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Someone shoves him aside. A man moves into the opening. He’s red-haired, maybe forty, and dressed in pajama bottoms.
“Excuse this idiot. He’s been in the woods a bit too long.” He looks at the other man. “This is one of the people who came to search for Penny and Bruno.” He turns back to me. “You’re staying in the executive retreat, right?”
“The…?”
He makes a face. “Sorry, I mean the place outside town. Is everything okay?”
“I need to speak to Yolanda. Where does she sleep?”
“Women’s residence.” He grabs a jacket from the darkness. “I’ll run you over.”
I don’t get the guy’s name. He can tell it’s urgent, and he doesn’t stop for introductions. A minute later, we’re in the women’s residence, where Yolanda is sleeping in a regular room, like everyone else. My escort disappears with a murmur, and I wait in the hall until Yolanda appears in sweats and a head wrap.
I wave her outside before I say, “We found Bruno. He’s alive but injured. They’re bringing him back—Eric and Pierre. I’m going to need your sat phone again so I can call my sister.”
She nods and leads me to the town hall, where her sat phone is locked in the small safe under the desk. As she opens it, she rattles off the combination and says, “You’re welcome to use the phone, obviously. There’s also a gun in there. That’s mine, and I would prefer you didn’t use that.”
“There’s a gun locker,” I say. “It should have a rifle and a shotgun for animal control problems. I believe you have a few hunters on staff to deal with that.”
“Yes, Kendra and a couple of others.”
As she opens the locker door, I catch a glimpse of her gun. It’s a Glock. I say, carefully, “I understand you might feel safer in the forest with that. I carry one myself. But it’s not going to stop a grizzly, not unless you hit it just right.”
“I know.”
She takes out the phone and hands it to me. “How bad are Bruno’s injuries?”
“Bad enough that I’m bringing April in. I’ll need to consult with Émilie to get her on a flight.”
I brace for the argument that’s sure to come.
“Understood,” she says. “No need to bother my grandmother. I will make the arrangements.”
“Thank you,” I say, but there must be a note of trepidation in my voice, because Yolanda glances up.
“There won’t be a sudden emergency requiring the plane and preventing her from arriving,” she says. “Thisis the emergency. One of my crew is seriously injured, and another is out there and could be seriously injured when she’s found. Whatever my feelings on the bullshit you’re pulling with this town, I’m bringing your sister because it’s the right thing to do for my crew.”
“Bullshit?”
She rises. “Let’s get this out of the way. You’re preying on my grandmother. I can’t say that to her because she’d tell me she’snot some little old lady falling into dementia, giving money to a nice woman on the phone. Absolutely true. But Gran has one weakness, and it was Rockton, and now it’s this town that’s supposed to replace it.”
“We’re not conning your grandmother. I sunk my inheritance into this place, as did my sister.”
“And, as someone who also comes from money—so much fucking money—I know that’s not the same as sinking in your own life savings. Two possibilities here. Either you’ve invested your inheritance in a long con, or you’re idiots, thinking you can succeed where others—my brilliant grandparents included—failed.”
“We aren’t conning anyone.”
“Then you’re idealistic idiots?”
“Never claimed otherwise.”
She shakes her head. “You know that’s worse, right?”
“Maybe so, but I’m not the one who set aside three months of her life to build a town for people she thinks are cheating her grandmother.”
“Oh, I’m not building it for you. I’m building it for her, because she’s a scary bitch, and I am too chickenshit to tell her no. Also, because she’s eighty-five years old, and I love her to death, and I am not stomping on this dream. It’s for her. It’s all for her. And if you do anything—anything—to fuck it up, intentionally or not, I will come for you.”
“Noted. For now”—I hand her back the phone—“my sister needs someone coming forher.Can you please arrange pickup, and then I’ll make the call.”
