or key with a worn brass tag, the back door key that Mira kept because I always lost it, and a smal

tape key

ounted to ten. Then I went into the back roo

e key with t

wall behind me, then at my fac

ot on th

round the counter. "Are you telling me somebody took it i

you it is no

nd stood in front of the small door behind the treatment room, t

n here since el

ressure. Nadia came back from the cannery a half hour

he com

still in

ron. The key is not on the hook and she is

, and I had spent twelve years not making noise. I went down t

en. In her hand was a glass vial with a black rubber stopper and a strip

this?"

s the a

. "It was on the shelf. On the front of the shelf, wh

key with the red tape wa

u put i

and the door was already open and the key was already in the lock an

smell of the silver compounds. There were shelves on three walls and a window painted shut. The antidote vials were sup

key to this do

. Mira

of you put

ilas has not left the pa

rd and she had the vial in her hand like

ves you,"

ot put i

ee people with keys." She set the vial down on the shelf, carefully, as if it might break. "I have been here four days. In four days I have found missing records,

what it l

nd she stopped herself and took a breath. "Tell me the t

o know. It wanted me to open my mouth and tell her everything, the pack and the treaty and the si

. I thought about Mira and her ledger. I thought ab

put it ther

wa

I can give yo

Victor is coming at four. He asked for the silver room. I am going to show him this, and I am going to tell him exactly what I

not ask

k and I heard the drawer open

e door and who could have opened it. Mira had been at the desk. Silas had been in the pack house. I had

oved of on Monday, and the deadbolt was on the inside, and the door cou

stood in the snow and

The other was fresher, coming from the trees behind the clinic and going ba

wolf tracks. T

front desk twenty feet away, and they had put the key in the lock and

e and found Mira

said. "Through the back

dger. Her face was gray.

more th

ey can come back." She shut the ledger and held it against her chest. "And there is something else.

ked a

d a thirteenth in the storage room. Wh

It said ten to four. Outside, a truck door slammed in the

hair and his gloves in his hand and a

aid. "I hope I am not