Free Alaskan Wolf by Linda O. Johnston Page B

the circumstances. And she couldn’t even be certain that it was the right Patrick Worley.
    Even if it was, that didn’t matter.
    Mariah had an article on local wildlife to research and write. And she would keep that focus at the forefront of her mind.
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    Patrick was again—still—on Mariah’s mind a few hours later after her appointment with John Amory,the Tagoga High School science teacher who taught biology and advanced biology classes.
    She needed Patrick, or at least his dogsled team. She was completely jazzed about getting back onto the glaciers as quickly as possible.
    That was why she’d decided to go to Fiske’s this evening for dinner, in the hope of running into Patrick there. But after the death of his friend, was he likely to be eating out in such a noisy, jovial place?
    She didn’t know, but, snugging her jacket around her, she set out walking briskly from Inez’s, in the dark after sunset, toward the restaurant/bar.
    In her mind, she rehashed her interview with the science teacher. John Amory had been a gold mine of information, and Mariah had taken copious notes on his ruminations about all kinds of Alaskan wildlife he had seen on the glaciers and elsewhere around here during the past ten years. His favorite part of each school year, he’d told her, was to take students on field trips onto the glaciers, see what kind of animals were there during which season, and take pictures.
    He had even made copies of a lot of pictures for her and gave her a release so she could publish them.
    And now, she was all but drooling to go back to Great Glaciers National Park and take more photos of her own. Use identifiable landmarks in John’s pictures and shoot some in the same locations.Maybe she could even capture some of the same kinds of animals. But she suspected, because of the frightening changes to the area of the glaciers, she was more likely to find at least some of those areas barren of life.
    Maybe, though, she would see that wolf again.
    She laughed a little at herself. Why was she getting so obsessed about that animal?
    Pushing open the door to Fiske’s, she heard the roar of conversations inside. When she gazed around, she didn’t see Patrick or anyone else from the dogsled ranch.
    Darn. Well, she wasn’t really surprised. And when she backed outside again to call, just in case, she only got the Great Glaciers Dogsled Ranch answering machine, the recorded voice telling her to leave a message.
    Instead, she decided to head to the ranch and talk to someone—hopefully Patrick, but one of the Daweses would do—once she finished dinner.
    And then, shivering from the cold, she went back inside.
    Emil Charteris and his family were seated at a table. She headed there, glad to see at least a few familiar faces in the loud crowd. They made room for her, and she put her jacket over the back of her chair and sat down. When Thea came over, Mariahordered what was becoming her usual here—warm, spiked cider and salmon.
    She was glad to find herself seated between Emil and his son-in-law. Turning to Jeremy, she asked, loudly enough to be heard over the crowd, “How’s your wildlife research progressing? Anything you can share with me yet for my article?”
    The lines in his forehead deepened as he shook his head and peered at her over his glasses. “We don’t have our protocol complete, but my preliminary research seems to indicate things are still stable.”
    â€œReally? I got a different opinion a little while ago from the local science teacher.” She described her meeting with John Amory and showed some of his photos. “He’s planning a field trip with his students soon, but he’s been up on the glaciers himself and thinks there aren’t nearly the same numbers of animals there that he’s used to seeing. I want to visit the areas he photographed as soon as possible to get my own take on them. And what about