Page 89 of Three-Inch Teeth

“I’m not saying anything at all,” Norwood stated. “I’m just telling you what I see in here.”

Carroll turned to Joe and screwed up his face. “I’m totally confused,” he said. “What are we dealing with here? A man and his trained pet grizzly?”

“I don’t want to think that,” Joe responded.

“But he doesn’t see bear tracks,” Carroll said.

“I can hear the man.”

*

WHEN NORWOOD WAS through, he packed up his equipment in his evidence bag near the opening of the trees under the light of his headlamp.

“We need to check out the river road,” Joe said. “I’m guessing we’ll find similar tire tracks on it.”

“What river road?” Carroll asked, and Joe told him about it.

“Locals know about it,” he said. “But very few other people. I’m guessing that the vehicle you saw this morning used it to access the club and get away without being caught on any of the gate cameras.”

Carroll made a pained face. “We don’t know of any locals with a trained bear. I can’t wrap my mind around this.”

“Neither can I,” Joe said. “But we’ll go where the evidence leads us.”

“This is getting crazy,” Carroll said. “I’m gonna call Bishop and let him know what we found here. He’ll shit his pants. And I’m not going to call Elaine.”

*

A MOMENT LATER, Nate appeared from the line of trees fifty yards south of where he’d gone in. As he approached, Joe touched his hat brim to him, indicating that he wanted to speak to him out of the earshot of Norwood and Deputy Carroll.

“Did you hear or see anything?” Joe asked.

Nate shook his head. “Just you and the yokels yapping away like magpies.”

“We found no bear tracks,” Joe said. “But we did confirm that a truck was parked in the trees this morning and someone was walking around it before the judge got hit.”

Nate narrowed his eyes and leaned close to Joe. “I don’t know what it means that you found vehicle tracks, but that grizzly bear is still around.”

“You’re sure about that?” Joe asked. “Did you find sign of it?”

“No,” Nate said. “Don’t ask me to explain it, but your bear is still around. It’s just not here at the moment.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I can feel it.”

Joe didn’t know what to think.

“Do you need me to stick around?” Nate asked.

Joe thought about it for a moment. “Nope.”

“Call me if you need anything more,” Nate said, patting Joe on the shoulder.

“Will do,” Joe said. “I’ll head home myself as soon as Gary is done on the river road.” To Nate’s wide back, Joe said, “Thanks, Nate.”

Nate stopped and looked over his shoulder. “For what?”

“For watching our backs and then scrambling my brain and making me even more confused about everything than I already was.”

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