Cold Pursuit

Ten

Elijah dipped onto a narrow, seldom-used spur off the falls trail and picked up his pace, not because he’d caught a glimpse of Jo below him-although he had-but because he’d spotted Devin up by a hemlock, about thirty yards away.

Jo wouldn’t catch up unless Elijah wanted her to or he fell flat on his face on the steep, rocky trail, which was possible given his mood. He didn’t know if she’d seen him, if A.J. had ratted him out or if some Secret Service instinct had kicked in, but she seemed to have a fair idea of where he was.

Maybe she’d spotted Devin, too.

Hiking straight up to the summit of Cameron Mountain and back down again could be done in a day. The main trails were well marked and well maintained. But leave them, either for a less popular trail or to go off-trail altogether, and even experienced hikers could end up lost in the miles of woods, cliffs, hollows, streams and steep, unforgiving terrain. In his first days back home, Elijah had fetched a pair of lost honeymooners from Boston off the mountain. They were in one of the few spots with cell phone service and were able to call the lodge for help.

He’d tried calling Devin’s cell phone but didn’t get an answer.

Elijah adjusted his daypack, which he kept in his truck at all times, and hoofed it up a near-vertical incline of rock. At the top, the trail leveled off for about three feet then switchbacked on up the mountain.

Devin was directly above him, climbing over a spruce tree that wind or an ice storm had dropped across the trail. The densely wooded hillside was littered with fallen trees.

“Hold up, Devin,” Elijah said calmly. “I want to talk to you.”

He stood up, gripping a thick walking stick, breathing hard. “Leave me alone, okay? Just go back and stack some more wood.”

“Wood’s stacked. What are you doing up here?”

Devin ignored him, wiped his brow with his sleeve and continued on his way.

Seeing how the shortest distance between two points was a straight line, Elijah left the trail and pushed uphill through dead leaves, pine needles and rocks, emerging on the other side of the fallen spruce.

Devin faltered for a half beat, looking uncertain, then pivoted and kept going.

“You’re wearing the wrong clothes,” Elijah said. “You’re not carrying a pack. That means you have no water. You’re asking for dehydration and hypothermia.”

Devin glanced back, sullen, his ball cap low over his eyes. “Did my sister sic you on me?”

“I’m here on my own, but if she’d asked me to find you, it’d be because she’s worried.”

“Hannah worries too much.”

“Maybe so, but she has good reason-”

“Not on my account.”

Elijah climbed over the fallen spruce, mindful of dead, sharp branches and sticky pitch. Seven months ago, picturing himself out here had kept him going through grief and rehab-and anger. “Are you on your way to meet Nora?” he asked Devin. “Her stepfather was killed this morning in Washington. She took off suddenly. If you’ve talked to her you could help reassure the people who care about her.”

“And who would that be?” Devin spun around and glared bitterly down the trail at Elijah. “Her father doesn’t care about her. Her mother, either. They’re into their own lives-they don’t care about Nora. And her stepfather. She didn’t tell me about the hit-and-run. Hannah did. I’m sorry he got killed, but he never wanted anything to do with Nora.”

“Is that from your own observations, or what she told you?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It’s easy to feel alienated when you’re trying to figure out your life.”

“Go to hell, Elijah.”

He’d have responded the same way at eighteen. “Nora isn’t used to being out here the way you are.”

“She just wants to clear her head and to practice what you taught her. I tried to tell her the same stuff you did in that class, but she had to hear it from you.” He raised his chin. “The big Green Beret.”

Elijah let that one go. “Any idea what route she took? There are a lot of ways she can get lost or into trouble out here. Does she have a cell phone, GPS?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t tell me her plans.”

“Is she avoiding you, Devin?”

“Get off my case, Elijah. I know you and A.J. think I’m no damn good. Tough.”

“If you don’t know where Nora is, then hike back to the lodge with me. Let’s sit down with A.J. and figure things out.”

“You go back to the lodge.”

Elijah felt like wringing Devin’s neck. “Why are you so combative?”

“I don’t like being under the Cameron microscope. I found your father’s body, and what thanks do I get?”

“Did you expect thanks, Devin?”

He paled slightly, seemed to realize he’d gone too far.

“For two cents,” Elijah said, “I’d throw you off this damn mountain. Hell, I’d do it for free. If you see Nora, let her know that she’s not alone.”

“She is alone.” Devin stood in the middle of the trail, his cheeks red with the cold and emotion as he hooked his walking stick under one arm. “We’re all alone when it comes right down to it.”

Elijah couldn’t argue with him on that score. “You’re a lot of fun these days.”

“I’m a realist.”

“Devin, if you need a hand-”

“I don’t need anything.”

“Money’s missing from the lodge,” Elijah said quietly.

Devin stared down into the dense evergreens and seemed to take a moment to collect himself. “I don’t steal,” he said. “Not from anyone.”

“You’re short one day, cash is sitting right there…”

“I didn’t take anything from A.J. or the lodge. If either of you had any evidence against me, you’d call the police.”

“Not necessarily.”

