A Solitude of Wolverines

by ALICE HENDERSON

  She’d already known he was getting some kind of kickback or reward for overlooking Flint Cooper’s wandering cattle, but now she wondered what else he was involved with. Was the missing man part of the illegal hunting ring? Was the sheriff part of it, too, and that’s why he’d been so reluctant to find him?

  Feeling paranoid, she slowed the snowplane. What if the federal marshals did send someone out but it was someone corrupt, like Remar? Who did she trust? Who could she call? Instantly the image of Ben Hathaway leapt into her mind. The LTWC dealt with poaching and animal trafficking on a regular basis. If anyone knew the right people to call, it would be Ben.

  She pulled off the road, moving behind a copse of trees. She didn’t dare stop the engine, worried she wouldn’t be able to get it started again. She pulled Ben’s card out of her pocket and dialed the number. He answered on the fourth ring, groggy. It was past two in the morning for him. “Hello?”

  “Ben, this is Alex Carter.”

  “Alex?” He sounded confused, struggling to wake up.

  “Something’s happened up here.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, for now, but I need your help.” She told him everything she’d stumbled upon, about the gorilla and the polar bear, the animals in the cages, about the fate of the previous biologist. He listened, not interjecting once. When she was finished, he said, “God, poor Dalton. Listen, I know what to do. We have connections, law enforcement agencies we deal with for this kind of animal trafficking situation. I’m going to start making calls as soon as we hang up.”

  She told him about the storm. “How soon do you think someone could be out here?”

  “I don’t know yet, but I can call you as soon as I find out. Alex,” he said after a slight pause, “I don’t want you risking your life out there. Get somewhere safe.”

  “So everyone keeps telling me.”

  “Everyone is right. I’m on the first plane out there.”

  The thought of seeing him lifted her spirits. “You can do that?”

  “Hell, yes, I can.” She heard him moving around, the sound of a suitcase being zipped up. “I’m leaving now for the airport. I’ll call my contacts on the way. You stay out of sight and stay safe.”

  “Keep me posted.”

  “I will.”

  And then he hung up.

  Alex stared out into the storm. Winds blew the snow sideways, visibility swirling in and out, at first ten feet, then four, then twenty, then complete whiteout. The storm was depositing more than two inches an hour now. She could turn around, go to town, wake up Kathleen and wait it out with her in relative safety.

  But by then those animals at the compound could be dead.

  And Alex couldn’t let that happen.

  Thirty-One

  Alex pushed the snowplane as fast as it would go, flying over the ground at what felt like sixty mph. She remembered the road to the neighboring ranch being about five miles west of the main resort entrance. She raced past her mailbox, keeping the lights off. The diffuse glow of the full moon provided ample illumination over the terrain in front of her, and now that she was on the main road, she didn’t have to worry about driving over fallen logs or hitting sudden dips where creeks hid beneath the snow.

  Flakes swirled around her. As far as she could see in every direction, there were no lights, no other vehicles on the road. She felt alone out there, but knew she wasn’t. A man waited to kill her at the lodge, and somewhere out there were others.

  She mentally ran through the list of men. She’d killed the man by the ski lift. At the compound, there’d been three men: Cliff, Gary, and Tony. She hadn’t seen any sign of Tony again. Cliff wasn’t in good shape with his broken arm and head wound, but even if he’d managed to go on, and he and Gary were the men she’d just sabotaged on their snowmobiles, then they were out of commission for at least a little while. They might even be dead. That left the sniper placed at the lodge and the one camped out by her backpack. She wondered if they were still in those positions. It was possible they’d been the ones on the snowmobiles back at the stables. It was also possible that Gary and Cliff were at the compound now, getting rid of the evidence.

  But she knew they weren’t the only players in this illegal hunting ring. People were arriving tomorrow, expecting to go on a hunt. The weather was in her favor there. If all the roads were shut down in this storm, then they’d likely postpone their arrival.

