Read Northern Lights for Free Online Page A

snow and rock, snugged tight to a winding river, flanked by forests where he could easily imagine wolves roaming.
    He wondered if forest meant bear, too, but decided it wasn't worth worrying about until spring. Unless all that hibernation talk was bullshit.
    It took less than two minutes to drive from station house to lodge. He saw a total of ten people on the street and passed a brawny pickup, a clunky SUV, and counted three parked snowmobiles and one set of skis propped against the side of The Italian Place.
    It seemed people didn't exactly hibernate in Lunacy, whatever the bears did.
    He went to the main door of The Lodge and walked through it just ahead of Peter.
    It hadn't broken up. He could hear that plainly enough through the shouts of encouragement— kick his fat ass, Mackie! —and the thud of bodies and grunts. What Nate calculated was that a Lunacy-style crowd had gathered, consisting of five men in flannel, one of which turned out to be a woman on closer inspection.
    Encircled by them, two men with shaggy, brown hair were rolling around on the floor, trying to land short-arm punches on each other. The only weapon he saw was a broken pool cue.
    "Mackie brothers," Peter told him.
    "Brothers?"
    "Yeah. Twins. They've been beating the hell out of each other since they were in the womb. Hardly ever take a swing at anyone else."
    "Okay."
    Nate nudged his way through the press of bodies. The sight of him had the shouts toning down to murmurs as he waded in and hauled the top Mackie off the bottom Mackie.
    "All right, break it up. Stay down," he ordered, but Mackie number two was already springing up, rearing back. He landed a solid roundhouse to his brother's jaw.
    " Red River, numbnuts!" He shouted, then did a victory dance, fists lifted high, as his brother slumped in Nate's arms.
    "Peter, for Christ's sake," Nate said as his deputy remained immobile.
    "Oh, sorry, chief. Jim, settle down."
    Instead, Jim Mackie continued to bounce in his Wolverines to the cheers of the crowd.
    Nate saw money being exchanged, but decided to ignore it.
    "Take this one." Nate shoved the unconscious man into Peter, then stepped up to the self-proclaimed champ. "The deputy gave you an order."
    "Yeah?" He grinned, showing blood on his teeth and an unholy gleam in a pair of brown eyes. "So what? I don't have to take orders from that shithead."
    "Yeah, you do. I'll show you why." Nate spun the man around, shoved him against the wall, had his hands behind his back and cuffed in under ten seconds.
    "Hey!" was the best the reigning champ could manage.
    "Give me grief, and you'll sit in a cell for resisting arrest, among other things. Peter, bring that one over to the station when he wakes up."
    With no apparent loyalty, the crowd shifted its support to Nate with catcalls and whistles as he muscled Jim Mackie toward the door.
    Nate paused when he saw Charlene ease out of the kitchen. "You looking to press charges?" he asked her.
    She stared, finally blinked. "I . . . well, hell, I don't know. Nobody's ever asked me that before. What kind of charges?"
    "They broke some stuff back there."
    "Oh. Well, they always pay for it after. But they did run off a couple of tourists who were going to order lunch."
    "Bill started it."
    "Oh now, Jim, you both start it. Every time. I've told you I don't want you coming in here fighting and causing a ruckus that runs people off. I don't want to press charges exactly. I just want this nonsense to stop. And payment for damages."
    "Got it. Let's go sort this out, Jim."
    "I don't see why I have to—"
    Nate solved the matter by pushing him out into the cold.
    "Hey, Christ's sake, I need my gear."
    "Deputy Notti will bring it. Get in the car, or stand here and get frostbite. Up to you." He yanked the door open, gave Jim a heave inside.
    Once Nate was behind the wheel, Jim had recovered some dignity, despite the bleeding mouth and puffy eye. "I don't think this is the way to treat people. It ain't right."
    "I don't think