“How stupid do you think I am?” He spun back onto the trail, set his walking stick on a soft spot and moved forward. “Camerons don’t do favors for anyone but themselves.”

Elijah stayed within ten feet of Devin, and he wondered how fast Jo was gaining on them. He still didn’t want to talk about missing money in front of her. “What about Nora? She’s used to having money. She’s probably had quite a wakeup call being on her own.”

“She doesn’t steal, either.”

“Think you might impress her if you had some extra cash to toss around?”

Devin humped it up a rock face in the middle of the trail. Short of wrestling him to the ground, Elijah had little choice but to let him go. “Take your time,” he said. “Don’t trip on a root or a rock and split your head open. I’m not going to follow you. If you want to talk to me, you know where to find me. Anytime. Day or night.”

No response.

“Where will you be if I want to talk to you?”

Devin raised his middle finger without so much as a pause in his step or a backward glance down the trail.

Message received, Elijah thought.

He started back down the trail, not taking his shortcut this time. A cool breeze floated through the trees, bringing with it the acidic smell of the pines and spruces. He could camp up here for the night. He didn’t have to go back.

But Jo would be gaining on him. He kept going, rounding the hairpin turn, then dropping off the thick roots of a giant spruce tree, landing in front of her. “Agent Harper,” he said amiably. “Nice day for a hike, but watch out for wet spots this time of year. We don’t want to contribute to trail erosion.”

She wasn’t breathing all that hard for someone who’d hiked up the mountain as rapidly as she had. She looked past him. “Where’s Devin headed?”

“He didn’t say. Why? He hasn’t done anything to alert the Secret Service, has he?”

Jo ignored his bantering tone. “What about Nora Asher?”

“I haven’t seen her.”

“Has Devin?”

“Didn’t say.”

“Is he meeting her?”

“Likewise, he didn’t say.” Elijah noticed the color high in Jo’s cheeks-wind, exertion, irritation. A sense of purpose. “Getting banished to Vermont must be rough when you have an ambassador turn up dead in Washington. Nora taking off into the woods by itself isn’t a big deal, but it reminds you that you have nothing to do. So you turn it into something-”

“Elijah.”

“So intense, Jo.” He grinned at her. “Damn, but you have pretty eyes. The copper highlights bring out the turquoise.”

“Elijah, we can do this nice, or I can shoot you. Which will it be?”

“You’re not supposed to talk like that. You’re a professional.”

“No witnesses.”

“You didn’t think there were witnesses at the Neals’, either.”

“No, I didn’t care if there were. There’s a difference.”

Jo did have a way about her. Elijah jumped lightly onto a flat, gray rock. A breeze rustled through the trees. “Devin’s not a bad kid, and if Nora’s decided to try winter camping, for whatever reason, she knows what to do.”

“A lot of people who know what to do end up in trouble up here.”

His father, for one.

Jo seemed to read his mind and took a sharp breath. “Elijah, I’m sorry.”

“Forget it. You just stated a fact. I understand Nora’s father is worried about her, but she’s got a good head start on us. Even if we find her, we’ll probably run out of daylight before we can get her off the mountain. I’m prepared to spend the night up here. You’re not.”

“She is?”

He shrugged. “If she packed the gear she showed me, absolutely.”

“Devin?”

“He’s a natural. Give him a jackknife, and he could survive Antarctica.” But Elijah saw that Jo wasn’t going to respond to his humor, and he said, “I’m not worried about Devin. Let’s get moving before we end up in trouble ourselves.” He nodded down the trail. “You walk point. I’d rather look at your butt than have you look at mine.”

“Elijah…”

“You’re blushing, Agent Harper. I thought I’d never see the day. Even fifteen years ago when we were-”

“Right now, Elijah, I’m looking for a good spot to hide your body.”

She tried to pull off a scowl but couldn’t do it, and he laughed, appreciating that she hadn’t let mention of his father’s death stop her from reacting exactly the way he’d expected, the way he’d wanted her to-sharp-tongued, feisty, smart.

She lifted a foot onto a knee-high boulder and stretched her calf muscles, and he couldn’t help but notice the curve of her hip. “You’re wearing jeans,” he said. “Jeans aren’t good in the cold.”

“I’m aware of that, and, if you’ll notice, you’re also in jeans.”

He patted the strap of his daypack. “But I have a change of clothes. Not carrying any water, either?”

She didn’t answer and dropped her foot back to the trail.

“I have more than enough water to share,” Elijah said.

“Thank you. I’ll let you know if I get thirsty.”

“When was the last time you were up here on your own?”

“Years,” she said, and left it at that as she about-faced and plunged back down the trail.

Her butt really wasn’t hard to look at, Elijah noted. It never had been.

She stopped abruptly and turned to him. “I want to know what you and A.J. aren’t telling me.”

He stepped down next to her. “I don’t know about A.J., but I’m debating the wisdom of telling you that you have mud splattered on your left thigh.”

“I’m serious.”

“Honest, Jo. It’s about three inches below where you got plastered with airsoft pellets.”

“You don’t have a clue where I got hit.”

“I do. It was on the video. The kid who put it up on the Internet had these red arrows point to where you got nailed.”

