Read Online Case of the Glacier Park Swallow by Dina Anastasio - Free Book Online

went to the door and called Max. He came to her and waited as she climbed up the ladder to the loft. The policemen saw her and watched her climb.
    Mr. Dinkins was hiding in the corner of the loft, and he must have known it was no use, because he climbed down from his nest without saying a word.
    â€œI haven’t smuggled any heroin across the border,” he said. “I was going to, but I didn’t. So you can’t hold me on that.”
    â€œHe’s right,” one of the policemen said. “But I can hold him for possession until we figure out what’s going on.”
    Juliet and Max followed the police car into Edmonton and signed some papers at the police station. By then Mr. Dinkins had identified his two partners, one of whom, it turned out, could be found in Mexico. And the other lived in Montana, directly across the Canadian/U.S. border.
    Juliet was glad when it was all over. She and Max drove back to the bed and breakfast and went to sleep, and the next morning they drove back to Montana.

14. HOME
    T hat night, for the first time in weeks, she didn’t dream. She slept straight through the night and woke up feeling fine.
    She was very, very happy that it was all over.
    Or was it? She had identified all of the pieces, but no matter how much she juggled them, they still didn’t fit together.
    These things were certain: Dinkins and his friends had been drugging the birds with tranquilizers or amphetamines, most likely to control their behavior in some way.
    They were thinking of using the birds to smuggle drugs across the border.
    But maybe they were going to smuggle other things as well.
    The pieces slid into place then. She picked up the phone and called the Edmonton police, and when the detective came on the line she said, “How does this sound? Since Dinkins was controlling the behavior of the birds with drugs, he is responsible for transporting feathers across the border, and he has interfered with an endangered species, a bald eagle.”
    â€œI’ll call you back,” the policeman said.
    He called back an hour later. “I talked to Dinkins,” he said. “And he’s admitted it. They were not really in the smuggling business. It was more like an auxilliary smuggling business. He was in the business of controlling the behavior of birds so that they would be used later to smuggle anything from drugs to microfilm to their own feathers, and even themselves. Anyway, Dinkins will be in jail for awhile.”
    Juliet said goodbye and went up to her room. While she was dressing to go to work, she thought about the birds. The amphetamines would speed them up and make them go farther and faster than they normally would. And the tranquilizers would slow them and bring them down earlier than normal. In time, Dinkins might have been able to establish just the right drug dosage to bring the birds down exactly where he wanted them.
    Max stayed home that day. He seemed tired and listless and Juliet thought that he deserved a day in bed. She left him there, curled up on her pillow.
    Cam was waiting for her. “I called early this morning to see if you were back yet,” he said. “Your mother said that you were still asleep.”
    â€œIt’s nice to be back,” Juliet said, and she smiled because it was true.
    Cam watched her and waited, and when she didn’t speak he said, “Well?”
    Juliet knew that he was waiting for her to tell him about Canada, and she didn’t mind at all. In fact, for the first time she liked the idea of sharing her news with him. Maybe it was because the case was closed and she had solved it, or maybe it was because Cam had been the only one who had known about it from the beginning.
    The only one except Max, of course.
    When she was finished telling him the story, he went and stood by the desk with his back to her. He didn’t say anything, and Juliet wondered what he was thinking. She hoped that he didn’t