“Erik never said anything about a cave behind a cave when he was showing me around,” Liam said.

“Never did to me, either.”

“Could he have not known it was there?”

Gabe gave him a look. “Wait till you see the opening. It’s barely worthy of being called a crack.”

“Yeah, but he’s an archeologist. Don’t they, like, survey everything and measure it twice?”

“Everything he found he found on that shelf in the outer cave, so far as I know,” Gabe said. “And he only found it a couple of weeks ago. Maybe he hasn’t gotten around to it yet.” He look at Liam, curious.

“What?”

“You don’t seem too excited at the prospect of finding a human skeleton on your watch.”

Liam shrugged and stood up. “For one thing, it might not be human.” He walked over to the pitiful little pile of bones and folded them back up into the towel. “Before I try to fit through a crack Kyle couldn’t get his head through, I’d like to find out if that really is what we have here.”

McGuire’s eyebrows went up. “You think it isn’t?”

“Absolutely no doubt Kyle believes it is,” Liam said. He raised the package. “The bones definitely look like disconnected phalanges to me, and I’ve seen a few in my time.”

“But?”

“But animal bones have been mistaken for human bones many a time, especially bear bones and especially in Alaska.”

“Who can say for sure?”

“I’m guessing Erik Berglund can. I’ll give him a call in the morning. If he still doesn’t answer, I’ll ask Ms. Petroff to find someone.”

“Who?”

“Trust me, she’ll know.”

Eleven

Wednesday, September 4

LIAM WOKE UP IN HIS OWN BED WITH HIS arms wrapped around his own wife for the second glorious morning in a row. Her back was warm against his chest, her breast rose and fell against his arm, her curls tickled his nose, the skin of her neck was soft against his lips. He was in that moment utterly, completely content.

And then his phone rang. Still the boy band but they both jumped anyway. “If it’s Barton tell him I’m coming for him,” Wy mumbled into her pillow. “With extreme prejudice.”

He groped for his cell and squinted at the screen. It was Barton. It was also six a.m. He turned the phone off and tossed it down somewhere. He might have heard it hit the floor and since it was the property of the state of Alaska he should have been more concerned, but there was nothing more important in his life than curling his body around Wy’s and luxuriating in this moment.

Wy yawned. “What time is it?”

“Six a.m.”

“Must have been important.”

“Not necessarily. And I don’t care.”

He heard the smile in her voice. “If you’re about to get fired I’d better step up the effort to find a new job.”

“Take your time. No one else wanted this post, and I’m starting to figure out why.”