Cold Pursuit - Carla Neggers [51]
Melanie felt a prick of fear, but this time it wasn’t mixed with excitement. She and Kyle couldn’t fail. They had to deal with Nora. She wasn’t just a potential problem anymore. She was a real problem.
We’ll do what we have to do.
Thomas would miss Nora at first, but with her and the dangers she posed out of the way, Melanie could focus on her future husband and help him through his grief.
All would be well.
She closed her eyes, picturing her New Year’s Eve wedding.
She smiled, relaxing again. She’d wear white. Why not? It would be her first—her only—wedding.
Thirteen
When she arrived back at the lake, Jo got out her cell phone and walked up the path behind her waterfront cabin for a better signal. The only light was a single beam through the trees from Elijah’s place—not enough to help her, but it was a clear night. The stars and half-moon were out, creating shadows and silhouettes on the dark, wooded hillside.
She tried Mark Francona, but he didn’t pick up. She didn’t leave a message and dialed Harry Watson, a friend in Washington who worked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. As she waited for the call to go through, she noticed eight or ten wild turkeys pecking in the low brush at the edge of the woods and tried not to scare them. They warbled and fluttered, slowly making their way toward three cabins tucked in the trees higher up the hill.
Harry answered on the second ring. “I heard you were in New Zealand,” he said.
“That’s the backup plan. What do you know about Ambassador Bruni?”
“Why?”
He wouldn’t tell her anything if she wasn’t straight with him. “His wife’s ex-husband asked me to check on his stepdaughter.”
“The one in Vermont? Harper. You’re not…”
“I’m in Black Falls. I grew up here. Nora Asher works at a café co-owned by my younger sister.”
“I have frequent-flyer miles you can use for New Zealand. Call me if you need them.”
He disconnected, and Jo slipped her cell phone into her jacket pocket. If Harry knew anything, he’d have told her. She shuddered against a breeze off the lake. She wanted to take a few moments to let her mind sift through the events of the day, but not out here—it was too damn cold. She’d go make her salad and head over to Elijah’s.
She heard a noise behind the more secluded cabins farther up the hill and went still on the narrow footpath. The turkeys flapped their wings and scurried deeper into the woods, away from the cabins, their shuffling making it more difficult for her to identify any other sounds.
Devin? Nora?
Jo crept toward a particularly dilapidated cabin on the far edge of the clearing behind the main cabins along the lake.
A branch snapped in the darkness.
Someone—something—was up there with her.
She waited for a few minutes in the darkness, listening, peering up into the trees for any sign of movement. But animal or human, whatever was out there didn’t make a sound.
Or was gone, she thought, giving up.
Without a flashlight, she didn’t investigate further and walked back down to her cabin. When she opened the rickety door, she knew instantly someone had been in there. None of the cabins had decent locks and hers apparently hadn’t caught when she’d left earlier in the day.
She switched on the dull overhead and scanned the room. Everything appeared to be intact. The lilies Charlie had sent her were still in the middle of the table. Her exercise clothes from her morning run were still on the bed. Her old coffee cup was still in the sink.
But she smelled…something. Not cologne or soap. She couldn’t place it.
Then she recognized what it was. Stirred-up dust. Whoever had been there had gone into places she hadn’t yet.
Bats?
She pulled open the utility closet by the kitchen area.
No bombs.
What was she thinking? She’d probably just interrupted some kids looking for a place to party who panicked and ran when they realized the cabin was already occupied.
Telling herself she was being thorough not paranoid, Jo grabbed a flashlight