Cold Pursuit - Carla Neggers [32]
“What, have you been searching the Internet on this guy?”
“Not hard to find stuff. Obits are all over the place already. Gives me something to do.”
“You could go to the theater.”
Grit didn’t respond for a half beat. “I could. I like the theater. What’s your interest in Bruni?”
“His stepdaughter dropped out of college and is living in Black Falls.”
“Ah.”
“See what else you can find out about Bruni’s death. Unless you decide to go to the theater after all.”
Grit had hung up.
Elijah started up his truck again, Cameron Mountain looming out across a wide, grassy field. He imagined his father up there in a sudden April snowstorm. Thomas Asher had been in Black Falls then with his daughter.
Now Nora’s stepfather was dead.
And Jo had met Bruni and knew Thomas Asher, the betrayed friend, and she was in town.
Elijah tightened his grip on the wheel, still feeling the softness of her lips. He considered putting the question of Jo Harper to Grit Taylor next. Grit had contacts in Washington. He could ask about Elijah’s Secret Service-agent neighbor.
Not a good idea, he decided, heading down the road toward Black Falls Lodge. He doubted Devin was back at work. If Devin knew Nora was up on the mountain, coping by herself with her stepfather’s sudden, suspicious death, he’d go look for her. It would be a simple equation for him. Nora was upset. He’d want to be there for her.
Elijah figured he’d get up on the mountain and see if he could pick up either teenager’s trail. Alone. Without the Secret Service.
He’d tell A.J. that Jo was on his heels. A.J. was stubborn and closemouthed by nature, and he’d never been one of Jo Harper’s biggest fans.
His brother would stall her and buy Elijah time to handle the situation his way.
Eight
When she was twelve, Jo had fantasized that Black Falls Lodge was straight out of The Sound of Music and one day she might meet her own Captain Von Trapp there. Then Elijah told her The Sound of Music gave him dry heaves, which ended that bit of fun.
The Von Trapp family had settled in Stowe, farther to the north, and started a resort that was still one of the most beautiful and popular in Vermont. Black Falls Lodge wasn’t as big an operation, but its location along an open ridge, with stunning views of the endless mountains, was nothing short of breathtaking—enough, Jo thought, to get Elijah’s kiss out of her mind. On the drive up to the lodge, she’d decided it’d been inevitable. Now that it was out of the way, she could concentrate on other things.
Like what was going on with the Camerons.
She parked next to Elijah’s truck and soaked in the scenery as she got out of her car. The air was colder, the breeze stiffer. She crossed the parking lot on the edge of a wide meadow that, in spring and summer, would be afire with wildflowers. Evergreens and rust-colored oak leaves provided color in the otherwise bare, gray landscape.
A corner of the lake was visible down in the hollow below.
Her red-tailed hawk was patrolling the graying sky.
It was the slow season—even the mountain bikers weren’t out. The leaf peepers had gone home, and the cross-country skiers and snowshoers hadn’t arrived yet. Snow was in the forecast, but it was still early for winter recreation.
The lodge would do a good business over Thanksgiving, but it was quiet now. The property consisted of the original rustic-style lodge, a new recreational building with an indoor pool, racquetball court and health club, a half-dozen separate cottages and a shop that sold and rented bicycles, cross-country skis, snowshoes, canoes and kayaks—never mind that the lodge wasn’t on a lake or river frontage.
Jo followed a stone walk to the back of the lodge and stepped up onto a terrace, its tables and chairs unoccupied on the chilly November afternoon. Drew Cameron had pulled together parcels of land to reclaim Cameron Mountain and get Black Falls Lodge started, but what it was today was A.J.’s doing—his hard work, and his dream, now shared by his wife, Lauren, who, according to Beth, had talked A.J. into agreeing to build a top-notch spa