Page 23 of Three-Inch Teeth

“This actually happened last August,” Fowler took over for her colleague. “In Yellowstone Park, near the junction of West Thumb and the road to Old Faithful. A California man distracted by his phone slammed into three eight-month-old cubs following their mother and killed them all. Killed them all.

“You can imagine the manic rage Tisiphone felt. She went briefly insane for weeks afterward, roaring and crashing through trees in the forest.”

Joe winced.

“That’s what I would do,” Fowler said, placing her hands on her heart and leaning forward. “I would howl at God and I would curse him. I would blame the species that did it. I would want vengeance. I am Tisiphone.”

“I am Tisiphone,” Calhoun echoed.

“Is that story true?” Joe asked Gordon.

“Yes, it is, partly,” Gordon said. “A tourist hit and killed the three cubs of 413 last August. It was a tragedy.”

“It was more than a tragedy,” Fowler said while blowing a stray wisp of hair from her face. “It was triple infanticide. Of course Tisiphone has gone mad with grief and rage. What would your wife do, Mr. Pickett, if all three of your daughters were murdered in front of her eyes?”

Joe couldn’t even imagine the scenario.

“Time out,” Gordon said, putting her palms up as if to hold back the Mama Bears. “Just hold it. First, we have no evidence at all that the bear that caused our fatality is 413. Bear number 413 had a collar on her and we’ve picked up no signal here at all. Second, and with all due respect, Jayce and Lynn, what you’re contending here flies against all the behavioral science we’ve studied on female grizzly bears. No mother of any species wants to lose her offspring, but we’ve got no instances where the mother went insane and sought revenge.

“I hate to say it, but bear cubs get killed all the time. It isn’t rare and their mortality rate is high. In many instances, it’s the male grizzly that kills them. Sows have two or three cubs per litter and sometimes even four. When a little one dies, the mama bear just kind of goes on with life. It’s like raising puppies or kittens. The mother doesn’t go into mourning when they’re sold or given away to new owners. They don’t go crazy and they don’t seek vengeance.”

“So you say,” Fowler responded with anger. “You’d be happy if they were all dead.”

“You know that’s not true,” Gordon said. “I’d rather our bears thrived—as long as they don’t kill people.”

Fowler and Calhoun began to talk over each other and direct their vehemence at Gordon, who remained very calm. Joe held his ground but said nothing.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Brodbeck shoulder a heavy pack from the bed of the other truck. There was so much weight in it that when he swung it on his back he stumbled a few steps before slipping his other arm through the strap to regain his balance. Joe didn’t envy Brodbeck packing it all up the slope.

Despite the weight on his back, it was obvious that Brodbeck was eager to get going and not let himself be pulled into the dispute between the Mama Bears and Jennie Gordon. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and waved goodbye to Joe with a wry grin. Joe nodded back to him.

“Do either of you have any evidence this is 413?” Gordon asked when there was a break in the stream of accusations. “If so, I’d like to hear it.”

“When we last saw her two weeks ago, she was headed east,” Calhoun sniffed.

“East from Yellowstone?”

Calhoun indicated yes.

“Do you think she covered two hundred miles to get here?” Gordon asked. “Female grizzlies traditionally have smaller home ranges than males and rarely go out on excursions. Do you have any real reason to suspect that she decided to leave her stomping grounds and jet in a line to the east? All the way to the Big Horns, where she’s never been before?”

“We don’t know that she didn’t do that,” Fowler said. Then she pointed at Gordon and said, “Most of all, you don’t know that.”

“True,” Gordon conceded. “I don’t know it for a fact.”

“It’s Tisiphone,” Calhoun said with certainty. “We know her. We know what kind of pain she’s in.”

“Are you saying this killing was justified?” Gordon asked them.

Neither woman spoke for a moment.

“Do either of you even know the circumstances of the attack?”

“We don’t need to know,” Fowler said. Calhoun nodded her head in agreement.

“Joe, could you please show them the photos you took of Mr. Hutmacher on your phone?”

So that was why Gordon asked him to come along, Joe thought.

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