Page 8 of Snow River

“Yeah, I’ll wait.Who’s coming?”

“Probably Cromwell, he’s closest.Turner if he finishes up a burglary in time.”

Bear let out a silent sigh.He knew all the police in the area, the Blackbear PD, tribal police, and Alaska State Troopers.Firelight Ridge itself didn’t have any law officers, and people tended to treat him as if he was one, just because he had his finger on the pulse of the town.

But only Cromwell knew that he actuallyhadbeen an officer himself, before things had gone wrong.Cromwell loved rubbing that old nightmare in his face.

He ended the call and scrambled back down the embankment.He wouldn’t be able to fend off wildlife from inside a truck.Hunkering down on a long cedar driftwood log, he settled down to wait.

Interesting coincidence that Lila had parked up at that overlook while there was a dead body washed up on shore a few dozen feet below her.And another thing—why hadn’t she noticed?

5

“They’re saying she was murdered.”Molly Evans stepped barefoot into the glassed-in deck at Sam’s house.Sam was staying overnight in Blackbear, where he tended to pick up all the hottest news.She’d just gotten off the phone with him, while Ani and Charlie and Lila set out bowls of popcorn and a pitcher of margaritas.

Girls’ night had just taken a very dark turn.

Lila curled her legs under her on the love seat.Normally she loved this deck, especially this time of year, when the cottonwoods lost their leaves and you could see all the way through the bare branches to the mountains.

But murder…somehow the word made the gray sky look even more ominous.

“What else did he say?”Charlie set down a roll of paper towels that would serve as napkins.

“Just that she hasn’t been identified yet.They’re trying to figure out who it is, but she doesn’t seem to be a local.”

“How do they know it was murder?”Ani asked.Ever since she’d divorced John Walsh and gotten together with Gil, she had a look about her that her friends hadn’t seen in many years—relaxed and content.“Couldn’t it just be a drowning?”

“No, because they found a knife wound in her back,” Molly explained.“That’s not what killed her, but it’s probably what sent her into the river.Then she drowned.”

Images flooded through Lila’s mind.A woman stumbling through the woods.A knife hurtling through the air, ripping into her back.Pain, panic…rushing water… white water.

She shuddered and blinked them away.It was just her imagination.This was Firelight Ridge, where her intuitive ability was dampened.She wasn’t picking upactualimages of what had happened.It was just her mind filling in the blanks.“So sad,” she murmured.“I’m glad it wasn’t anyone we know.We’ve had enough drama around here.”

Charlie quirked a smile at her as she plopped onto a cushion on the floor, her long blond ponytail swinging behind her.“I love how you talk like an old-timer.”

“I’ve been here longer than anyone in this room,” Lila pointed out, making everyone laugh.But it was true.After she’d come to Firelight Ridge, Molly had come looking for her, and then Charlie and Ani had shown up to help in various moments of crisis.But Lila had been the trailblazer, and she took pride in that.

“No arguing with that.”Molly chuckled as she poured out margaritas from the pitcher.“Okay then, old-timer.You tell us.Is it common around here for murder victims to float down the river?”

“Don’t they usually show up in the spring after being frozen in the snow all winter?”Charlie lowered her voice for more drama.“Sometimes nibbled at by wild animals?”

“How did this conversation get so gruesome?”Looking distressed, but still stunning, Ani accepted a margarita from Molly.Ani and Gil were still deciding if they were going to stay for the winter, and Lila didn’t want to scare her off with gory details.

“Our murder rate is very low here,” she assured her friend.“It’s much more likely that you’d get buried by an avalanche or chased by a bear or…” Realizing that was the wrong tactic, she smoothly shifted gears.“Or have a nice peaceful winter reading by a cozy fire while watching the snow gently fall through the spruce trees.”

The others cracked up.

“You should have told us you got a job with the tourism bureau,” joked Molly.“How are you going to describe The Fang?Upscale dining at one of Firelight Ridge’s most iconic establishments?”

Lila made a face at her.“Itisiconic.Besides, you’re going to see for yourself that I’m right.”

Molly and Sam had decided to spend the winter here, even though Sam’s secret surveillance job was technically over.Molly felt she had unfinished business with the Chilkoot children and their legal status, and once she took on a mission, she never abandoned it.

“I’m very much looking forward to that, although I’m also keenly interested in the murder possibilities.How about that murder spree here back in the eighties?I’ve heard it mentioned a few times, but I still don’t know the details.”

That incident had been on Lila’s mind ever since the dream she’d had a couple of weeks ago.“I hate that phrase, murder spree.It makes it sound like Spring Break or something, like a fun thing.A horrible, vengeful man snapped and decided to take his frustrations out on a bunch of his own fellow townspeople.That’s just a terrible situation.”

“So you do know the details.”Charlie licked salt off the rim of her glass, her eyes wide with interest.“I asked April to tell me the story, but she refuses to talk about it.She says it was a black mark on Firelight Ridge and bad for business.”

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