Northern Lights

bear in Ginny Mann's garage, off Rancor. Her husband's out with a hunting party," Peach added. "She's home alone with her two-year-old."
    "Tell her we're coming. Otto?"
     
     
    WHEN THEY PULLED ONTO the pitted lane a mile and a half north of town, Otto flicked a glance at Nate. "I sure hope you don't plan to have me drive this thing around like a maniac while you lean out the damn window there and shoot warning shots over some bear's idiot head."
    "We'll see what we see. What the hell is a bear doing in a garage?"
    "He's not fixing a carburetor." At Nate's snicker, Otto grinned. Then sobered again as he remembered what was between them.
    "Somebody forgot and left the door open, most likely. They might have a can full of dog food or bird food in there. Or the dumbass bear went in to see if there was anything interesting."
    When they pulled up in front of the two-story cabin with attached garage, Nate saw the garage door was indeed open. He didn't know if the bear was responsible for the mess he could see inside or if the Manns just pitched things in there like it was the town dump.
    Ginny opened the front door. Her red hair was piled up on her head, and her loose overshirt and hands were splattered with paint. "He went around back. He's been crashing around inside there for twenty minutes. I thought he'd just go on, but I was afraid he'd try to get through the door to the house."
    "Stay inside, Ginny." Nate ordered.
    "You get a look at him?" Otto called out.
    "I got a look at him through the front when he lumbered up." Behind her there was the sound of insane barking and the wail of a toddler. "I had the dog inside and was upstairs working in the studio when Roger started carrying on. Woke the baby. I'm about to go crazy from the noise. Brown bear. Didn't look full-grown but big enough."
    "Bears are curious," Otto commented as they checked their rifles and started around the side of the garage. "If he's a young one, he was likely just poking around and he'll run off quick enough when he sees us."
    Around back, Nate could see the Manns had roped off a patch of ground for a garden. Apparently the bear had tromped through it coming or going and had spent some time beating up a plastic crate full of newspapers and mail-order catalogs.
    Nate scanned and then gestured when he spotted a brown rump through the trees.
    "There he goes."
    "Better give him a little scare, get him running. Discourage him from coming back." Otto aimed the rifle skyward, fired two rounds. And Nate watched, with some amusement, as the bear hustled its fat rump and ran.
    He stood watching its progress beside a man who was on his list of suspects.
    "That was easy enough."
    "More often than not, it is."
    "Sometimes it's not. Meg and I had to take one down the other night at her place."
    "Is that what got at her dog? I heard her dog got clawed up some."
    "Yeah. It would've gotten at us, too, if we hadn't killed it first. Somebody baited the house."
    Otto's eyes narrowed into slits. "What the hell are you talking about?"
    "I'm talking about somebody hanging meat, fresh, bloody meat, in thin plastic bags, on Meg's house."
    Otto's mouth went tight, then he turned sharply away, paced off several steps. Nate rested his hand on the butt of his weapon. "You're asking if it was me?" Otto strode back, stood toe-to-toe with Nate. "You want to know if I'd do something that cowardly, that vicious? If I'd do something that could get two people ripped to pieces? And one of them a woman?"
    He jabbed his finger into Nate's chest.Twice. "I'll take you tossing my name into the hat when it comes to Galloway, even when it comes to Max. It galls me you'd toss it in there over Yukon, but I swallowed it, but I'll be goddamned if I'll take this. I was a Marine. I know how to kill a man if I need to. I know how to do it quick, and I know plenty of places I could get rid of a body where nobody on this earth would find it."
    "That's what I figured. So I'm asking you, Otto, because you know the people around here, who'd stoop that low?"
    He trembled. The rage was still on him, Nate could see. He had the rifle in his hand, but even in temper, it was pointed at the ground. "I don't know. But he doesn't deserve to live."
    "The earring I showed you belongs to him."
    Interest won over the anger in his eyes. "You found it out at Meg's?"
    "No. In Galloway's cave. So here's what we're going to think about. Who did Galloway like and trust who could handle a winter climb? Who gained