‘Yeah, we get both kinds up here. The king greys once in a while. So, we thought, some poor idiot left the wood path, got taken. Never got an identification on the victim, though. No papers. We ran genetic samples through the system, and even shared them with other networks. Then in the spring, there were two more. Same deal.’

‘Found together?’

‘No,’ said Garofar. ‘Kilometres apart. Within days, another, then another a month after.’

‘Five. All male?’

‘No. Four male, one female.’

‘All unidentified?’

‘Yeah, which is odd. We get a lot of visitors up here in season. Hunters and the like. Plus, nice views, like you said. So people from outside the province aren’t unusual. But five unknowns? That’s starting to feel off.’

‘Was there feeding? They were all ursid kills.’

‘Oh, yeah,’ said Garofar. ‘All the meat was gone. All the organs. Funny, that’s the first question the marshal asked.’

Drusher smiled.

‘She remembered the basics,’ he said.

‘She wanted it squared away, certainly. I mean, we get the odd animal attack. But five felt like there might be a rogue beast. Plus, the identification thing. Macks, she ordered up some expensive facial reconstruction on three of the bodies, then we ran the results around every hostelry, tavern and guest house in the area. I mean, it was possible we had five dead visitors who all happened not to have papers on them, or who had their papers eaten along with them.’

‘Unlikely,’ said Drusher.

‘But possible. No point seeing patterns where there aren’t any. But nothing. No one recognised them. So the reconstructs went out on the wire too.’

‘And that brought the ordos in?’

‘Yes,’ said Garofar. ‘But before they got here, we found the rest.’

‘The rest of what?’

‘The rest of the bodies, sir. It was spring, like I said. The thaw. Warmest spring in a decade. There was meltwater flooding in this valley and the next along. It brought bodies down. People who’d been dead since last year that we hadn’t found because they’d been frozen up. The tech-adepts say some of them might even be from the year before. Or as long ago as eight years.’

‘All ursid kills?’

‘The exact same specs, sir. Ursid kill, unidentified subjects. Two more of them female.’

‘How many bodies?’ asked Drusher.

‘I don’t know, sir,’ said Garofar.

‘Oh, come on, deputy. You’re on the case. How many bodies?’

‘I mean to say, I don’t know what the total’s going to be. We’ve got eighteen so far. They’re still digging up more.’

Drusher opened his mouth to speak. Nothing much was forthcoming.

‘We’ve got all the bodies downstairs. In the cold store,’ said Garofar.

‘Here?’

‘Yes. Orders of the lead investigator. He wanted all the bodies in one place for examination, so they set up a facility in the cellars where it’s cold.’