"Ask."
I called up to the waiting men. "Sheriff Titus."
He looked down at me. He'd gotten out a cigarette but hadn't lit it yet. He paused with a lighter halfway to his mouth. "You want something, Ms. Blake?" The cigarette bobbed in his lips as he spoke.
"Why do you think this is a bear attack?"
He snapped the lid on his lighter, and took the unlit cig out of his mouth with the same hand. "Why do you want to know?"
I wanted to say, just answer the damn question, but I didn't. Brownie point for me. "Just curious."
"It wasn't a mountain lion. A cat would have used its claws more. Scratched him up some."
"Why not a wolf?"
"Pack animal. Looks like only one animal to me."
I had to agree with all the above. "I think you've been holding out on us, Sheriff. You seem to know a lot about animals that aren't native to this area."
"I go hunting now and then, Ms. Blake. Need to know the habits of your prey if you want to bag one."
"So a bear by process of elimination?" I asked.
"You might say that." He put the cig back in his mouth. Flame flared, pulsing against his face. When he flipped the lighter closed, the darkness seemed thicker.
"What do you think it was, Ms. Expert?" The smell of his cigarette carried on the cold air.
"Shapeshifter."
Even in the darkness I could feel the weight of his eyes. He blew a ghostly cloud of smoke moonward. "You think so."
"I know so," I said.
He gave a sharp hmphsound. "Awful sure of yourself, ain't ya?"
"You want to come down here, Sheriff. I'll show you what I've found."
He hesitated, then shrugged. "Why not?" He came down the slope like a bulldozer, heavy boots forming snowy wakes. "Okay, Ms. Expert, dazzle me."
"You are a pain in the ass, Titus."
Dolph sighed a white cloud of breath.
Titus thought that was real funny, laughed, doubled over, slapping his leg. "You are just a laugh a minute, Ms. Blake. Now, tell me what you got."
I did.
He took a long drag on his cig. The end flared bright in the darkness. "Guess it wasn't a bear, after all."
He wasn't going to argue. Bliss. "No, it wasn't."
"Cougar?" he said, sort of hopefully.
I stood carefully. "You know it wasn't."
"Shapeshifter," he said.
"Yeah."