She hadn’t considered what it would really be like to spend the night up here by herself. She sat back on her heels, sobbing. She’d sunk into a bed of wet pine needles. She could hear Elijah telling her to get up or put a tarp down or sit on her pack. Stay dry. Stay warm. Prevent hypothermia.
But she didn’t get up. She looked around at the endless woods. It was hard to believe police and rescue workers had been up in this wilderness just seven months ago. In the snow. Scott Thorne and Zack Harper had been among them. But they’d never talked to Nora about what they’d seen.
Drew had just gone to sleep and died in the cold.
She could see now how it’d happened. The shivering, numbness and pain of mild hypothermia giving way to more severe symptoms-confusion, slurred speech, clumsiness. Then unconsciousness, death.
If she didn’t want to die of hypothermia herself, she needed to find a spot to pitch her tent soon-and never mind being creeped out. She’d operated on instinct yesterday. Get out, get out. Now she wondered if she’d actually panicked and should have gone to someone when she’d had the chance.
Devin.
She willed back her guilt at having sneaked out on Devin before first light. After deciding he couldn’t possibly have stolen her hundred dollars, she still hadn’t trusted him enough to go to him. She’d been irritated, she realized, that he thought he had to be protective of her. And why hadn’t he just told her he was out there?
Because you treated him like crap yesterday, that’s why.
She’d put on clothes that blended with her gray environment and made her harder to spot and had stayed off the trails-not that anyone was up on the mountain. She hadn’t seen a soul all day.
She didn’t know what she’d expected. A flag marking the spot where Drew Cameron had died? A gravestone? All she’d seen were trees, rocks, birds, squirrels and chipmunks-and three deer. She’d paused to watch the deer leap through the trees, unaware of her presence. One of the few nice moments in the past two days.
But she gulped back a sob and went rock still, convinced she’d heard a noise below her in the woods. Not a deer. Her heart pounded. What was it?
“Nora? It’s me…Devin.”
“Devin!” She called to him without hesitation and leaped up, sniffling with relief. She’d been feeling guilty about leaving him, not trusting him, and now here he was. “I’m here!”
She started to run, following the rustling and crunching sounds of him making his way through fallen leaves and branches, until they found each other partway down the knoll.
He was panting and sweating and gave her a feeble smile. “Hey, Nora.”
“Oh, Dev. I’m sorry I ever doubted you. How did you find me?”
“I knew you wanted to see where Drew died. I figured you’d head this way. Then I heard you crying.” He coughed, shrugging his pack off his shoulders. “I know all the shortcuts, but I still had to hump it. I just want to be sure you’re okay.”
Nora saw his wince of pain, his scraped hands, dirty face. “What happened? Dev, you’re hurt-”
He held up a hand, still catching his breath. “I fell and hurt my leg. It’s not bad.” He used his thumb to wipe a tear on her cheek. “How ’bout you?”
She attempted a smile. “I’m better now that you’re here. I should never have come up here alone. It was crazy. But I-The money, then Alex and Melanie…”
“I know. It’s okay. I understand.”
She almost cried again. “Dev.”
“I’m being framed for stealing,” he said without drama. “There’s the money you’re missing, and there’s money missing from the lodge. Probably the café, too.”
“Who would do such a thing?”
“I don’t know.”
But Nora suspected he was just trying to spare her. “Melanie. She hates me. She must have figured out we’re onto her lies, and she wants to discredit you.”
“We have no proof-”
“I don’t need proof.”
“Just because you don’t like her doesn’t mean she’s some crazy evildoer.”
Nora didn’t want to argue with him. He had an almost scary ability to penetrate a current situation with clarity. He could look at the facts without going off on a million different tangents the way she would.
“Can you show me the spot where you found Drew?” she asked.
“Yeah. We’re close. Let me carry your pack.”
She shook her head. “I’ve got it. But you were right-it’s really heavy. I thought I was in better shape.”
“You’ve got a lot on your mind. It drags you down.”
He was matter-of-fact in his sincerity. Nora said nothing and followed him as he led her through the trees, moving with an assurance and familiarity with the difficult terrain that she didn’t have.
“Devin,” she said behind him, “have you ever considered if Drew’s death wasn’t just an awful accident?”
He glanced back at her. He was wearing only a sweatshirt, vest and jeans, but he didn’t look cold at all. “Don’t start thinking like that.”
He wasn’t one to jump from A to Z without going carefully through all the letters in between. She’d seen that in how he was helping her look into Melanie’s background.
So far they’d found out that she came from a middle-class Long Island family and had a degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She’d worked for several different high-end furniture stores in New York before moving to Washington, D.C., two years ago to set up her own one-woman interior-decorating firm.
They’d checked out her Web site, which she hadn’t updated lately, and had filled out the form for more information, but never got anything back. Devin was figuring out how to approach her as a would-be client and ask for references. Nora had written down all the different places she could think of that Melanie had traveled to since April. She hadn’t liked Melanie from the beginning, but she’d kept hoping her father would dump her.
Now they were engaged.
Nora ducked under the sharp, dead lower branches of a pine.
“It’s almost dark, Dev,” she said. “We need to figure out where to camp soon.”
“Not a problem.”
“I don’t know if I want to sleep right on top of where a man died.”
“Yeah.” He stopped next to a huge boulder and turned to her, a light breeze floating almost peacefully through the trees. He seemed quiet, as if he’d gone into some deep part of himself. “I don’t, either.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound callous.”
“You don’t. It’s okay.” He tilted his head back at the darkening sky. “Drew was my friend is all.”
Nora slipped off her pack. “It’ll be cathartic for you to be back up here again, but if you don’t want to go to the exact spot, I’ll understand.”
He dropped his gaze back to her. “No. I’ll go. It’s not a big deal.”
“How much farther is it? It’s getting dark.”
“Not far.”
She hoisted up her pack again. “I keep thinking about Alex,” she said, hating herself for how meek she sounded.
Devin nodded. “I know.”
“You do, don’t you?”
He’d already started back through the woods and didn’t hear her. Nora tripped along behind him. Her legs were rubbery and her back ached from her heavy pack, but she didn’t have any blisters. “What if Melanie’s some kind of madam?” she called to him almost cheerfully. “Maybe she’s running high-class call girls to Washington politicians.”
“Whoa, Nora.” Devin glanced back at her with a grin. “I’m lost. Call girls? How’d you come up with call girls?”
It made her feel good to see him smile. “I’m just saying what if Melanie has secrets that she doesn’t want anyone to discover, and she knows we’re after those secrets?”
“What if she really loves your father?”