  At the compound’s street entrance, she slowed to a stop. The snowmobile tracks originated from here. She pulled into the driveway, staying in the preexisting tracks. She still didn’t see any lights, not even on houses in the far distance, and wondered if an area-wide power outage had occurred.

  She drove up the meandering drive to within a mile of the compound, then pulled off the road into a dense copse of trees. She found several large branches covered with snow, some that still had needles on them. These she draped over the snowplane. When she finished hiding it, she stepped back, taking in her handiwork. She didn’t think anyone would notice it in the dark, not if they weren’t searching for it, and in all likelihood they’d be passing by the area quickly in a snowmobile.

  Now she took one of the fallen branches with greenery and swept over the snowplane’s tracks and her boot prints. As before, she was grateful for how easily the dry snow covered the area. She moved away from the road, still sweeping over her tracks. The going wasn’t easy. More than twelve inches of snow had fallen, and without snowshoes, she sank deeply with every step she took.

  She crept through the trees and reached the large clearing where the compound stood, a natural valley with a stream running through it. No lights were on in the buildings.

  She glanced toward the taxidermy structure, then to where the cages were, but saw no sign of movement. She wasn’t sure if no one was there or if the power was definitely out. The bonfire no longer burned. She skirted the compound, keeping to the trees, trying to figure out her next move. She was a lone person with a single rifle, and there were multiple people out there gunning for her.

  Once Remar showed up on the scene, if he intended to, there’d be another person to deal with.

  She waited and watched, not seeing any movement. There certainly weren’t any trucks or animal trailers on the premises, just a single pickup truck and a quad. She continued to circle and saw two snowmobiles parked by the lodge building. They both had a layer of snow, so they’d probably been parked there awhile.

  Alex broke from the trees, heading first to the building with the cages. She wanted to check on the animals. The wind howled around her, buffeting her parka hood and making it hard to hear. She lowered her hood, feeling the cold needle sting of snow blowing into her ears. But she heard nothing other than the wind.

  She froze when she got close to the structure. Fresh tracks led up to it, and someone had dug snow away from the base of the door so it could be opened.

  Taking a deep breath, she readied to enter the building. Then suddenly the door came open and she flung herself flat against the wall of the building, out of sight. Expecting to see Tony or Gary, she was astounded to see Sheriff Makepeace trudge away through the snow, heading toward the lodge building. He didn’t see her.

  As he approached the lodge, Flint Cooper came out of its main entrance, stamping his feet in the snow. A rifle hung from a strap across his chest. Makepeace wore only his sidearm.

  When they’d disappeared inside, Alex crept to the door of the cage building and slipped through. Bracing herself for what she would find, she was relieved to discover that all of the animals were okay. With no windows in that room, she dared to shine her flashlight around, checking on all of them. Nothing had changed since her earlier visit, except that of course Cliff had been released from the cage. She wondered if he had come down from the gondola area yet, and if they’d found the body of the man she’d killed on the ski run.

  Buying some time to think, she made her way toward the utility closet, where she could stand just inside a
nd figure out her next move. She remembered searching this room before, finding the batteries inside. It was pitch black in there. Switching on her light, she scanned the shelves for anything useful, and this time, on the bottom shelf, a familiar-looking object drew her attention. It was her trail camera, the one that had vanished from the destroyed camera trap. She picked it up, seeing the familiar LTWC logo sticker on the back. She opened it up and pressed the power switch. The batteries were still good and the little display screen inside the camera lit up. She pressed the button to go through the images. Photos of moving branches, a pine marten, a passing black bear, a herd of mountain goats, all flickered by. Then she reached the part she was searching for. A massive polar bear arrived at the camera trap site. It demolished the hair trap frame, then pulled down the entire leg of deer. The run pole splintered under its weight. A few frames showed it dragging the deer leg out of view.

  More pictures of moving tree branches were next. The moon rose, captured in a few frames. Images from the following day provided more views of a pine marten. Then men appeared in the frame. One approached the camera. Gary. He removed it from the tree. There was a close-up of his face just before he switched off the camera, and then no more photos.

