Colin and Robbie were in the office, quietly working at their computers. Ren walked in and dropped her bag at the desk. ‘I have a shaggy dog story.’
Colin didn’t look up. ‘If it is relevant to Jean Transom’s murder, I’d love to hear it. If it’s a sidebar from the CNN website –’
‘Don’t be a dick,’ said Ren.
‘Tell me your story,’ said Robbie. ‘I don’t care.’
‘I will admit,’ said Ren, ‘that it may be as irrelevant as a human interest story, but anyway … Remember the day I came back here after the autopsy in Golden? And there was shit on my boots from the autopsy? Salem Swade, the vet up the mountain – his dog sat down and started barking at me when I walked into reception. But she didn’t react that way to anyone else –’
Colin raised an eyebrow.
Ren rolled her eyes. ‘Anyway, I thought about it. And thought, hold on a second, cadaver dogs are trained to react to putrescine – eau de mort.’
‘Oh de what?’ said Colin.
‘Do you always have to be irritated by things you haven’t come across before?’ said Ren.
Colin said nothing.
‘Eau de mort – I made it up, OK?’ said Ren. ‘Anyway, I remember Cliff saying the cadaver dog that day on the mountain sat down and barked to show he’d picked up the smell. I called his handler and she filled me in – said that was something a lot of cadaver dogs do. Then the handler rewards them with a treat. Which I didn’t do, obviously, with poor Misty, so she kept barking. She stopped eventually, but when I came out again, there she was …’
‘Love the sound effects,’ said Robbie.
‘Thank you,’ said Ren. ‘Anyway, Misty was normal last night when I met her with my new boots on. So there you go.’
‘OK,’ said Robbie. ‘But –’
‘What is the point?’ said Ren, ‘I know.’
‘The point is – guess what? It’s all about Ren,’ said Colin.
‘You know what?’ said Ren. ‘You’re really going to have to go fuck yourself at some stage.’
‘’Cos you won’t be doing it with her,’ said Robbie, pointing to Ren.
‘We don’t all want to fuck Ren Bryce,’ said Colin. ‘That’s your special fantasy, Truax.’
‘Leave him alone,’ said Ren. ‘That’s not true.’
‘Yeah,’ said Robbie. ‘And unlike you, Colin, I would know how to treat a lady.’
‘Oh, I know how to treat a lady,’ said Colin. ‘Treat ’em mean, keep ’em –’
‘Repulsed,’ said Ren. ‘Back to the matter at hand – remember the paw prints up on Quandary that were in your photos, Robbie? I think someone who knew about Misty’s little gift took her from Salem Swade’s cabin – he wasn’t there that night – and brought her out to look for the body. Which Misty may or may not have found.’
Colin nodded. ‘OK, that’s interesting.’
‘Is it now?’ said Ren.
‘But who could know that about the dog?’ said Colin.
Ren shrugged. ‘That? I don’t know.’
‘And who knows the dog well enough to be able to get her away from the cabin like that?’
‘Strikes me that the whole town knows Misty,’ said Ren. ‘And she is one very friendly dog. Especially considering what her secret talent is. And she is a food whore. All the restaurants feed her. A nice steak would have her out in the snow right away. And snow is hard to sniff a corpse out in.’
‘My photos rock,’ said Robbie.
‘Update number two is on Caroline Quaintance,’ said Ren. ‘Turns out she was a friend of Jean’s from the animal shelter Jean worked at as a weekend volunteer. Caroline was seen outside Jean’s house last night. She told me she was looking for Jean’s cat in case he was still there or wandering the neighborhood or whatever. I think she was telling the truth about that. She said Jean and her had been friends for about a year. The animal shelter is in Rifle. It’s called Homeward Friends. I have one of the detectives here getting a list of the employees, so between us we can go talk to them all. And hopefully I can get to the bottom of what it is that Caroline Quaintance is lying to me about.’
She walked out into the hallway and saw Todd Austerval up ahead. She called out to him. He stopped.
‘Hi,’ said Ren, ‘I just wanted to say. I don’t know if you heard Gressett and me talking … that time in Glenwood when you came in from your run.’
‘I did hear,’ said Todd. ‘And what I was guessing was that Gressett was telling you I didn’t make it through the undercover program?’
‘Yes,’ said Ren. ‘But –’
Todd shrugged. ‘He loves telling people that, for some reason. I guess it makes him feel –’
‘Not so Tiny?’
Todd smiled. ‘And you were right. I am lucky I didn’t make it.’
‘You do have a touch of the White Supremacist about you, though. You could have pulled it off …’
Todd laughed. ‘Anyway, don’t worry, you didn’t say anything to offend me.’
‘Thanks.’
‘I’m not that sensitive.’ He smiled. ‘Hey, I put up with that prick all day.’
When Ren got back to the inn that night, the lights were dimmed and the fire was dying. She went in through the main door and lay back on the sofa in the living room. She pulled a cushion to her side. She expected more people to be up, but then she remembered they would be heading to the slopes early. She closed her eyes. The front door banged shut. She opened her eyes. But whoever it was went straight upstairs. She thought of Billy Waites. What was his story? How did he end up where he was? How did any of us?
Her eyes closed again. Her body struggled to keep her awake. But for a while, in the darkness of her mind, she was somewhere she did not want to be; she lay on dried earth. A boot was pressing hard on her jaw. Before her, several faces, swelled by humidity, seemed to change expressions like the images on a one-armed bandit. Their eyes bore into her. She didn’t know what configuration of ugly, haunting looks would take shape. She wanted to wipe the dirt from her lips, but she couldn’t move. Saliva leaked slowly from her mouth, the skin on her neck was tight with heat. Her heart pumped harder.
Ren jerked awake. She breathed in and out slowly, slowly. Through the window, she could see snow falling hard. She forced her feet on to the floor. Everything ached. She checked the time – eleven thirty p.m. She wondered had anyone come in and seen her. She wondered had she cried out.
She wondered if she could ever dream gently.
Ren went into the office the next day and asked Bob for the Mark Allen Wilson file. She could not admit she considered the possibility of a link to both crimes. He would think she was nuts.
‘Indulging Ollie Haggart?’ said Bob.
‘Maybe,’ said Ren. ‘I just want to take a look, at least.’
‘Why?’
‘Look, I understand where you’re coming from about Ollie Haggart’s