Icy Clutches

'Your theory?” Squinting against the bright gray sky, he peered innocently up at her face. “What do you mean, your theory? You thought it was Shirley.'

'I know, but you just took my theory and—and applied it to Gerald. I was the one who thought it was funny that we only had bones from two people. I was the one who—'

Laughing, he reached up to grab one of her gesticulating hands. “Of course it's your theory, Julie. I realized you were on to something the minute you brought it up. It just needed—'

'You did not. You told me it wouldn't fly, and then you changed the subject. To my infraclavicular fossae.'

'Well, who could blame me for that? But on sober reflection I came around. You had it figured out long ago. You just had the wrong person.” He smiled. “One of those little details.'

'Well, I was sure doing better than anyone else,” she said spiritedly. “In case you forget, I was also the one who pointed out—to universal derision—that Tremaine didn't actually see James Pratt killed, and for all we knew he was still alive. At which point I was sneeringly encouraged to leave it to the pros. Or am I remembering it wrong?'

'No,” Gideon said ruefully, “you're remembering right. Had we but known.'

There was a thin, fluttery buzzing in the southeast. They looked up to see a pontooned airplane dropping out of the cloud sheet over Icy Strait and making for Bartlett Cove. It looked like the same cheerful blue-and-white Cessna that had brought Dr. Wu and taken away Tremaine's body. This time it had come for Pratt, who was going to be turned over to the state for prosecution.

'Anyway,” Gideon went on, as she settled back on her elbows, “I realized that if this guy really was James Pratt, it gave him a reason for getting rid of the femur. He didn't know I'd already sexed it, and he didn't want me to find out it was Jocelyn's.'

'Why not? If—wait a minute, how could he possibly know it was female?” She cocked her head at him. “As I recall, you were raising the same objection when I was suggesting this, all of two hours ago.'

'Yeah, but I forgot about one thing: I pretty much told him myself. When I met with Tremaine's group last Tuesday I told them the right femur they'd brought back from Tirku was male. Pratt knew it had to be Fisk's, because it damn sure couldn't have been his. Now we come up with another right femur. He'd know right away—and only he would know—that it was Jocelyn's, because who else was there?'

'Okay, I see that. Now go back for a minute. Why should he care whether you found out it was Jocelyn's? I mean, nobody aside from me ever doubted that she was dead in the first place. What was he worried about?'

'I guess he was worried about us putting it all together, which is just what we did. See, before this, only one person had been positively ID'd, and that was Steven Fisk. But now, with a female femur in hand, we'd have to know we had Jocelyn Yount too. That leaves only one person not positively dead: James Pratt. And that made him nervous. He didn't want people thinking too much about that.'

'So he gets rid of the femur before it's sexed,” Julie murmured, “or, rather, before he thinks it's been sexed.” She lay slowly back down, her fingers laced behind her neck, Gideon resettled his head on her belly.

'Not only sexed,” he said. “At the press conference Arthur very helpfully announced to the world that he was giving me a scale that would allow me to determine which bones belonged to whom, which Pratt couldn't have been too happy with, because none of them were going to belong to James.'

'Obviously.'

'Obviously to Pratt. He didn't want it to be so obvious to John.'

'Now that I think about it,” Julie said, “Arthur also told everyone where the bones were—at the contact station.'

'The dark, isolated, unguarded contact station, yes. Pratt really wasn't taking much of a risk going there, you know. It was just luck that I came back when he was there.'

'Yes, you've always been lucky that way,” she said dryly. The little airplane was already on its way back out. They both sat, arms around their knees, and watched it skim over the water, pick up speed, and finally lift off, beelike, to quickly disappear against the flat sky. Nearer, only a few yards away, a line of small, stubby-winged birds shot over the surface of the water like so many black bullets in pursuit of it.

'Pigeon guillemots,” Julie said absently. “Gideon, why did Pratt have to kill Tremaine? Why did he steal the manuscript? What difference did it make if—'

Gideon held up his hands. “Hey, lady, all I know is bones. Ask John about the rest.'

'And—now wait a minute, how did he get off the glacier?” She turned to him, eyes narrowed. “When it was my theory we were talking about, you said it was impossible. And where has he been all these years? And—'

'Bones,” Gideon said. “That's all I know.'

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Chapter 24

* * * *

John prodded the gelatinous cube tentatively with his fork. “What is it?'

'Tofu lasagna,” his wife said patiently.

'Why is it green?'

'It has spinach in it.'