By noon he had come up with a plan. With luck, he might never need to bring in the police judiciare at all.

"Now, Noyon," he said to the crisply uniformed young officier de la paix whom he had summoned to his office, "having determined that the bones in question are human, what is needed is to establish whether or not we are dealing with a case of homicide, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes, sir!" said Noyon. Freshly graduated from the national police academy at Nice and newly assigned to Les Eyzies for his field training, he was grateful for this early opportunity to show his mettle.

"And to do that it is necessary first of all to locate the place from which the dog has been bringing the bones, so that the scene can be properly examined, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, sir, exactly!"

"And to accomplish that, it would seem logical to let the animal lead us to it, no?"

"Yes, sir," Noyon said a little less eagerly, beginning to have some reservations.

"What I want you to do, then, Noyon, is to find an unobtrusive spot within sight of the Peyraud backyard, keeping your eye on the dog. It's brought home bones before. It will bring them home again. See if you can find out from where. That's your assignment. Are there any questions?"

"You want me to… to stake out the dog?"

Marielle eyed him frigidly. "Unless you have an objection?"

"No, sir, no objection at all! I think it's a fine plan. I'm sure it'll work. I'll do my best. Thank you, sir, I appreciate your confidence. I'll get over there right now."

Damn, Noyon thought, you sure know when you're the new man on the team.

Three days later, a dusty and bramble-scarred Officer Noyon was back at his commander's desk with discouraging results. The dog was cunning, devious, two-faced, malicious, he said with a tremor of real hatred in his voice. "He tricked me. He wouldn't let me follow him. He left by different routes, and he never came home the same way twice. When he brought bones back, I swear he laughed at me! I know when a dog's laughing."