“I’ve never really thought about it,” Joe said, “but I guess I do.”
“Someone else I knew did that,” she said, and her recollection brought out an almost imperceptible flinch in her eyes. “I think it’s kind of charming.”
Joe grunted, wondering but not asking if she was referring to Will.
“What kind of animal would Pete Illoway be?”
Joe thought about it for a moment. “A wolf.”
She laughed, apparently delighted. “Jim Johnson?”
“Bear.”
Joe knew what was coming next.
“What animal would you say would describe me?”
He felt his face flush. “Can I get back to you on that?” he asked.
She smiled at him knowingly. “But will you?”
He hesitated. He liked being with her, liked watching her talk. She was an exotic species, charming and attractive, yet dangerous somehow. He was drawn to her, despite himself. He said, “I’m bound to see you again. This isn’t that big a place.”
“I’ve found it’s as big or as small as you want it to be,”
she said. “Jackson is unique that way.”
Joe reshuffled the files in his hands.
“You don’t need to do that,” she said. “I saw your ring last night. You saw mine. Is your wife here with you?”
“No, she’s not,” Joe said, “but she might as well be.”
“Good answer,” she said. Stella Ennis lowered her eyes and her lips tugged into a mischievous smile. It was as if she didn’t quite know where to put them, Joe thought.
“Stella’s Lips.”
“I had better be going.”
“Yes, you had better be going,” she said, agreeing with him.
Joe swung into the cab of his pickup, and when he looked back she was still there, beside his truck, looking like she wanted to say something else. He rolled the window down.
“Have you found the file on me in Will Jensen’s desk?”
she asked.
“File?”
“I assume there’s a file.” She nodded. “I had to sign a release form with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in order to go on ridealongs. You know, agreeing not to sue the state in case a horse bucked me off or a bear bit my leg.”
“You went out with Will?” Joe asked, his tone more urgent than he wanted it to be.
“Not my choice of words exactly,” she said. “I accompanied him on a few elk trend counts, and once to check an outfitter camp. I absolutely loved it.”
If possible, Joe felt even more flushed than he had a moment before.
“I loved the realness of it,” she said. “The rawness and the danger. I’m a junkie for authenticity, if there is such a term.”
Joe swallowed, looked at her. “I saw you at the funeral.”
She nodded.
“You knew Will pretty well, then? Were you and Will.. .”
“Yes, Joe,” she said. “We were.”
He tried to picture Will and Stella together. He could only picture Stella. He felt a surprising rush of jealousy.
She crossed her arms defensively. “I admired him. He was real. I thought he had a quiet honesty and dignity about him, unlike most of the species. He was straightforward and unpretentious. People mistook his earnestness for lack of intelligence, which was a tragedy. I respected him very much. You remind me of him.”
Joe wasn’t sure he bought it, but she seemed sincere.
“Even though your husband didn’t respect him?” he asked, deliberately not addressing the last part of her statement.
“Believe it or not, we don’t think alike,” she said, “much to Don’s chagrin. Actually, he prefers it if I don’t think at all, except to think about how much I admire him.”
Joe was on thin ice and tried to think of a way off it.
“Do you have any idea why Will chose to kill himself ?”
She stared at Joe for a long time, pursing her lips. He found himself staring at them, again.
