Expecting to Die

Territory: Montana! she seemed to hesitate a minute. Did Luke actually squeeze
Bianca’s hand? Oh, for the love of God! And then Bianca, staring straight at
Sphinx, started nodding. “Yes,” she said. “Yes. I—I’d love to.”
Luke nodded and grinned.
Michelle was absolutely radiant.
Sphinx seemed pleased with himself.
The crowd let up a cheer of approval.

---

And Pescoli thought she might be sick.

---

CHAPTER 16
A
lvarez didn’t like the feel of the meeting. Aside from the airlessness of the
room, there were too many people packed into too tight a space, all of them riled
up, some of them agitated. She felt the tension sizzling through the crowd, and it
was more than just the excitement of something new happening in town. This
new, electrified buzz wasn’t just because Grizzly Falls might become the center
of a “reality” television show. No, there was something else, an uglier current
rippling through the crowd that was contentious, almost antagonistic. The people
packed into the hall tonight weren’t part of a congenial gathering, not a crowd of
like minds.
O’Keefe felt it, too. “Not exactly a unified group,” he observed, leaning close
so that he could be heard.
“Nope.”
“Militants and pacifists, all loving up Big Foot.”
“The militants are definitely hating on Big Foot.”
“Held together by belief, but at each other’s throats,” he said dryly.
“Like all of life.” Her gaze traveled over the gathering. Some of the more
vociferous members had the mentality of a lynch mob, like the townspeople
carrying torches and spears in old monster movies to “take the sumbitch down.”
The other faction appeared only interested in proving the myth reality, and that
Sasquatch was a shy, almost intellectual beast, smart enough to hide any trace of
its existence. But all of the members of the group believed that Sasquatch lived
and breathed—that was the uniting factor.
“I have to run. See you this weekend?” he said.
“Okay.” She was a little disappointed. She loved being with him, but he still
resided in Helena, where he was a private investigator, and though he talked
often of moving to Grizzly Falls, of setting up shop here and living with Alvarez
full time, so far it hadn’t happened.
She worried a little about that. If they truly wanted to be together, to take the
relationship to another level, then they should try harder to make it happen.
Right? There shouldn’t be the convenient excuses of conflicting jobs and career
paths. They should want to be together all the time. Wasn’t that the way it was
supposed to be?
He planted a kiss on her cheek and said, “I’ll call.”

---

She wanted to say, “Stay,” or “Let’s make this coming weekend special,” or “I
hate it when you leave,” or even, “I love you,” but she didn’t, not here in this
crowded, loud room overflowing with people rabidly intent on proving Big Foot
existed. Or was that an excuse? It didn’t matter. He was already moving away
from her, through the crowd, and she watched him disappear past the cashier
table and through the main door.
Her heart twisted a bit.
She’d known him for a long while. They’d been partners in the San
Bernardino Police Department years before. He’d saved her life. Nearly lost his
own. She swallowed hard, told herself not to be maudlin and to concentrate. She
had a homicide to solve.
So what was she doing at a damned Big Foot Believers’ meeting, where it was
so hot and stuffy she was actually fanning herself with a brochure she’d picked
up on the main table?
The answer was simple: Almost everyone who was associated with Destiny
Rose Montclaire, aside from her parents, was in attendance.
Maybe it was just a coincidence.
Maybe not.
As the meeting broke up, some of the attendees swarmed the stage, hoping to
get closer to Sphinx, a man who could bring fame to Grizzly Falls and validate
the members’ beliefs. Others stopped by the table to buy Big Foot mugs and T-
shirts. Another group grabbed refreshments and chatted, while the people she
was interested in, the swarm of teens or post-teens who’d been at the party on
Saturday night, milled within their own private circles.
She’d interviewed all of them, studied their statements, felt she knew some of
them inside out and was surprised that after being busted the past weekend and
being involved, at least peripherally, in the discovery of a body of one of their
own, they would be here in what seemed an almost celebratory mood.