I held up my palms. "I'm sorry. I can't remember where I know you from."

"Most people don't recognize me at all. I did a few commercials, years ago. And I played Malissa Harris on Mountain Time for part of one season."

"Of course! I watched Mountain Time when I was in college. It was one of the first prime-time soaps, and since I lived in Colorado I loved that it was set in Vail. You," I pointed at her, "were a very evil lady."

She laughed. "I was indeed. Downright ruthless. I loved playing that character. I only wish it could have lasted longer. But Malissa was written in specifically with the intention of killing her off."

"So why don't you act more now?"

Shrugging, she said, "Cadyville is pretty far from the center of things. I don't need to work. Heck, Jake doesn't even need to work, but he enjoys his practice, and I wouldn't want to take that away from him. Maybe one of these days we'll move closer to the city, but for now we like living here."

I wondered. Felicia, self-possessed as she was, seemed isolated. It didn't seem to bother her, but then again, she didn't seem like the type to let you know if something bothered her. And she was nicer than I'd anticipated. Someone I'd like to have dinner with.

"Enough about my defunct acting career," she said. "Was there a particular reason you dropped by?"

"Well, as I mentioned, I'm part of CRAG, and I know Jake. You know about the murder there, of course."

She nodded. "Of course. Jake's been very concerned about the other co-op members." Her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh, and weren't you the one who found her? How silly of me. You're here to see Jake, aren't you?"

"No, I'm here to see you. Like Jake, I'm worried about how this terrible incident has affected the co-op members. I'm really here because I wanted to check in with you about how Jake is taking it."

Her eyes narrowed. "Why would Jake be taking it worse than anyone else?"

I shrugged. "He seemed more upset about Ariel's death than some. He's a very caring man"

She held my gaze for a long moment. "Meaning?"

I licked my lips. "Nothing. Only… you know… he's a nice guy."

"Particularly to Ariel."

Thin ice here. I could feel it beginning to crack under my feet. "I don't know. Was he?"

Felicia stood. "I'll let Jake know you stopped by."

"Oh. Um, okay. Thanks." I rose to my feet as well.

She walked me unceremoniously to the front door and opened it. "Thanks for stopping by, Ms. Reynolds. 'Bye, now."

"Um," I said, nonplussed by how smoothly she'd kicked me out. The door shut in my face.

No wonder Barr and Robin hadn't gotten very far questioning the Beagles.

Meghan met me at the front door. "Hannah came by."

My eyes widened, and I began looking wildly up and down the street for Barr's ex or her rental car.

"Oh, she's gone now," Meghan said. "I don't think she looks that much like you."

I grabbed her arm and pulled her inside the house. "What did she want?"

She gently pulled out of my grip and studied me. "To talk to you, of course"

"About what?"

Another long look. "About Barr, I expect. I don't know for sure because we didn't chat all that long."

"Did she seem… you know?" I swirled my finger by my head.

"Bonkers?"

I nodded.

Meghan's shoulders relaxed, and she laughed. "She seemed like a perfectly reasonable woman, certainly nice enough. When I said you weren't here she said she'd try again tomorrow."

"Ha! Well, I won't be here tomorrow. And come to think of it, she's not supposed to be, either. Did she say where she's staying now that she's checked out of the Horse Acres B &B?"

She shook her head. "No. And I asked if you could call her, but she said she didn't know when she'd be near a phone."

"Probably doesn't want Barr telling her to leave town again"

Meghan said, "That'd be my guess"

"I'm sorry she bothered you," I said. "And it sounds like she's going to do it again tomorrow."

"Will you relax? It's not a big deal. And you said she only took a week off from her job in Wyoming, so she's going to have to leave town pretty soon, anyway."

As long as Hannah didn't quit her job at the Ambrose ranch altogether, thinking she'd soon be swimming in money.

"She came by the house, Barr. What does she want from me? Why isn't she bugging you?" I was clenching the phone so hard it hurt. One by one, I forced my fingers to relax.

He sighed. "I don't know, hon. I really don't. I've asked the patrols to keep a look out for the car she listed on the registration at Horse Acres, but no one has seen her. I'm doing my best to get her out of your hair."

I felt guilty for making a big deal out of it. He had better things to do. "Oh, heck. It's okay. I'm going out of town tomorrow anyway.

"Have you already gone over to CRAG?"

"Yessir. And that phone call Ariel's roommate picked up was probably from Felicia Beagle. Ruth told me Jake had `fatherly feelings' for Ariel, but his wife misunderstood them."

Barr snorted.

"I agree. She probably didn't misunderstand at all. Apparently Felicia found some e-mails Jake had written to Ariel, and she didn't care for what they said."

"I wonder when she found them," Barr said. "Recently?"

"No idea. I even dropped in on her, thinking she might open up to me."

"Any luck?"

"None at all. Does she have an alibi for the time Ariel was killed?"

"I'm afraid she does. Jake said he was home with her."

"Oh"

"Don't worry. We'll figure it out. Listen, I need to go. Call you tonight, okay?"

"Okay." I hung up feeling disgruntled.

For one thing, I didn't know if I bought the idea of Jake providing the alibi for his wife. And secondly, it had been several days since Barr and I had spent the evening together, and he'd only offered me a phone call later.

A phone call? That was it? Sheesh.

FOURTEEN

THAT NIGHT I wAs putting a few things away in my workroom when Erin came down to say good night. She hugged me for so long that I asked if anything was wrong.

She shook her head against my shoulder.

"You sure, Bug?"

A nod, then, "Do I act all snotty about being smart?"

I pulled back so I could look her in the face. She wasn't crying, but she looked pretty miserable nonetheless.

"No. You do not act all snotty about being smart. Who said you did?"

She looked at the floor.

"Zoe?" I guessed.

"Uh huh."

"Do you know why she said that?"

"No" Erin 's voice was sullen.

"So when did this come up?" I asked.

"At dinner last night. I was telling her about some of the stuff we did in math camp yesterday." She turned her face up toward mine. "Do you know anything about Fibonacci numbers?"

"Nope. Never heard of them."

"Well, they're this really cool series of numbers that represent the ratio of all sorts of things in nature-the spirals in sea shells and sunflower seed heads and pinecones and-you know about phi, right?"

"Uh… sort of."

Her face fell.

"I'm sorry, Bug. I'm just not into math. But you're obviously getting pretty passionate about it, and that's great. No, really," I said, seeing her skepticism.

"Well, when I told Zoe about it, she said I was being all conceited about being smart. She's smart, too, you know. It's not my fault her mom makes her go to soccer camp instead of math camp. So I told her she was being snotty about being a big jock."