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sun pegged and the day warming. Already, the mantle of snow on the distant ridges had all but melted.
    â€œYou ever hear of the Fly Fishing Venus?” Sam said.
    â€œI can’t say I have.”
    â€œReally?
Fly Angler
ran a picture a couple years ago. Ennis paper did a piece on her in July.”
    â€œEnlighten me.”
    â€œShe guided out of a fly shop on the Kootenai. Most fisher chicks, they couldn’t catch their tit in a wringer if they were churning ice cream and providing the milk. But Nicki was a good angler. They called her the Venus ’cause she has this hair that’s like one of the seven wonders of the world. Sort of a copper waterfall. She’s every fly fisherman’s wet dream.”
    Sam fished another beer out of a cooler. He knocked the cap off against the edge of the table and held the neck with two fingers while foam ran down the sides.
    â€œAnyway, I’m sitting right here second week of June, up she drives on a beater mountain bike, got a fly rod case strapped to the frame, a pack on her back, pedaled all the way from Libby. Said it took her ten days. Told me she was a fishing guide looking for work. ’Course I knew who she was right away, she’s halfway famous, but it was a high-water spring and I didn’t see how I could afford to hire her, at least not until the river dropped into shape. Hell, I’d just moved in myself. I hadn’t even opened the shop. She said if I gave her room and board, she’d help me start the business. Gave me the number of the fly shop she’d worked for on the Kootenai. I called it. The guy said she’d suck in clients like a vacuum cleaner.”
    â€œAnd you decided to let her stay.”
    â€œI told her I’d sleep on it. She let me know she’d help me sleep on it.” Sam smiled, showing the Vs. “Mama didn’t raise an idiot. But we’re talking high maintenance. I managed to get her out of my system before I ended up snake bit as that cowboy.”
    â€œBut you stayed friends?”
    â€œSure. It was a business arrangement. She had a head for numbers and there were clients who took one look at her, one look at me, and wanted her on the pins. I let her use my old drift boat and took a cut off the top.
    â€œWhere’s that boat now?”
    â€œShe’s got it at the dude ranch. I told her she’s free to use it until the season ends.”
    â€œWhy did she leave you to work at the ranch?”
    â€œAfter Labor Day, the guide business starts to die down. She figured she could make more money at the ranch and I encouraged her. But that job will peter out end of October. I don’t know where she’ll go once winter sets in, maybe back to Libby.”
    â€œThat’s where she’s from originally?”
    â€œNicki’s sort of vague about the past.”
    â€œUh-huh. Let’s talk about the cowboy. What’s his name?”
    â€œGrady Cole. He’s a wrangler at the ranch. Probably got her the job. But I didn’t learn that ’til after. When he came into the Dollar, I’d never seen him before in my life.”
    â€œAnd after the fight, when did you see him again?”
    Sam began to speak. Then a look came over his face. The creases between his unibrow deepened. His tongue pressed between his lips, tasting the corners of his beard. He abruptly stood up, his chair scraping across the floorboards of the porch.
    â€œWhat aren’t you telling me?” he said.
    Martha said, “Sit down, Sam. Just tell me about the fight.”
    For a long moment, Sam looked at her. She could see the gears grind. Then his face relaxed and he sat back down. “Hey, I don’t have anything to hide,” he said. “The dude called me out. I didn’t want to fight him, the guy’s half my size, but he started swinging. What could I do? I waited ’til he got up to his knees. I’d just hit him the once, just the once. He was okay,