Cold Dawn Part 18

"Yes, he did," Nick said.

"This is crazy," Brett said half under his breath. "I don't even know why I'm here. Just couldn't stop myself, I guess."

Rose watched him continue tentatively up to the farmhouse, as if every step were torture. Nick edged closer to her. "More company," he said, pointing down to the driveway.

She noticed Zack Harper's pickup truck pull behind her Jeep. Ranger bounded to her left side, and she stroked his broad back, settling him down and combating her own uneasiness.

Zack clearly wasn't expecting to find anyone there. "What're you all doing," he said as he ambled up to them, "setting up for a winter picnic?"

Rose grimaced at his sharp tone. "Just wanted to have another look now that the police are done here. What about you, Zack?"

"The same." He glanced down the snow-covered slope. His jacket was open, and he wasn't wearing gloves, a hat or a scarf. He seemed unaffected by the cold and the wind. "Bowie and Dominique left, huh? I saw them down by the guesthouse when I drove by about an hour ago."

"Dom Belair?" Rose couldn't contain her surprise. "She was with Bowie?"

"She was in her own car. Bowie had his van."

Rose frowned. "I didn't realize she even knew her way out here."

"I didn't stop," Zack said. "I had a call to make down in the hollow. I was on my way back to town when I saw your Jeep."

"Brett Griffin's here, too," Rose said.

"Yeah, I saw his car." Zack turned to Nick. "Want to take a look at the fire damage with me?"

"Sure," Nick said.

Rose let Ranger poke around in the snow and went with Zack and Nick to the farmhouse. Brett seemed frozen in place by Lowell's woodpile and said nothing to the two firefighters as they headed onto the narrow path behind the shed.

"You okay?" Rose asked Brett.

He sucked in a breath. "Those two will look at the scene differently than either one of us. I understand that Nick and your brother Sean are elite smoke jumpers. Do you think Zack feels inadequate?"

"Zack? Not a chance." Rose smiled. "He's a Harper, for one thing."

She noticed Brett had pulled off his gloves. He fiddled with a k.n.o.b on his camera and chuckled. "There's that. I heard all four Neal sisters have a crush on Zack."

"They wouldn't be the first. It'll be interesting to see if they all turn up for winter fest." Rose realized there was still a faint smell of smoke in the air. "Unless Derek's death isn't resolved by then."

"Why should that make any difference? The Neals live in Washington. Imagine all the ongoing death investigations there. They're under Secret Service protection. They'll be fine wherever they are."

"Good point. Brett, did you see Dominique when you arrived?"

He shook his head. "Just Bowie, unless they came together-"

"She came in her car."

"I didn't see it when I arrived." Brett abandoned his adjustments to his camera. "Coming out here's harder than I imagined it'd be. I thought I wanted to see for myself where Derek died. Now I don't know if I can look."

"You don't have to look," Rose said sympathetically.

He raised his gaze to her. "It really was bad, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was. I'm sorry."

"Have you talked to Elijah and Jo yet? I don't know them myself. I saw Elijah at O'Rourke's last year when Derek got drunk and said those things to Hannah. We didn't chitchat, obviously. He's very controlled, isn't he?"

"When he needs to be, I guess."

"Spoken like a true baby sister," Brett said with a strained laugh. "I've heard that Jo and Trooper Thorne don't get along."

"That's too strong."

"She's a federal agent, and he's a state trooper. It's not surprising there's a bit of a rivalry between them, is it?"

"There's no rivalry on Jo's end, and I doubt there's one on Scott's. It's nothing they couldn't work out if he and Beth decide to stay together." Rose straightened sharply. "Brett? Are you and Beth-"

"No, no. I'm just an observer. There's nothing between us-on her side or mine." He seemed taken aback by any suggestion he might have a romantic interest in Beth Harper. "I don't mean to pry. It's the cla.s.sic curse of the outsider in a small town."

