"But, Jane, the difference is, I'm talking about perpetrators — and they were the victims," Mel said.
There was a moment's thick silence before Jane said, "Hell! So what's the point?"
"Don't get defensive," he said. "I'm just pointing out the reasons I think it has to come back to money. It's the only thing that makes sense and provides a strong enough motive."
"And the only large amounts of money at stake here involve the resort," Shelley said.
"If that's true, how does Doris figure in?" Jane asked. "It's not as if she'd stand to profit if the resort was sold or wasn't."
"Unless she knew something that would prevent the sale," Shelley said. "If either Pete or Tenny really thought they would profit from the sale and Doris knew — oh, maybe that Bill wasn't really Gregory's son and thus didn't really own the land — wouldn't that make it worthwhile to stop her from telling anyone?"
"Jeez! That's a bizarre thought," Jane said. "Everybody's been concentrating on who Gregory really was, but nobody's questioned who Bill really was. And Doris had spent years snooping around the family relationships."
"I'm afraid I was just giving an example, Jane," Shelley said. "And a bad one at that. You're forgetting about that old photograph."
"Not entirely. That little boy looked a lot like the mother in the picture, but he was just a cute little boy who could have grown up to look like anybody. He might not have been the older man we knew as Bill Smith. Remember, Tenny told us that the mother died when Bill was very little, and Gregory pretty much left it to some of the tribal women to take care of him. Suppose, for some weird reason, one of them had substituted another child—"
And even as Jane was speaking, she heard how stupid it sounded.
"I'm sorry," she said. "My brain's run amok."
"I'm so glad you were the one to say that," Mel muttered. "Everybody done? Let's get back to see what that fleabag dog of yours has done."
After they'd gotten back on the road and were nearing the resort, Shelley said, "Jane, I think I've got a blister on my heel. I want to run in the gift shop and get a bandage for it. Will you come along and walk back with me?"
"I'll come with you, too," Mike said. "There's something I need."
Mel took the rest of the kids back to the cabins and Jane sat in the lobby, waiting for Shelley and Mike to return. As she waited, Lucky passed through with an armload of notebooks and file folders. When he saw her sitting alone, he came and sat down. "Are you teaching a class?" she asked.
"No, just finished one. The last of the evening."
"Oh! I'm glad I ran into you," Jane said. She'd reached into her jacket pocket for a tissue and had felt something else. She pulled out the tooth. "I've been meaning to give you this. It's HawkHunter's tooth. I found it out by the front door. The snow had melted back there and it appeared. If you think it might help in making a mold or something for a bridge, you can give it to him."
Lucky took the tooth, glanced at it, and handed it back. "Sony, but that's not HawkHunter's tooth."
Jane laughed. "How many people have lost teeth by the front door?"
"I don't know, but this is someone else's," Lucky said.
"How do you know?"
"It's easy," he said. And he showed her.
Chapter 22
When they got back to the condo, they found Linda chatting with the girls. "Hi, Mrs. Jeffry, Mrs. Nowack," she said, heading for her jacket. "I stopped in to check that everything was all right here. The sheriff called Tenny and said he couldn't find any of you."
"What did he want us for?" Jane asked.
"Nothing in particular," Linda said. "At least I don't think so. Just wondered where everybody had gone. Don't worry, I'll call him back for you. Unless you want to talk to him?"
"God forbid!" Jane exclaimed. "Has Willard wrecked anything?"
"Willard?" Linda got a mushy expression. "He wouldn't do a thing like that. Oh, the Sunday papers were all over the living room and there was an awful lot of dog spit on the sliding glass doors—"
"That cat's been back, I'd guess," Jane said.
"I took him out for a while and he chased some squirrels," Linda said. "That made him happy. I'm going home. It's been a long day. Is there anything else you need before I leave?"
"Nothing. Thanks. Oh — there is one thing," Jane said.
"What's that?"
"I know you're going to think I've lost the last of my marbles, but — well — as dumb as it sounds, could I look at the back of your teeth?"
Linda burst out laughing. "Do you think you can fit your head in my mouth to do that?"
Jane was blushing with embarrassment, which made her feel all the sillier. "No, I just want to stick my compact mirror behind your front teeth."
Linda nodded. "Oh, I get it."
"I don't!" Shelley exclaimed. "Have you both gone nuts?"
Jane fished her compact out of her purse and slipped the edge of the mirror behind Linda's upper teeth. Linda was grinning around the mirror. "Shelley, look at the back of Linda's front teeth—"
"Okay," Shelley said suspiciously.
"Now, get another mirror and look at the back of mine."
Shelley did as she was told. Her eyes widened and she looked at each of them again. "Wow!"
Linda removed the mirror. "Shovel incisors, it's called. Indians' front teeth cup on the back side. I think Orientals' teeth do, too, but Occidentals are much flatter."
"That's so strange!" Shelley said.
"There are skull differences, too, but I don't know what they are," Linda said, pulling on her outdoor boots.
"Jane, how did you know about this?" Shelley asked.
"I ran into Lucky and told him I'd found HawkHunter's tooth in the snow. He just glanced at it and said it couldn't be HawkHunter's because of this shovel-incisor thing."
"How weird," Shelley said. "How many people do you think have lost a tooth by the front door lately?"
Jane shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it might even be an animal's tooth. I didn't ask him that."