Hawk raised an eyebrow. So Sam was a groomer then? He knew Sam briefly when he drove buses at Fox. Met him every time there was a violent passenger or a theft. -Would have been hard not to, since Sam and a handful of others were the only Kinchuinicks living in Silver. There was the poor old guy they locked up weekly, a guy who cleaned rooms with the Filipinos up at the Chateau, two more working at the ski company and that was about it. Bit of a rough deal for the people who once called this land their own, that if they wanted to run a social club in Silver for Kinchuinicks, they could all meet comfortably in a phone booth. But he hadn’t seen Sam in years. Not socially at least. Nice guy, Sam. Married white, same as Joe. Hung up about his roots though, that was for sure.

Anyway, it made him pleased to see Sam making something of his life, even if it was only shovelling snow. At least it wasn’t stealing for drugs and booze like most of the guys he’d dealt with when he policed Redhorn. And it looked like he was going to make Sam’s acquaintance again tonight. If this girl’s calculations were correct, Sam had been the man on the spot when the boy was being sliced.

‘What time did Sam sign off?’

‘That would be about, let’s see, uh, around one-thirty I think. Yeah. One-thirty.’

‘Okay, Karen. You see this guy in the Indian outfit at all?’

‘Yeah. I put him on the quad on the way to the top of Beaver. Listen, I just can’t believe that poor kid’s dead, I mean …’

‘That was before the fun-run?’

‘Yeah. That was just at twelve I guess.’

Daniel became aware of a man watching him from the door into the kitchens. A tall fair man, with very blue eyes, leaning against the doorframe, staring straight at him. There was something in that gaze he didn’t like. It was more than just the patrollers’ sulky sneers and childish smirks as they sauntered up to the table when called by Hawk or Bell. It looked like hatred. Deep, unfathomable hatred.

Daniel noted the chillingly dangerous look in his professional mental file and vowed to make sure he, and not Bell, got that guy to interview. You don’t look at someone that way without reason and Daniel wanted to know what that reason might be.

‘You notice anyone suspicious? Anyone looking at the boy maybe? Following him? Anything like that?’

‘Nah. He was acting like a bit of a geek. But nothing we don’t see every day, know what I mean?’