Page 71 of Three-Inch Teeth

He handed Joe his cell phone after activating the photo app. The shots weren’t as clear and crisp as the evidence photos Norwood usually presented with his professional camera.

Joe scrolled through them with a grimace. It was bad enough to see the results of a bear attack on unfamiliar victims, much less a man he’d known and worked with for years.

In the photos, Judge Hewitt lay on his side on the cart path. His left arm was flung out and his head rested on it. His knees were bent and parallel as if he were sleeping. Hewitt’s face was pure white and his eyes were closed. A large-caliber handgun lay on the pavement next to him. There was a lot of blood on the path, but the damage itself seemed isolated to Hewitt’s right shoulder, breast, and neck.

“Who found the victim?” Joe asked.

Norwood chinned toward the LEOs. “The new guy,” he said. “Deputy Carroll. Everybody calls him ‘Fearless Frank.’”

“Then I think I need to talk with Fearless Frank.”

“Stay away from those wannabe sheriffs,” Norwood cautioned.

“I intend to,” Joe said.

“You might want to suggest that all those people stay the hell off the path and out of the trees,” Norwood said with a pained wince. “I have a job to do here.”

*

JOE KEPT HIS head down as best he could and gave a wide berth to the candidates for sheriff, Elaine Beveridge, and Judy. They appeared to be in a heated discussion about what steps should be taken next and who was in charge of them.

He heard Beveridge, who had a helmet of dark hair that never blew out of place, say, “I’m just not sure. This is my first grizzly bear attack … ,” and Ruthanne Hubbard say, “When this gets out, there’s going to be panic in the streets. In the streets! And wait until they find out it was Judge Hewitt …”

“I’ll need to notify our membership,” Judy said while shaking her head. “Nothing like this has ever happened here before. We’ve had golf balls go through windows and an older member got run over by a golf cart, but this is just insane.”

“Ladies,” Bishop said with a raised voice, “just forget it was a bear and forget it was a member and forget it was your judge. We need to treat this like any crime scene and start by sealing off the scene and starting the forensics.”

“Hear! Hear!” Norwood chimed in.

“Do not ‘ladies’ us, Jackson,” Hubbard hissed at Bishop while jabbing him in the chest with her index finger. “We don’t need to have things mansplained to us—especially by a cop outside his jurisdiction.”

“Hey, game warden—what are you doing here?” Beveridge called out. Joe cringed.

“My job,” he responded.

“Maybe if you’d done your job in the first place and killed this grizzly bear, we could have avoided all of this,” she said. Joe got the impression she was simply taking out her frustration on the nearest target, which was him. He thought that he wouldn’t mind it when Elaine stepped back into her role as county commissioner.

*

“WHICH ONE OF you is Fearless Frank Carroll?” Joe asked a group of two deputies and one patrolman who were leaning shoulder to shoulder on the grille of an SUV.

“That would be me,” said a light-haired, fresh-faced officer as he pushed himself to his feet, uncrossed his arms, and held out his hand. When he did, Joe noticed that the deputy’s beige uniform was stained with blood.

Joe shook Carroll’s hand. “I understand you found the victim.”

“Affirmative,” Carroll said. “I was patrolling the grounds and I looked up on the cart path and saw him lying there.”

“Did you see the bear?”

Carroll shook his head. “Nope. He must have taken off when I showed up. At least I hope I scared him off.”

“Did you see anything at all?”

Carroll reached up and rubbed his chin. “There was a vehicle driving away at the top of the hill near the tee box. I saw taillights for a second and then it was gone.”

“A vehicle?” Joe said, puzzled. “Did you recognize the make or model?”

“Negative. It was still pretty dark out and I didn’t get a good look at it. I thought about giving chase, but I couldn’t leave the injured party. I didn’t realize he’s the judge around here.”

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