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“How soon can you meet me?” A long pause. “Yes, I can arrange that. Of course.” She clicked off the phone.
    “You won’t believe this, Doc, but they found another body in a snowmobile suit under the ice, not far from the first one. Both are missing their legs.”
    Osborne was stunned. “Their legs?”
    “Right. Bruce said the only animal that touched those two was human—well-equipped with all the right tools.”
    “Whoa,” said Osborne.
    “Frustrating news is Bruce—that’s the new guy they sent up from Wausau—said he can’t work this scene tonight. Too risky to try to find trace evidence in the dark.”
    “You’re kidding. What do we do with—it’s going down to 25 below tonight, too cold for you or anyone to stand out here.”
    “He’s bringing a special type of tent for the corpse—with this deep freeze, we won’t lose anything as far as the body goes. But you hit on the problem: Someone has to be here tonight.”
    “Not me, not you, kiddo. You’ve worked late every night this week, Lew, and I’m way past my days of winter camping.”
    “You’re right, Doc. I’ll have Terry take over. He’s young, he can manage.”
    “Why don’t I call Ray and see if you can borrow that portable ice shanty of his? He hauls it to the Willow Flowage in the back of his truck—no reason he can’t drive it over from his dock.”
    “Now that’s a thought,” said Lew. “With a gas heater inside, I won’t lose Loon Lake’s newest police officer to frostbite. Doc, are you available to do the dental exams on all three tomorrow morning?”
    “Of course.” He could put off getting the Christmas tree; the storm wasn’t due in until late afternoon. The look of relief on her face made any inconvenience for him worth it.
    As he followed her up the stairs towards the Kobernots’ back porch, Osborne felt a flush of guilt. Proximity to death should never make someone happy, and yet he couldn’t help but be relieved with this turn of events. That she needed the dental exams was a good sign. If he got lucky, she might require more help.
    He’d begun to think of their relationship as if it were a river with stretches of smooth water, here and there a few riffles and ripples caused by potential hazards, then a series of modest rapids—and always a deadhead or two. Ice fishing was a deadhead: Lew hated it.
    Fishing was the one good excuse he used to spend time with her: fly fishing for trout and smallmouth bass in the spring and the fall, bait fishing for muskie and walleye when the streams grew too warm in midsummer. If fly fishing was her first love, fly fishing with her was his. But her hatred of ice fishing had made the winter ahead look bleak. How quickly life changes.
    Patrice Kobernot was waiting at the porch door. The couple was a study in opposites: She was petite, gifted with an oblong butt turned horizontal and a mouth bookended with a healthy set of jowls. Right now, following a polite request from Lew, the jowls caught Osborne’s eye as they jiggled in tandem when she spoke.
    “That is absolutely out of the question. You know perfectly well some stranger did this on our property. And I am so upset, I’m calling a patient of Dr. Kobernot’s that I know you know—Senator Breske.” Patrice was doing her best to imply that the planting and discovery of the body was a deliberate act of the Loon Lake Police Department.
    “Before you pick up that phone—let me make two things clear, Mrs. Kobernot,” said Lew. “First, it’s not your property. You do not own the lake. Second, I head up the police department with jurisdiction over this area, and I insist that you and your sons take a look—now. The victim is young and could be a school friend of the boys.” Patrice’s jowls shook again, but Lew refused to let her comment.
    “Out of respect for this poor person, if there is any chance that we can immediately identify the victim—and be able to inform a family that must be so very worried