Jazz Town!"

"The badge says that he's now attached to the "Red Stone Army Base"," Adalet read.

"Nobody below a certain clearance level can access that place . . ." he commented.

"So you know what we need to do, Frank?" she inquires with a smirk.

He returned the smirk, "I'm with you, Adalet, let's call in Colonel Spangler and ask what his badge was doing at our crime scene!"

"But before we do that," she replies, putting the badge in her case and removing her tablet, "let's take a look at these tire tracks!"

"I sure hope you can find a match in the database," he said, "it could be essential for catching the killer!"

Adalet snapped a clear picture of the tire tracks, then uploaded it to the database. Luckily she was able to use her data to access the system, and she quickly worked to find the match to the tire marks. Once she had found a match, she showed her results to the elder cop.

"So the tracks left on the crime scene by the killer match tires used on pick-up trucks, huh?" Frank grunts, "no offence to your skills, Adalet, but we are in a desert. If a person isn't riding a horse, they're in a pick-up truck . . ."

Adalet cocked an eyebrow, "are you saying this isn't important information, Frank?"

He gulps, quickly jumping into a salute, "of course, you're right! Looking for a killer who drives a pick-up truck will be essential to finding who killed this poor kid!"

She chuckled, "that's what I thought... Come on, we still have a Colonel to talk to!"

While they drove back to the station, Adalet called Colonel Spangler and requested that he meet them at the station. Once they arrived, they were informed by the secretary that the suspect was waiting for them in their office. After relieving themselves of their evidence, they joined Spangler in the large office to find out why his ID badge was found near a dead body.

"Hmm . . . I can't seem to shake the Pacific Bay Police . . . To what do I owe the "pleasure", Capt. Adalet?" Colonel Spangler inquired with obvious sarcasm.

"We found your Army badge near a murder victim and was wondering how it got there . . ." Adalet responded, holding out the badge.

"I can't tell you anything about my activities in Rhine Canyon, as you might imagine . . ." he says, taking back his badge and slipping it into his breast pocket.

Frank looked skeptical, "taking a look at a photo shouldn't hurt your security clearance . . . Do you recognize this young man?"

"Yes actually," Spangler confirmed, glancing at the picture Frank had placed on the desk, "that's Cal Stark!"

"So you knew him! And you don't sound surprised to hear of his murder!" he adds, picking up on the Colonel's tone.

"Believe what you will. Cal lived on the only farm for miles. It's off Route 76. You can't miss it, Capt. Adalet," he tells them standing up to take his leave, "now if you'll excuse me, I have some top-secret work to do . . ."

"Isn't it convenient for Colonel Spangler that he can never tell us anything?" Frank whispers as they watched the man walk away.

"He might not be able to tell us anything about himself, be he did tell us something about our victim!" Adalet argued, "and we should follow it and head over to our victim's farm!"

Adalet and Frank drove out to the Stark farm as quickly as legally possible. They began searching the grounds once they arrived, hoping to find some more evidence or someone to talk to about Cal. They couldn't find anyone on the property, but they did find some scraps of a torn photo and a crate of animal feed.

"I have to ask, who farms wheat out in the desert?" Frank questions, admiring the acres of wheat in disbelief, "good thing it isn't a cactus farm. How ironic would that be?"

"As ironic as the fear of long words being "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedalio phobia," Adalet jokes.

He laughed, "ha! Anyway, looks like you found some clues, Adalet. Like . . . a torn photo . . . Are you sure it's not just trash?"

"For as long as we've been working together, you'd think you'd know better by now, Frank!" she rolled her eyes good naturally.

"And I do hope you didn't pick up that crate of animal feed looking for a snack! Joking," he assures, "have a ball searching through it!"

Adalet smirked as she pulled on her gloves. She dug into the crate full of an assortment of foods for animals, such as hay, corn, and small plants. Towards the lower half of the crate, she felt her hand brush across something cold and solid. Wrapping her fingers around the grip of the object, she removed it to see what it was that had been hidden in the crate.

"So what did you find in the animal feed, Adalet?" Frank asks looking over her shoulder.

Adalet frowned, "a mini revolver?"

"Huh, I'd expect a bigger gun on a farm!" he remarks, "and how did it end up there?"

"Obviously someone was trying to hide it," she reasoned, "but beyond that I got nothing!"

"Let's get this mini revolver to Hannah. I bet she can track down who it belongs to!"

While Frank took the gun to their vehicle, Adalet picked up the pieces of the torn photo. She quickly taped together each scrap of film to its match and had a complete image to look at. She recognized the victim in the photo despite his face being turned away from the camera, but she didn't know who the older man in the photo with him was. But the two must have been relatively close since the unknown man had his arm draped across Cal's shoulders.

