Cold River - Carla Neggers [20]
“To visit, at least. Everyone likes Southern California to visit.”
“I hope Toby likes it,” she said in a half whisper, but knew she couldn’t let that line of thinking take hold.
She paused, looking out at the snow and the mix of evergreens and hardwood trees, really feeling the cold now. She knew Sean wasn’t going to leave her to head back alone. Never mind his questions about her motives for coming up here, his father had died on this part of the mountain.
She turned to him, her ski pole striking a rock or ice under the snow. “Since I’m on Cameron land, I suppose I should do as you suggest and go back with you.”
Sean tilted back his head but said nothing, and she followed her tracks back through the cluster of spruce trees. A rabbit scampered in front of her, then disappeared under drooping, snow-covered branches as Sean came up next to her.
Hannah glanced up at him. “Being here can’t be easy for you,” she said quietly.
“It isn’t.”
“You and your brothers and sister have enough on your minds without beating yourselves up because your father didn’t come to you for help.”
“He wanted the cabin to be a surprise,” Sean said. “We get that.”
Hannah angled a look up at him. “I don’t mean just with the cabin. He went to Washington two weeks before his death to talk to Alex Bruni. I hear investigators speculate at the café, and I’ve talked to enough of them myself. They believe whatever your father discussed with Ambassador Bruni ultimately got them targeted by these killers. Whatever it was, neither of them realized it was incendiary at the time, or they’d have gone to the police.”
“It was enough for my father to drive to D.C.”
“But it wasn’t enough for Bruni not to blow him off. Nora doesn’t know what they talked about, but she says her stepfather wasn’t very nice to your father. It wasn’t until she started asking questions about Melanie Kendall that he took another look at what Drew had told him that day back in April.” Hannah stared down at the twisting trail the rabbit had left behind before scurrying out of sight. “Then he was killed.”
Sean was very still next to her. “You’ll make a good prosecutor.”
“Your father wasn’t protecting you,” she said. “He would have protected you, but he wasn’t. You know what kind of man he was. He went to Alex Bruni because he thought that’s where he could get the answers he was looking for. He saw Jo in D.C., too, and didn’t say a word to her about what was on his mind.”
A sudden wind blew down from the summit and cut through her thin jacket and layers. Sean didn’t seem to notice. “Bowie was in jail in April,” he said.
She pretended she hadn’t heard him and pushed off through the snow, following his tracks when they diverged from hers. She came to the steep trail down to the old logging road. Fine snow blew off a six-foot rock outcropping next to her. The wind was steady now, harsh, numbing her face. She lifted her jacket collar to better cover her chin and mouth.
Sean pulled off his gray wool scarf and handed it to her. “Take it,” he said. “I don’t need it. We can finish this discussion later.”
Hannah didn’t argue. The scarf was soft and still warm from him. She draped it around her neck, pulled it up over her mouth and nose, wishing suddenly that she hadn’t come up here at all. She thought of Bowie standing out at the old cellar hole on the river when she and Drew had traipsed through the snow and mud to find him. Had Bowie already been up to see the old cellar hole Drew had found? Had the two men already talked about the work involved in rebuilding an old foundation?
Hannah plunged down the steep trail, knowing Sean would be right behind her if she tripped—or if she decided to tell him her real reasons for finally hiking up to see his father’s cabin.
Six
Sean had his hood off and his jacket unzipped even before the heat in Elijah’s truck kicked in. Hannah had already unwound his scarf from her neck, letting it dangle down her front. She sat stiffly next to him, her eyes pinned straight ahead as if she were trying to pretend