Messenger: A Walt Longmire Story Read Free

the truck so as not to interrupt Henry’s progress with the three bears and approached the structure, marveling at the effort it must’ve taken to get atop the thing. “Jeez, Chuck, how did you get up there?”
    He gestured toward the woman, who was clutching the vent stack that protruded from the roof. “She was first, and then she helped me up.” He stuck out a pant leg with a shredded cuff and a little blood on the sock and hiking boot. “I barely made it; no pun intended.”
    I reached up and gestured for Ms. Napier to ease herself off the roof and lowered her to the ground. She was a handsome thing, outdoorsy and athletic looking with red hair and a slight sunburn, just the kind of woman you might want to be stuck on a roof with, actually.
    She adjusted her cat’s eye glasses and glanced past me toward the high willows of the creek bed. “Aren’t you worried about your friend?”
    “Not really, unless he decides to go off and hibernate with them.”
    “What’ll he do when he’s out of fish?”
    I smiled. “That’ll take awhile.”
    “I can’t believe we were attacked by bears.”
    Vic laughed, and I explained. “I don’t think you were really attacked—anyway, you’re in bear country, so you need to wear bear bells and carry pepper spray.”
    “Were those grizzlies?”
    I shook my head. “No, those were black bears, but some of the old-timers say there are a few grizzlies still up here in the Bighorns.”
    “How do you tell the difference?”
    “The scat, usually; black bears are omnivores and their scat generally has berries, nuts, foliage . . .”
    “And grizzlies?”
    Vic chimed in with the response. “Their scat usually has bells in it and smells like pepper.”
    “Hey, can I get a hand here?”
    I looked up at Chuck. “I nearly forgot about you.” I reached up, and taking my one hand, he jumped down to the ground and then straightened his duty belt and flat-brimmed Smokey Bear hat with a sense of self-assurance. Chuck, like me, wasn’t built for running and climbing.
    “Good thing you came along.”
    I nodded. “They probably saw your hat and thought you were one of them.”
    “Very funny.”
    “Besides, we heard your call.”
    I watched as the young woman walked around a bit, keeping her eyes in the direction in which the Cheyenne Nation had disappeared. I turned back to the game ranger. “What’s going on, Chuck?”
    He gestured toward his truck, probably anxious to get near his vehicle. “Maybe I should let her explain.”
    The four of us made the short walk to the half-ton and stopped by the cab to listen to Ms. Napier as she folded her arms and shuddered. “I’ve never seen anything like it, it just came up from underneath me in an explosion and I ran out of there.”
    Vic looked between the two of them. “Wait, there was a bear in the restroom?”
    The woman looked embarrassed. “I’m not sure what it was.”
    I gestured toward the structure. “But something attacked you in there?”
    “Yes.”
    “Before or after the bears?”
    She sighed. “I was inside, hiding from the bears when I thought well, you know, I’d take advantage. I’ve learned in Wyoming you do that ’cause you never know when you’ll have the chance next.”
    I turned to Chuck. “And where did you come into all this?”
    He reached in, turned off his light bar, and shut the door of his truck. Leaning against it, he offered the forest service water bottle to Andrea; it appeared that the two of them had gotten along in their time on the roof.
    “I pulled in when I saw the bears around the toilet and got out of my vehicle just as she came blowing out the door of the convenience—scared the bears off long enough for her to get to me but then they saw her and I guess they figured she had more caramel corn and took off after both of us.” He nodded toward his truck. “We tried to get in here but they had gotten between us and the truck, so we had to make for the nearest building. Andrea said