Alaska Twilight Part 6

"Do what you have to do," Tank said to Bixby. "I have nothing to hide."

"I'd like you to come to town for a full statement in the next day or two," Bixby said.

"I have to come in for supplies. I'll drop by."

"Fine."

The troopers began to load the doctor's body on the plane. Tank went to help them. Haley stopped Chet when he started to follow the men with their burden. "I have one more question about the fire. Was there an autopsy performed?"

His smile faltered. "Nope. I didn't see a need for that. It was pretty clear how they died."

"Which doctor examined the bodies?"

Gillespie nodded toward the body his deputies were carrying toward the plane. "Dr. Wooten."

She winced. "Sorry. I didn't mean to question your judgment either. I would just like to know the details."

He mopped his head and put his hat back on. "Joe Wooten was highly respected in the community. I don't know how I'm going to tell his wife." He turned away, but not before Haley saw the sheen of moisture in his eyes. She hadn't stopped to consider what those who knew the doctor were going through. She watched the trooper plod back through the water toward the plane. His stooped shoulders spoke of the burden he carried.

Tank rejoined the group, and the plane took off. Haley limped a little as they walked back to camp. Tank gave her a quick look. "Got a blister?"

"No, I'm fine," she said shortly. The last thing she wanted was for them to think they had to give her special treatment because of her missing leg. She glanced up at his tight mouth and strained eyes. "This Bixby is going to be a lot of trouble for you, isn't he?"

"Nothing I can't handle," he said.

"Nothing G.o.d can't handle," Augusta corrected.

The strain around his mouth eased. "You're right, Augusta. I forget that sometimes. I want to do it all myself. Thanks for the reminder. He's got this all under control. Let's have fun tonight and forget this. I'll leave it in his hands."

Haley made a conscious effort to throw off her pensive mood. "So tell me something about bears. Something I don't already know."

"Oh, you're a bear expert? I had no idea I was in the presence of such a great mind." He grinned.

She grinned back. "I've read ten books on them. So I guess I know a lot about them."

"Somehow I'm beginning to see you think you can learn anything from a book."

"Name one thing you can't learn from a book."

He took her arm and led her toward the water. "Tell me what that is." He pointed to a disgusting ma.s.s on the ground.

"Excrement of some kind. Bear, I presume?"

"Bear scat," he corrected. "What's it tell you?"

"Um, I guess that a bear pa.s.sed through here." She glanced at the water. "Maybe he was fis.h.i.+ng here."

"Good guess. And that part's right. Look closely at the scat." He pressed on her back, and she resisted.

"I'm close enough, thanks." She wanted to giggle. Her stupid nervous habit.

He pointed at the scat. "First we take a sniff." He leaned over and inhaled. "No odor, so it's been here a while, at least three weeks. And this bear had been eating mostly vegetation. I don't see any fur or flesh. He was probably searching for fish, though."

"You can tell all that from looking? And, er, smelling?" Her smile widened. Tank was even more likable when he was in his element. A dimple flashed in his squarejawed face. She'd never noticed it before, but then he'd been focused on the seriousness of their trek.

"Can you tell if this is from Miki?"

His eager expression grew stoic. "No. Are you thinking about the doctor's death? I don't think Miki had anything to do with his death. There's no telling what happened, but I bet he died of something else. A heart attack or something."

"I hear worry in your voice. What will happen if they determine a bear killed him?"

"We'll have to find it and destroy it." A muscle in his jaw twitched.

"Even if it's Miki?"

"Especially if it's Miki. Several people in town-Chet included-warned me not to try to rehabilitate him. They've been predicting dire consequences ever since. I was determined to prove them wrong. I hope my pigheadedness didn't cost Dr. Wooten his life."

Seven.

The first two days went well, or as well as could be expected with a man committed to pus.h.i.+ng the bears beyond what was safe. Tank managed to keep Kipp a safe distance from the bears they saw, but he talked to the bears like they were his children, and more than once Tank had stopped him from trying to feed the browns. By six o'clock the second day, he was bone-tired.

Tank kicked out the fire. "Better get the foodstuffs stowed. The bears will be hungry and looking for dinner. We don't want them wandering through our camp."

"Sure we do," Kipp said. "I want to see all the bears we can."

"You'll see plenty of bears without making them mad they can't get at your food." Was there any way to get out of this a.s.signment? Tank didn't have time to waste on fools. He needed to get back to his cabin so he could see if the lawyer had called him back. And he had to get to town to talk with Bixby.

Kipp's tone held a trace of superiority. "I know how to handle myself around bears. I've even touched them. They know when a man means them no harm."

