A Grizzly Discovery

4

It didn’t take long for the answer to come. My third client of the morning the next day, a young couple whose energetic husky was prone to jumping off things that were too high for a dog to jump off, came in to have me X-ray his leg. Again.

“Did you hear Chief Gary announced that the person who was killed yesterday was mauled to death by a bear?” Irene asked me as I did a quick physical on Jojo, her blue eyes even bigger and rounder than usual.

I raised an eyebrow. “He’s already said that, has he?”

“Yes, there was a press conference at nine,” Irene’s boyfriend Kurt replied. “Some British tourist. It’s so sad; that’s going to impact the town. At least it’s late in the season. Hopefully, by the spring people will have forgotten about it.”

“Do you think we should get a gun?” Irene asked. “After all, our house backs up to the forest. I know Jojo here can handle himself pretty well, but if there’s a bear out there mauling people, well, I want to be able to protect myself.”

I sighed inwardly. This was exactly what I was afraid of.

“I don’t think you need to worry,” I told Irene. “I was there, and I saw the body. While it was consistent with a bear attack, I don’t think it was a bear that did it.”

“Well then what else could it be?” Kurt asked.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “It could have been a murder made to look like a bear attack. But black bears very, very rarely attack people. I’ve never heard of it happening here my whole life.”

“Yes, but if it’s happened now,” Irene said. “It just takes once.”

“Well, I certainly won’t stop you from buying a gun,” I replied. “But I don’t think you need one. Certainly not to protect yourself from a bear. If you want to be safer, you should probably start wearing a helmet inside your car.”

“Well that’s just ridiculous!” Irene spouted.

“So is thinking you’re going to be killed in a bear attack. I know what Chief Gary said, but I also know what I saw, and I know a lot about bears. A lot more than the police do. I don’t think that man was killed by a bear.”

Irene shivered. “I’d almost rather a deadly bear be out there than a deadly human.”

Kurt looked troubled. “So what do you suggest we do?”

I shrugged. “Continue on with your lives. There’s no need to be afraid of bears. I promise, they’re not out to get us. This isn’t the start of some bad horror movie.”

Fifteen minutes later we had confirmation that Jojo had luckily not fractured his leg this time; I sent Kurt and Irene back home with some painkillers and instructions to keep his activity level to a minimum (as much as possible anyway) over the next week or so while the strain healed.

When I made my way back to the reception area, I found that Karen had gone and made an emergency trip to the bank, and we had gained a new addition to the office for the day.

A few months ago Bee had met Buster, an orange cat belonging to a retiree who had recently moved to Willow Bay. The two of them had immediately hit it off, spending all their time together sitting as high as they could and making snide remarks about all the people or animals who crossed their paths. It was actually kind of cute. Extremely annoying, especially when their snide comments were aimed in my direction, but also cute.

When it became obvious that Bee and Buster weren’t content with simply seeing each other once a year when Buster had a checkup, Gloria began dropping him off at the vet clinic some mornings. She would go out, do whatever old retirees spend their days doing, then come back in the afternoon to pick Buster back up. Today was evidently one of their play days.

“Here she is. Should we ask her?” Buster said from his perch on top of the filing cabinet when I came in. Bee was sitting next to him, their eyes boring into me. I sighed.

“What do you guys want?” I asked.

“You say that as though you’re expecting us to want something unreasonable,” Bee said.

“Yesterday you asked me if we could set up a Christmas tree in the living room permanently.”

“Yes.” Obviously Bee didn’t consider that an unreasonable request.

“Be nice to her. It’s important that she say yes,” Buster whispered, as if I couldn’t hear. I narrowed my eyes and was even more suspicious when Bee actually did what he wanted.

“We want to go outside.”

Well, that was unexpected. Bee wasn’t really an outdoor cat. Mainly because I didn’t want her to be; but often whenever the urge struck her, Bee came back in complaining about something. Last time she decided the grass was too “sticky”.

“Really?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

“You’re cramping our style.”

“Oh, I am, am I?” I asked. “How exactly am I doing that? I didn’t even know Buster was here until two minutes ago.”

“There’s not enough people and animals coming in this time of year,” Buster explained. “We need a bigger audience.”

