I‘ll probably have to do it again, too, Kate said. It was not something she was looking forward to.

And again, and again, Annie said. As a matter of curiosity, why didn‘t you call her out in front of the board?

Kate sighed. I would have if I‘d thought the vote was going her way. Annie raised an eyebrow. There‘s more of your grandmother in you than you‘ll admit, Kate Shugak.

Annie unplugged her computer and the two women rose to their feet and made their way to the door.

Annie?

What?

Tell me there is such a clause.

Annie was all elaborate surprise. Of course there is, Kate. Paragraph C, subsection D, clause 1J, in the operations section of the bylaws. You can look it up in your own copy.

She gave a faint smile. And you should.

Emaa was a steamroller, Kate said, and I‘m a sledgehammer. It‘s about time the Association had a diplomat running things.

You grooming Annie to take over? Jim said, careful to keep his tone free of any opinion one way or the other. Unless and until it involved bloodshed, the trooper in him shied away from getting involved in anything to do with the Association. He looked at Kate. Well. Anything to do with the Association other than sleeping with the chair of the board.

She was making bread to the sound of the hammered piano chords in John Hiatt‘s Have a Little Faith in Me, good old-fashioned yeast bread for toast, his favorite, especially when they had some of Auntie Joy‘s nagoonberry jam in the pantry. They did, he knew because he‘d investigated when he‘d walked in the door and seen Kate up to her elbows in bread dough.

That wasn‘t why she was making this particular bread, though. She was making this particular bread because it required serious kneading, and kneading bread dough was as close to therapy as Kate would ever get. Whenever she came home pissed off, he got great toast the next morning, and sometimes the night before. Did you know about the boys giving out birth control?

She gave him a brief, irritated look. They‘ve been teaching classes in it at the school, Jim.

But you‘re worried about this audit.

She slammed the dough down with unnecessary vigor.

Is this one of those moments when the trooper is supposed to take a backseat, and the boyfriend step up?

She looked at him.

‘Cause you know I ain‘t never doing that again, he said.

Yeah, she said. I know. Never mind. What‘s the latest on Lyda?

We‘re two weeks out and nothing, he said. He eyed her with some caution. She had been so adamant that Lyda Blue had not committed suicide, but really, what else had this bizarre series of events been about but suicide, personal and professional? My boss is making noises I should split the difference and call it accidental. He pointed out, not without reason, that however squeaky clean Jules keeps his kitchen, mistakes will happen. And her dad told me that she‘d almost died of the same thing twice before, once when she was a kid and once when she was working at a mine Outside. She was a new hire for Global at one of their other sites.