  She placed the camera back on the shelf and suddenly heard the opposite door open, the one Cliff had come through when they’d had their earlier fight. She peered out, seeing Tony enter. His headlamp lent a gray glow to the room. His parka was covered with snow, and he stamped his boots. He’d obviously just returned to the compound. She wondered if he’d already talked to Makepeace and Cooper.

  Tony carried a sack of something and a labeled container she couldn’t read from so far away. Moving quickly, he dragged over an empty bucket and then opened it and placed the labeled container inside. Then he disappeared into the room where the smashed phone had been. He emerged once more, and, to her horror, she watched as he slipped a gas mask onto his head. He left the faceplate up, resting on top of his head while he went through more preparations.

  Then he stood up, looking at the animals. “I know this isn’t very sportsmanlike, but if the feds are coming, we just can’t wait to move you all.” He lowered his gas mask and turned toward the bucket. As he picked up the bag, Alex burst from the closet, brandishing her rifle. Tony wore a gun on his hip, but startled, he held his hands up.

  “Back away,” she told him. She glanced at the bag to see that it was potassium cyanide. Inside the bucket was an open container of sulfuric acid. Once he’d mixed the potassium cyanide with it, a fatal plume of hydrogen cyanide gas would have spilled into the room, killing everyone.

  He backed up, watching her with cruel, narrowed eyes. “You must be that biologist from the Snowline. You come back here all alone?” He glanced around.

  She didn’t say anything. The cage Cliff had been in was closed now, and without the key, she knew she’d be unable to lock the man inside it. She nodded toward the few empty cages. “You got keys for these?”

  “Sure. Let me just reach down into my pocket.”

  He started lowering his hand toward his gun, and she shouted, “Don’t move!” His hand went back up in the air. “You disgust me,” she hissed. “Don’t make me shoot you.”

  He looked a little disconcerted then, some of his cockiness draining away.

  Then the room door slammed open, and things happened so fast Alex barely had time to react. Makepeace appeared in the door, his gun drawn. “What the hell are you doing here?” he boomed at Alex. In the second of confusion, Tony grabbed his gun and brought it up, aiming it at Alex. Makepeace fired, hitting Tony in the chest. He slumped down to his knees, then collapsed. Blood seeped out from under him and snaked its way toward the drain in the center of the room.

  With his gun still trained on the unmoving body, Makepeace walked over to it and nudged Tony’s gun away with the toe of a snowy boot. Then he checked for a pulse, looking grim. Finally he rose, holstering his gun. “It was stupid of you to come back here!” he barked at her. “Your radio message to Joe—”

  She interrupted him. “What are you doing here?”

  He walked to her, looking her over. “Are you injured?”

  She shook her head. “I’m waiting for your answer.”

  “I heard your report to Remar over the radio. He’s been acting strange, disappearing for chunks of time on his night shift, so I’ve been monitoring him. When I heard what you’d stumbled onto, I called the marshals myself. But they said they couldn’t get out here until the weather improved. I knew you were heading back here. Damn stubborn. I had to be sure you were all right. Don’t want to have another murder on my conscience.” He hooked his thumb toward the freezer. “Found your colleague in there.” He looked a little sick.

  The far door slammed open again. This time Flint Cooper stood in the doorway, panting, his rifle drawn. “Jesus, I heard a shot. You okay?” he asked Makepeace.

  The sheriff nodded.

  “What’s she doing back here?” Cooper asked, looking at Alex like she was something unpleasant he’d just discovered on the bottom of his shoe.

  “And hello to you, too,” she said with disgust.

  “She came back to check on the animals,” Makepeace said. “Crazy.” Then he added more quietly, “Took guts, though.” He looked as if he could see it in his heart to one day merely dislike her.

  “Took stupidity. She could have been killed.”

  “I am in the room, gentlemen,” Alex reminded them. “What the hell is he doing here?” she asked Makepeace, nodding toward Cooper.