Oh brother. If this guy wasn't dead before the summer was out, Tank would eat his hat. He decided not to respond. "The bears will be coming down to the river to feed anytime. I have a new spot to show you." He stowed the food in the cache and raised it into place in the fork of the tree. When he stepped back into the clearing where they'd set up camp, he found Kipp, Haley, Denny, and Augusta waiting for him.

Haley's camera nestled against her chest as though it was part of her. He wondered if she ever took it off. He noticed her snapping pictures whenever she got tense or scared too. It was like her s.h.i.+eld.

Tank slung his backpack to his shoulder. "I've got a good spot to watch. Let's get going. Make noise, sing or whistle, let the bears know we're here. The last thing we need is to go around a curve and run smack into a bear who doesn't know we're coming."

As he led the way, he watched for signs of bear. Haley walked beside him. She had a strange gait, like she favored one leg. He wondered what she'd done to it.

"Are you worried about Miki?" Haley asked.

He glanced at her. "How did you know?"

"You keep looking into the trees with a worried look on your face. You've been like that ever since we found the doctor's body two days ago."

"I don't believe Miki would hurt him."

"So you said, but he was tugging on my arm pretty hard at the cabin. If I hadn't had on my jacket, I'd likely at least have bruises."

"I don't want to think he'd hurt anyone," he admitted. "The prints around the doctor's body looked like Miki's. He lost a toe somehow before I found him, and the print's pretty distinctive. Of course, that doesn't mean Miki killed him. He may have just found the body."

"And eaten it." She made an expression of disgust.

"Hey, he's a bear. Bears scavenge. That's how they survive."

"What happens if he just found it and ate it? Will he be in trouble?"

He shook his head. "People know about bears here. We've learned to live in relative harmony. We don't leave food out because we know they'll eat it. They're inherently lazy and will eat whatever's handy."

"I still hope Miki didn't eat him. He seemed like a fairly nice bear. As bears go."

He grinned. "You didn't think so the other day."

"I've learned to like him a little more since then." She stumbled and went to her knees.

"You okay?" He stooped to help her to her feet.

She struggled awkwardly with her left leg. "I'm fine." Her face was red, and she didn't meet his gaze.

He didn't pry. It was clear she didn't want to talk about it. They set off again. He paused on a small rise. Alders grew thick between here and the river. The hedge afforded a small measure of protection between them and the hungry bears, yet it was low enough for Haley to see over even while seated. "See the blackberry patch over there? It's a favorite of the bears." He slung his pack to the ground and sat down. Taking out his binoculars, he prepared to wait.

Haley sat beside him. Augusta dropped her pack and dug out her pad of paper. Haley got out a small journal and a book on Alaska vegetation. She began to examine the plants in front of her.

"It's fireweed," he told her. "The Natives use it for boils. They put a piece of cut stem on the boil, and the plant draws out the pus. It's a good source of vitamin C too." She nodded and jotted it down in her journal. Her expression was distant, and she hardly looked at him. He thought back to their conversation by the river. He could recall nothing offensive in their lighthearted discussion. He gave a mental shrug and decided not to worry about it.

Denny set up his equipment, then clipped a wireless mic on Kipp. Kipp settled on the ground and pulled out binoculars, a tiny set of Swarovski roof-prism binoculars that Tank knew cost the earth.

Tank heard a grunt and held up his hand. "Listen!" The sound came again, and then a sow with two small cubs emerged from the forest and wandered toward the water. The sow bounded into the water and ducked her head under the rippling current. She came up with a fish in her mouth. She tossed it to her cubs and continued to fish.

"Amazing," Haley whispered. She stared in rapt attention at the bruins. The color drained from her face, and her knuckles whitened where she gripped her camera.

"Aren't you going to take pictures?" Kipp growled. He stood and started toward the bears.

Haley jumped. "Sorry." She began to snap pictures.

"Get back here!" Tank made a grab at Kipp and missed. The man broke through the alders and continued to walk slowly toward the bears.

Tank rose to go after him. "He's going to get killed. The sow will take him down if he gets close to her babies."

Denny frowned. "He generally doesn't mess with cubs. At least I've never seen him approach a sow." Vertical lines of worry settled across his forehead as he followed Kipp, camera running.

"What a cheechako," Tank muttered. He tugged his Ruger Blackhawk out of the holster and c.o.c.ked it. If the bear charged, there would be little time to respond. If Kipp's stupidity caused two cubs to grow up without their mother, he'd throttle the man. He stepped over the alder and followed Kipp.

Kipp whistled a tuneless melody. The sow turned to look. She snorted and bounded from the water, her ma.s.sive paws igniting the water with her fury.

Kipp raised his hands to indicate he was harmless, then turned to face Denny. "This is Kipp Nowak, and I'm in Alaskan brown-bear country. This is a mama bear I've named Sos. Isn't she beautiful with her two cubs?"

