Was Scar bent on a massacre that would accomplish two things—avenge Ruben’s death and wrest control of the local drug trade from Unka?

Every loop circled to the same mortifying point. My past had followed me to Yellowknife. The cops thought I’d been drunk and imagined a bogeyman scene in the woods. I was closed out of the investigation.

Had Ollie sabotaged my reputation? Surely not Ryan.

I remembered Ollie’s cocky smirk as he pressed me to his chest in the Edmonton Burger Express. His frown as I slammed my hotel room door in his face.

I also recalled Ollie’s voice as he talked of his work with Project KARE. His compassion for the women being slaughtered in Alberta.

Ruben had been on the Project KARE list.

No matter how much he resented me, Ollie would care about a child-woman gunned down in cold blood.

I threw the car into gear. The tires spit gravel as I roared up Ragged Ass.

And practically T-boned an RCMP unit.

I braked so fast my newly scabbed chin hit the wheel.

Ollie flew out of the driver’s side of the cruiser. A figure I assumed to be Ryan stayed in the passenger seat.

Static spit from the unit’s radio as Ollie pounded my way.

I got out of my car.

“I told you to stay the fuck in your room.” A vein pumped in Ollie’s forehead. His cheeks flamed red.

“That shade of angry goes well with your hair.”

“We’ve been looking for your ass all over town.”

“You found it.”

“You never think rules apply to you, do you, Tempe?”

“I don’t cheat at Scrabble.”

Ollie hip-planted both hands. “What is it with you people? You got to always be riding some kind of high? That what keeps you off the bottle? Taking risks?”

When irritated, I fire back clever retorts. When angry, truly white-hot furious, I go glacially calm. “You had no right to discuss my past.” Cold.

“Is it?”

“Is it what?”

“Past?”

“Ask Ryan what happened.”

“He told me about the Scotch.”

“So we’re clear on that.”

“We’re not clear on why you’re out here when I ordered you to stay in your room.”

“Ordered me?” Through gritted molars.

“Last I checked, you don’t carry a badge.”

I took a breath. Listened to it move in and out of my nose. “I just informed Nellie Snook that her sister is dead.”

“You had no authority to do that.”

He had me on that.

“I saw it, Ollie. Saw her brains fly out and her body go down.”

His glare held.

“You believe me, right?”

He studied my face for so long I thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then, “I believe you.”

“You will investigate, right? Ruben was on the KARE list.”

“Erroneously.”

“Regardless, she’s now one of your stats.”

Ollie spread his feet and hooked his thumbs in his belt.