Winter Study

“The lab at Michigan Tech has the DNA fingerprints for all of the wolves on Isle Royale. Whenever there’s a kill, a biotech or one of the Winter Study guys collects samples from the scat. Over time, they’ve built up a database on each of the wolves. Those ‘fingerprints’ are now in this smaller computer. When I put in the sample from the blood or the follicles that we took today,” she nodded toward the wolf melting into the newspapers at their feet, “I’ll be able to tell where he’s been – at what kills – which pack he belonged to, if he’d ever been at another pack’s kill, things like that.”

In law enforcement, A

“Interesting,” she said noncommittally.

Katherine heard the skepticism and cast back over her words to see where she’d gone wrong. When she wasn’t guarding, which she did whenever a member of the opposite sex was in the room, she was easy to read. Emotions passed just under the skin the way they do on the faces of very young children, leaving ripples in the eyes and mouth.

“The PCR is a portable DNA fingerprinting device,” she said.

The machines A

“I first worked with one in the Northwest. Salmon. The fishermen can take only one kind and not the other, but you can’t tell which fish is which by looking at them. We used an earlier version of the PCR. The reason it can work is that it doesn’t do much. You set it to figure out just one or two things. Like the DNA for the two species of fish. Both fingerprints are known quantities and are already loaded in the PCR’s computer. So when you feed it the new sample, all it has to do is compare it with those already on file; it doesn’t have to figure out anything.

“What this PCR does is simply show me the readout, what kind of line the balls make; that’s that wolf’s ‘fingerprint.’ All the ISRO wolves’ fingerprints are in this machine, so the fingerprint I get is compared to the existing fingerprints. Each existing fingerprint represents a wolf and each wolf has been assigned a number. I can look at my readout and see that number such and such left my sample. Or, in this case, is my sample. Then I e-mail the lab at Michigan Tech and add my data to theirs. Then they can look back in their files and see that my wolf – this wolf – ate a moose, say, at Rock Harbor in the winter of 2005 because somebody collected scat there at that time and its DNA matched the DNA I collected. Do you see?”

She looked so desperate A

Relieved, Katherine went back to her machine. A

Until the blood matted and the fur at the throat could be separated, the killing wound – or wounds – was impossible to see. A

The door to the front room banged and A

“I don’t think Robin carries a radio,” Katherine said distractedly.

The woman’s interest was gone to scat. A

SCAT WAS THE TOPIC OF CONVERSATION at the di

“We hiked toward Malone Bay. We got as far as the last ridge before you go down to Siskiwit,” Robin said in her soft cheery voice.

Eight or nine miles, if A

“Then we split up, and I came back cross-country. Lots of swamps. Downed stuff. I saw moose tracks, then I came across the wolves’ trail and followed them back. What scared them off the harbor?”

“We ran out of water,” Ridley said in the shorthand of the island.

A

“We got tons of samples. They’re in the kitchen with the wolf.”

Twenty miles of rough country, freezing temperatures, carrying a backpack full of shit.

Comforting herself with the knowledge that Robin was nearly a quarter century younger than she and an Olympic contender, A

“I wish I’d had a camera,” Robin said around a mouthful of toast with peanut butter and jam – a side dish served with every meal.

“One of the wolves had huge feet. Like twice as big as the others. Then, about halfway between Siskiwit and Windigo, they aren’t there anymore. It must have joined the pack on a rocky place. I looked for its tracks all the way back but couldn’t find where it had caught up with the others.”

“Twice as big?” Bob said with a lifted eyebrow and an avuncular smile.

Katherine ducked her head, letting her hair fall over her face in a screen. Robin stared straight into Menechi

“That’s your work tomorrow,” Ridley said. “I’ll give you the camera.”

“How about you, Adam? Did you see tracks twice as big as a normal wolf’s?” Bob asked. He winked at Robin to show there were no hard feelings.

“We’d split up, remember?” Adam said neutrally.

“Why don’t you go out with Robin tomorrow,” Ridley suggested to Bob. “See for yourself. I’m sure Robin could use somebody to carry the camera.”

Robin took a huge bite of toast to cover her smile. Given the chance, A

“No.”

Katherine was the one who spoke. Bob, neatly lifted off the hook, gave her a slow smile. She didn’t smile back. With everyone looking at her, Katherine lost her confidence. “I need some help,” she stammered. “I need Dr. Menechi

The last words were almost a whisper. “Excuse me,” she said and left the table abruptly.

Adam broke the awkward silence that followed. “Mind if I tag along with Robin tomorrow or has somebody busted something I have to fix?”

“Go,” Ridley said.

A

When the washing was done, A