“She told you this?” Jo asked.

“Not in as many words.”

“What did she say, then? Can you remember her exact words?”

Lowell reached for a white plate of an array of cookies obviously from Three Sisters Café and pushed it more toward Jo’s side of the table. “We’re not trying to get anyone into trouble,” he said. “We certainly don’t believe Devin is stalking Nora.”

“He’s changed,” Vivian said, briskly setting out cups and saucers. “We knew him before Drew Cameron’s death-not well, but enough to see that finding Drew, losing him, affected Devin deeply. Before that he struck us as a happy-go-lucky teenager who didn’t have a clue what he’d do after graduation.” She picked up the teapot and filled Jo’s cup, her expression pained, regretful. “You’re from here, Jo. You must have heard that Devin’s had his struggles.”

Jo helped herself to a chocolate-chip cookie. “He hasn’t been arrested for anything, has he?”

“Oh, heavens, no.” Vivian poured her husband tea, not even the slightest tremble to her hands. She filled her cup next, then sat down. “I shouldn’t have said anything. We like Devin very much, and Nora’s a delight. I remember being very confused at that age myself.”

“What about Kyle Rigby?” Jo asked, taking a bite of her cookie. “Do you know anything about him?”

“No, nothing,” Lowell said. “We only met him this morning.”

Vivian picked up her teacup. “He seems quite competent.” She sipped some of her tea. “He’ll be discreet, too. It’d be best for everyone if he finds Nora quietly, without any fanfare, or she comes back on her own. It’s good that Thomas and Melanie are on their way here.” She held her cup in both hands and stared out the window. “We love this place, but I don’t know. Some days…”

“We’re all worried,” Lowell said, addressing Jo. “And we’re grieving for Alex. He and Nora had their problems, but he cared about her. I think she was coming to see that in recent weeks. He started out with a deficit with her because of his friendship with her father. He was aware that she had to feel betrayed-torn by her love for both parents.”

Vivian set her cup down and reached for an oatmeal cookie. “We thought it would help that Thomas and Melanie found each other and fell in love. Nora just wants both her parents to be happy. Now…I have a hard time believing Alex is dead.” Her eyes shone with sudden tears. She broke off a piece of cookie. “It’s a difficult situation, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is,” Jo said. “Were you here in April when Drew Cameron went missing? I understand that Thomas and Nora stayed at the guesthouse then.”

“We came up for the weekend,” Lowell said. “Drew had just disappeared. The state police had launched a search. We weren’t actually in Black Falls when he was found.”

“It was our first time here in April,” Vivian said. “I couldn’t believe it snowed. Our daffodils got covered. They were just coming up. They bounced right back once the snow melted, but I don’t think Vermont ’s where I want to be in April.”

Lowell set his teacup down with a clatter and smiled awkwardly, obviously embarrassed by his wife’s callous remark. “We didn’t care about the daffodils, of course, but the snow caught us by surprise. We weren’t involved in the search for Drew. There was nothing we could do except stay out of the way.” Lowell got abruptly to his feet. “It’s a tragedy Drew and Alex are both gone now. Jo, we don’t want to keep you, but if you’d care to sit here a while, please feel free to stay as long as you wish. I have some work to do in the yard before dark.”

Jo seized the opening and left, noting when she got outside that it already was dark. All her trekking up and down Cameron Mountain had consumed what little daylight a mid-November Vermont day offered.

When she got back to her cabin, she found Elijah in the doorway with a screwdriver in hand, a Red Sox cap tipped back on his head. He stood back and pointed the end of his screwdriver toward a shiny new dead-bolt lock. “Took two seconds and half the cash in my pocket.” He tucked the screwdriver into his jacket pocket. “You always used to say you wanted a guy who’s handy.”

“It’s a lousy cover for searching my place, Elijah.”

“I’m on a roll. You didn’t bring much up with you from Washington.”

“That’s because I’m an optimist and plan to get back to work soon. Elijah, you can’t just walk into other people’s houses. Not that this is a house, but you know what I mean.”

“Then arrest me.”

She sighed. “Thank you for the new lock. You could have stayed for tea with the Whittakers, and we could have put the lock on together.”

“I don’t like tea. Turns my stomach to even think about it.”

She doubted much turned Elijah’s stomach.

“Get anything out of the Whittakers?” he asked casually.

“They think Thomas is overreacting about Nora’s camping trip on the one hand, but, on the other, that Devin could be obsessed with Nora.”

“Devin’s obsessed with being eighteen.”

Elijah stood back from the door, and Jo went past him inside, feeling the old floor sagging under her. And this was the good cabin. “It’s not worth it to put new locks on the rest of the cabins.” She blew out a breath and spun around. “You know I don’t have the slightest clue what to do with this place, don’t you? The property taxes on the thirty acres alone are a killer.”

“Pop got to you in April, didn’t he?”

“I’m sorry,” Jo said. “I’m being incredibly ungrateful. I’m glad he came to see me.”

Elijah stepped up into the cabin. “He didn’t think things through. What you’d do with thirty acres and a bunch of rundown cabins in Vermont.”

“I don’t know. Maybe he did think things through, and this is what he wanted.” She pictured him among the cherry blossoms, his fear and guilt and regret-and love-palpable. But it wasn’t an image she needed to share with Elijah, and she smiled, looking around at her one-room temporary home. “Remember when he found us here?”

“A good thing he didn’t come armed,” Elijah said dryly.

“If it’d been my father-”

“It wasn’t. It was mine. But it doesn’t matter. What I did after Pop kicked me out of the house was my choice. I didn’t discuss it with him or anyone else.”

“And you have no regrets,” she said.

His eyes held hers, unreadable under the brim of his cap, but he broke off and winked at her. “I’m having fun being around you again. I forgot how much pent-up energy you have. You’re like a top that keeps spinning at high speed.”

Jo went with his change of subject. She didn’t want to delve too deep into the past, either. Not now, not here. “What were you looking for?” she asked.

“Intruders.”

“Ah. I can take care of myself, you know.”

“You always could. Not the point. You’re used to working with a team and high-tech gadgetry. You’re alone up here.”

“Not that alone,” she said.

But he just gave her a teasing smile. “Relax. I didn’t go through your private things.” He picked up an ivory-colored petal that had fallen onto the table from one of the lilies Charlie Neal had sent her. “Anything else you’re up to, Jo, besides lying low?”

“No. I’m here because of Charlie and that video. I know my presence is provocative because of what I do, but Ambassador Bruni wasn’t under Secret Service protection-or any protection, for that matter. If I’d known anything about a threat against him that traced back here, I wouldn’t have been hanging out at the café and canoeing out on the lake.”

“You don’t own a canoe.”

“By the way, Beth and I borrowed yours the other day.”

“So I saw. Anytime. Happy to share. Lake ’ll freeze soon, though.”

“Not before I’m back in Washington.” She ripped open her refrigerator, realizing he was right about her pent-up energy, even if he didn’t understand all the reasons for it. Neither did she. “I don’t know why I’m looking in here. I’m not even hungry.” She shut the door again. “I think I’ll go over and search your place.”