Heat Death

Years ago, Lidia Alvarez left her hometown in Texas to pursue a career in law enforcement in the Midwest. With climate change driving anyone who could afford it to move to colonies on the moon and Mars, just going north was the less extreme option. But Lidia returns to find her hometown depopulated and under-resourced. Her new job at the sheriff's office is one of many cash-strapped workarounds.

So when a man turns up mysteriously dead from the intense heat on a closed hiking trail far from any other human beings, Lidia knows she has her work cut out for her. The case looks like a simple one: an unprepared tourist didn't take the dangerous of heat stroke seriously until it was far too late to save himself.

But something is telling Lidia that everything is more complicated than it appears. And worse, she fears the answer to her questions may lie closer to her than she'd like.

"Heat Death" is a mystery story steeped in science fiction, set in the near future on the edges of the Chihuahuan Desert. It originally appeared in the pages of Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine.