Page 39 of Fire Peak

Turned out, Big Eddie wasn’t the only one in town who held that view. Everywhere she went, people wanted to know about the smoke bomb incident, and all the conversations included Nick.

“So lucky there was a policeman who just happened to be having dinner,” said Kathy at the general store, where Charlie stopped in to pick up some tampons. “Imagine if he hadn’t been there. The entire place could have burned down. This is why I keep telling everyone we need an official fire station.”

“It was just smoke,” Charlie clarified as she dug out a handful of cash. “And he’s not a policeman.”

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” Kathy said wisely. As always, the tiny Filipino store owner wore a black puffer vest and bright pink lipstick.

“Yes, but the fire was inside the…never mind. I don’t know how it worked, but Nick is definitely not a police officer.”

“Then why did he help me figure out who was breaking into my storage shed?” Kathy took her ten-dollar bill and tucked it into the register.

“Who was breaking into your shed?”

“That’s confidential police business.” Kathy wagged a finger as she gave Charlie her change. “No Wi-Fi today?”

“No, I’m good, I don’t need any overpriced internet access today.” Charlie grabbed her tampons off the counter and tucked them into her bag.

“Nick gets free Wi-Fi for solving my crime,” Kathy called after her.

Charlie rolled her eyes. Nick Perini had apparently deluded the entire town into thinking he was a legitimate crime-solving detective type.

As the general store’s screen door swung closed behind her, she remembered that she’d intended to call her father today. She never seemed to find time up at the lodge, so she set aside time on her day off.

The Fang sometimes had working Wi-Fi. Plus, she could say hi to Lila.

She headed that direction, slipping on her sunglasses against the brilliant June sunshine. Would she ever get tired of the way the summer days stretched one into the other, barely dipping into twilight in between? Maybe she could come back here next summer, then the summer after that. Why not, especially if both Lila and Molly were here?

The sound of a throat being cleared brought her up short just outside the Caribou Grill. She found herself face to face with Gunnar, the Viking stud-muffin auto mechanic. He wore mechanic’s overalls over…well, nothing, as far as she could tell. Muscles bulged in every direction. Even the grease marks on his skin seemed artfully placed to emphasize his physique.

Sadly, Gunnar was frowning at her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were running from the police?”

“Excuse me?”

“That day you showed up in Molly’s BMW. You were running from the law.”

Charlie lost the last bit of her patience. “Nick is not the law! He’s just a guy. He’s not a police officer, not then and not now.”

Gunnar just shook his head at her. “Then why did he get hired to set up a security system at the airstrip?”

“I don’t know. Why does the airstrip need a security system? Did something happen?”

“New planes have been showing up, with pilots no one knows. That’s all. Couple of the long-timers got together and decided to install a camera.”

“Well, Nick can certainly handle that. But he’s not a cop, and I wasn’t running from the law, and anyway, where’s your outlaw spirit?”

New planes showing up…that was interesting. That might be worth mentioning to not-a-cop Nick.

By the time she got to The Fang, she’d lost count of the jobs Nick had apparently taken on since he’d arrived with his daughter. The man was booked and busy. He’d probably done nothing with the smoke bomb case, which meant she could gloat over how much more information she’d gathered than he had.

Smiling at that prospect, she slid onto a stool at the bar. Lila was busy pouring Martha her usual glass of sherry. As soon as she was done, she came over to Charlie to say hi.

Charlie saw right away that something was bothering Lila. “Uh oh, what’s happened?”

“It’s Ani.”

Instantly, Charlie forgot everything except her closest friend. She adored both Molly and Lila, but she and Ani were especially close because they both still lived in Indiana. In a way, the two of them were opposites. Ani had stayed in Barlow, married soon after high school, devoted herself to her husband and their dreams of having a family. Charlie had done none of that. But she still adored Ani. “What happened?”

“She filed for divorce.”

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