  “We were playing poker when your call came in. Old fool wanted to come along. Thinks he’s Wyatt Earp or some shit.”

  “I’m a hell of a better shot than you, Bill,” Cooper said. Then the rancher addressed her directly for the first time. “I may not see eye to eye with the land trust, but I don’t want to see innocent people get killed.”

  “Noble of you,” she said, almost meaning it.

  “You mentioned on the radio that there were more men than just this guy?” Makepeace said, turning slightly to look at Tony’s body.

  She nodded, then thought of Remar. “I hate to say this, Sheriff, but I think your suspicions about Joe were right. He told them where to find me after I radioed in.”

  Expecting him to get in a huff, she was surprised when his shoulders merely slumped. “I’ve been worried he might be on the take, involved in something illegal.”

  She thought of Makepeace looking the other way while Cooper’s cows grazed on preserve land but decided this wasn’t the time to bring that up. She’d let the LTWC handle that.

  Makepeace went on. “Damn. Should have listened to my gut. I’m just sorry it took you almost getting shot to put all the pieces together. Not to mention that poor bastard in the freezer. I’m surprised Joe would be party to this. Maybe they got him on the ropes somehow.” He glanced around, shifting his weight. “So where are the others?”

  Cooper listened in silence, watching her with a haughty expression, his stance cocky and self-assured. He checked his rifle, peering into the chamber. She could tell he was loving this.

  She told Makepeace about her confrontation at the gondola restaurant, of the man who’d shot at her on the ski lift, and of the two snowmobilers she’d sabotaged.

  Cooper nodded at Tony’s body. “I didn’t hear his snowmobile.”

  “Must have parked it some distance away and hiked in,” Makepeace speculated.

  “Could be more of them out there even now,” Cooper said, and walked back to the door.

  After Cooper had slipped outside, Makepeace looked down at Tony’s body. “Damn. Only the second time I’ve had to kill a man,” he said quietly.

  She could feel his regret. “I’m sorry, Sheriff.”

  The crack of a rifle sounded outside, coming from some distance away. “Bill!” Cooper shouted from outside. “They’re coming back!” and then she heard the deafening report of his rifle going off just outside the door.

  Thirty-Tw
o

  Makepeace gripped her shoulder. “You. You find a place to hide, you hear me? Damn, I wish you hadn’t come back here. You’re one stubborn lady.” He gestured at her rifle. “You know how to use that thing?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, don’t. You leave this to me.”

  He pointed her toward the utility closet. “You get in there and lock the door. Don’t come out until I say it’s all clear. You got me?”

  His eyes glittered intensely, and she nodded. “Okay.”

  Hurrying her over to the closet, he all but shoved her inside. “You lock it, you hear?”

  She did so, feeling for the button in the metal knob. Makepeace’s flashlight faded away under the door, and she heard him go outside. Briefly switching on her own flashlight, Alex got her bearings. Wind whistled as the door closed behind the sheriff, seeping cold air under the door.

  Then she was alone in the building. Several other rifle shots went off, both near and far. She heard the pop of Makepeace’s handgun. A snowmobile droned in the distance, getting closer. More shots rent the night, and the snowmobile got so close she thought it must be right outside the building. She gripped her rifle again, ready to use it. Adrenaline coursed through her body, her hands shaking and her mouth gone dry.

  The snowmobile raced right past the building, and she heard a gun go off a second later. Had the rider shot Cooper or Makepeace, or had one of the two men just taken the rider out? The snowmobile engine suddenly gunned high into the RPMs, and then she heard the crash of metal. The engine cut out instantly. She strained to hear anything more, but there were no more gunshots or engine sounds.

  Had the man been a marshal, arriving on the scene and coming under fire? For five minutes she stood in tense silence in the dark, bracing herself for someone to come bursting into the building either to tell her it was all clear or to kill her and the animals. Her hands shook on the rifle stock, and she mentally prepared herself for the second possibility.