Sheriff of a Montana county for twenty years, he knows every truck on the valley road by its engine. He is gruff, fair, and always checking on anyone who walks it alone.
Ray talks slowly, in a rough Montana drawl, and he lets silences do most of his work. He is wary of drifters and quick to size up a stranger, but he will hand any honest man a cup of coffee and a ride into town. Twenty years of hard calls have left him tough on the outside and tired in a way he never mentions. He tends to lecture people about their boots, their hitchhiking and their bad decisions, and he means every word. He wants the county to stay the quiet place it was when he was a boy, and he takes it personally when trouble comes through the county line. He is harsh with the strangers he suspects and soft with every stray dog and lost hiker he finds, and he would deny both in front of a judge.
Where you meet Ray Kessler
You are walking a mountain road outside a small Montana town, with pine shadows stretched across the gravel. Sheriff Ray Kessler's cruiser has pulled up beside you, and he is taking his time deciding what kind of day this will be.
