Page 16 of Cold as Hell

This might seem like a non sequitur. It isn’t. She means she noticed who was in the bar because she was watching for Grant.

“The colors indicate how close people came to our table. Green for those who never got near us. Red for people who stopped by. Yellow means I noticed them walk past. Then I added notes for anything that seemed significant.”

“That’s very…” I’m about to say “thorough” when I realizethat could sound as if she’d gone overboard. “Appreciated. It’s very appreciated. Thank you.” I take the page and carefully fold it. “You were also the last person to be with Kendra. How was she acting?”

Lynn’s cheeks flame. “I… wasn’t paying attention. That’s awful to say, but Grant doesn’t like me staying at the Roc until closing, so I was freaking out a little.” A quick hand flapping. “Not that he’d, you know, do anything. He’s never hit me. I just don’t like fighting with him, and it’s not worth it to stay five minutes longer. But Kendra and I were talking about setting up a hike and I lost track of time. When Isabel called closing, I grabbed my coat, said goodbye, and left.”

Her hands clench on the countertop. “I wasn’t a good friend. I was completely focused on myself. Kendra seemed fine, but I didn’t pay enough attention and I didn’t offer to walk her home. I realized I’d stayed too late, panicked, and took off.”

I tell her that’s understandable. It is. I grew up with parents who set rules and expected me to obey them. I rebelled by doing things like intentionally showing up five minutes past curfew in hopes… Well, as I realize now, I’d done it in hopes of eliciting an emotional reaction, because even a negative response was better than none. But I’d known other girls with overly strict parents who’d have a full-blown panic attack if they were running late.

Lynn would have been focused on avoiding fallout with Grant, and Kendra is as self-sufficient as they come. Haven’s Rock at midnight isn’t the big city at two in the morning. Lynn wouldn’t worry about letting Kendra walk the hundred or so feet on her own, any more than Yolanda considered that whensheleft early.

I assure Lynn that she didn’t do anything wrong. We’ll all need to start being a little more careful. It’s easy to get complacent, and I’m as guilty of that as anyone.

I thank her for the list. As I’m leaving, I’m mentally preparing to cross-reference it with Isabel’s list, and I’m so engrossed in my thoughts that I smack into our newest resident, who jumps back as if I’d caught him breaking in after hours. He flushes, his freckled skin going bright red as he stammers something about needing toothpaste.

Maybe this should trigger alarms. New resident getting flustered at bumping into the town detective… who is actively searching for someone who committed an assault? But with Thierry, I might actually be surprised if hedidn’tseem flustered when I literally bumped into him.

Thierry arrived just before Christmas, and he’s still finding his place here. He’s a little older than me, pleasant looking and sweet natured. He’s one of the rare professionals who can continue to practice his trade—an elementary school teacher who has taken over lessons for Max and his brother, Carson. That isn’t a full-time position, but Thierry quite happily supplements it with some of the less attractive jobs, like the endless wood chopping and delivery needed in winter.

While Thierry is always a little awkward and overly quick to apologize, today’s reaction seems like overkill, even for him. I realize why when Lynn hurries from behind the counter and starts listing the types of toothpaste we have in stock.

I glance between Thierry and Lynn, and I can’t miss the looks that suggest something is heating up between them.

I should be happy for Lynn, finding someone open to receiving her signals, especially a guy who seems genuinely nice. But on the selfish side, a jealous Grant is not a problem we need right now.

Which is none of my business until it becomes my business.

Also, it will never be my business. If there’s trouble in thenext few months, it will go to Dalton and Anders, who can easily handle it.

I say another goodbye to Lynn and Thierry, but I don’t think either hears it.

Next stop: Gunnar. He’d been on Yolanda’s construction crew as a general laborer, so that’s what he continues to do in Haven’s Rock. He assists Kendra or our carpenter, Kenny, with post-construction projects. Winter means any construction needs to be indoors, and if I’m right, his latest assignment is retrofitting a loft storage area we’ve decided to convert to a “playroom” for the kids. Yes, we haven’t been open even a year and we’re already making changes. No matter how carefully we planned, there is no substitute for living in a space. It’s only after we got here that we started realizing that particular storage building would always have an abundance of space… and our younger residents lack an area where they can play. Granted, being eleven and thirteen, Max and Carson would be insulted by the use of the word “playroom,” but they can make what they want of it.

The loft had actually been Gunnar’s idea. He has his own loft space, which we’d also set aside as storage but haven’t needed. There can be a childlike side to Gunnar, which had struck me as odd until he gave me his backstory, albeit very brief and very reluctantly, offering it only because it pertained to a case. That backstory has nothing to do with why he’s here, but maybe it has everything to do with why hestayshere.

As a child, Gunnar saw his father shoot his mother, and he fled before catching the next bullet. His father then turned the gun on himself. That kind of trauma can arrest development insubtle ways, like making a twenty-eight-year-old man seek out a hidey-hole of his own, where he can sit and watch life unfold below him and feel safe.

I’m heading to the playroom construction site when I spot my target outside, talking with Anders and Marlon. Marlon is another recent arrival, having come in early December, and he’s been another excellent addition to our little town. Like Anders, he’s former military, which means he’s also a good hunter, and we can always use more of those. We can also always use additions to our militia.

These days, security in Haven’s Rock is mostly about keeping the outside world outside—watching for anything out there that gets a little too curious about what’s in here. That can be animals or it can be humans, and a resident with military and hunting experience is suited for both. Marlon’s easygoing personality means Anders and Kenny were happy to add him to the militia.

Right now, Marlon is deep in conversation with Gunnar, and I’m glad to see that, too. Gunnar is more comfortable around women. That isn’t always obvious, because he has the kind of gregarious personality that masks discomfort. But he does gravitate toward women, and I suspect that’s another lingering effect of his background. Having a father who killed your mother—and tried to kill you—is going to taint your relationships with adult men, even if Gunnar himself might not realize it.

Gunnar really doesn’t care for Dalton, and without going too amateur-shrink, I suspect there’s some unfortunate overlap in personality between Dalton and his father. He likes Anders, though, and now seems comfortable with Marlon, too.

I’m heading their way when I see Grant. It’s only been a few minutes since I left Lynn, but my mind has traveled down these other tracks—Gunnar and then Marlon—and it takes a moment to realize why seeing Grant sets me on alert. Right. After talking to Lynn, I’m all the more annoyed with Grant’s behavior toward his wife, especially when it meant Lynn had been too worried about his reaction to walk Kendra home last night.

Then I see where Grant is heading, and I have a whole new reason to be concerned. He’s on course for the general store, walking fast, clearly wanting to speak to Lynn… who is inside flirting with Thierry.

Damn it.

Some residents love the soap-opera drama of life in a very small town, but I am not one of them. Especially when “drama” means “trouble.”

“Yo!” Anders calls. “Case!”

I lift a hand without looking his way, my attention still on Grant.

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