"He pressured me to get Gary to hire him. He never said there was a connection between the two of them. Neither did Gary."

"You had nothing to do with their smuggling operation?"

"No! Of course not. I was just-a pawn."

Sterling gave her a cold look, feeling in control again. He'd lost it up on the hill, when he'd almost plowed into Gus Winter's truck, and then Carine had stood there, so damnself-righteous."You were more than a pawn, Jodie." His hands relaxed slightly on the wheel. "You were a willing participant. Did you tell the police everything?"

She stared down at her hands and gave a small shake of the head. "No. I didn't tell them I knew Louis from up here. Manny Carrera-he saw us together in September. I'd hoped he wouldn't remember."

"For Christ's sake, Jodie, with his training and experience-"

"He's not a law enforcement officer, he's an air force pararescueman. He wouldn't even be involved in our lives if you hadn't called for help when we were on the ridge. We could have made it on our own."

"We'd have died."

"You've been trying to prove yourself and protect yourself ever since. You hate feeling vulnerable, inadequate. It's made you impossible this entire year."

"Don't blame me for your own failings."

"Sterling-" Her voice cracked, all her remoteness and reserve suddenly gone. "Let me at least try to get through to the police. Eric Carrera could be dying on our property. If you don't get the human component, at least, for God's sake, think about how it'll look. Carine and Gus know we left that boy up there."

He said nothing. Big chunks of the puzzle were still missing, but he had a fair idea of what had happened. They'd drawn attention to themselves last fall when they were rescued off the ridge, and Turner and Sanborn had seized the opportunity to take advantage of them, exploit them, use them. Louis had preyed on his wife. They'd both preyed on him.

"Jesus…" Jodie's voice was barely more than a croak now. "You hope Turner kills them, don't you? Then they can't report what a goddamn coward you were."

"What? Jodie, for the love of God, no, I'm not hoping he kills anyone. But don't you get it? Turner is a killer. We're caught in the middle. He won't harm us unless we give him reason to. If he gets away-what do you think he'll do? He got away last fall, but did he slink off and disappear? No. He used us to get access to the people who ruined him. He wants them dead. What do you think he'll do to us if we ruin his revenge?"

"Nothing if he's in prison!"

He shook his head. "I'm not taking that chance."

Her eyes shone with tears. "What happened to us? We used to be better than this."

"I'm being smart, Jodie, not a coward."

"Sterling…"

He bit off a sigh. "All right. We'll call the police the first chance we have. We'll tell the police we were scared and didn't want to cause more problems. Remember your crisis training classes-your first job is to escape a dangerous situation. The police don't need two more hostages on their hands."

"If we'd helped Eric while Turner was out-"

"I didn't know where Turner was, how fast he'd be back. What if he'd caught us and killed all of us? Killed the boy in front of us? Then how holier than thou would you feel?"

She was crying now. "I just…I just don't know what to do."

"Then shut up and let me think."

When he reached the bottom of the hill, he turned left instead of right toward the village of Cold Ridge. He didn't want to run into the police or any search parties already out looking for Eric Carrera. Jodie stared at her cell phone, but Sterling knew there wouldn't be service-or a house where they could call-for at least several more miles. Any delay wasn't his fault. Then he'd let Jodie notify the police, and he'd call their attorney to meet them when they arrived back at their house on the South Shore.

Thirty-One

Ty pulled in behind Gus's truck, parked off the road just before the Rancourt driveway. Manny, his hands wiped off and disinfected, jumped out and checked the truck, but shook his head. Ty joined him, feeling the drop in temperature even at this elevation.

"No sign of anyone," Manny said, squinting up toward the Rancourt house. "Think they spotted Eric and went after him?"

"The trailhead's just up the road. It's possible-"

But he saw a movement up on the left side of the driveway, someone waving to them from behind a low stone wall, then collapsing back out of sight. Manny saw it, too. "That's Gus. Looks like he's down."

Manny was already on his way. North grabbed his medical kit from the back of the truck and ran, forcing back any intrusive thoughts-Carine? Where the hell was she? What had happened to Gus? But he knew not to get ahead of himself.

Manny leaped over the stone wall and squatted down next to Gus, who was conscious but in obvious pain. "Where are you hurt?" Manny asked. "What happened?"

"Turner bounced me off the bumper of his fucking car. I think I broke a leg, maybe a couple ribs-"

"Christ, Gus," Ty said. "You need to stay still, take it easy."

"Relax, I'm fine." His breathing was rapid, his eyes on Manny. "He's got your son and Hank up in the shed."

Manny had no visible reaction. "You saw them?"

Gus shook his head, wincing. "Just Turner and Hank. The Rancourts said he's got Eric up there, too. They knew and did nothing."

"Where's Carine?" North asked.

Gus winced. "Sneaking around back with a rock."

Ty pictured her last year, zigzagging up the hill from her cover behind the boulder. She was a scrapper. She'd do anything, but she wasn't stupid. He shook his head at Gus. "Jesus. I shouldn't have let you and Carine come up here on your own."

Manny fished a cervical collar out of North's med kit. "Too late, North. We're all here now."

Gus tried to sit up on an elbow. "You're not putting that fucking collar on me. Go find Carine. Turner must have hit me five, ten minutes ago at most. You didn't pass the Rancourts on the road? They said they'd call the police."

"Police are on their way," Ty said, but deliberately didn't tell him about Val. Gus had enough on his mind, and his pulse was rapid, his skin getting clammy. He needed an ambulance. "You warm enough?"

"Yeah. Toasty. Will you quit?" He licked a little blood off the corner of his mouth. "Bit my fucking lip. That hurt."

North quit arguing. "Just stay still."

"Carine won't do anything crazy."

Manny crouched behind the low stone wall and looked up the hill at the remaining length of driveway, the dirt track, the warming hut with its surrounding trees and natural landscaping. There was a lot of rock. "Think he's seen us?"

"I don't know," Ty said. "I'm guessing yes."

"North!"

The shout came from the warming hut. Turner.

Manny gave North a quick sideways look. "Well, he's seen you."

"Do you think I care if you bring in helicopters and every cop in the state?" Turner yelled. "Kill me. It doesn't matter. So long as I kill you and your friends on my way out."

"Shit," Manny said, "one of these suicide types. And he's got my kid."

North gave him a warning look. "You with me?"

Manny exhaled, nodded. "I'm going up there."

"Let's talk money." Turner, although he was shouting down the hill, sounded calm, even conversational.

"How much for your senator? For your friend's son? For your woman, Sergeant North? How much for her?"

"No way he has Carine," Manny said. "She'd never go quietly. Gus would have heard something."

Her uncle grunted. "This is bullshit. Turner doesn't want money. He had the Rancourts, for Christ's sake. They've got more money than all of us put together."

Ty took a breath. "Let's talk," he called. "Face-toface. You send out the boy, I'll come up there and talk money with you."