Page 82 of Cold as Hell

She doesn’t need to explain what that means. There’s a knownpredisposition for people of one race to misidentify people of another. While Émilie is white herself, she has biracial grandchildren. She might not have made that mistake, but she never saw pictures of Martin. She only received the passport photo of Jerome for her files.

“Plugging these holes comes later,” I say. “For now, Eric is outside calling Will and getting Marlon quietly put into custody. The cell, not the apartment.”

“Good.”

“Eric and I will, if we can, continue on to Whitehorse later.”

“Absolutely. Will can handle this. I will send a plane to pick up Jerome as soon as possible. Whether or not he killed Lynn, this is a clear violation of the agreement, and we can remove him. I will deal with any exposure threat he might present.”

“Good. You do that, and I’ll interview him from Whitehorse. I can have Will search his apartment and look for evidence that he’s responsible for Lynn’s death. So far, I don’t really have anything except the very strong feeling he lied about seeing someone escorting Lynn.”

“Someone who happened to physically resemble the person being framed. Right down to Marlon actually saying he thought itwasSebastian, in case you failed to make the connection.”

I stretch out on the bed and rub my stomach. “I know. But that’s not evidence. Neither is the lack of an alibi—most people don’t have them with the blizzard. I’ll have Will search after Marlon’s safely in custody. He can build a timeline for Marlon from talking to others. My concern right now is why Jerome is in Haven’s Rock instead of Martin… and what happened to Martin.”

She curses softly. “Of course. Martin would have needed todisappear. We monitor residents’ social media to be sure no one asks too many questions. We’d have noticed if he resurfaced.”

“There’s no sign of that. Also, I need to know more about Jerome Moyer. I’ve started searching, but he’s a ghost online, which is… troubling.”

“It is. All right. We’ve established that Marlon is Jerome. I’m going to stifle the urge to investigate how that happened. My focus is on getting Jerome out of Haven’s Rock. I’ll dispatch a plane to retrieve him. Are you all right with me setting my investigator on Jerome’s trail?”

“Yes. Whatever happened, it wasn’t the fault of their investigation. You do that, and I’ll do my own digging until we can leave for Whitehorse.”

I’m off the phone before Dalton returns, so I put on my outerwear. If we’ll be here for a while, I need a walk before I settle into more online searching.

I don’t see Dalton and Storm until I round the corner. Then I spot them near the rear of town, where it rises into forest.

Dalton has his back to me, and the phone to his ear. Before I make it to him, he turns to head back and lowers the phone at the same time.

He spots me, lifts a hand and picks up speed. I do the same, giving my legs a welcome stretch.

“How’s Will taking it?” I say.

“I can’t get through to him.”

“What?” I peer up at the sky. It’s overcast, but nothing that suggests a storm.

“It’s not the weather. The phones are connecting. Well, oneis at least. I’ve tried both numbers. One rings but no one answers, and the other goes straight to voicemail. I’ve left messages on both.”

My heart thuds, and all I can say is “Okay.” But it’s not okay. It’sverynot okay.

Dalton continues, “One phone should be with Will. That’s the one that’s going straight to voicemail. The other is with either April or Yolanda—last I heard, they were bickering over who got custody of it while we were gone. That’s the one that keeps ringing.”

“Ifthatone was going straight to voicemail, I’d say whoever has it forgot to recharge it. But Will’s wouldn’t.”

Dalton nods.

My racing heart jams into my throat, and I struggle to speak. “I told Will to keep an eye on Marlon.”

“Good,” Dalton grunts. “Maybe there really is a storm out there. Or the satellite network is…” He waves a hand. “On the fritz. I don’t know. We’ll keep trying until we get through. In the meantime, Will knows to watch Marlon.”

“No, I meant…” I take deep breaths of the icy air. “Maybe, yes. He knows to watch Marlon so it’s not as if he’ll be caught off guard, but if I told him to watch Marlon, what if…”

Silence. Then, quietly, Dalton says, “What if Marlon figured that out.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

We’re at the hotel packing as fast as we can. Dalton has contacted the airport to make sure we can take off in the next hour. We can, since our destination isn’t on a route that coincides with other flight paths.

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