"I guess I wouldn't know about that, since I've lived here all my life." Rose nodded to his camera. "You're also a photographer. An observer. I'd love to see some of your photos one day."

"That'd be great." Watching Ranger wander over to the shed, Brett quickly snapped his picture, then lowered his camera. "Trooper Thorne's on the state police search-and-rescue team. Are you and he rivals?"

Rose got Ranger back to her side. "I don't think of what I do in those terms. I doubt he does, either."

"Sorry. I'm saying all the wrong things." Brett edged onto the narrow path that led to the back of the shed. "I'm just blurting out whatever pops into my head. Being here..." He sucked in a breath. "I think I can do it. I think I can look. I'd hate myself for being a coward if I didn't."

"I'll go with you."

"All right, but you don't have to. Zack and Nick have experience with fires. They'll be objective. They'll help if I can't handle being there."

"There's not much fire damage to the shed, Brett."

He looked grim. "So Derek took the brunt of the flames."

"If Coleman fuel was in that lamp, it's highly combustible. The flash and fire-"

"He didn't stand a chance if he was standing close, didn't know."

Rose remembered every detail of walking into the shed. The smell, the cold, the stillness. Seeing Derek's coat on the back of the chair. The shed wasn't heated but he'd had on layers. He could have been warm from hiking up from his car.

She signaled Ranger to follow her as she and Brett went around to the ell. Even with the fresh snow, the area in front of the door was still visibly trampled from the investigators. The smell of charred wood was stronger here, but the shed blocked the worst of the wind. The rough wood door was propped open with a brick.

Brett hesitated, gripping his camera, and jumped, visibly startled, when Zack exited the shed.

"It won't be easy to figure out exactly what happened here," Zack said.

Nick was right behind him. "It often is with a fire. Arson's one of the hardest crimes to prove, solve and prosecute."

"Too many of these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds get away with setting their little fires," Zack said, his disdain clear. "You can't generalize about arsonists. Each one's an individual. They have their own methods, their own reasons, if you want to call them that, for doing what they do."

Brett's breathing was rapid, shallow. "Do you know for sure this even was arson?"

Zack's turquoise eyes seemed lighter in the brightening sunshine. "You'd have to talk to the lead investigators."

"First they have to rule out a natural or accidental cause," Nick said. "In this case, that's going to be difficult because of the circ.u.mstances. Coleman fuel is easily accessed and commonly used. If it works under pressure in a little camp stove, why not in a kerosene lamp? I can see someone thinking like that, just making a stupid mistake."

Brett shook his head. "Not Derek."

"It could have been one of the Whittakers, even one of their guests." Zack bent down and rubbed Ranger's front. "That was a rough morning for you, wasn't it, buddy? You come out here to play fetch and get put to work." He stood up again and looked at Rose. "I promised Beth I'd fill in for her tonight at the cafe. It's cleaning night." He grinned. "Feel free to take my place."

Rose knew his good humor was as close as she'd get to an apology from him for his earlier surliness. "I've done cleaning night with you, Zack. Mostly you just eat leftover brownies."

"Dom's brownies are the best," he said. "See you all later."

He took the path around to the front of the shed. Rose sighed at his retreating figure. "Zack hasn't changed since fifth grade."

Brett had stepped just inside the shed, his gaze fixed on the spot where his friend had died. He backed out suddenly, stumbling, dropping his camera in the snow. "I knew this'd be hard, but-" He broke off, looking agonized, and scooped up his camera. "Why didn't the whole d.a.m.n place didn't catch fire?"

Nick answered, his tone neutral, professional. "It looks as if your friend Derek put out the flames when he hit the floor."

"He probably wasn't killed instantly, then."

"Probably not, no," Nick said. "If this was arson, his killer undoubtedly intended for the shed to burn down. There'd be even less evidence for investigators to go on."

