“Only two jobs, both in emergency management.”
“But you don’t want to leave Vermont,” he said quietly.
She shivered from a sudden light breeze, but her mind was on the other side of the continent, on a hot, dry, windy day in June. Without looking at Nick, she said, “We did what we could to save Jasper. We all did. If his death is related to Lowell Whittaker’s network of killers and Derek somehow found out and that’s why he freaked out when you showed up—”
“We don’t know that Feehan was telling the truth.”
Rose pulled her hat out of her pocket and put it back on, yanking it down over her ears. “I don’t know. I wish I did.”
Nick frowned at her. “Your knee hurts, doesn’t it?”
She hadn’t noticed but realized her right knee did, in fact, ache. “Some. I must have twisted it when Robert shoved me.”
“You should ice it.”
“Thanks, Dr. Martini, I will.”
“I have EMT training.”
But he didn’t press the issue as Lauren emerged from the sugar shack. “A.J.’s meeting us with the car out on the road,” she said. “He’s got the lodge on alert for Robert Feehan. No sign of him as yet.”
She tucked her snowshoes under one arm and got the kids back on the toboggan, which Nick pulled as they hiked back to the dead-end lane. Rose spotted Brett Griffin out on Ridge Road with her brother and went ahead of Nick, Lauren and the kids. A.J. gave her a quick glance as he ran down the lane to his family.
Brett was decked out in winter gear, his camera hanging from a cord on his neck. “I just told A.J. that Robert Feehan flagged me down a few minutes ago.”
“Where?” Rose asked.
“Up the road, not far from the place I’m staying. He jumped out of the woods. Scared the hell out of me. He asked about you. He said he wanted to talk to you. I know he’s upset about Derek, but he really wasn’t himself. I told him he might want to calm down before he saw you.”
Rose grimaced. “Too late.”
“Ah. He found you already. I wondered. I gather it didn’t go well.”
“As you saw yourself, he’s on edge. Do you have any idea where he might be now?”
“No, sorry. He ran up the road. I didn’t follow him. I think he might have had a car up there. I heard an engine start.”
“He didn’t drive back by you?”
Brett shook his head. “He must have gone in the other direction. I don’t have a cell phone—I borrowed A.J.’s and called 911. I know the police want to talk to him about Derek’s death.”
“Robert could be anywhere.”
“I wish I could have delayed him but I had no idea what was going on.” Brett tilted his head back and sighed. “You don’t look so good, Rose. Did Robert hurt you?”
“No, but he was out of control.”
“Yeah. It’s crazy. I think he wishes now he hadn’t gotten mixed with up Derek, too, but Derek had his good qualities. He thought he could do anything.”
“He could put on the charm,” Rose said tightly, “but he could turn it off in a heartbeat. Brett, you’re house-sitting just up the road. Could Robert have come out here this morning to talk to you, too?”
“I suppose so.” Brett fingered a button on his camera. “I got the feeling he was hiding in the woods and jumped out on impulse when he saw me. I wish I could be more help. Robert didn’t say so in as many words, but he obviously thinks Derek went to the Whittaker place to kill himself.”
Rose’s stomach twisted, but she said nothing.
“So that you would find him,” Brett added.
“Did he say why he thought Derek might be suicidal?”
Brett shook his head. “He really wasn’t making much sense.”
“If Robert knows anything,” she said evenly, “he should tell the police.”
“Yeah, I know.”
She followed his gaze down the road as Nick walked out from the lane carrying the empty toboggan. A.J. was behind him with a child on each arm, Lauren next to him.
“I hope Derek didn’t commit suicide,” Brett said. “I hope he just wanted to talk to you, and the fire was an accident—just one of those dumb things. From everything I hear, Lowell Whittaker’s the type to leave flammable stuff around.”
Would he put a volatile, highly flammable liquid into a kerosene lamp and just leave it for anyone to light? Rose shuddered at the thought. “Given what else he’s done, I suppose anything’s possible.”
“He puts a whole new spin on the term ‘gentleman farmer.’” Brett gestured toward Nick as he loaded the toboggan into the back of A.J.’s SUV. “Who’s that? Got a new boyfriend, Rose?”
Rose squinted at Brett in the strong midday sun. “That’s Nick Martini, my brother Sean’s business partner.”
“What’s he doing out here? Is Sean with him?”
“Sean’s not with him, no,” she said carefully.
“Wait, is this the guy who was with you yesterday when you found Derek?”
“Nick was there, but we weren’t together.”
Brett blew out a breath, shaking his head. “What a mess. Well, I should go. I told the police I’d meet them up where I saw Robert. I’ll leave you to your family.”
Rose watched him cross the road and head past the trail up to the falls. She was still looking in his direction when she felt Nick next to her. “I’m walking back to the lodge,” she said. “You can ride with A.J., Lauren and the kids—”
“I’ll walk with you.”
She didn’t argue with him. A.J. muttered something to her about hoping she knew what she was doing and headed off with Lauren and their now tired children.
“I think I’m getting used to the cold weather,” Nick said as he started up the road. “Feels good in its own way.”
“The low humidity today helps,” Rose said.
She walked with him up the quiet road, telling him about Brett’s encounter with Robert. Nick stopped abruptly and took her by the arm, not ungently. “Do you ever ask yourself if you’re too brave by half?”
“I’m not reckless, Nick.” She faced him as he continued to hold on to her. “Black Falls and my family have had their problems this past year, but I’ve never felt unsafe here.”
“Problems? A woman was blown up in the lodge parking lot—”
“A killer, killed by the man who hired her to murder people, including my father. Yesterday…” She pulled her arm free of Nick’s grasp, aware of her reaction to him, the same mix of physical and emotional sparks that had landed him in bed with her eight months ago. “We don’t know what happened to Derek.”
“A kerosene lamp exploded and burned him to death.”
The raw words rocked her back onto her heels.
Nick didn’t relent. “You’re an amazing woman, Rose, as well as brave, but you’re fighting demons. You won’t let anyone help you. Your brothers, your friends—me.”
“I don’t even know you, Nick.”
He took her scarf, hanging loosely down her front, and tied it warmly under her chin. She felt the brush of his bare hands on her skin. “Maybe that’s why I’m here,” he said. “So you can get to know me.”
Her breath caught but she shook her head. “You’re here because of Jasper. If he hadn’t died last June…” She didn’t finish, shaking off any thought of the tragic death of the arson investigator. “What if Lowell Whittaker filled the kerosene lamp with Coleman fuel with the plan of killing his wife? I could see Vivian walking into the shed, lighting the lamp—”
“I never wanted to hurt you,” Nick said next to her.
She pretended not to hear him. “Fire scenes are difficult forensically. We might never know how the Coleman fuel—assuming that’s what caused the fire—got into the lamp.”
“Rose. Stop ignoring me.”
She plunged down the road, feeling the scarf rub against her chin, but stopped after a few yards, turning back to him. “You didn’t hurt me, Nick,” she said. “We had a good time together that night. Let’s not beat ourselves up over it.”