The cubs lifted their heads from their meal of fish and looked at the approaching man. One bawled, and the sow charged the men. The cubs squalled, tucked their tails, and ran for all they were worth to the safety of their mother.

"Look down and back away," Tank called. He stopped in place, praying the bear would realize they were no danger. The ferocious expression on the sow's face must have frightened Kipp. He dropped his gaze to the ground and took a step back. He wet his lips and tried to whistle again.

The tuneless sound seemed to enrage the sow. She charged them again, stopping about ten feet away and huffing. She turned sideways to demonstrate her size, then popped her jaw and turned back to make direct eye contact. Her eyes sparked with a murderous rage. "Keep backing away. Don't look at her," Tank said softly. He backed up to allow Kipp room to get past him. If he needed to shoot, he didn't want Kipp in the line of fire. Denny had already hightailed it back past the alders.

The other man was alongside Tank, then moved past him. "Don't turn and run," Tank said as he pa.s.sed. Kipp didn't listen. As soon as he was three feet away from Tank, he bolted.

The sow snarled and charged again. Tank was going to have to shoot. He held his breath and prayed. The bear swerved off just as Tank's finger tightened on the trigger. She ran past her cubs, then circled back to face him again. She charged once more. Tank tensed and waited. He didn't want to shoot her unless he had no choice. The look in her eyes as she bore down on him told him this was it. She wasn't going to stop.

Maybe he could frighten her. That often wasn't the wisest thing to do, especially with a sow with cubs, but he didn't want to hit her. He took aim and shot over her head. The boom of the gun stopped her forward charge. Her claws dug into the soft ground as she tried to stop. She loped to the side and ran back to her cubs. She nudged them away from the river, and with a last departing glare at Tank, the three disappeared into the woods.

Tank's skin was damp with perspiration. He swiped his sleeve over his forehead. That was the closest he'd ever come to actually having to shoot a bear. Rage began to build in his belly. He stalked back to the rest of the group. "Don't you ever do that again," he said tightly. "Those cubs need their mother, but they came a hair's breadth from losing her today. And all because you had to play hotshot. They are wild animals, Nowak, not cuddly toys or pets. One more infraction like that, and I'm done. You can find someone else to guide you."

Kipp met his gaze, but he was pale. "She was the maddest bear I've ever seen."

"Can you blame her? She was protecting her babies. This was not a circus bear. This was a sow protecting her cubs. What did you think she would do-just let you waltz up and handle her cubs? Think again. If you'd reached out to touch one of them, you would have pulled back a b.l.o.o.d.y stump."

Haley made a small sound of protest. He glanced over to see her rubbing her leg. He swept his gaze around the rest of the group. "Is that clear to all of you? No approaching the bears." Aware he was overly severe, he softened his tone. "I'm thinking not only of your safety, but of the bears' as well. When they get accustomed to the presence of humans, they tend to wander into camps where they can become nuisances. In the worst cases, someone is attacked and injured or killed and the bear is shot. We're not contributing to that scenario. Clear?"

No one spoke for several long moments. "You'll have to let me use my own judgment on when to approach a bear," Kipp said. "I admit I miscalculated the sow with her cubs. That won't happen again."

"It had better not happen with any bear."

"How am I to get useful footage if I'm not with the bears?" Kipp had recovered his aplomb. "I'll be able to tell when it's safe. I've gotten close to bears many times in the past. It's part of what I'm famous for. I won't be hobbled by your anxiety."

Tank caught Haley's gaze and shrugged. He'd done all he could. If Kipp ended up in bear scat, there wasn't much he could do about it.

Rivulets of spring runoff flowed through the streets of Stalwart, turning the unpaved dirt roads into muddy quagmires. Heavy clay clung to Tank's boots in clumps. He paused outside Chet's office long enough to knock most of the mud off on the walk, then stepped inside, where he found Chet and Ed Bixby hunched over a sheaf of papers at Chet's desk.

The men looked up. "Have a seat," Bixby said. "We just got back the autopsy report."

His voice was filled with a satisfaction that sent Tank's gaze skittering to meet Chet's. But his father-in-law kept his head down like a wounded animal. Tank sat and folded his arms across his chest. "What's the autopsy say?"

"There was Seconal in her bloodstream. Enough to knock her out."

"Seconal? What's that?" His gaze went again to Chet.

Chet's head finally came up. "A barbiturate sometimes used as a sleeping aid or as a sedative for nervousness."

"Was that what was in the packet Libby found?"

Ed nodded. "Who did you get it from?" He slipped the question in softly.

Tank leaned over the desk. "Can I see the report?"