Black Hills

go through the offices. If they’re clear, you can set up there, check your animals.”
    “Willy’s going to let us open the gates, isn’t he? Let my people in.”
    “Shouldn’t be long.”
    “I didn’t get a good look at the wolf. It was good size, so I’d say full-grown. To take one down like that . . . Maybe it wasn’t with a pack. A lone wolf’s easier prey. He wants me upset, off-balance, to throw this place into upheaval. I took my share of psych courses,” she said when Coop only studied her face. “I know what he’s doing. Not why, but what. I could lose some volunteers, even some interns over this sort of thing. Our intern program is essential, so I’m going to be doing some fast, hard talking at our emergency staff meeting today.”
    She unlocked the cabin that held the offices. Coop nudged her aside, pushed the door open. The area appeared to be clear. He stepped in, swept it, then moved from space to space to do the same.
    “Stay in here, use the computer. I’ll check the other buildings. Give me the keys.”
    She said nothing, only passed them to him. When he left her she sat and waited for the computer to boot up.
    She’d known he’d been a cop. But she’d never seen him be one until today.
    He’d thought he understood what went on in the refuge. But he realized he hadn’t considered the full extent of the work even after Lil had given him an overview. The commissary alone was an eye-opener, with its enormous coolers and freezers, its massive amounts of meat, and the equipment required for processing it, handling it, hauling it.
    The stables held three horses, including the one he’d sold her. Since he was there, he saw to their feeding and watering, and marked off both chores on the chart posted on the wall.
    He checked the equipment shed, the garage, and the long, low cabin posted as the education center. He took a quick scan of the displays inside, the photographs, the pelts, teeth, skulls, bones—where the hell did she get those?
    Fascinating, he thought as he checked both restrooms, and each stall inside. He walked through the small attached gift shop with its stuffed animals, T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, postcards, and posters. Everything tidy and organized.
    She’d built something here. Saw to the details, the angles. And all of it, he knew, all of it, for the animals.
    As he backtracked he heard the sound of cars, and headed around to meet the sheriff.
    “Everything’s fine here. She’s in the offices,” he said to Tansy, then turned to Willy.
    “Looks like he decided to hole up after all,” Willy said. “We can’t be sure it wasn’t somebody else, and they just happened to pick that gate. Or somebody got the bright idea because of the cougar. But the fact is hunting wolves is illegal around here, and people know it. Know the trouble they’ll get into for it. Now, a farmer shooting one that’s after his lifestock’s one thing. But I know every farmer in this county, and I can’t see any one of them hauling the body up here like this. Even the ones who think Lil’s a little on the odd side.”
    “The bullets in that wolf are going to be from the same gun that shot the cougar.”
    “Yeah, I expect they are.” With a nod, Willy folded his lips tight. “I’m going to be talking to the Park Service, and the state boys. You might do some talking yourself. Maybe somebody going on the trail, using your outfit or one of the others, saw somebody, saw something.”
    He looked over as Lil came out. “Morning. Sorry about this trouble. Your vet around?”
    “He’ll be here shortly.”
    “I’m going to leave a man, same as before. We’re going to do what we can, Lil.”
    “I know, but there’s not much you can do.” She came down the steps. “One cougar, one wolf. It’s bad, but it’s a hard world. And those two species may be romanticized in other places, but not here, not where they might wander down from the hills and take down a man’s cattle or ravage a henhouse. I understand that, Willy, I live in reality. My reality is I have thirty-six animals, not including the horses, spread over about thirty-two acres of habitat and facilities. And I’m afraid he’s going to decide to bring it here, that’s what he hinted at today. And he’s going to kill one of the animals that live here, that I brought here. Or worse, one of the people who work here, who I brought here.”
    “I don’t know what I can say to ease your mind.”
    “There’s nothing,