Brett held his camera in a bare hand, staring at it as if its familiarity gave him comfort. "I can't imagine what it was like to find him. I've never seen a dead body. I've dealt with a few injuries skiing and giving lessons, but nothing like what Derek must have suffered."

"I know it's difficult," Rose said quietly.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to get out of here." He cleared his throat. "I'm glad you two were here. I thought I wanted to do this alone, but I see now I was wrong."

"I can drive you down to your car."

He shook his head. "It's not far. The walk will do me good."

Nick waited until he was out of earshot around the other side of the shed before he spoke. "Griffin seems to get along with you. Does he know about you and Cutshaw?"

"There was no me and..." Rose stopped herself, hearing the defensiveness in her tone. "Some. Not as much as Robert."

"Either one of them date local women?"

"Not that I know of. I thought from something Brett said that he might be interested in Beth but he said no. I don't know him or Robert that well."

Nick picked up the brick that had been propping open the shed door and set it inside, then shut the door. "You'd all let a newcomer like Brett in?"

"It's not a question of *newcomer,'" Rose said. "Most of the people I know in town take newcomers one at a time, if that's where you're going with this. Derek, Robert and even Brett hurt their chances by what they did last year at O'Rourke's, but n.o.body would hold it against them forever."

"Bowie and his cousin Liam would," Nick said without hesitation. "So would Sean. What about you?"

"I told you. I wasn't there." She looked through the woods, down at the frozen river, and noticed deer tracks disappearing down the hill. "Derek found me up at the falls on Cameron Mountain about this time last year. I was training Ranger. It wasn't as cold and as windy as it is today. It was one of those mild late February days that make you think spring is closer than it is."

She could feel Nick behind her. "What happened?"

"He was in a rage because I'd told him I didn't want to see him again. Saying we broke up is too strong, at least in my mind. I always knew we weren't meant to be together forever." She shivered, then turned to Nick. "Anyway, Derek stomped and swore at me and got nasty and pathetic. Then he left."

"Did he hurt you?"

"He tried to grab my arm. I backed off and tripped, and Ranger jumped between us."

Nick came up next to her. "Good for Ranger."

"When I picked myself up out of the snow, Derek was gone. I wasn't hurt. I didn't tell anyone."

"Did he stalk you? Threaten you?"

She shook her head. "He more or less left me alone after that," she said.

"What does *more or less' mean?"

"It means he didn't do anything that would have made me go to the police."

"Or tell your family and friends," Nick said.

She didn't answer.

He didn't back off. "Bowie knew?"

Snow blew off the shed roof into her face. "He ran into Derek when he was still raging about my having stood up to him at the falls. Derek bragged about things that never happened between us. He wanted to get under Bowie's skin because he knew we were friends."

"So Bowie was ready for a fight that night at O'Rourke's."

"He thinks his presence provoked Derek to start in on Hannah in the first place. Derek was spoiling for a fight." Rose signaled Ranger to come to her side. "It's complicated."

"Not that complicated," Nick said. "It's a small town. Your brothers were there. Cutshaw wanted to hurt you. You're a trusted canine search-and-rescue expert. All he had to do was lie or exaggerate, and you'd be hurt."

"What happened between Derek and me was bad enough without him making up stuff." She glanced back at the ell of the shed where he'd died, smelled the burned wood. "I told the police everything."

"Was Cutshaw interested in search-and-rescue work?"

"He wanted to get into mountain rescue, but he wanted it for his ego, which is exactly the wrong reason."

Nick studied her a moment. "Did your father know what went on between you two?"

"I don't know. He asked me if I was okay not long after Derek came after me at the falls. It wasn't like Pop. I said yes, and that was the end of it."

Her throat tight with emotion, Rose signaled to Ranger to heel and headed briskly with him around to the front of the shed.

Nick kept up with them and eased in next to her behind the farmhouse. He nodded to the boarded-up back door. "Did Sean run in through the back when he saved Bowie from the fire?"