"That photo you restored shows the victim, but who's the old guy next to him?" Frank wondered as well once he had returned and Adalet showed him the picture, "whoever it is, we'll know soon enough . . . You'll use your database searching skills to find the name in no time, I'm sure."

Luckily Adalet had reception out here and was able to connect to the database remotely. Once she had scanned a copy of the photo, she cropped it so that there was only the unknown man's face and sent it through the database to find a match. She needed to help the process along by comparing parts of the man's features, but in no time flat, they had an identity for him.

"So that old guy in the photo is Jordan Stark . . . The file also says that Mr. Stark is the victim's grandfather!" Adalet exclaimed as she read the next of kin's name.

Frank sighs, "We should definitely go have a chat with Mr. Stark. He should be told what has happened to his grandson."

No sooner had Frank said this did the screen door to the farmhouse open and Jordan Stark himself walked out holding a pitchfork. He stopped short on the porch and blinked at the cops in confusion, but he quickly gave them a welcoming smile.

"It's a scorcher today, folks. Would you like some fresh lemonade to cool off a bit?" Jordan offers.

"You're very kind, Mr. Stark, but Adalet and I came to give you some sad news. It's your grandson. We found his body along Route 76 . . ." Frank tells him as quickly and gently as possible.

He dropped his pitchfork in shock, "his body?! Cal's . . . dead?!"

"It appears he was murdered," Adalet confirmed, "can you think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Cal?"

"Oh lord, I was afraid this would happen . . . His parents died in a car wreck when Cal was 10. Me and Cal were all the family left to one another in the world!" Jordan tells them, "I raised him the best I could, but I have a farm to run. I couldn't keep my eyes on him all the livelong day! But I should have tried harder! I let Cal down . . ."

"So I heard you guys had a flat tire. Looks like you weren't the only people who got punctured on Route 76 . . ." Roxie joked excitedly, "the cactus was indeed the murder weapon! It's a breed with exceptionally hard spines. They're like the ice picks of the desert! As if a desert needed ice picks . . ."

Frank stared at the coroner in disbelief, "you're seriously telling us that a cactus killed the victim?"

"The killer got lucky, in a way. One of the cactus' spines damaged the victim's liver. Toxins tainted his blood. He was poisoned by his own body! The sad part is that he might have lived if someone had helped him down and got him to a hospital . . ." she added in a gloomy tone, "but I do have some good news! Bruising around the abdomen showed that the victim was pushed onto the cactus!"

"And how is that good news?" Adalet inquired.

Roxie grinned, "the bruising helped me find the amount of force needed to impale the victim, which showed me that the killer weighs 210 pounds!"

After accepting the report Roxie had made for the case file, Adalet and Frank walked across the station to Hannah's lab to learn what she had discovered about the mini-revolver.

"Howdy, Adalet!" Hannah greeted, "I examined the tiny revolver you found on the victim's farm an-"

"Aren't those revolvers ridiculous? They couldn't dent a tin can!" Frank snorted.

"Believe me, Frank. In the right hands, a mini revolver can do just as much damage as a full-sized gun! Anyway, where was I?" she paused to regain her train of thought, "oh yeah, I checked it against the local gun database and it's registered to Ana Herdez, a Rhine Canyon Highway Trooper!"

"We finally get to meet a member of local law enforcement!" Adalet grins.

"Maybe she can explain why we're doing all their work for them!" Frank laughed.

"And while she's at it, maybe this Ana character can tell us what her mini revolver was doing at our victim's farm . . ." she hums.

Hannah informed them that Ana was currently waiting for them in their intonation room. Adalet and Frank thanked the woman and took the mini revolver with them to the interrogation.

"Oh, that's where my little gun was! It must've fallen off when I visited the farm to check up on Cal Stark . . ." Ana shook her head in dismay, "Cal's a real troublemaker! And it's my job to keep the peace in Rhine Canyon!"

"Well, your "check-ups" didn't do much good. Your teenage troublemaker was murdered!" Frank grunted.

"Cal Stark is dead?! Well, I'm not totally surprised. Cal was bound to end up in big trouble . . ." she confessed, "he was mostly pulling petty crimes, but I've seen a lot of kids like him over the years and it never ends well."

"You know, I don't tend to get emotional, Adalet, but our victim was just a kid. He had his whole life ahead of him and someone pinned him to a cactus and left him there!" Frank shook his head in disgust, "poor Jordan Stark . . . Losing the only family he had left. I know we have to treat him as a suspect, but I don't have to like it! Spangler wasn't helpful at all, as per usual, but he did recognize the victim. Who's to say he isn't hiding something from us, working at that super-secret Army base?"

