“No, I don’t. I don’t know what happened to it.”

Hannah headed off briskly, in the opposite the direction of Rigby. Jo studied the map with its detailed designations of trails, streams, knolls, gullies, sags and peaks. The north side of Cameron Mountain bled into a remote wilderness area with few recreational trails. It wouldn’t be a good place for an inexperienced hiker like Nora Asher to get lost.

“It’s beautiful country up here,” Rigby said as he approached the map. “I’ll say that. I’m guessing, based on this morning’s festivities, that Nora is sticking close by. Hannah Shay have any idea where her brother took off to?”

Jo shook her head. “There’s no reason to think he’s a danger to Nora.”

“Maybe not, but if anything happens to her, he’ll be the first one police will want to talk to.” He squinted out toward the mountain. “It could be a tad warmer for my tastes. I’ll grab my pack out of my car and get moving. From what I’ve been able to learn about her, Nora’s emotional, but if she set up camp and got through the night, she’s got her act together. That’s a good sign.”

“If you need assistance, or if you feel she’s in trouble-”

“I know what to do. Keep me posted, Agent Harper.”

She let him go and returned to the lodge, scooping herself a bowl of piping-hot chili bubbling in an iron pot in the dining room. A month ago, at the height of foliage season, the lodge would have been bustling with guests. Now the place was almost empty, just a handful of diners enjoying a late lunch and the views.

She took her chili out to the fireplace in the lobby, where Elijah and A.J. were on their feet and still looking aggravated. She gave an exaggerated shiver. “Brr. I forget how cold it is here in November.”

“You should come back to Black Falls more often,” A.J. said.

“I should. Your wife and I could become best friends and give you Cameron boys a hard time.”

“What is it you want, Jo?”

A barrel of laughs A.J. was. But Jo didn’t blame him for his mood. “Answers,” she said. “The three of us need to work together. We’re on the same side.”

A.J.’s eyes narrowed, reminding her of his father. “Are we?”

She debated a moment, then relayed what Hannah had told her about Drew’s enlisting Devin’s help with some project on the north side of Cameron Mountain. Elijah and A.J. listened without interruption. When she finished, she added, “I’ll bet your father finally found that old cellar hole he’d been looking for all these years. Or some old cellar hole.”

“Devin should have given that information to the police,” A.J. said.

Or at least to Drew’s children, Jo thought. But she said diplomatically, “I imagine it’s been hard for him to have this on his mind. Provided he didn’t actually lie, he’s in the clear as far as the police are concerned. Hannah says he told the truth.”

“He just left out what in hell Pop was doing up there. Do you know how many times I’ve asked myself-” A.J. broke off. “Never mind. He had his chance to tell us, too, and he didn’t.”

“Hannah says he wanted whatever he was doing to be a surprise.”

Elijah’s eyes darkened and he looked at his brother. “I’m leaving. A.J.?”

“I’ll let you know if Devin or Nora show up.”

Short of finding a pair of handcuffs or shooting him, there wasn’t much Jo could do to stop Elijah. So she plopped down on a warm, comfortable chair in front of the fire and dipped a spoon into her chili. “You’re thinking I should go back to the lake and clean the cobwebs out of my cabins, aren’t you, A.J.?”

“I imagine your boss back in Washington would approve.”

He had a point there. But A.J. abandoned her, too, with a curt goodbye.

Jo set her chili onto a rustic oak table arranged with brochures, guidebooks and a cheerful autumnal display of pumpkins, mums and little figurines of wild turkeys. Lauren’s doing, again. A.J. would have left a stack of kindling there.

With her feet as close to the flames as she could get them without sliding out of her chair or setting herself on fire, Jo called Thomas Asher’s cell number. “Why’d you hire Kyle Rigby?” she asked when Thomas picked up. “And who is he?”

“He’s an objective professional-”

“A licensed investigator?”

“He’s acting as a friend.”

“Is he a friend? You’re paying him, aren’t you?”

“Jo, why are you so defensive? I thought you’d appreciate not having to take on Nora as your responsibility. Melanie and I are on our way. We’re at the airport now-”

“D.C. or up here?”

“We’re at Reagan National. We’ll be in Black Falls after dark. The Whittakers have invited us to stay with them. Alex and Carolyn loved it there. I…” His voice caught, reminding Jo that he’d lost a friend, never mind his and Alex Bruni’s complicated history. “Carolyn’s on her way home. I can’t imagine what she must be going through right now. For Nora to act out-” He broke off, then said more calmly, “I don’t approve of her solo camping trip, of course, but Kyle has assured me there’s no reason to sound the alarm.”

“How did you find him?”

“Melanie recommended him. They met skiing in Colorado last winter and exchanged business cards. It’s strange how that can happen. Serendipity, she calls it.”

“Then you’ve never met him?”

Thomas didn’t answer.

“You haven’t,” Jo said.

“He can handle the Vermont terrain and find my daughter. That’s all I care about. Not that I don’t trust you, Jo, but you’re not objective. You’re from Black Falls. You have preconceived ideas about the people there.”

Jo leaned forward in her chair, the flames hot on her face. “Thomas, do you suspect someone up here was involved with Ambassador Bruni’s death?”

“No. Good heavens, Jo. Listen, our flight’s boarding. I have to go.”

Jo decided not to tell him about Devin and the missing money, his friendship with Nora, taking off on Elijah. Let Rigby tell him what he knew. She wasn’t working for either one of them.

She finished her chili and returned her empty bowl to the dining room, then headed back outside and checked down at the shop. But it was closed and locked, and there was no sign of Devin. No sign of anything.

Had Elijah let Devin give him the slip and get away with it? Where was Devin going?

And what was Nora’s plan?

Were she and Devin together? Planning to meet somewhere? Avoiding each other?

Jo hoped they both would hike down the mountain before Thomas arrived in Vermont later tonight.

In fact, maybe they were on their way down now. But she didn’t think so.

An hour later, after hiking back down to her cabin for her car, Jo stood in the kitchen of her childhood, watching her father cut up apples-northern spies, a late variety that kept well-into a bubbling pot on the stove. Her mother was spending the day at the outlets in Manchester. Her grandmother was reading a book in the front room.

The smell of cooking apples filled the air, as it had every autumn in the rambling old Harper farmhouse for as long as Jo remembered.

Retirement seemed to agree with her father, but she knew he was still tapped into the goings-on in town. She seldom discussed her work with him. But Alex Bruni’s likely murder yesterday and his stepdaughter’s flight-or whatever it was-onto Cameron Mountain had nothing to do with her work.

Charlie Neal’s talk of assassins did, but only peripherally, because he was trying to get back into her good graces after his prank. What he didn’t understand was that he didn’t need to be in her good graces. He just needed to be safe.

She grabbed a paring knife and an extra cutting board and lifted an apple out of the sink. As she cut it into pieces, she ran everything past her father-except the part about kissing Elijah Cameron. That, she decided, wasn’t anything Wes Harper, former town chief of police, needed to know. Whether he could guess on his own or not was another question.