Shortly after finding Delbert Nez shot in his vehicle, Jim Chee apprehends Ashie Pinto walking down the middle of the road, drunk on expensive whiskey and wielding the gun that caused Nez's death.

Jimmy Herman is an accomplished actor who has appeared on television in Dream Keeper, Another Country, Johnson County War, Dream Storm, Trial by Fire, and North of 60 and in the feature films Reindeer Games, Grey Owl, Crazy Horse, Conquering Bear, Tecumseh: The Last Warrior, Blind Justice, Geronimo, and Dances with Wolves.

In Hillerman's words:
Chee didn't get all the way to U.S. Highway 666. Three miles east of the intersection, the high beams of his headlights reflected from the back of a man walking down the asphalt. Chee braked and stared. The man was walking erratically down the center of the westbound lane. He was bearded, his gray hair tied in a bun, his rain-soaked shirt plastered to his back. He seemed totally oblivious of Chee's headlights, now just a few yards behind him. Without a backward glance, with no effort to move to the side of the road he walked steadily onward, swinging something in his right hand, zigzagging a little, but with the steady, unhurried pace of a man who has walked great distances, who will walk great distances more.

Coyote Waits, Chapter 1