The Naturalist (The Naturalist #1)(24)

“And why were you looking for them?”

I give her all my reasons at once. “Because one of my students was killed. Probably because I’m a horrible teacher. I felt like shit about it. I wanted to give her mother answers. I don’t know. I just went there.”

A redheaded woman on the other side of the table speaks up. “How did you get bear DNA from Juniper’s blood?” She’s maybe in her early thirties. Pretty face, not much makeup.

“The sample I was given came from a wound on Juniper. There was a hair sample in it.”

“With a follicle?” She turns toward a man to her left. I recognize him as the coroner.

He shakes his head. “There weren’t any follicles in the samples. We checked. Just shafts.”

The woman swivels back at me with a condescending look on her face. “It seems like your lab was looking at mitochondrial DNA. Maybe they should go back to school.”

My face goes hot at the insult, but I respond coolly. “I know you don’t get all the news out here, but you can pull nuclear DNA from hair shafts, if you know what you’re doing.” Pretty cocky for a guy who didn’t know that this morning.

“Is this true?” the medical examiner asks her.

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ll have to ask around.”

I try to calm myself. “I have access to resources,” I say, regretting the pompous tone.

“I hope they involve a good attorney,” says Sheriff Tyson darkly.

“Hold up a second,” Glenn interjects. “Before we slap the bracelets on him, let’s hear him out. Dr. Cray knew the victim and is understandably agitated by what happened.”

Tyson makes a show of checking her watch. “Make it quick.”

No one offers me a seat, so I go over to the whiteboard and grab a marker. I draw a quick map of the area and put an X where Juniper was found.

“This is where the sample I was given came from.” I put another X where they killed Bart. “This is where Richards found Bart. Close enough to make sense.” I draw a wide circle. “In fact, this is Bart’s range from the Ursa Major database. As you are aware, he was a known grizzly. The likely suspect.

“But the sample from Juniper’s scene had hair that belonged to a bear from much farther away. It may have been trekking into Bart’s territory. She could have been caught between them. Did you find any DNA at her death scene from Bart?”

The medical examiner replies, “We found hair that was consistent.”

“Hair from a grizzly, yes? But no DNA?”

He shakes his head.

I draw a wide circle around Juniper’s X. “So we have no proof Bart was even there. We do have proof of the other bear.”

“So you say,” replies the woman. “But you’re the only one who has the magical ability to pull DNA from hair shafts. I’d love to have that power.”

I suddenly figure out who she is. “You’re Dr. Kendall?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll help you independently verify it.” I’m sure Julian would give them access to his lab. “The important part right now is that having a press conference and saying you caught the bear would be irresponsible and inaccurate. There’s still a killer grizzly out there. Worse, we don’t even know why he killed Juniper.”

Sheriff Tyson directs her intense focus on Richards. “Is this possible?”

He takes a deep breath. “We found her blood on the bear.”

“Yes,” she says, “but bears are known to sniff around others’ kills.”

“True. It’s common.” Richards tilts his head in defeat. “It’s possible. Very possible. Damn. I hoped we caught the bastard. This is bad. And worse, I may have killed an innocent bear.”

“Cancel the press conference?” asks Glenn.

Tyson shakes her head. “No. We’ve established how she was killed. We can announce that part of the investigation is closed. We’ll tell people to use caution.” She glares at me. “You better be right about this.”

Her intensity makes me step backward, bumping into the whiteboard. “I’ve been very thorough.”

“Looks like he was all over my database,” replies Kendall as she looks at something on her phone, probably data logs. “Did you find a match?”

“Yes . . . it’s UA.221.999.” I wait a beat before telling them his nickname. “Also known as Ripper.”

“Christ,” Glenn mutters. “That’s all we need. A grizzly named Ripper on the loose.”

“Are you sure that’s what you matched?” Kendall asks.

“Completely,” I say confidently. “I checked several times.”

She shakes her head. “Then it appears you’ve made a mistake.”

“A mistake?”

Kendall lets out a sigh of relief. “Dr. Cray, UA.221.999, also known as Ripper, died last year.”

“Died?” I try to process the word.

“Yes. I inspected his corpse myself when we retrieved the GPS collar. Ripper is very dead.” She points to the whiteboard. “What we have there is probably contamination. Maybe Juniper brushed up against old hair that was on a log. Maybe Bart still had some of Ripper’s in his fur. I don’t know. What I do know is that she wasn’t killed by a ghost bear.”