She sighed. “I’m never living this one down, am I?”

“Probably not.”

“Listen, Elijah.” She was calmer now, not so combative. “I figure you and A.J. aren’t telling me what Devin did or what you suspect him of having done because you want to give him a chance to make good on it. Am I right?”

He didn’t answer.

“I am right,” she said.

“You’re a Harper. You do love being right.”

It wasn’t the nicest thing to say, but she ignored him and put her hands on her slim hips. She was serious now. She looked out at the woods. “Your father knew this mountain better than anyone, except maybe you. He had a full pack. He was prepared-”

“No snowshoes.”

“The snow wasn’t that deep. He managed to get up the mountain in boots. His pack was located a few yards from where he died. That’s significant, Elijah. You know that. People suffering from hypothermia can become disoriented and exercise poor judgment.”

“We don’t know what happened.”

Jo scrutinized him as only she could. Finally, she said, “You don’t believe his death was an accident.”

“Doesn’t matter what I think.”

“Maybe he fell and dropped his pack before he began to suffer the effects of hypothermia,” she said. “He was experienced-he’d rescued enough people off the mountain to know he was at risk under those conditions. At the first sign of trouble, if he were able, he’d have dug into his pack for more clothes, pulled out whatever he had for emergency shelter-”

“Two trash bags.”

She nodded. “That’d work, but he never used them, did he?”

“No.” Elijah slipped his pack off his shoulder, got out his water bottle, uncapped it and took a long drink as he eyed Jo. “Do you want me to throw you over my shoulder and carry you down this mountain, or do you want to keep moving?”

“I don’t know. Throwing me over your shoulder could be fun.”

“Jo.”

She grinned at him, her eyes sparking, but she got moving. He recapped his water bottle and followed her at an easy pace. She put some distance between them, and he lost her on a steep downward turn. When he rounded it, she was there, planted in the middle of the trail with both hands up to block him.

“An ambush,” he said, amused, ignoring her intense look. “I think you tried this when you were twelve and I just picked you up and moved you.”

She was having none of it. “Listen to me, Elijah,” she said, her voice tight, low, as she placed her hands on his chest, pushed him back on his heels. “Even if your father had used everything he had with him, he still might have succumbed to hypothermia eventually. You know that. But whatever happened, he’s gone. Nora and Devin aren’t. If you have information to suggest either of them is in trouble-”

“I don’t. If I did, I’d tell the local police.”

She took his gibe without visible reaction. She nodded. “I believe you.”

“Do you?” As she started to take a step back from him, he caught her hands into his and heard her intake of breath as he drew her closer to him. Her fingers were cold, but there was nothing cold about her expression. Her lips parted, and she didn’t avert her eyes as he stared into them, let himself say what was on his mind. “We could be at the falls in twenty minutes. We could go swimming. The water’s freezing, but we could forget everything for a little while.” He smiled, aching to kiss her, to make love to her again. “Hell of an image, isn’t it?”

“How out of control are you, Elijah?”

He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed her fingertips. “Not out of control at all.” He winked as he released her. “Otherwise, sweet pea, we’d be peeling off our clothes at the falls right now.”

“You would. Not me. My skinny-dipping days are over.” She tucked her hands into fists at her sides and was serious again. “Elijah, Devin isn’t you at eighteen. It’s not your job to save him.”

Her comment rubbed him in all the wrong ways. He eased past her on the trail, then stopped, looking up at her. In the already fading afternoon light, her eyes were dark, her skin pale. “It would be a mistake to think you know me.”

“Is that supposed to make me shake in my boots?” Her reaction wasn’t at all what he’d expected. She walked down to him. “Because it doesn’t. I appreciate your military service, Elijah, and I’m sorry you got shot, and I’m sorry your father died-and I’m sorry he left me the lakefront property instead of you all. But you don’t scare me.”

“Damn, Jo, you’re a pain. No wonder Charlie Neal arranged to have you shot in the ass. For the record, you scare the hell out of me.”

“Will you stop?”

“No, I’m serious. When you were fifteen…holy hell. You were scary even then. I can see those turquoise eyes of yours flashing at me when you wanted to stop me dead in my tracks. By the time you were eighteen, how was I supposed to resist?”

“You didn’t even try, as I recall. You pursued me like there was no tomorrow.”

“Fun, wasn’t it?”

“Memorable.” She shivered against a sudden gust of wind and looked out at the view through the bare trees. “Eighteen didn’t feel as young then as it does now.” She glanced sideways at him and smiled. “No wonder my father looked for ways to arrest you. I’ve often thought it was just as well your father was the one who discovered us.”

“Were you rebelling, falling for me?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Not even a little.” But her federal-agent discipline kicked in as she started back down the trail. “Maybe Devin decided to forget Nora and go home. He could be taking another trail off the mountain. He still lives with his sister, doesn’t he?”

“A.J. lets him stay at the lodge.”

“You mean Lauren does.”

“That would be another way of putting it, yes.”

“Maybe we should knock on his door.”

Elijah nodded. “Fine. We’ll knock on his door.”