Ah, now that made sense.

“Really? You’re just going to walk down Main Street and judge people?”

“Exactly.”

“Is that all you’re going to be doing?”

“Of course,” Bee said, giving me a look like I’d just betrayed her. “Judging people is what we do.”

“You know, you’re lucky you’re so lazy, or I might not actually believe you,” I said, heading toward the door. Buster and Bee both leapt off the counter like dogs being told they were about to go for a walk. I put my hand on the door handle but didn’t open the door.

“However,” I said, “I do have some ground rules. For one thing, absolutely no eating any wildlife. Do not chase birds. Do not chase squirrels. Do not hunt anything. Got it?”

“We promise,” Bee replied. I looked at Buster.

“I promise too,” he said. “I’ve never been much of a hunter. I’m a pacifist.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Stay away from cars. Stick to the sidewalks. And do not bother people,” I told them. “Complain about them from afar.”

“Yes mother,” Bee said sarcastically, and I frowned at her.

“If you’re not back in two hours, you’re never going outside alone again,” I warned them as I opened the door.

“Look at that, we have a curfew, like we’re irresponsible teenagers,” I heard Bee tell Buster as they darted out the door before I could change my mind. As if. Teenagers were less moody and more predictable than my cat.

“What are Trouble 1 and Trouble 2 up to now?” Sophie asked as she came out of the back. “Sounds like they’re going on an adventure.”

“They have a date,” I told Sophie. “Like a pair of true romantics, they’re going to wander down Main Street and judge people. Apparently it’s too slow for them in the vet clinic right now, and it’s cramping their style.”

Sophie laughed. “Those two are ridiculous.”

“I know. It’s funny though; I wasn’t sure I ever believed in soul mates, but Bee and Buster are probably the closest thing I’ve ever seen to it.”

“We should hold a little cat wedding for them,” Sophie suggested. “Complete with a cat-sized dress and tuxedo, a photographer, and all our friends.”

I laughed at the thought. “I think Bee would kill me in my sleep if we tried that.”

“I’m still not hearing a downside,” Sophie joked, and I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Hey, so Kurt and Irene told me that Chief Gary announced that Jeremy Wallace was killed by a bear. They’ve decided it wasn’t a murder.”

Sophie’s face fell. “That sucks.”

“It does. Especially since Irene then asked me if I thought she should get a gun, to protect herself. It’s what I’m most afraid of; that people are going to be afraid of bears now.”

“Yeah, that’s not good,” Sophie said. “So are we going to investigate like it’s a murder?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. Charlotte actually made a good point last night—don’t ever tell her I said that—when she said that him being a tourist with no ties to anything in Willow Bay makes it more likely to be a bear attack. And after all, it’s not like I have any solid proof that the guy was murdered. And that’s what we need. We need to know for sure.”

“But how are you going to find out?” Sophie asked.

“I’m possibly the only person on the planet who can just ask the bears and get an answer to that question,” I replied with a smile.

That was how I found myself trudging through the woods at three in the afternoon, bundled up in a thick jacket, but still feeling chilled down to my bones. After a summer of perfect weather in the high eighties, the temperature had dropped suddenly this week, and my body was totally unprepared for the weather to be in the fifties again.

“At least it’s not raining,” I muttered to myself, looking up at the imposing grey clouds above. “Not yet, anyway.”

There was one advantage to the bad weather; it meant I was unlikely to run into anyone else on my way to find the local bears.

I knew there was one female who lived near a little pond a ways away from the end of the trail that I was currently on. All the locals knew she lived there; the bear was nicknamed “Jeanie” and was a favorite of local bear spotters. I was hoping Jeanie would be around and know something.

It took me another fifteen minutes to reach the end of the trail, and by the time I did I was sweating, out of breath, feeling generally gross, and thinking to myself—for probably the tenth time this year—that I should probably exercise occasionally. I made my way through the woods that I knew like the back of my hand—growing up in Willow Bay I’d spent most afternoons in these woods—and five minutes later I found myself by the edge of a small pond, about fifty feet in diameter.

