Page 82 of Fire Peak

April cocked her head, looking wary but not especially alarmed.

“Nick got attacked last night over a photo of, well…of Chadwick Tudor. That’s Bulldog, right?”

Although April showed no visible reaction, Nick noticed that she gripped that trowel so tightly her knuckles went white.

“It was the Chechen guy, one of the ones shooting arrows at us,” Charlie continued. “But Nick and I…well, we’ve come to the conclusion that we’re just collateral damage here. They’re after you.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “I can handle myself.”

Ever the tough Alaskan.

“April, if they’re blackmailing you for that perilium?—”

Finally, a reaction. “What do you know about that?” She pulled herself upright and even though she was barely five feet tall, Nick felt the power of her will. She didn’t need a weapon or the trowel she still held, or any such prop. All on her own, she was a force to be reckoned with.

Charlie shot a glance at Nick, maybe wondering how much they should reveal.

“We know there’s some of it around, probably on Fire Peak land,” he said.

“No one is going to build a mine here. Some of the richest people in the world have spent time at this lodge. It’s the most exclusive spot in the Wrangells.”

“Wait a minute here…” Charlie narrowed her eyes at her short-but-mighty boss. “Now it all makes sense to me.”

April scratched the side of her head with the trowel. Nick gave her extra points for Alaska style. “What are you talking about?”

“You knew there was a potentially valuable mineral here, but you didn’t want it to be mined. You didn’t want history to repeat itself. That’s why you built this lodge the way you did, so expensive and upscale. It couldn’t be just an average inn or B&B. You know your people, you know what they like. The more high-end something is, the more untouchable it is. Once you get the upper-crust involved, it’s the whole NIMBY thing. Not in my backyard. That’s why you stuck around here and built the lodge, even though you don’t even like all those one-percenter guests.”

April punched a finger toward Charlie’s face. Nick stiffened, ready to intervene, but she didn’t make contact.

“Yes, that’s why I built it. So what?”

“Don’t you see the irony?” Charlie gave her a rueful smile. “You did what the Whitfields always do, parachute in, stake your claim, keep all the profit for yourself.”

April’s face turned a slow, deep red. “I’m nothing like those vultures,” she spat. “I’m trying to preserve this place.”

“But someone wants to develop a mine, don’t they?” Charlie took a half-step toward her. “They’re threatening you. They’ve been spying on you, planting listening devices. Throwing smoke bombs. They’re turning up the pressure on you. It’s Vasily, isn’t it? He has some kind of hold over you.”

Finally, April looked flustered. “I…no, no. Just stop.”

Nick bit his tongue so as not to interrupt. Charlie was on a roll here, and he didn’t want to stop her flow. Go for the jugular…do it…

“Vasily was here back in the old days, right? Was he a friend? Lover? Did he know about the perilium?”

April stared stonily at her and gave no answer.

Nick dug around in his pocket for the notarized agreement between Chadwick and Vasily. He handed it to Charlie, who presented it to April. “Looks like he knew there was some valuable mineral in Fire Peak. Now he wants his share.”

April tried to snatch the document from Charlie, but she held it out of reach, then handed it back to Nick.

“Where did you find that?” the older woman asked in a thread of a voice.

Charlie held firm. “Tell me who Vasily is.”

“He…he was Bulldog’s friend. They hunted elk together. Fished, sometimes.”

“Have you seen him?”

“No.”

---