Anna Pigeon 03 Ill Wind by Nevada Barr

Author:Nevada Barr [Barr, Nevada]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mesa Verde National Park (Colo.), Colorado, Mystery & Detective, Pigeon; Anna (Fictitious character), Fiction, Women park rangers, Mystery Fiction, Women Sleuths, Suspense, General
ISBN: 9780425197257
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2004-05-31T07:00:00+00:00

"Luggage?" Anna said to get things moving.

"Got it." He shook the strap of an oversized leather shoulder bag he carried.

"You must be planning on wrapping this one up in record time."

"I heard you were on the case so I only brought one change of underdrawers."

There wasn't much to say to that so Anna merely nodded.

With what seemed a maximum of fuss and fiddling around, she got the federal agent buckled into the passenger seat of the patrol car and started the trip back to the park.

As they drove to the main highway, Stanton waved graciously at passing traffic. "Boy, I love riding in cars with lights and sirens," he said. "Everybody waves back. They think they did something and you're not stopping them for it. Kind of makes you pals."

Anna laughed. "I wondered what it was."

Stanton made idle conversation, the kind she'd grown used to working with him on the island. During the weeks of that investigation she'd come to look upon it as his personal music, the kind designed to soothe the savage beasts; charming in its whimsy, disarmingly inane. When one became complacent, convinced he was a complete boob, he'd pounce.

"Okay," he said as she pulled out onto highway 160. , "Tell me the good-parts version."

Anna switched off the radio and pulled her thoughts together. As succinctly as possible, she recounted the disappearance, the discovery of the body, the widow's whereabouts the night of the murder, and Rose's casting blame in the general direction of the pipeline contractor.

Stanton sat for a while humming "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" under his breath. The patrol car crawled up the long slope out of Durango. Anna unfettered her mind and let it wander over the now-green ski slopes of Hesperus and the fresh new-leaved poplar trees skirting the mountain ravines. The sky was an impossible blue, a blue seen only on hot midwestern summer days and high in the mountains. Cornflower blue—the phrase flickered through her mind, though she'd never seen a cornflower.

"That's no fun," Frederick said finally. He twisted around in his seat till the shoulder strap pushed his collar up under his right ear and his bony knees pointed in Anna's direction. "Tell me the gossip, innuendo, lies, suppositions, weird happenstance. Dead guys are pretty dull without some good dirt. Do dish me."

"The dead guy was a friend of mine," Anna replied irritably.

"Oops." Stanton looked genuinely contrite and she was sorry for such a cheap shot. She'd thought of Stacy as the dead guy not three hours earlier. She's almost made up her mind to apologize when Stanton spoke again.

"Callous, that's me all over. How about this: Deceased individuals, however meritorious in life, lack the essential spontaneity to generate interest. So those left living must keep their spirits alive through the practice of the oral tradition."

Anna snorted. "Callous is right. The dirt." Out of spite—or self-defense—she told Stanton everything she could think of that occurred in the park, or in anyone's imagination in the park, around the time

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