Fire at Will — David Putnam

Veteran Sheriff's deputy Will Donnelly gets nailed for stealing $300,000 of drug money and donating it to a charity in memory of his late wife Debra Ann, his punishment is exile -- a one-way transfer to the desert wastelands surrounding Joshua Tree station. Will, under the command of a crooked captain sets his sights on a suspected child abductor who escaped prosecution a couple years earlier.

Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder over his wife's death, Will discovers that the desert can play devilish tricks on the mind. A woman in a diaphanous red dress and black spike heels, who only he can see, follows him around whispering in his ear. She calls herself Toots and bears a striking resemblance to Debra Ann. She's pushy, opinionated, always gets her way and has a knack for seeing things Will misses.

Through the heat generated mirages of the Mojave Desert nothing is, as it seems, no one -- not even Will himself -- can be trusted to do the right thing.