Page 57 of Fire Peak

Oh, it definitely rang a bell. A loud one, judging by the tremor that went through April’s body. “A long time ago, there was someone named Vasily here.”

“Well, I think he might be back.”

“So what if he is? Why is that your business?”

Charlie wanted to scream from frustration. “Something’s going on around here, and you’re keeping it to yourself and it’s getting dangerous! I just got shot with a damn arrow.”

April pushed past her and stuck the tulip stems in the vase she kept on the desk. “Maybe you were poking around where you don’t belong.”

So much for sympathy from her boss.

“Well, I probably was. And I’m probably going to keep doing it. So you’d better just tell me something. Tell me about Bulldog. Who was he? What happened to him?”

For a moment, she thought April’s head might explode from sheer astonishment. Fortunately, that did not happen. “Will you go back to bed if I tell you?”

Charlie held up a hand to seal the promise. “Yes, ma’am.”

April poured some water from a plastic bottle into the vase of tulips, then arranged them in a more harmonious way. “Bulldog was my…boyfriend. Lover. We came to Alaska together as an adventure. He was…killed three winters later. Don’t ask me who did it, I don’t know.”

“You must know his real name if you came here together.”

“Of course I do.”

So why hadn’t she told the police? Charlie stopped herself before she posed that question, and instead asked something more open-ended. “What was he like?”

A faraway expression came over April’s face. “He was very idealistic. He was drawn to lost causes. He loved exploring the wilderness. He was young, as was I. He was barely twenty-one when we came here. We wanted something different from the world we grew up in. So stifling, so materialistic. We saw ourselves as rebels.”

So Bulldog came from a wealthy family too. She wondered why April didn’t want to say his real name. She must have at least told his family; maybe they didn’t want the public attention that went with a police investigation.

“You must have been heartbroken when he was killed,” Charlie said softly.

April’s gaze shifted back to her and turned wary. “So?”

“Well…sometimes when something traumatic like that happens, people need to get away. Like my mother did after my father went to prison. So what made you decide to stay here without him? That’s when you built all this, right? After Bulldog died?” She waved her arms, indicating the lodge in general.

April shook her head, then shooed her toward the door. “I said I’d tell you about Bulldog and I did. Now back to bed with you.”

With a sigh, Charlie obeyed and limped out of the office. The back of her thigh was burning. Was it supposed to be hurting this much?

She shut herself into the shared bathroom and angled herself in front of the mirror so she could see her wound. Peeling away the bandage, she saw that it didn’t look infected. That burning sensation…maybe that was just how arrow wounds felt.

Yawning, she decided a nap wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, and headed back to her room.

25

After leaving a message for Mark Jones, Nick drove Hailey back into town.

“How are you holding up, kiddo? That was a lot, yesterday.”

“In. Sane. So nuts. So much more than I ever imagined. But I’m okay.” But he got the sense that wasn’t completely true, so he held his tongue until she spoke again. “You know how the four-wheelers’ tires were cut?”

“Yeah? Do you know something about it?”

“I think I saw who did it. He was in the woods. At first I thought it was a yeti or something. Then I saw it was a big man wearing a fur coat, but not like, a fancy one.”

“A fur coat? In June? Maybe you saw a bear.”

“That’s what Elias said too. But I’m pretty sure I saw his hair too. It was gray, and pretty long. Do bears have gray hair?”

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