Page 75 of The Hard Way

Something lifted from my heart just then. I grabbed her arms and pulled her into a hug and just held her for an embarrassingly long time.

Finally I pulled away and looked at her some more. “You are more beautiful than ever.”

She looked away, embarrassed.

“I get the newsletter.”

Her face broke into a smile. “Oh my god! I was wondering if you were one of the subscribers. I would look at the list sometimes.”

“I live for that thing.”

“Can I tell Candace and Kaitlin?”

“I don’t think you should.”

She pursed her lips. She knew I was right. “You know they think people out there are buying that fucking comforter model out of a love of fine sheep products.”

“Tell me how they are.”

Vanessa caught me up on our sisters. Kaitlin had been accepted at Madison, the best college in the UW system. She’d become Facebook friends with the girls on her dorm floor, and it was a frenzy of excitement, but they weren’t sure whether she could go now. I told her Kaitlin had to go—we’d buy more comforters, or maybe arrange a scholarship—and we talked about getting Candace back to school.

We talked about everything but the cheese, and Tim Zietlow dying. The fact that Vanessa might do time. I wanted her to go to it first.

“How did you know I was up here?”

“I saw your car.”

“I thought we hid it better.”

“You hid it great, but you can see it through the trees in one spot. It’s where you always used to park to come here, and I got used to spotting it.”

“I didn’t think you knew.”

She looked away. “We knew. We knew you weren’t happy. And I come up here sometimes,” she added.

“You do?”

“Not to ski, don’t worry. Just to channel a little of you when things are hard. This was always your special place. You would come out here and climb around and ski in the winter, and you would come back so alive and energized, and I need that.” Her eyes fell to Odin’s hand and then mine. “Hold on—you guys are married?”

I gazed at Odin. “Newly.”

“And the insurance investigator is a member of your gang.”

“Um…it’s complicated,” I said.

“What does that mean?”

Odin sparkled at me. “It means your sister is very much loved.”

“Oh my god.” Vanessa searched my eyes. I couldn’t tell how much of it she figured out, but then she just beamed at me. “You always made your own rules.” She turned her eyes to the horizon, then. She had more to say. I saw it, and Odin did, too. “That’s why I come here. I need some of your mojo. What are we going to do? We didn’t put that cheese back in the shipment. I would never have, and neither would the girls. You know we would never—”

“I know,” I said. “We know you didn’t put that cheese back in the shipment.”

“You do?”

“We’re pretty sure it was Hank Vernon.”

She did a dramatic double-take. “Are youshittingme?”

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