“You can look at it that way, but I wasn’t really thinking. I was mad. Derek was out of control. I reacted.”
“I keep wondering if I’d confronted my problems, maybe things would have gone differently this year.”
“Don’t go there. We are where we are. Whether or not it’s where we would be if we hadn’t dealt with these bastards doesn’t much matter.”
They drove up the mountain in silence. As they came to the lodge, Rose said, “I miss Hannah.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
“I miss her, but I’m glad she’s with Sean and not here now, for this.”
“You’re her friend. I talked to her earlier. She wants to be here for you. Beth, too.”
“You told them to stay in California, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. Do your work, Rose. Let the police do theirs. You’re a can-do type, just like your brothers, but sometimes you have to know your limits. We all do.”
“It’s easier on a search than with something like this. It all feels so out of control, with no rules.”
“There are rules. Rule one—you don’t get to kill someone. Rose, you okay with this guy?”
“I can handle him.”
“Could he have set the fires? It only takes a cell phone to detonate a simple homemade bomb.”
“It wasn’t Nick, Bowie. Absolutely not.”
Bowie grinned at her. “See? There’s an attraction there.” He pulled into the lodge parking lot and glanced in back at Poe. “Look at him. Not a peep out of him. Ranger’s influence.”
“Ranger’s not perfect, you know,” Rose said. “Poe looks tired. Did you have him out running this morning?”
“He charged around while I was working. He’s in good shape. He’s just lazy. The vet said he needed to lose weight, so I’ve been getting him out more. It’s good for me, too.”
“Dominique said she was meeting you at the lake this morning. What happened? Where were you?”
“Late,” he said, his voice heavy with regret.
“Why?”
He threw the van into Park and looked over at her. “I made a stop to give an estimate. It took longer than I expected. The police have all the details. You want them, too, Rose?”
“I’m not doubting you. Don’t get defensive. I just wanted to know.”
“Maybe you want to know too much. Maybe you should get on a damn plane and go train dogs in Alaska or something. I worry about you, Rose.”
She let his worry roll over her. “Thanks for your concern. Bowie, are you and Dominique seeing each other?”
“She and Poe are both trying to get in shape. She wants to run a half marathon this summer. Nothing more than that.”
“I grew up here. I can be private all I want and it won’t do me any good. Everybody’s always sticking their noses in my business.”
He grinned at her. “Like you’d have it any other way.”
“You’re a good friend to have, Bowie. Thanks for the ride.”
“Anytime.”
“Want to come in?”
He shook his head. “I have work to do. Call or come find me if you need a friend.”
Rose promised she would and thanked him as she got out of the van.
She spotted A.J. down by the shop and walked in that direction. He was pacing, clearly agitated, and she assumed it was because of the scene at the lake. He shoved a hand through his hair. “I can still smell smoke,” he said. “Damn.”
“I’m sorry, A.J.”
“Yeah. Me, too. I’ve been trying to sort everything out in my own mind. I don’t see how a couple of ski-bum drug dealers had anything to do with the death of that woman in California and this missing actor.”
“We can come up with a thousand different scenarios if we want to.” Rose recognized a middle-aged couple ski from the lodge on the groomed trails in the meadow. “Most guests won’t associate what happened at the lake with the lodge. It’s far enough away—”
“They could see the smoke from the dining room.”
“A fire in the middle of winter, down in the valley. It’s understandable they’d look.”
“A fatal fire on top of another fatal fire just the other day.” Her brother stared at a display of winter sports gear in the shop window. “I’d hoped winter fest would be a fresh start for everyone in town.”
“It still can be,” Rose said. “There’s time to figure out what’s going on and put an end to it.”
“That’s what we keep saying. It’s what we said in November when Jo and Elijah confronted those two killers. It’s what we said in January when Hannah and Sean figured out Lowell Whittaker was behind this network of assassins.”
“The lodge is busiest in the warm-weather months. By then, most people aren’t going to remember if this all happened in another town, or even know that it happened at all. We’re in the middle of it. We’ll know. I’ve been to the scene of so many disasters—”
“This isn’t a natural disaster.”
Rose sighed. “I’m not helping, am I? Okay. I’m going to find Ranger.”
A.J. shifted back to her. “Lauren panicked when she heard sirens and saw smoke. I don’t know how much more of this she can take.”
“She’s strong, A.J. So are you.”
“She’s scared.” He let out a breath, shook his head. “Never mind. We’ll get through it. You just concentrate on staying safe yourself. When you radioed this morning and I saw the smoke…” He stood up straight and managed a small smile. “I was glad Nick was with you.”
She grinned at him. “Ha, the faith my brothers have in me.” She touched his arm. “We’re going to be okay, A.J. You know that, right? Whatever happens.”
“Yeah,” he said, and followed several guests into the shop.
As she headed back up to the main lodge, Ranger bounded toward her with the energy of a puppy. Nick’s influence, she decided, her heart jumping when she saw him ambling toward her.
She believed what she’d said to A.J. They’d be okay. What other choice was there?
Twenty
Beverly Hills, California
G rit could tell the Black Falls women were restless, frustrated that they were on the other side of the continent while so much went on at home. Sean was more accustomed to not being in the eye of his hometown storms but the events of the day had clearly disturbed him, too.
The fire at Jo Harper’s cabins on the lake—Robert Feehan’s death, Dominique Belair’s near death—bothered everyone.
The cabin Grit had stayed in had burned, but he wasn’t nostalgic. He figured the accursed woodstove had probably made it through just fine.
Devin and Toby Shay arrived at Sean’s house, and Grit was of a mind to leave them and Beth there while he and Sean drove out to the Cameron & Martini building that had burned a year ago.
Beth had other ideas. Testy and silent, she climbed, uninvited, into the back of Sean’s car and put on her seat belt.
Sean glanced at Grit, as if seeking his wisdom on what to do. Grit shrugged. “How far is this place?”
“Twenty minutes, longer if traffic’s bad.”
As far as Grit could see, traffic was always bad. He figured he could handle thirty minutes with Beth biting her nails in back. Let Sean be the one to kick her out. “Drive on.”
Sean gritted his teeth and steered his expensive sedan out of the driveway.
Grit turned to Beth in the backseat. “Have you talked to Trooper Thorne?” She just stared out her window. He tried again. “Your brother? Your sister? Rose? Dominique?”
“I don’t want to talk.”
That could work, Grit decided, and turned back around. Seventeen minutes later, they pulled into a small parking area by a three-story Art Deco building that Cameron & Martini had saved from the wrecking ball, refurbished and still owned.
There’d been a fire during renovations. Nick Martini’s quick actions had almost certainly saved the building.