Page 12 of Fire Peak

When she finally reached the parking garage, she felt a flash of panic that she’d forgotten to bring Molly’s keys in her rush to pack. But nope, there they were in the bottom of the cross-body bag zipped under her jacket. She knew they were Molly’s not only because of the BMW logo on the fob, but because Molly had added an I Love Lucy keychain—one of her favorite redheads.

The relief of slipping into Molly’s expensive car was indescribable. Not just because the BMW felt safe, but because it was Molly’s. Charlie trusted and respected Molly more than almost anyone on this earth. She felt that way about all her friends. Ani was a doctor and even though she was a pediatrician, Charlie would trust her with any medical issue that came up. Lila had that eerie intuition that had saved all their lives when they were teenagers.

But Molly…Molly was smart and extremely capable and relentlessly loyal to her friends. If she ever found out the truth about Charlie, she’d probably yell at her for a bit, then busy herself with figuring out how to help her. One reason Charlie had never told Molly about her hacking was that she was a lawyer, and Charlie didn’t want to implicate her and get her in trouble.

Taking her car on the run might do exactly that…but it wasn’t as if she was running from an arrest warrant or a subpoena or something official like that. If Nick was trying to arrest her, he would have done it already. There would have been sirens and police cars and handcuffs and Miranda rights and all that sort of thing.

Something else was going on, but she wasn’t going to wait around to find out what.

She carefully extracted the goldfish tank from her messenger bag and strapped it into the passenger seat. “I guess we’re still stuck with each other,” she told the fish. “Are you hungry?”

Assuming the answer was yes, she pried open the tank’s lid and sprinkled in some fish food. Goldilocks darted from one crumb to another, a blur of copper-red iridescence with an elegant feathery fin and tail. “Should we wait here for a bit and take a nap, or hit the road before anyone catches on?”

Goldilocks swam in a busy circle around the tank, then dove to the bottom and disappeared under her little castle.

“Run and hide, is that what you’re saying?” Charlie rubbed her tired eyes and laughed. “Look at me, hoping a fish will tell me what to do. I must be desperate. The thing is, Goldilocks, I’m just a hacker. I don’t know any other criminals and I don’t know how criminals do things. Maybe I should have taken an extension course. ‘Criming 101, How to Skirt the Law and Not Get Caught.’ Do you think someone teaches that?”

Nothing but silence from the fish tank. She sighed. “I know I shouldn’t talk to a fish, but like it or not, you’re my only companion until we get to Firelight Ridge.”

She pressed the BMW’s start button and its high-performance engine purred to life.

“Well, hello.” She patted the dashboard. “I guess we have another companion. Welcome to the crazy, Red. I hope you’re ready to rock and roll.”

6

Nick knew the exact moment when Charlie figured out she was being followed. He had no doubt that she’d also figured out it was him. But it probably didn’t matter. There was no way out once she reached Firelight Ridge. That was literally the end of the road for her escape from Hobbs Financial Services. She was smart and elusive, but she wasn’t a shapeshifter.

Charlie had done well, for someone with no experience in evasion techniques. He’d give her that. But he was a pro, so it was no real contest. The tracker he’d put on her old Buick told him she was headed for New York. He’d done the same, only to find her Buick abandoned by the Hudson River.

Temporary setback. All he had to do was figure out where she was headed and wait there for her. From his research into Charlie’s background, he knew she had a friend in New York named Molly Evans who owned a red BMW. He soon discovered that Molly was subletting her apartment.

“I have no idea when she’s coming back,” her chatty tenant had confided over an overpriced Lemon Drop. “I mean, she went to Alaska, it’s like a different planet. Isn’t it always winter there, like Narnia? And you have to take dog sleds to get anywhere?”

“I’ve been meaning to take my daughter for a trip somewhere. Maybe we’ll try Alaska. What part is Molly in?”

“Some little town in the mountains near a mine, that’s all I know. Not a diamond mine, something more boring.”

From those tidbits, he’d zeroed in on Firelight Ridge. A canvass of the parking garages near Molly Evans’ place told him a red BMW convertible had been driven away two days earlier, and hadn’t yet returned.

Bingo.

So she was driving all the way to Alaska. Badass move. That could take up to ten days. He wouldn’t mind a road trip like that, but he had to make sure he got there before her. So he flew. Into a world of endless snowy peaks sliding past his window seat. Of all the cases he’d worked, this was the first one to take him to Alaska.

He wasn’t mad about it. The place took his breath away.

In Anchorage, he bought a rig that looked very much like a law enforcement vehicle. He didn’t take a chance on going all the way to Firelight Ridge in case her friends knew she was coming and alerted her that a stranger was looking for her. Instead, he chose a spot in the tiny village of Klutna and waited patiently for a red convertible to roll past the turnoff to Firelight Ridge.

The stakeout took two days; Charlie had made good time in her journey through Canada. Time to close the trap and complete his mission.

As a private investigator, Nick generally worked closely with law enforcement, and he knew where the boundaries were when it came to “impersonating an officer.” He never claimed to be the police, and he never showed a badge. He just gave off a certain vibe, and it generally did the trick.

But with the residents of Firelight Ridge, not so much.

Somehow, between the moment Charlie stepped out of the BMW and he pulled up behind her, she’d disappeared. No tall, stunning blond to be seen anywhere in the vicinity; and she wasn’t someone you could miss.

“Where’s the owner of this vehicle?” he demanded. The group of about twenty people were clustered around a big yellow D9 bulldozer adorned with wildflowers. Okay then…Alaska weirdness, right off the bat.

A woman with dark red hair stepped forward. “That’s me. Is there a problem?” A tall man joined her, making it clear he had her back. Not that she needed it; this must be Molly Evans. Brilliant lawyer, smart as hell. He’d have to try to throw her off her game.

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