A Darkness More Than Night

five colors on its feathers, including white and light blue, as well as plastic eyes with pupils rimmed in a reflective amber color. Also, the new owl was sitting atop a black plastic base.
    “As you can see, the owl you brought has been repainted,” Riddell said. “Especially the eyes. When you paint over them like that, you lose a lot of the effect. These are called foil-reflect eyes. The layer of foil in the plastic catches light and gives the eyes the appearance of movement.”
    “So the birds think it is real.”
    “Exactly. You lose that when you paint them like this.”
    “We don’t think the person that painted this was worried about birds. What else is different?”
    Riddell just shook his head.
    “Just that the plumage has been darkened quite a bit. You can see that.”
    “Yes. Now you said the mechanism has been removed. What mechanism?”
    “We get these from Ohio and then we paint them and attach one of two mechanisms. What you see here is our standard model.”
    Riddell picked the owl up and showed them the underside. The black plastic base swiveled as he turned it. It made a loud screeching sound.
    “Hear the screech?”
    “Yes, that’s enough, Mr. Riddell.”
    “Sorry. But you see, the owl sits on this base and reacts to the wind. As it turns, it emits the screech and sounds like a predator. Works well, as long as the wind is blowing. We also have a deluxe model with an electronic insert in the base. It contains a speaker that emits recorded sounds of predator birds like the hawk. No reliance on wind.”
    “Can you get one without either one of the inserts?”
    “Yes, you can purchase a replacement that fits over one of our proprietary bases. In case the owl is damaged or lost. With exposure, particularly in marine settings, the paint lasts two to three years and after that the owl might lose some of its effectiveness. You have to repaint or simply get a new owl. The reality is, the mold is the least expensive part of the ensemble.”
    Winston looked over at McCaleb. He had nothing to add or ask in the line of questioning she was pursuing. He simply nodded at her and she turned back to Riddell.
    “Okay, then, I think we want to see if there is a method of tracing this owl from this point to its eventual owner.”
    Riddell looked at the owl for a long moment as if it might be able to answer the question itself.
    “Well, that could be difficult. It’s a commodity item. We sell several thousand a year. We ship to retail outlets as well as sell through mail order catalogs and an Internet Web site.”
    He snapped his fingers.
    “There is one thing that will cut it down some, though.”
    “What’s that?”
    “They changed the mold last year. In China. They did some research and decided the horned owl was considered a higher threat to other birds than the round head. They changed to the horns.”
    “I’m not quite following you, Mr. Riddell.”
    He held up a finger as if to tell her wait a moment. He then opened a desk drawer and dug through some paperwork. He came out with a catalog and quickly started turning pages. McCaleb saw that Bird Barrier’s primary business was not plastic owls, but large-scale bird deterrent systems that encompassed netting and wire coils and spikes. Riddell found the page showing the plastic owls and turned the catalog so that Winston and McCaleb could view it.
    “This is last year’s catalog,” he said. “You see the owl has the round head. The manufacturer changed last June, about seven months ago. Now we have these guys.”
    He pointed to the two owls on the table.
    “The feathering turns up into the two points, or ears, on the top of the head. The sales rep said these are called horns and that these types of owls are sometimes called devil owls.”
    Winston glanced at McCaleb, who raised his eyebrows momentarily.
    “So you’re saying this owl we have was ordered or bought since June,” she said to Riddell.
    “More like since August or maybe September. They changed in June but we probably didn’t start receiving the new mold until late July. We also would have sold off our existing supplies of the round head first.”
    Winston then questioned Riddell about sales records and determined that information from mail order and Web site purchases was kept complete and current on the company’s computer files. But point-of-purchase sales from shipments to major hardware and home and marine products retailers would obviously not be recorded. He