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“So why were you in the forest?”
“That’d be my business.”
“Not during an investigation into one missing crew member, one badly injured crew member, and one dead stranger.”
“I had nothing to do with any of that.”
“Am I supposed to just take you at your word?”
“I don’t know what choice you have,” she says. “You aren’t actually law enforcement here. This isn’t actually a public investigation. It’s a private one, and as a private citizen who is not in any way under your control—having signed nothing to that effect—I don’t have to answer your questions. I will, if I choose, but otherwise…”
She shrugs before continuing, “If you want to make an issue of it, then you only have one card to play. Threaten to throw me off your property. Which, technically, is notyourproperty, but we won’t get into that. You can threaten to expel me, before the job is done, and maybe I’ll cave and maybe I won’t. If I don’t, that means I walk away, taking my crew with me.”
“That’s how you’re going to play this?”
“It is.”
“Then you become my primary suspect. You’re lying about not seeing Penny follow you. You know what happened to her. You might even be responsible for it.”
“No to all of the above. But feel free to make me your primary suspect out of spite.”
“It’s not spite. It’s logic. You wouldn’t block me if you had an innocent explanation. Ergo you must be responsible for what happened to one of those three people.”
“Or maybe I have an explanation, and I’m just letting you know where you stand, in case you start thinking you have any authority over me.”
I’m about to answer when a plane buzzes in the distance.
“I need two people watching Bruno,” I say. “And if you tell me to find them myself, then yes, I will call your bluff, becauseright now, I’m thinking I’d be a lot happier if you and your crew walked off this job and took the problem of Bruno and Penny with you.”
I walk out before she has a chance to reply.
By the time I get outside, the plane is already visible. I set off at a jog for the hangar, and I reach it just as the little bush plane is touching down on the lake. It taxis in and stops outside the hangar. As when we arrived, the pilot stays on board. A side door opens, and April appears. She’s a few inches taller than me, with the same heart-shaped face and dark straight hair. Her skin is lighter than mine, and she inherited Dad’s blue eyes rather than Mom’s brown ones.
I grab for her bag, expecting her to shoo me off, but she lets me have it… mostly because she has two more inside. I get the small piece of personal luggage. She hefts a box that looks as if it contains fifty pounds of medical equipment. Then she turns and hands it to someone else inside the dark plane. I can’t see the third party, and before I can wonder who it is, April is walking out with yet another box.
“Packed light, I see,” I say.
“Oh, she actually did,” says a voice behind her. “She tried to bring two more boxes, and when we told her no, she tried bargaining to take one and leave her personal luggage instead.”
The other passenger descends the stairs with two of April’s boxes.
“Good to see you,” I say as I embrace him. “Nice job, stowaway.”
“The pilot never even noticed me.”
I have to laugh at that. It is impossible not to notice WillAnders. Our deputy is a six-foot-two Black man with a build to rival Gunnar’s. He’s also gorgeous, with a military-short buzz cut and a black-inked US Army tattoo on one bulging biceps. He sets the boxes down to envelop me in a bear hug, lifting me off my feet.
“Been a while,” I say. He hadn’t been around when we left, having been spending time with his sister and her family. “You’re back early.”
“Got antsy. The kids are great. My sister and her husband are great. I just started going stir-crazy back in the burbs. Since this isn’t Rockton, I’m allowed to actually leave and see them every now and then, so we agreed I should get my ass back here and help prepare.”
The pilot calls something about wanting to leave, which Anders takes as the cue to grab his backpack. Then we all clear out of the way.
“There’s a cart in the hangar,” I say. “Those boxes look heavy, even for you.”
“They are,” he says. “April? Pass over that box and you can take my backpack…”
“This box contains sensitive and delicate equipment.”
