Demming shrugged. “I’m not sure. Zephyr people have their own language within a language.”
“Is he talking about dope?”
“I assume.”
“Maybe Layborn was on to something,” Joe said.
“Maybe.”
They stopped for lunch at Rocky’s in West Yellowstone. It was one of the few places open. The streets were deserted, most businesses closed until the winter season. While they waited for their sandwiches, Joe surveyed the crowd. Everyone looked localand had the same logy listlessness about them as the people he saw in Mammoth; no doubt recovering from the tourist season,he thought.
“James Langston,” Joe asked Demming, “what’s he like?”
“The chief ranger? He’s a bureaucrat of rare order. I’ve alwaysfound him arrogant and very political. He didn’t get to where he’s at by being everyone’s friend, that’s for sure. I heard him say once he thinks he’s underappreciated given all he has to put up with. By
Joe said, “Maybe he should quit the Park Service and work in the private sector if he wants more money.”
“What-and have to be accountable to shareholders? Work past five? And not live in a mansion that’s financed by taxpayers?Are you crazy, Joe? What are you saying?”
She caught herself and looked horrified. “But I shouldn’t be saying that.”
“Your secret’s safe with me,” Joe said slyly. “Why do you suppose he was checking up on me?”
She sighed. “I’m sure he just wants you gone. He doesn’t want this McCann thing in the news again.”
“Speaking of McCann,” Joe said. “We’re in his hometown. Have you guys kept track of him since he was released?”
“I assume he’s back here,” she said, “that he came home. If he left I haven’t heard. Why, do you want to check up on him?”
Joe nodded.
“Now?”
“I’m curious. Aren’t you?”
In the car, Joe turned on Madison.
“This isn’t the road to Bechler,” Demming said.
“Nope.”
“Then what. .”
He gestured out the window. “Look.”
The law office of Clay McCann was a simple single-story structure made of logs. It looked like the type of place that was once an art gallery or a Laundromat.
“Think he’s in there?” she asked.
Joe shrugged, but felt a tug of anxiety. He stared at the law office as if he might get a better read on McCann by studying it.
The news photos of McCann made the lawyer look bland and soft. Joe wanted to see him in the flesh, look into his eyes, see what was there. Joe parked the Yukon on the other side of the street.
“Maybe we should go in and say hello,” Joe said.
As they climbed out, Joe dug the Glock out of his daypack and shoved it into his Wranglers behind his back.
“Did you have that gun in the park?” Demming asked.
“Yes.”
“You’re breaking the law. You can’t have firearms in the park.”
“I know.”
“Joe. .”
“It’s okay,” he said. “I can’t hit anything with it.”
She continued to shake her head at him as they crossed the street.
Joe entered the office, Demming behind him. A dark-haired, dark-eyed woman sat at a reception desk reading a glossy magazine.She looked as out of place as a nail salon in a cow pasture and she raised a face filled with undisguised suspicion.
“Is Clay McCann in?” Joe asked.
“Who are you?” she asked in a hard-edged East Coast accent.
“I’m Joe, this is Judy.”
“What do you want?”
“To see Clay McCann.”
“Sorry, he’s not in at the moment and you don’t have an appointment,” she said, running a lacquered nail down a calendar on her desk. Joe noted there were no appointments at all written on it.
“When will he be back?”
“He’s off making a call at the supermarket,” she said, apparentlyunaware how odd that sounded. “That takes him hours sometimes. So, Punch and Judy, if you want to meet with him you can schedule an
“You’re his secretary?”
She performed what amounted to a dry spit take. “Secretary?Hardly. I’m Sheila D’Amato and I’m stuck in this one-horsetown. I’m filling in because his real secretary quit.”
Joe and Demming looked at each other. Joe didn’t want to wait, neither did Demming.
“We’ll be back,” Joe said, handing Sheila his card, as did Demming. He used the opportunity to steal a look through an open door behind Sheila into what was undoubtedly McCann’s office. One entire wall was filled with Montana statute books. There was a messy desk stacked high with unopened mail. On a credenza behind McCann’s desk were binders emblazoned with corporate names and logos: Allied, Genetech, BioCorp, Schroeder Engineering, EnerDyne. The names rang no bells, but the collection of them struck the same discordant note as Sheila.
“A game warden and a park ranger,” Sheila said, curling her lip with distaste. “Punch and Judy. I bet I know what you want to talk to him about.”
Outside, Joe paused on the sidewalk to scribble the company names into a notebook he withdrew from his pocket. While he did, Demming said, “Let’s go, Punch.”
“Why would he be making a call at the supermarket?” Demming asked as they cleared West Yellowstone. “I assume he’s using a pay phone. Why not just call from his office?”
“Probably thinks his lines are tapped,” Joe said. “Or he doesn’t want Sheila D’Amato to know what he’s up to.”
“What
10
To get to bechler ranger station, they drove south toward Ashton, Idaho, skirting the western boundary of the park, which loomed darkly to the east and was constantly in sight. The terrain opened up into plowed fields, and they caught a glimpse of the Tetons on the horizon before turning back toward Yellowstone. The Bechler area was dense and heavily wooded. Stray shafts of sunlight filtered through the tree branches to the pine needle floor. Deadfall littered the ground. There was no traffic on the road. Joe pulled into the ranger station and parked facing an old-fashioned hitching post.
The station had the feel of a frontier outpost, very much unlikethe government buildings at Mammoth. There were five rough log structures built on short stilts, including a barn with horses in the corral, a long bunkhouse with a porch, and a small visitor center the size of a large outhouse. At the western corner of the complex was a trailhead for a narrow rocky path that meanderedinto the forest. No one was about, but a generator hummed in one of the buildings.
They clomped up the wooden stairway and entered the station,surprising a young seasonal ranger behind the