"He probably is, but without a reason, we can't investigate that deeply," Adalet says, "but don't forget about Ana Herdez! She lost her gun and didn't even notice! If that's local law enforcement, we have our work cut out for us . . ."

"Where's Capt. Adalet?" a gruff voice demanded as a biker sauntered into the office, "I'm here to pick up Cal Stark's body!"

"Excuse me? Just who are you and what do you want with Cal Stark's body?" Frank shot back.

"I'm Bubba Wyatt and I was a friend of Cal's," Bubba introduced, taking a swig from his flask, "me and the Crystal Skulls want to give him a proper biker gang funeral!"

"What exactly does that include, Bubba? Extra meth in your whiskey?" he suggested swiping the flask out of the biker's hand.

"Harsh, man! We just want to take his ashes out to the Rhine Canyon lookout point! It was the only place he liked around here!" he answered with a glare.

"Cal Stark's body will not be released to anyone until this investigation is over and that's final!" Adalet informed the biker.

"I have a hard time believing that Cal would be friends with a bunch of bikers, anyway. You stay put until Capt. Adalet is ready to question you!" Frank orders.

"Frank," Adalet says, pulling her partner off to the side, "if our victim loved the Rhine Canyon lookout point as much as that biker says, we should go look for clues there!"

Frank nods, "agree, let hurry!"

Before leaving the station, Adalet and Frank turned to Bubba Waytt to ask him about his friendship with the victim.

"Hey, Capt. Adalet, do you think I could have my whiskey back?" Bubba inquired.

Frank finished drinking the biker's whiskey, innocently, "your whiskey? I have no idea where it could have gone . . . Anyway, you'll get all your stuff back after you've answered how exactly you know Cal Stark!"

"Cal was a junior member of my biker gang, the Crystal Skulls. He was a great guy . . . We all had a lot of respect for the kid!" he answers.

"Somehow I'm having trouble seeing Cal as biker-material . . ." Adalet admits.

"Hey man, Cal hungered for freedom and adventure, and that's something we respect! We welcome all the free spirits!" Bubba proclaimed, "he was one of ours and nothing can take that away! Not even death!"

Adalet and Frank showed Bubba out of the station, then they continued to the Canyon Vista to search for any clues that could help their case. They nearly tripped over a large slab of rock as they reached the vista, but it was a good thing since there appeared to be something written on the face of it. After that, they found a torn-up magazine that clearly did not belong in the rocky landscape.

Frank whistled, "wow! What a view! No wonder the victim loved this place so much! I'm starting to hear the call of the wild . . . So what did you find while I was enjoying the scenery? A rock slab? Big deal! We're surrounded by them!"

"But are all of them bearing messages on them?" Adalet smirked in response.

"Wait, you're right! "I'm sorry I killed you, Cal!" he read, "looks like the killer is showing remorse. The message was written with some kind of substance . . . I suppose that's why you have your collecting kit out."

She smiled as she began swabbing the rock, "hopefully it will be useful to our case!"

"And I see you've found a torn magazine to keep yourself busy. You can never resist those, can you?" he teases as he examines one of the pieces.

She laughed as she finished collecting her samples, "nope!"

"Did you get a decent sample from the message the killer wrote on the rock slab? What do you think it is?" he wondered, peering closely at the sample of a dark red-brown substance.

"It could be blood," she speculated, "but there's something off about it..."

"You don't think it's blood. Well, that's a start, I guess . . ." he shrugs, "let's get the sample to Yann and have him figure it out."

Adalet placed the sample safely inside of her case before moving on to the torn magazine. Thankfully, whoever had torn it tore it up into large pieces, so taping the magazine back together was a relatively quick task.

"What are you doing with that teeny-bopper magazine, Adalet?" Frank inquired as he caught a glimpse of the magazine's title, "oh I see! The victim's head has been glued over the head of the cover model."

"And there's a message, too. "Cal Dream BIG!" And it's signed by someone called Missy," Adalet adds.

"Who's this Missy person?" he questions, "we can't just drive around the desert calling her name like she's a lost cat!"

"Simple, we call Hannah!" she answered.

"Oh, you're right, Adalet. We call Hannah!" he agreed, pulling out his phone and finding the techie's contact, "she can find all the people named Missy in Rhine Canyon!"

Hannah picked up after two rings, "Hey Frank, need more of my mad skills?"

"Sure do, smartypants! We're looking for all the people named Missy in Rhine Canyon!" he informed her.