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When she didn’t say anything, he cursed softly. “Hello? Did you hear me—”
A dim porch light flared to life, and a second later, the front door opened. Sheriff Eastwind stepped out onto his stoop while in the process of wrapping a navy bathrobe around himself. The way he tied the thing with a jab of his hand was the extent of any annoyance that a vehicle had shown up on his property at—
Absently, Daniel glanced at the dash. Midnight. Past midnight.
Lydia popped her door and looked back. “Trust me.”
Like his plan had been better? he reminded himself. “Roger that.”
Daniel got out as well, and he hated that he took his cane with him. Helping Phalen had cost him, but he refused to give in to the aching.
By way of distraction—and also because he now had a gun in the center pocket of his sweatshirt—he focused on Eastwind. The sheriff was standing calmly as his visitors approached, like people disturbing him at strange hours was something that happened often.
“Long time no see,” the man said as he moved his thick braid of black hair back over his shoulder.
“Sorry we’re here so late.” Lydia waited for Daniel to join her before walking up the steps. “But it couldn’t wait.”
“Okay.”
As they reached the porch, Eastwind stepped aside. “It’s cold out. C’mon in.”
“Thanks.” Lydia slipped by him. “We appreciate it.”
When Daniel went to step inside, Eastwind’s dark eyes did an up-and-down. “How we doin’?”
Daniel offered his hand for a shake. “Fine and dandy. You?”
There was a curt incline of the head, and then what was offered was shaken. Like the guy was perfectly prepared to drop the subject of exactly how not fine-and-dandy Daniel obviously was.
“Yup,” the sheriff said. “Good.”
And then they were in a living room that had almost no furniture, but an incredible collection of Native American blankets hanging on the walls. The handwoven masterpieces were secured at the tops with padded holders, and the saturated colors of red and blue and yellow, as well as the geometric patterns, were a feast for the eyes.
“So what’ve we got going on,” Eastwind said as he lumbered over to an easy chair and let himself fall into the thing like it was a baseball glove made specifically for the contours of his ass.
“Do you mind if I sit?” Daniel said as he glanced at the sofa.
“G’head.” Eastwind reached down and pulled a lever so that a padded leg support popped up under his calves. “Sorry, Lydia, you’re going to have to share with your man. I don’t have houseguests ever, so I don’t need any other chairs. Come to think of it, I don’t need that couch, either, but I guess I’m too cheap to throw it out.”
This was all said like he wished the pair of them had adhered to his no-houseguest rule, but he wasn’t going to be rude about it. And as Daniel lowered himself onto the sofa, the sheriff linked his hands,settled them over the lapels of his fleece robe, and let his head ease back against the rest. Like the guy could go to sleep in the chair perfectly happily.
Or maybe he was just wishing he was still upstairs in his bed.
“We need your help.” Lydia began pacing around the braided-rug area. “And before I tell you everything, I need you to—”
“I don’t know where your scientist is.”
She stopped dead. Pivoted slowly to the sheriff. “How did you know Gus was gone?” When Eastwind just shrugged, she cursed. “Not good enough. How?”
“Your grandfather ever teach you not to sass your elders? And I told you way before, nothing happens on the mountain without me knowing it.”
“You can help us,” she said urgently. “If you know he’s gone, you know even more—”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You don’t have to. C.P. Phalen’s house is a vault, and the abduction happened in Plattsburgh. If you know about it at all, you—”
“Maybe I just saw a lineup of SUVs with blacked-out windows speeding onto the Northway, one after the other, while I was sitting in the bushes looking for people going eighty in a sixty-five. Phalen’s Fleet is what we call them at HQ. And you’re right, they were headed to Plattsburgh, and that doctor of yours lives there. He told mehimself when I was allowed to come see you, before the chemo crashed your man’s immunity and he couldn’t have any more visitors.”
