“You have it all planned.”
“Not really. I just want to know who was guarding your Jenny and why. It’s been nagging me since last night. May we go?”
Eve nodded. “I admit I’m curious.”
“So is Nalchek.” She zipped up her hoodie and started across the terrace. “He was entirely too willing to let me go into his woods again today. I thought I’d have a battle…”
* * *
Nalchek was standing by the grave, and he only nodded curtly to Margaret. His gaze went beyond her to Joe. “You’re Joe Quinn. I’ve heard about you. I’m John Nalchek.”
Joe nodded. “I’ve heard about you, too.” He glanced at the grave site. “Eve says you’re obsessed.”
Nalchek stiffened. “Does she?”
“Yeah.” He looked back at him. “But that doesn’t mean anything. She’s obsessed, too. It won’t bother me unless you start causing her problems.”
“Joe,” Eve said.
“He should know,” Joe said. “I think I can probably work with him, but he has to know the limits.” He met Nalchek’s gaze. “Got it?”
“Got it. Understood.” He paused. “And I’ll let you hang around unless you get in my way.” He smiled faintly. “I won’t cause Eve any problems because she’s on my wavelength.” He turned away. “But I don’t promise I’ll work with Margaret Douglas. She’s a little too—” He stopped and muttered a curse as he looked around. “Where the hell is she?”
“She’s slipped deeper into the woods while you and Joe were exchanging words and sizing each other up,” Eve said. “She warned me she’d probably do it. She didn’t want you around to get in her way.”
“The hell she didn’t.” He strode toward the trees. “I have no intention of letting her run her own show.”
“Too bad,” Joe said as he started after him. “Margaret has a tendency to close everyone out. Natural enough, since most people can’t follow where she goes anyway.”
“Literally or figuratively,” Eve said. “Back off, Nalchek. Give her a chance.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Is that an order?”
“Only if you insist on pushing it,” she said. “I want to work with you. But I have to see if Margaret can put us on the fast track. I’m afraid we don’t have much more time.”
“Why not?” His eyes were narrowed on her face. “You know something you haven’t told me.”
“No, I don’t know anything. We may have a few leads that might prove promising.”
“And you’re dangling them in front of me in exchange for what?” he asked grimly.
“Cooperation. Help Margaret. Don’t interfere. Then I’ll be glad to share whatever Joe found out about a man who might have killed your deputy.”
“You’re interfering with a murder investigation.”
“No, she’s just not helping with it.” Joe paused. “Yet.”
Nalchek stared him in the eye and didn’t speak for a long moment. “I want that information immediately.”
“You’ll get it,” Eve said. “As soon as you give me your word that you’ll work with us and not by yourself to try to catch him.” She smiled. “And Margaret gets her chance. I want your word.”
Another silence.
He nodded curtly. “Okay. As long as you don’t endanger my men or the investigation. If I see any sign of that happening, no deal.”
“You won’t see it happening,” Joe said. “We may want that son of a bitch more than you do.” He gestured to the trees. “Now, shall we join Margaret?”
Nalchek didn’t answer but strode ahead of them into the trees.
“Not pleased,” Joe murmured to Eve as he fell into step with her. “Can’t blame him. I’d feel the same way.”
So would Eve, but she couldn’t let it matter. How close was Walsh? Would he come here or go to Carmel? “Nalchek will have to get over it. He can’t have everything his own way.”
“He’s probably thinking the same thing about us,” Joe said dryly. “Let’s hope Margaret isn’t being too radically Margaret when he reaches her.”
* * *
Evidently, Margaret was moving fast, and it was taking Nalchek time to catch up with her.
It took Eve and Joe another ten minutes before they caught sight of Nalchek. He was standing still in the center of the trail in the densest area of the forest. He turned to face them. “She’s right up ahead,” he said. “She’s sitting by that stream, and she’s not trying to avoid us any longer.”
“She probably wasn’t trying to avoid us before,” Joe said. “She just didn’t want to have us disturb her concentration.”
“You sound as if you’re familiar with the way she operates.”
“He is,” Eve said. “More than I am. He was on hand months ago, when Margaret was trying to find me in the woods. I could have died except for her.”
“And you believe all of this crap, Quinn?”
“It’s hard as hell for me. I’m a pragmatic bastard.” He was silent. “Yeah, I believe something is going on with Margaret. I’m willing to go along with her.”
Nalchek shrugged. “We’ll see.” He moved ahead of them down the trail.
“Hi.” Margaret smiled at them as they came into view. “Isn’t it pretty here?” She was sitting cross-legged on the bank of the stream as they turned the bend of the trail. “It’s like a secret garden. Not like the one in the book. A sort of misty green haven. I bet you’ve been here before, Nalchek.”
“A couple times.”
“I thought so. Since you said it was your grandfather’s land.”
“Even though he owned it, I wasn’t given any more privileges than the town kids. He treated this forest as open land, and anyone who respected the environment was allowed to use it.”
“Sounds like a nice guy.” She looked at the stream. “I like it here.”
“You covered a lot of ground to get here,” Nalchek said without expression.
“I was tracking. I didn’t know where he was going to lead me.”
“Who was going to lead you?” Eve asked quietly.
“Can I make a guess?” Nalchek asked.
Margaret smiled. “Tell me.”
“A coyote.”
Margaret chuckled. “You did take those soil samples.”
He nodded. “I put a rush on them, and they came back genus Canis latrans. Coyote. Not that it means anything.”
“No, because it’s not quite accurate,” she said. “Sajan is half-coyote, half-wolf. The two don’t mate very often, but it happened in this case. Though I think Sajan considers himself a coyote. Coyotes are fairly solitary animals. But when he hunts in a pack, it’s with coyotes.”
“Sajan,” Joe repeated. “Your coyote has a name.”
“Maybe. In a way. It’s how he thinks of himself. Or how I interpret it.” She looked back at the stream. “He likes it here. He often hunts small rodents and stays here by the stream for days.”
“When he’s not guarding the grave?” Nalchek asked.
“You’re having trouble with that,” Margaret said soberly. “So am I. So is he.”
“Yeah, you said he didn’t know why he was still guarding the grave after Jenny’s bones were removed,” Eve said. “And he didn’t see Jenny die?”
“No, only afterward, when her killer was digging the grave and placing her in it. I believe he felt … drawn. It confused him. He didn’t know why he was there. And afterward, it would have been natural for him to just wander away.” She shook her head. “That didn’t happen. He stayed close to her. He protected the grave. He thought it might have something to do with the man, the killer.”
“What?”
“Because he kept coming back here.”
“To the grave?”
“Yes. It went on for years. He wouldn’t come for months at a time, then he’d be back.”
“No other reason? He was just checking on the grave?”
“Yes, it made Sajan nervous. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do if the killer started to disturb the grave. But he never did. That’s it. I’ve told you all I know. All he knows.” She made a face. “It’s not much, is it?” Her gaze shifted to Nalchek. “But it might tell you why Jenny’s killer was nervous about your wandering around the woods looking for evidence and was keeping an eye on you.”