Kate leaned forward. "Dina and Ruthe would be the first to tell you that the land is what's important, Dan. Not us. The land. We're only custodians, and temporary ones at that. We do the best we can and then we pass the job along to the next generation. I don't think you're ready to hand off just yet."

He looked at her with the faint glimmer of his old smile. "You be careful there, Shugak. You're starting to sound like your grandmother."

She sat back. "Did you see the guy Jim brought in?"

He shook his head.

"Did you see anything yourself?"

"No." He seemed about to say something else, then repeated firmly, "No. I didn't see anything. It doesn't matter, really, if I saw anything or didn't see anything. Jim got the guy. Crazy bastard, sounds like," he added as an afterthought.

It sounded like the truth, she thought as she made her way back down the trail from the Step. It also sounded like Dan was trying to convince himself that it was. Which was crazy. Like Dan said, Jim got the guy, had him in custody in Ahtna. Case closed.

The sky had clouded over in the night and the temperature had warmed up to ten above, and if the rising barometer at the homestead was working right, there was a storm coming in off the Gulf. She drove through Niniltna to the turnoff and then, for the second time that week, negotiated the narrow track to the little cabin perched high on the side of the mountain. The snow in the yard was packed down hard from the passage of many vehicles, wheeled and tracked, and there were a couple of snow machines already parked there. She stopped hers and climbed the stairs.

There were two strange men in the house, men she'd never seen before. They swung around, startled, when the door opened. "Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?" she said.

They were both in their early twenties, hairy and with the aroma of an unwashed winter about them. They hadn't bothered to doff their Carhartt jackets, bib overalls or their knit caps, only their identical pairs of black leather gloves. "Just poking around," one of them said. "Seeing if there's something we can use."

Both of them were looking at Mutt, who was standing at Kate's side and looking both of them over with a long, considering stare. Mutt was half wolf, and when she wanted to, she let it show. Sensing Kate's rising anger, she bared a little fang.

The man who had spoken visibly paled. "Look, we're not doing anything wrong. The two old ladies are dead, they don't have any relatives, and—"

"Wrong," Kate said flatly. "I'm their relative. Get out."

He tried to bluster. "Who the hell are you anyway? You'll just take all the good stuff if—"

"Russ," the other man said.

"Well, hell, Gabe, we got here first. We're not going to turn around and—"