Page 71 of Snow River

“Oh no, we were always just friends.Gwen was shy, but she had very close friends of the male persuasion.”

Lila wondered if she meant Paul Anthony Bowman, but didn’t want to upset her again by saying his name.

“What about Nancy?Who was she hooking up with?”

“Nancy…Nancy was a wild one.Everyone knew not to mess with her.Men tried it all the time.She was very beautiful, but she didn’t want a man around full-time.Especially after—” She snapped her mouth shut.

“With…” Lila prompted.

“You should get out of here.I can’t talk about Nancy.”

Another friend that she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—talk about.

She pulled the red silk bookmark from her coat pocket and laid it on the table.“Did Nancy happen to keep a diary?”

Paulina gave another fearful look around her place.Lila couldn’t imagine where she thought an eavesdropper would be hiding.She lowered her voice.“Where did you find that?”

“Bear found it.Is it hers?Is this her handwriting?”

After peering at it for a long moment, Paulina gave a grudging nod.“Could be.Hang on.”

She got to her feet and went to a small escritoire that held a jumble of papers.She came back with a card from a long-ago Christmas.“Nancy gave this to me.You can compare it.”

To Lila’s eye, it was the same handwriting.“Did she keep a journal?”

A massive struggle seemed to take place within Paulina.Finally, she practically whispered, “Yes.All her life.She said she had them all in a storage locker in Anchorage, except the one she was working in.”

A thrill of excitement shivered down Lila’s spine.They were getting closer.“So this bookmark could have come from that journal.Do you know where the rest of it could be?”

Paulina shook her head.“She probably took it with her when she left.”

“When was that?After the shootings?”

More inward struggling from the artist.Lila felt bad putting her through this, but she was so close to something important.She could feel it.“Nancy left before the shootings.”

“Really?Why did she leave?”

“She was scared.Ever since she came back from Snow River, she was…jumpy, I guess you’d say.She was pregnant too.”

Lila drew in a sharp breath.“She got pregnant at Snow River?”

“I don’t know where.But something happened out there that scared her.Allison knew all about it, maybe Gwen too, but I was wrapped up in my first big commission and I didn’t see them much.Nancy left, and then the next day, Allison was dead at the airstrip and the whole town was shut down so they could hunt for who did it.After a few days I skied out toward Gwen’s, and…you know what happened after that.”

“Do you know who the father of Nancy’s baby was?”

The artist shook her head.“She wouldn’t tell us.There were always men drooling after her.”

“Why didn’t she want to tell her closest friends?”

“Do you tell your friends everything?”Paulina gave her a pointed look, then smiled smugly when Lila shook her head.She hadn’t even told her friends that she was sleeping in Bear’s bed every other night.There hadn’t been time.But none of them would be surprised.

She changed tacks.“What do you know about the place in Snow River where Nancy was cooking?”

“Those wacky men’s retreats?I don’t know much, but some well-known people went to those retreats.They cost a mint.”

“Did you ever go out there?”

“Hell no.Nancy asked if I wanted to help out, make some easy money.But I’d just sold my first painting and I was on fire to do more.Glad I didn’t, too, because when she came back…like I said, she was different.Scared.”She shuddered.“I tried to put all that behind me.We all did.”

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