Then Nora knew about her stepfather’s death.
“The police are investigating, of course,” Vivian said, briskly raking her fresh batch of leaves over to the pile. “Alex dedicated himself to diplomacy and public service. It’s difficult to believe he had enemies.”
“Do you know where Nora is now?” Elijah asked.
“You just missed her.” A gust of wind whipped up leaves and lifted Vivian’s fine, pale blond bangs back from her forehead. She paused, breathing hard from her manic raking. “I waved her down as she was leaving. I was raking at the end of the driveway. I didn’t know about Alex at that point. Lowell had just gone inside. Nora was clearly upset, but I didn’t think much of it. She said she was going on a camping trip.”
“What kind of camping trip?”
Vivian stood her rake up on end and picked bits of leaves and debris from the tines. “She didn’t go into detail-an overnight trip, though. I assume she’ll be gone a couple of nights. She obviously didn’t want to talk, and I didn’t push her for details. She assured me she knows what she’s doing.”
Elijah settled back on his heels. Knowing what to do wasn’t the same as doing it, and Nora had just taken an emotional hit with her stepfather’s death. “Did she leave her route with you?”
Vivian shook her head. “Not with me. I urged her to tell someone exactly where she was going and how long she planned to be out. I also warned her not to hike alone. She’s an adult. Lowell and I enjoy having her here, but we can only do so much.”
“You mentioned she was upset.”
“Visibly so, yes. If I’d realized Alex had been killed, I’d have discouraged her from going anywhere.” She squinted out at the vista of mountains, her mouth compressed as she inhaled through her nose. “If Alex was run over on purpose, that’s murder. That’s rather frightening, isn’t it?”
“Did you know him well?” Elijah asked.
“We met him here in Black Falls a year ago, not long after we bought this place. We’ve had him and Carolyn up here several times. I can’t even imagine what she’s going through.” Vivian flipped her rake back over and dragged a few stray leaves to her pile. “I doubt the police will want to talk to us, but I suppose they could.”
Down across the lawn, Elijah noticed Jo’s car pull between the stone posts that marked the entrance to the Whittakers’ long, paved driveway.
Vivian followed his gaze but didn’t comment on Jo’s arrival. “You didn’t come out here because of poor Alex. You weren’t aware of his death until I told you just now. Is there something I can help you with?”
“I’m looking for Devin Shay.”
“Devin? I haven’t seen him, but he and Nora have been spending a lot of time together.” She paused, leaning on her rake. “Do you mind if I ask why you’re looking for him?”
Jo parked along a hedge of arbor vitae, got out of her car and fired a look straight at Elijah. He decided he’d be smart to keep in mind that she had ten years as a Secret Service agent under her belt. A few days ago, she’d willingly dived in front of what could have been real bullets heading for the son of the vice president. They hadn’t been, and that was damn funny-but the rest wasn’t.
She was a serious professional with a serious job, and that was something Elijah did understand.
With one eye on Jo marching toward them, he said, “If you run into Devin, tell him I want to talk to him.”
Vivian gave him a distant smile. “Is that an order, Elijah?” But she hesitated, shivering, not from the cold, he thought, so much as the shock of her friend’s sudden, violent death. “I worry about Nora. She’s so young. She and Devin both look up to you, Elijah. You know that, don’t you? You’re the black-ops soldier-our own Rambo in the heart of the Green Mountains.”
He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or sincere, but either way, he had no intention of responding. “Did Nora give any indication Devin was joining her on her hike?”
“No, she didn’t.” Vivian nodded to her four-foot-by-four-foot pile of leaves. “I planned to have Nora bag up these leaves. That’s part of the deal we have. She stays at the guesthouse in exchange for doing odd jobs like bagging leaves, washing screens and gassing up the cars. It was her father’s idea. Of course, Lowell and I never ask her to do anything that conflicts with our yard or cleaning services. We don’t want to take work away from them.”
Elijah started to respond, but Jo came around a sugar maple, most of its fallen leaves in Vivian’s pile. “I’m sorry about Ambassador Bruni,” she said simply, her expression grim as she addressed Vivian. “I know you were friends.”
“Yes. Thank you. We’re all sorry.” Vivian laid her rake onto the mound of leaves. “I can’t believe this.” She shook her head. “Whether it was an accident or deliberate, it’s ridiculous for such a man to die that way.”
“Nora’s father asked me to check on her,” Jo said.
Elijah’s brow went up. Thomas Asher and Jo knew each other?
Vivian said, “I just told Elijah that Nora’s gone on a camping trip.” She winced and did a neck roll, then stretched her shoulders back. “I’m so stiff, but I wouldn’t give up raking leaves for the world. I love November in Vermont, how the landscape opens up with all the leaves off the trees.”
If her comment struck Jo as odd, Elijah couldn’t tell. It did him.
Lowell Whittaker pushed a wheelbarrow down from the house. He was the picture of a contented country gentleman in his barn jacket and wellies. He looked a lot like his wife-tall, thin, fair. But he was quieter, more cerebral, more likely to wrap his head around a friend’s sudden death by taking a few moments to himself than by madly raking.
“Agent Harper, Sergeant Cameron-Jo, Elijah. It’s good to see you both, although I wish it were under less difficult circumstances.” Lowell set the wheelbarrow down and smiled sadly. “Don’t you have an urge to forget everything and take a running leap into the leaves? I can see the two of you jumping in leaves as kids.”
“It was something to do,” Jo said, but her voice was tight, her mind obviously on the hit-and-run of the Whittakers’ friend in Washington.
“I adore Vermont,” Lowell said. “What a wonderful place to grow up.”
Elijah tossed his leaf onto the pile. He figured Jo had started plotting how to get out of Vermont at about the age of five, but she didn’t meet his eye, and he wondered if she was remembering how as kids they’d all taken turns jumping out of a maple tree in the Harper yard into huge piles of leaves. Elijah had pushed Jo out of the tree a few times, but he’d never hurt her. That, he thought, hadn’t come until much later.
She stuck to the issue at hand. “Does Nora have friends here she could be meeting up with? Anyone from college, anyone she’s met in town-friends from high school who’ve visited?”
Lowell reached into the pile of leaves and grabbed as many as he could in both arms. Several escaped, but he let them go as he dumped the rest in his wheelbarrow. “Nora and Devin Shay seem to get along,” he said thoughtfully. “She likes your sister and the two other women she works for at the café. They’re older, of course, but if Nora was upset and wanted to talk to someone, I think she’d turn to them.”
Vivian peeled off her garden gloves with sudden energy. “She might just want to be alone after getting such awful news. I can understand that. I didn’t realize you and Thomas were friends. I’m so pleased that he and Melanie have decided to get married. Have you met her?”
“Not yet, no,” Jo said.