Sowing on the Mountain

≈ 25 ≈

She radioed the office and said there'd been a dog poisoned at Big Sandy and she was coming in with a tissue sample. She asked whether Les Boswick would be in his office and they replied that he would. She asked to have Les call the game warden, Chess Headley. She wasn't sure who ought to deal with the sample, but she wanted to have two people there, so there'd be a witness.

She radioed Harv and told him what happened. There was a long silence.

"Copy. 10-4. I'll ride down and check at the Lodge. Will you be at the shack?"

"Negative. I'm driving to Pinedale with the tissue sample."

"Copy that. Call me when you find out anything. Hogan clear."

"Browne clear."

Then she called the county dispatcher and asked her to phone Slim in Jackson, and tell him to call her at the FS office about 5 PM, urgent. She had a feeling there would be more to this than some crazy out to poison one poor dog.

The drive seemed longer than usual. She parked a few blocks from the office, opened the windows and filled a water bowl for Gris. Then she walked with the ice chest heavy in her grasp, remembering the look on Zack's face as he tried to hold the tears in. She thought of Gris dying that way, and had to stop walking and shut her eyes.

Boswick and Headley were waiting. She set the ice chest on Les's desk. He asked her to write a report, and she typed out the names and times and a description of the symptoms. "Put the date and time and sign it," Headley said. "Chain of custody."

"Where will this go?"

"State path lab in Laramie. I'll drive down to Rock Springs tonight and put it on the bus— that's the quickest way to get it there."

"When will you get results?"

"If they run it right away, the day after tomorrow. Otherwise, Monday or Tuesday. Any other dogs go down?"

"Not that I know about."

"If there are any, or if you see any other critters— coyotes, badgers, eagles— you radio right away."

"Right. I will. I'm gonna grab a sandwich and drive back down tonight."

"Oh– don't discuss this with anyone except Hogan and the people at the Lodge. And don't try to question anyone, even if you think they're suspicious. That might put you in danger."

"What about the other Forest Service people? Jet?"

"Use your judgement. Les? Can you run out tomorrow and check with the other permittees? Tell 'em to keep an eye on their dogs."

"Other?" Mary said. "So you have someone in mind?"

"Just pretend you didn't hear that," Headley said. "We'll take it from here."

The front office folks left at 4:30. She sat in the office with the lights off and waited for Slim to ring. He called at 5:01.

She told him what had happened and how things had gone at the office with the sample, what Headley told her, all that she could remember.

"I'll call Chess at home," he said. "Are you going back?"

"Tonight. I'm not off 'til next Tuesday."

"Maybe you should head out for the backcountry. Camp out by one of those lakes up high, where there's good radio contact."

"Why do I get this feeling you guys know something you're not telling me?"

"Safer that way, for now. I might come down this weekend. I'll get a radio message to you and we can meet at the shack."

"That'd be nice. Let me know. Love you."