This is a story called "The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds". It was first published in 1984, in KNAVE and was my third published short story. It was reprinted in 1993 ANGELS AND VISITATIONS (although I didn't put it into Smoke and Mirrors) and...
Homicide Detective Gabe Wager is faced with a murder that leads him from Denver to southwest Colorado and into the tangled and secretive relationships of polygamist cults. This novel was the basis of the Charles Bronson movie, "Messenger of...