Cold Dawn Part 33

"It had to be tough," Jo said. "Knowing a friend was trapped. Finding him."

Rose thought of Nick that night as he'd pushed back his emotions and focused just on her, or at least on making love to her. He hadn't wanted to talk, or to think. Looking at him now, she could see he wasn't the same man he'd been then. He was under tight control, and he was thinking, putting the pieces of the past months together. He didn't respond to Jo's comment and moved around to the other side of the old maple.

Elijah positioned his drill at a spot for a tap. "Vanderhorn was off duty?"

"Yes," Nick said, stepping into snow that had drifted against the base of the maple. "He went out to the canyon on his own. He shouldn't have, but he wasn't reckless. The fire should have been out."

Jo tossed Elijah another metal tap before turning back to Nick. "Is it possible Vanderhorn wasn't lured out to that canyon but instead let his obsession get away from him and put you, Sean and others in danger as well as himself?"

Nick met her gaze straight on. "Yes, that's possible."

"What about Sean?" Elijah asked.

"Sean didn't know Jasper that well."

Jo leaned against the tree, watching Elijah drill the tap hole. "Do any of you have a candidate for this killer?" she asked Nick. "Could it be one of your own?"

"Another smoke jumper? No."

"What about Feehan?"

"Jasper didn't go over names with me."

"Feehan look familiar to you? Could you two have run into each other in California?"

Nick shook his head. "I don't recall ever having met him, but I meet a lot of people."

"Trent Stevens?" Jo asked.

"Sean and I have actors and screenwriters come to us for help with research on a fairly regular basis. Stevens could have been one. I don't remember him specifically. He might not have used his real name."

"Grit Taylor and my sister discovered a dead woman in his apartment," Jo said. "Did Vanderhorn say anything that in retrospect might tie his investigation to Portia Martinez?"

"Not to me, no," Nick said without hesitation.

"We want to find him," Jo said, stating the obvious.

"Is there any chance that Derek Cutshaw or Robert Feehan knew him?"

She didn't answer.

Rose helped Elijah finish placing taps in their tree and moved to the next one. Jo showed Nick where to drill on their maple, the placement and number of taps determined by the size of the tree. When they finished, they headed up the hill to the sugar shack. Rose and Nick, who were in boots and not on snowshoes, fell in behind Jo and Elijah.

The air was warm, more like late March than late February, but Rose doubted Nick even noticed. He moved silently next to her, preoccupied, she thought, with his conversation with Jo. When they came to the sugar shack, Jo and Elijah took off their snowshoes and went inside to check out the new evaporating pan.

Brett Griffin walked up from the stream below the small clearing. "I was taking pictures of this place. Cla.s.sic. I want one of a galvanized bucket hanging from a maple tree." He was on snowshoes, without poles, his camera around his neck. "The light's perfect right now-moody but serene."

Rose stood next to Nick by the fireplace. "Are you spending all your time taking pictures these days?" she asked.

"As much as I can, but I still teach skiing." Brett seemed slightly out of breath as he raised his camera. "I've had the police all over me now that Robert's dead, too. I don't blame them, but it's good to be out in the woods, away from all that."

"It's hard to think of Robert as an accomplished arsonist," Rose said.

Brett snapped a picture of the sugar shack. "How accomplished was he considering the way he died? Maybe there is no arsonist and Robert made all this happen to cover up his involvement in drugs, or for his own amus.e.m.e.nt. Maybe he mixed truth and fiction to suit his purposes and instigated fights, took advantage of the situation."

Rose hadn't heard Brett speak so articulately about what had happened, but he seemed almost embarra.s.sed and quickly focused his camera on the fireplace and took another picture.

Nick scooped up a handful of wet snow and patted it into a small s...o...b..ll. "Do you think you'll stay in Black Falls?" he asked.

"Not past spring," Brett said, calmer. "Once the snow melts and the daffodils pop up, I'm on to Colorado to teach wilderness skills and work on another photography project there."

"A fresh start," Rose said.

He gave her a feeble smile. "Yeah, I guess. I wish I'd done more to figure out what was going on with Derek and Robert. That's going to be hard to put behind me. I can't tell if the police think Robert was actually one of Lowell Whittaker's paid killers."

She couldn't, either. "If he was, did Lowell choose Black Falls because of Robert-or vice versa?"

"The police aren't going into that kind of detail with me. It's unnerving to think Robert was a paid killer." He averted his eyes. "At least he and Derek can't hurt anyone else. Then again, they can't provide answers, either."

"It's been a difficult few days," Rose said quietly.

"Yes, it has." Brett suddenly seemed overwhelmed with emotion. "I'll leave you all to your get-together."

"Good luck with the photos. I hope you got some great ones."

"Yeah, thanks."

He moved well on his snowshoes, heading back through the woods to the path out to the lane and Ridge Road. When he was out of sight, Rose smiled at Nick. "Going to start a s...o...b..ll fight?"

He tossed his s...o...b..ll into the fireplace and grinned back at her. "I'd be outnumbered."

"It is a gorgeous day, though, isn't it?"

