"I saw. Yum." He looked around. "Where is she, by the way?"

"She doesn't come on shift until four. She's renting the Gette cabin from the new owners." He looked up from polishing a glass and checked the window. "It's a gorgeous day; she's probably out skiing somewhere. She's a telemarketer, she tells me. That's why she moved here—for the snow."

"Oh yeah?"

Bernie leveled a stern forefinger. "You stay away from Christie Turner, goddamn it. She's working out. I don't need her screwed up by some slick talker who only wants to get in her pants."

Jim grinned. Bernie sounded a little wistful, as if sorry he had to follow that rule himself. Edith must be keeping him on a tighter leash than usual. Not that Bernie didn't stray now and then, but strictly when he thought he could get away with it. "I hear she's already taken anyway. Hands off, Scout's honor."

Bernie gave him a skeptical look, but whatever he had been about to say was interrupted by the front door slamming open and banging off the wall.

"Hey!" Bernie said indignantly.

Dandy Mike barreled through the doorway, bundled in down pants and parka, his eyes wide and his expression anxious. He spotted Jim and crossed the floor in hasty steps. "Jim, thank god. You've got to come, right now."

"Where? And why?" Jim stood up. "Dandy. You've got blood all over your pants."

Dandy glanced down, up again. "I know. It's Dina and Ruthe. I went up to deliver their mail, and they're—" He swallowed. "They're dead."

"What?" Bernie said.

"Dina and Ruthe. Somebody broke into their cabin, and Dan—"

"Dan? Dan O'Brian? What about him?"

Dandy swallowed again. "Jim, just come, come right now, okay? Come on."

Billy's Explorer made it up the narrow and nearly vertical track to the little cabin, but only just barely, and not without scratching the finish on low-hanging spruce boughs. Dandy's father was going to be pissed.

Dandy pulled his snow machine to a halt in front of the stairs. Jim parked behind him and got out with the briefcase that held his crime-scene kit, without which he never went anywhere. "Hold it, Dandy," he said when Dandy put his foot on the bottom stair. "Let me go first." He checked the camera to see that it held film, got out his notepad and pencil. "Okay," he said, "I don't want you in the room. Stay in the doorway and keep everybody else out."

"Who else?" Dandy said, and even as the words left his mouth, they heard the buzzing of approaching snow machines. He gaped at Jim. "How did you know? How did they know?"

"First thing you learn when working out here: The Bush telegraph is faster than the speed of sound. Keep them out."

"Will do," Dandy said, shaken but staunch. Dandy Mike, a charming wastrel with an eye for the ladies every bit as keen as Jim's own, might have a little bit more backbone about him than Jim had previously supposed.