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"So it was a woman," Joan said.
A
"A woman," she confirmed.
"Do we know who she was?"
"Not yet."
As if admitting a failing on her part, Joan said, "You know, I was so glad it wasn't Rory I didn't even bother to ask Vic who she was."
Rory Van Slyke. A
"At least we know our bear-presuming this was done by the same bear-has moved on," Joan said. "If it had taken Rory, cached him, it would have made a nest nearby and stayed there to feed." The logic of bear behavior was cheering her considerably. A
"This lady wasn't killed by our bear or any bear. She was hacked up by an edged weapon. A human being killed her. Or something with opposable thumbs masquerading as a human being."
Ahead was the camp. Lanterns had been set up, and four men and one woman bustled purposefully about. Three tents had been pitched and A
"This is it," Joan said, stopping. Ruick and Bradley carried the corpse past them into camp like hunters returning with the day's kill.
"Did you hear me?" A
"I did," Joan answered quietly. "I just couldn't think of anything to say."
They stayed a moment in silence on the edge of the circle of light carved out of the night.
"Hot drinks?" A
"Hot drinks," Joan agreed.
Between A
Faced with a problem pertaining to Ursus horribilis,Joan regained her equilibrium and took charge. The body was wrapped in plastic garbage bags-not because it would keep the smell from the keen noses of any bears in the neighborhood but to shield the delicate sensibilities of the humans-and hung up in a tree thirty yards from camp along with the other edibles.
That more than anything seemed to bring a bleakness of mood over everyone. Though several people made a weak joke or two and nobody stared at the ghoulish tree decoration outright, A
They ate in silence and crawled into the tents. There were six bear-team members, plus Harry, A
Better to face down the devil than blindly hear him circling.
Chapter 6
Despite the fact there seemed to be a bear in Glacier with A
Having only the truly vile clothes she'd worn the day before, A
Joan had selected their camp with foresight. Two downed logs, fallen at right angles to one another, formed a natural seating area. Having stuffed the borrowed sleeping bag into its sack, A
"Buck got to the Van Slyke boy's dad up at Fifty Mountain yesterday afternoon, so the folks know the kid's missing," Ruick said in lieu of "good morning."
A
"The helicopter will be able to land as soon as it's light. If I remember right, there's a good flat spot on the burn less than a mile from here. We'll need to go check it and flag it."
Harry wasn't so much talking to A
"You're here sort of apprenticing on Kate's bear DNA project, that right?" he asked. Despite the time they'd spent together floundering around in the shrubbery, A
"Yes," she said. "My home park's the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi."
"You know John Brown?"
"He's chief ranger there."
"John and I went to FLETC together," Ruick named the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which NPS enforcement rangers filtered through at some point in their careers. "Tell him I said 'hey' when you see him."
A
Amenities observed, he returned to the issues at hand. "We're going to do double duty today. Split our forces. You and I will go over the crime scene this morning. Two of my district rangers and about a third of my field rangers are in California on the Angeles National Forest. The damn a
In one sentence he'd managed to give A
"Glad to help any way I can," she said, and meant it.
"Good girl."