"Chinook," by Thomas King, in The Perfect Crime, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Harper Collins, 2022.
"You used to be a cop," said Al. "So you know one end of the bull from the other."
"And now I'm a landscape photographer," said Thumps. "A hungry landscape photographer."
All Thumps DreadfulWater wants to do is sit in Al's cafe and eat his breakfast but the sheriff of Chinook, wants his help investigating a death. It happens to be one of those crimes where suspects are all too plentiful. Sonny Martell was not a nice man.
"Could be someone shot him with a silver bullet," said Duke.
"That's for werewolves," said Thumps.
The sheriff set the parking brake and opened the door. "Or put a stake through his heart."
"That's for vampires."
Duke nodded. "With Sonny, it would be best to cover all bases."
The dialog is excellent (when the coroner learns that Sonny is the corpse she says "Somedays I love my job") and the plot makes a convoluted sort of sense. A lot of fun.
