Chapter Thirty-Three
Getting Closer
Half a state away, Sheriff Mark Jacobsen was confronting another kind of bear: an officer of the CSP.
Though both the California Highway Patrol and the California State Police (into which the former had been folded in the 1990’s) had frowned on the word ‘trooper’ and other such traditional associations, state bears is what they were. The bruin was on the flag after all, and thus even their uniform patches.
This fellow Bryce might be a detective and thus plain-clothed, but he was a bear all right. He even looked the part, being of massive build with a heavy brow and deep-set eyes. Still these were a quick and penetrating gray, and Mark knew they missed almost nothing. The two of them had developed a good rapport working on the Downing case, and the
