Three-Inch Teeth

Cates and Soledad soak in an indoor thermal pool in the town of Thermopolis, 138 miles from Saddlestring. Johnson and LOR sit in lounge chairs next to the pool. Cates met Soledad for the first time in Jeffrey City, though the two men have long been in touch over email and messages. 

It was Soledad who reached out to Cates in prison over an illegal chat site, telling Cates that they had enemies in common. Intrigued, Cates wrote back, and the men remained in touch. Soledad seemed to be well-connected with people in law enforcement and an expert at erasing his electronic tracks. He had tried to get Cates to buy into his ideology of arming vulnerable populations to incite riots in small towns. Bored by Soledad’s proselytizing, Cates had promised to join the movement after they were done dealing with their common enemies.

The common enemies—whom Soledad described as the overlapping portions of a Venn diagram—were Joe, Nate and Liv, and Dulcie. The enemies outside the overlap were Sheriff Reed and Winner in Cates’s case and Geronimo Jones, the co-owner of Yarak, Inc., for Soledad. 

In the present moment, an attendant asks Cates and Soledad to wrap it up, as the thermal pool is shutting down. An irritated Soledad ignores him and then suggests to Cates that he might be able to get the attendant to “extend [their] time” in the pool. Soledad then asks Cates how long he plans to keep LOR around. Cates replies that he needs LOR because only he can operate the mechanical bear he has created. Though it killed Winner and Dulcie, the device does not work seamlessly. Soledad says that he understands and asks Cates to get them out of town quickly so that they can destroy their remaining enemies.

Joe goes over to Nate’s falconry to share the bad news of Dulcie’s death. Nate, who is dismembering rabbits for the birds’ nightly feeding, freezes when he learns that Dulcie was killed by a bear. His reaction suggests to Joe that Marybeth’s hunch about Nate having unconfessed feelings for Dulcie was true. 

The men go to Nate’s house to discuss the turn of events. Nate thinks that something is off about the recent pattern of attacks. He bases this feeling on the comparative behavior of peregrine falcons and grizzly bears. Both are apex predators in their environment, who in a state of “yarak” for falcons and “hyperphagia” for grizzlies are at their most ruthless. In this state, they may kill not just to eat but because they are in a frenzy of cruelty. However, in such a state, an apex predator conserves its energy by attacking prey in a small area, unlike the current attacks, which are spread over hundreds of miles. Moreover, given its peak speed of 35 miles an hour, a grizzly could not travel the distances between the attack sites in as short a time as the recent attacks suggest. This means that either there are two bears in a similar ruthless state or the killings are linked in another fashion.

Later, Joe discusses Nate’s observations with Jennie Gorden over a call. Gorden has visited the site of Dulcie’s killing and is almost certain that she was killed by the same bear who targeted Clay Jr. Joe tells Gorden that the pattern is off since the first two attacks by the bear—Clay and Brodbeck—were in the same area. It is odd that for its next kills, the bear would travel such great distances. Gorden tells Joe that she will further investigate Dulcie’s death for answers.

Sheridan releases the falcons in the barn. As the starlings sense the predators, their cries rise in a panic. The falcons hunt a few birds, and the rest fly out of the barn in a black cloud. Sheridan recalls the falcons to their stand with a lure, checking the birds for signs of damage. She feels proud of herself for conducting her first solo assignment satisfactorily. 

However, her sense of well-being is interrupted by Katy Cotton’s constant hostile spying on her. Leon Bottom, out of town all day, returns to meet Sheridan outside the barn. Sheridan tells him about Cotton’s strange behavior, and he says that Cotton is harmless. She has been with his family for decades, having left her first husband and two sons in their hometown 40 years ago. She remarried Ben Cotton and came to work with the Bottoms.

Bottom offers Sheridan beer. When she politely declines, he presses on. Sheridan asks him to back off, and he tells her that he did not mean to be offensive; he is just starved for company. Bottom invites Sheridan for breakfast the next day, before she leaves town.

Cates, Soledad, Johnson, and LOR reach Cates’s old home in Saddlestring. To Cates’s disgust, the familiar sign in front of his property—“Dull Knife Outfitters, C&C Septic Tank Service and Birthplace of PRCA World Champion Cowboy Dallas Cates” (197)—is gone, replaced by one reading “Blue Sky Llamas” (197). He tells the group to wait for him in the car as he deals with the people who have bought his former home and converted it into a llama farm.

Cates knocks on the door, and a skinny woman answers. He pretends that he is there to buy her property, having read somewhere that it was for sale. The woman—whose name is Britney—tells Cates that he is mistaken. She and her partner, Rob, bought the property a year ago and have no intention of reselling it. They’ve moved there from California to raise llamas. Cates gets annoyed when Britney tells him that she wishes more hipsters would move into the area, as it is badly in need of new blood. 

When she moves to close the door, Cates jams his boots inside. He forces his way in and knocks Britney unconscious by smashing the head of his gun on her forehead. Rob emerges from within the house in a panic. Cates hits him, too, and ties the couple up back-to-back, with Britney still unconscious. Rob asks Cates to leave with whatever he wants, assuming that Cates is a robber. Cates scoffs that taking what he wants is precisely what he is doing. He tapes Rob’s and Britney’s mouths shut.

When Cates returns to the truck, he tells the group that the situation has been handled. Johnson enquires about Britney, whom she saw flying in the air when Cates hit her. Cates tells Johnson that Britney is fine.