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Mark is in midair, and Dalton and Anders are already running. They’re off to the left, about fifty feet from where Mark is jumping. If he manages his jump and runs on an angle, he might actually get away.
He does manage the jump. He lands on the softer slope… and one foot slides. He tries to correct fast, and his other footflies out and he slams to the side, head cracking against the rock face he just cleared. He crumples and starts sliding down the slope.
I spin, lower myself fast, grab the edge, and hang off it for a second before dropping. I hit that softer ground, but my feet also slide, and I’m scrambling, fingers grabbing at the slope in panic… before I realize I’m basically surfing down on my stomach.
I let myself slide, and then I’m on my feet, and I would be running, if my entire body weren’t screaming in protest. Fortunately, Anders has already reached Mark.
Dalton races beside me, grabs my elbow, and steadies me.
“Fell earlier,” I say, wincing. “Hurts.”
“Do I want to know how far you fell?”
“No.”
He shakes his head and helps me to Mark, who lies on the ground. I’m about to ask if he’s all right. Then I see the angle of his neck, and I slow down.
Anders looks over, meets my gaze, and shakes his head.
Mark is dead. Broke his neck with that crack to the head. It hadn’t seemed hard enough to kill, but he’d hit at just the right angle. A freak accident… not unlike the one that killed Bruno, so I guess there’s some justice in that.
Mark got what he wanted… even if, in the end, I think he decided he didn’t actually want that at all.
CHAPTER FORTY
We get Mark’s body back to Haven’s Rock. Or close enough to it that we can sneak it in and hide it with Denise’s under the clinic. Again, there’s justice in that, his body ending up in the same place as the wife he murdered.
I let Dalton and Yolanda look after Mark while Anders and I take care of Gunnar. He’ll be fine, though he’s going to be laid up for a few days. It’s nearly dawn before we have him in the clinic bed, April taking over.
I’m preparing the instrument tray while April talks to Anders on the back porch.
“So I guess I get to stay now, huh?” Gunnar says.
“At least until you’re back on your feet,” I say.
“Oh, I think I can still help out after that. I’m a helpful guy, right?”
“You almost got killed following a murderer into the forest.”
“Which helped you catch him. If not for me, who knows what he’d have done next. I took a bullet for you guys.”
“Fine. If April clears you to work, you can stay until the end.”
“How about after that?”
I stop with a stack of gauze in hand.
Before I can speak, he says, “We can talk about it later, and don’t worry, I won’t resort to blackmail by reminding you that I know a whole lotta things you’d like kept secret.”
“You just reminded me.”
“But I said I won’t use it as blackmail.”
“By bringing it up, paired with a demand, you’re—” I shake it off. “We’ll talk later.”
He smiles. “I know we will.”
Later that morning, a plane lands. April and I are out there to meet it. It touches down, and the doors open. A woman appears. She’s in her mid-forties and glamorous even in hiking boots, jeans, and a jersey. She has light brown skin, silver-streaked hair, and a pinup’s figure. Isabel, first off the plane, naturally.