"Any nicer and you'll be having a mud fest instead of a winter fest."

She laughed, but she could see Nick was tense. Jo had to have stirred up difficult memories. "Mud season hasn't even started."

"Ah. Mud season."

"You'll be long gone back to Beverly Hills by then."

His eyes settled on her, but he said, "Tell me more about maple sugaring."

Twenty-Three.

San Diego, California G rit pulled in front of a cream-colored stucco house in an attractive, upscale San Diego neighborhood. Unless he'd screwed up the directions, he was at the house where Tony and Regina Martini, Nick Martini's folks, lived, with a partial view of San Diego Bay. A sticker on a nice car parked in front of a two-car garage indicated they were members of the San Diego Zoo.

He followed a curving brick walk to the arched front door. He'd left Beverly Hills before light, borrowing one of Sean's cars and managing not to have Beth with him. He got to Coronado in time for a long, highly cla.s.sified meeting that wasn't as boring as he'd feared. Admiral Jenkins was proving to be an interesting naval officer with far-reaching tentacles, and he obviously wanted Grit back fighting the enemy in whatever capacity he could.

After the meeting, Grit had grabbed a sandwich on the fly and punched the Martinis' address into Sean's GPS.

Captain Martini opened the door and gave Grit, who was in his service uniform, thirty seconds to explain what he wanted, then led him back to a softly lit tiled sunroom overlooking a backyard of carefully maintained citrus and avocado trees.

"Have a seat," Captain Martini said, remaining on his feet. He was wearing neatly pressed, expensive golf clothes. "What do you want to know about Nick?"

Grit didn't sit down. "I'm friends with Elijah Cameron, Sean's brother. I was in town on navy business and figured I'd stop by. You know Nick's in Vermont, right?"

"Skip the small talk, Petty Officer Taylor. Get to the point."

"Yes, sir. Did Nick always want to be a smoke jumper, or did he want to be a multimillionaire businessman-"

"He's my son. Whatever he decided to do was okay with me."

"Enlist? You didn't want him to be an officer?"

The captain had no visible reaction to Grit's intrusive questions. "Petty Officer Taylor, why are you here?"

Grit didn't have a clear answer. Atmosphere? Background? Instinct? He wasn't sure about Sean's best friend and business partner?

He shrugged. "Admiral Jenkins sends his best."

The older man's eyes narrowed. "You know him?"

"I work for him now." As Grit had expected, that went over well. "Nick and Sean met and became friends as smoke jumpers. Was Nick still in the navy then?"

"Early on. We're proud of all his accomplishments."

"Was he into fires on the sub?"

"He was a weapons specialist."

"He set fires as a kid? I did. I just wanted to see what would happen if I lit a trail of gunpowder. Nothing good, I can tell you. It worked better in the old Westerns."

"I'm sure you want to get back to L.A. before the traffic gets even worse."

That was it. Captain Martini pointed out his favorite avocado tree and walked Grit back outside. Grit wasn't surprised he hadn't gotten much out of the retired senior officer and absorbed as much of his surroundings as possible. Even if Nick had never lived in this house, it would reflect his family and their feelings about their world, him-which seemed pretty good from what Grit could see. He wondered if Nick had bought the house for his folks and decided that would be an impolite question.

"Thank you for your time, sir," he said.

"Good luck with your rehab."

The captain went back inside. As Grit opened his car door, a woman in a little red sports car pulled in next to Grit's borrowed car. She was in civilian attire, and she had dark hair and eyes and looked a lot like the man he'd just left. "I think I just saw your kindergarten picture. Nick's sister, right? Diana Martini? I'm Ryan Taylor. Grit. I'm friends with the Camerons."

"I know all about you, Petty Officer Taylor. I'm Lieutenant Martini."

"No kidding? They let navy officers drive red cars?"

She almost cracked a smile. "Nick's not here, but I a.s.sume you know that. No games, okay?"

"Has anyone else been by looking for him?"

"When?"

He appreciated her need for precision. "In the past year or so."

"Think I'm going to remember?"

"Yes, Lieutenant, I do. You remember."

"Why would I tell you anything about my brother?"

She had a point there. "Are you friends with Sean Cameron?"

"Of course. My entire family knows Sean. That's how I found out about you, Petty Officer."

Grit let her suspicion, if not outright animosity, roll over him. "Ever date Sean?"

Her eyes were half-closed now. "That wouldn't be a good idea."

"Anymore than for Nick to get involved with Sean's sister?"

"I have to run."

Ta-da. "You know Rose Cameron."

"I only have a few minutes to say hi to my folks-"

"Are you stationed in San Diego?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact."

"Did Rose stop by to check on Nick while she was out here last June? Did you approve of them seeing each other?"

"I'm not discussing my brother with you."

"What about Jasper Vanderhorn?"

She stopped abruptly, her expression under tight control. "You should go."

"Lieutenant, if you don't tell me, I'll tell Sean Cameron. He'll tell the task force that's looking into multiple explosions, fires and murders. Someone will come out to your nice, tidy office on the base-"