“Jeanie?” I called out as loudly as I dared, and then sat and waited to see if the bear would appear. Hopefully she was both in the area, and willing to chat. Luckily, two minutes later I heard a tree branch cracking nearby, and a minute later the big black bear ambled toward me. She was pure black, except for her snout which was more of a light brown. Jeanie’s rounded ears twitched as she looked at me.

“Hello, human,” Jeanie said to me cautiously. She was still a good fifty feet away; bears were definitely a cautious animal.

“Hi, Jeanie,” I told her. “Is it all right if I call you Jeanie? That’s what the humans in town call you, anyway.”

“That is fine,” Jeanie told me. “My own kind call me Korawaa—it means the mother of cubs in our language. But for you, Jeanie is acceptable. In fact, I think I like it.”

“Thank you, Jeanie. Listen, I don’t mean you any harm. I just want to ask you a few questions about what happened in these woods yesterday.”

“Yes,” Jeanie said. “It was very sad. I saw the man, but when I saw what was happening I ran away.”

Oh, this was even better than I could have imagined! It sounded like Jeanie actually saw the whole thing.

“You’re telling me you saw what happened?” I asked.

“Yes, yes. It was right near here, after all. There is a patch of blueberry bushes not far from where the man was killed. Since I only have two months now until the winter sleep, I thought I would visit the patch.”

“Can you tell me what you saw?”

“The human who was killed was walking along a path, with another human. They were arguing. I could not make out what they were arguing about. The one human then pushed the other human, and the first human hit his head on a tree. The other human continued to attack him, with branches and rocks. I left as fast as I could when I saw that, even though I was not finished eating the blueberries. I did not want to see the violence.”

This was better than I could have ever expected! Not only had I just confirmed that Jeremy Wallace was, in fact, murdered, but there was a chance that Jeanie could even tell me something about the murderer!

“How well did you see the attacker?” I asked Jeanie, and she thought for a minute before shaking her head.

“Not very well, I must say. My eyesight is not what it used to be. When I was a cub, I could see far. Now, not as much.”

“Do you know if it was a man or a woman?” I tried, trying to hide my disappointment. I knew that any information I got from Jeanie obviously wouldn’t count as proof—I had no way of admitting to anyone that my witness was of the ursine variety—but if she could steer me in the right direction, that would be something.

“I do not, sorry,” Jeanie told me. “To be honest, you humans all look very alike to me. For instance, I am not certain if you are male or female. Do not take that to be an insult, it is simply that whenever I see humans I often try to leave as quickly as possible. You are the first human I have seen from so close.”

“I’m not insulted, don’t worry,” I told Jeanie. After all, how could I be? I knew 99 percent of the population wouldn’t be able to tell if a bear was male or female, and they didn’t even wear clothes to cover up their naughty bits like we did.

“I can tell you the attacker was wearing dark clothing. They were dressed in black, from head to toe.”

“Excellent, thank you.”

“I saw there were lights long into the night where the man was attacked. He is not going to be ok, is he?”

I shook my head sadly. “No, he’s not. He was killed.”

“Oh,” Jeanie said sadly. “That is too bad.”

“Hey, Jeanie?”

“Yes, human?”

“I would like you to spread the word around to the other bears to be careful over the next few weeks, ok?”

“Be careful? Why?”

“The humans who are in charge thought that the way the human was attacked looked like a bear had done it. They have announced that the man was not murdered, but killed by a bear. I’m worried that humans are going to be more afraid of bears than usual, and that some of them might try to come into the forest and kill you for their own protection.”

Jeanie looked sadly at the ground. “That is not good. We are a peaceful species. We do not wish harm on the humans.”

“I know,” I told her. “I promise you, I will do everything I can to prove it was a human who killed the man. I will do what I can to protect you. But please, make sure the other bears know to be more afraid of humans than usual for the next little while.”

“Thank you for telling me,” Jeanie told me. “I will spread the word. We will be discreet. I wish you the best of luck with what you are doing.”

I smiled at Jeanie and said goodbye, then headed back the way I came. I checked the time as I walked back toward the park, and home. It was just after four thirty. With any luck, I’d have enough time to have the hottest shower known to man before my date with Jason that night.