Alex Barclay - Blood Runs Cold

Ren turned to Salem again.

‘Do you remember the day the FBI agent’s body was found on Quandary?’ said Ren.

Salem nodded. ‘I do. Same day I hitched a ride to Fairplay.’

‘Did you come home that night?’

‘Nope — the next morning. Cop cars everywhere. I had to go the back way to the cabin.’

‘What back way?’ said Ren.

‘The way that meant I didn’t have to go through the trailhead.’

‘You’ll have to show me. Was Misty with you?’

‘I left her in the cabin. Not a lot of people want to take you with a dog.’

‘Was she chained up?’

‘Yes, ma’am. I left her food and water, too.’

‘Of course you did. She’s a very loved little lady. And when you came home, was she where you left her?’

Salem nodded.

‘OK,’ said Ren. ‘Thanks for that.’

‘No, thank you, ma’am.’

She placed a hand on his and squeezed it. ‘You take care.’

‘Hey,’ he called, ‘what do you think she’s trained in?’

Finding dead people .

Ren smiled. ‘Karate.’

Ren walked up to the bar and took a stool. She thought about Robbie’s beautiful, arctic photo and the possibility that they were Misty’s paw prints across the snow. Had Misty gotten free of her chains that night and someone had tied her up again? Had Salem? Had he forgotten? Had he deliberately lied? Or had someone else taken Misty, untied her and brought her out into the snow to find a dead body?

Officers were at the trailhead that night, but because of the avalanche threat, no one was right up at what had been the scene. And Salem had said there was another easy route up to his cabin …

Ren watched the guy with the ponytail in the mirror behind the bar. She waited for Billy to come over and ordered a Coke.

‘Hi,’ said Ren.

‘Hi,’ said Billy.

‘Who’s this guy behind me?’

‘Which one?’ said Billy, not taking his eyes off her. Amazing eyes .

‘The opposite-of-a-Minotaur guy.’

Billy paused, then laughed when he realized who she was talking about. ‘Head of a man, body of a bull?’

Ren smiled and nodded. ‘That’s the one.’ She felt bad that she thought he might not have known.

‘I don’t know. He’s Mexican, doesn’t speak a lot of English.’

‘Does he come in here a lot?’

‘Once or twice a week.’

‘Anything I need to know?’

‘Jo and him seem to take toilet breaks at the same time …’

Ren glanced over at Jo, who had her bare right foot up on her left knee, dirty sole out. She was bent low, running a fingernail under each toenail. Jesus Christ . Ren watched the guy in the mirror behind the bar. He had the look of a man who was not choosy. Which made her smile when she caught his eyes on her ass. His gaze then slid over in Jo’s direction, a slow, heavy-lidded leer. A shiver ran up Ren’s neck. This guy is wrong . He smiled with his mouth closed, his chin raised and a slight nod. Soon he was back staring at Ren’s ass. Jesus Christ. There’s a mirror, idiot . She looked back at Billy. He was looking at her. He quickly looked away. Her heart flipped. Oh, no .

‘Do you know what he drives?’ said Ren.

‘The green truck out front.’

Behind her, Salem had taken Misty by the leash and walked to the window.

‘I feel like we’re in a snow globe,’ he said, tracing a finger in circles like the snow falling outside.

‘Snow globes are pretty,’ said Billy. ‘People want to look at what’s inside.’

Aw .

The sleazy guy got up behind them, zipped up a light ski jacket and gestured to Salem that he would give him a ride.

Ren glanced over at the corner. ‘I’m amazed he didn’t take Jo …’

‘No go for Jo da Ho,’ said Billy.

Ren laughed. ‘OK, Billy at da Filly. I’m done here. Thank you.’

‘Any time,’ he said.

Two magnetic men walk into a bar … one repelling her, the other drawing her in. There is no punchline. This is not funny .

Colin and Robbie were in the office, quietly working at their computers. Ren walked in and dropped her bag at the desk. ‘I have a shaggy dog story.’

Colin didn’t look up. ‘If it is relevant to Jean Transom’s murder, I’d love to hear it. If it’s a sidebar from the CNN website — ’

‘Don’t be a dick,’ said Ren.

‘Tell me your story,’ said Robbie. ‘I don’t care.’

‘I will admit,’ said Ren, ‘that it may be as irrelevant as a human interest story, but anyway … Remember the day I came back here after the autopsy in Golden? And there was shit on my boots from the autopsy? Salem Swade, the vet up the mountain — his dog sat down and started barking at me when I walked into reception. But she didn’t react that way to anyone else — ’

Colin raised an eyebrow.

Ren rolled her eyes. ‘Anyway, I thought about it. And thought, hold on a second, cadaver dogs are trained to react to putrescine — eau de mort.’

‘Oh de what?’ said Colin.

‘Do you always have to be irritated by things you haven’t come across before?’ said Ren.

Colin said nothing.

‘Eau de mort — I made it up, OK?’ said Ren. ‘Anyway, I remember Cliff saying the cadaver dog that day on the mountain sat down and barked to show he’d picked up the smell. I called his handler and she filled me in — said that was something a lot of cadaver dogs do. Then the handler rewards them with a treat. Which I didn’t do, obviously, with poor Misty, so she kept barking. She stopped eventually, but when I came out again, there she was …’

‘Love the sound effects,’ said Robbie.

‘Thank you,’ said Ren. ‘Anyway, Misty was normal last night when I met her with my new boots on. So there you go.’

‘OK,’ said Robbie. ‘But — ’

‘What is the point?’ said Ren, ‘I know.’

‘The point is — guess what? It’s all about Ren,’ said Colin.

‘You know what?’ said Ren. ‘You’re really going to have to go fuck yourself at some stage.’

‘’Cos you won’t be doing it with her ,’ said Robbie, pointing to Ren.

‘We don’t all want to fuck Ren Bryce,’ said Colin. ‘That’s your special fantasy, Truax.’

‘Leave him alone,’ said Ren. ‘That’s not true.’

‘Yeah,’ said Robbie. ‘And unlike you, Colin, I would know how to treat a lady.’

‘Oh, I know how to treat a lady,’ said Colin. ‘Treat ’em mean, keep ’em — ’

‘Repulsed,’ said Ren. ‘Back to the matter at hand — remember the paw prints up on Quandary that were in your photos, Robbie? I think someone who knew about Misty’s little gift took her from Salem Swade’s cabin — he wasn’t there that night — and brought her out to look for the body. Which Misty may or may not have found.’

Colin nodded. ‘OK, that’s interesting.’

‘Is it now?’ said Ren.

‘But who could know that about the dog?’ said Colin.

Ren shrugged. ‘That? I don’t know.’

‘And who knows the dog well enough to be able to get her away from the cabin like that?’

‘Strikes me that the whole town knows Misty,’ said Ren. ‘And she is one very friendly dog. Especially considering what her secret talent is. And she is a food whore. All the restaurants feed her. A nice steak would have her out in the snow right away. And snow is hard to sniff a corpse out in.’

‘My photos rock,’ said Robbie.

‘Update number two is on Caroline Quaintance,’ said Ren. ‘Turns out she was a friend of Jean’s from the animal shelter Jean worked at as a weekend volunteer. Caroline was seen outside Jean’s house last night. She told me she was looking for Jean’s cat in case he was still there or wandering the neighborhood or whatever. I think she was telling the truth about that. She said Jean and her had been friends for about a year. The animal shelter is in Rifle. It’s called Homeward Friends. I have one of the detectives here getting a list of the employees, so between us we can go talk to them all. And hopefully I can get to the bottom of what it is that Caroline Quaintance is lying to me about.’