Cold Pursuit

Five

Jo unzipped her fleece jacket as she entered the breakfast-lunch café that her sister owned with two of her friends. They called it Three Sisters, in honor of their tight friendship. It was located across from the village green on the first floor of a graceful 1835 brick house owned by Sean Cameron, arguably the most charming of the Cameron siblings. Not, Jo thought, that it took that much to be more charming than A.J. or Elijah-or even Rose. And since Sean was a multimillionaire developer in southern California these days, Jo suspected he was as exacting in his own way as his siblings, just with smoother edges.

The café wasn’t crowded. It was late for breakfast and early for lunch. Jo was meeting her sister there after their five-mile run that morning, Beth griping every inch of the way. They’d gone along the lake road past Elijah’s house, then doubled back out to the main road. Jo had enjoyed the run. Her airsoft welts had calmed down and didn’t ache as much, and she and Beth had encountered deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, chipmunks, crows, chickadees and one woodpecker.

She nodded to Scott Thorne, a state trooper Beth was dating, as he added cream to his coffee-to-go, but he pretended not to see her as he headed for a riverside table on the back wall. So she called to him. “Hey, Scott.”

He sighed. “Jo.”

Her sister rolled her eyes as she slipped on an apron in dark evergreen-the café’s signature color-behind the glass case. She was a paramedic as well as co-owner of the café, two years younger and slightly taller than Jo, and the copper highlights in her dark hair were natural. “Don’t pick on Scott,” she said cheerfully. “What’s your pleasure, Agent Harper?”

Jo surveyed the tempting array of treats and pointed at a plate of buttermilk-currant scones. “I want one of those. I know I should go for the nuts-and-seeds bread, but we ran five miles this morning.”

“You ran five miles. I slogged.”

But when she reached into the case, Beth grabbed two scones-one for Jo, one for herself-and set them on small evergreen-colored plates. Jo got mugs and filled them at the coffee bar.

They joined Scott at his table overlooking the river. He was in uniform, and Jo recognized the prestigious silver ram’s horns insignia that identified him as a member of the Vermont State Police search-and-rescue team. He gave Jo a quick glance, then got up and addressed Beth. “I have to run.”

Beth didn’t look the least bit offended. “Dominique’s making leek-and-goat-cheese tarts,” she said, referring to Dominique Belair, one of the three “sisters.” Beth grinned. “I can snag one for dinner-”

“That’s okay,” Scott said with the barest flicker of a smile. “I’ll see you later, though.”

Once he was back on the street, Jo sighed. “Looks as if I ran off your trooper boyfriend.”

“Scott,” Beth said. “His name is Scott. I guess he could have been nicer to you, huh?”

“Nah. He did what I’d have done in his position-be polite and scoot.”

“He’ll like you once things settle down with you and that Internet flap. But he really is good-looking, isn’t he?”

“Very. I think I saw dimples when he smiled at you.”

“Don’t tell him he has dimples. He’ll never warm up to you.”

Jo laughed, relishing her sister’s company. How long had it been since they’d had lazy days to spend together? “Fresh scones, hot coffee and a nice view. Life in exile’s not too bad.”

Beth snorted. “For you. It’s killing me. Canoeing in the cold yesterday, a five-mile run in the cold this morning.” She gave an exaggerated stretch of her lower back. “A three-mile run would have been fine with me. No run would have been fine. I don’t need to be in shape to leap tall buildings and run after bad guys. Then again, at the rate you’re going, before long neither will you.”

Jo broke open her scone, which was filled with tiny dried currants. “Fair point.”

“I’m just saying.” Beth dipped her knife into a small pot of Vermont-made butter and slathered it on her scone. “You like this kid, Charlie, don’t you?”

“Charlie counts on people liking him.”

“Maybe he was looking for attention with that prank of his. Big family, father’s the vice president-you Secret Service types everywhere. It can’t be all that easy to stand out.”

“Not my problem. He and his friends and bazillion cousins are okay. That’s really all that matters.”

“Even if you lose your job?”

“Even if.”

“That’s very Secret Service of you, video or no video.”

“I’ll survive. There are other jobs for someone who can leap tall buildings and run after bad guys.” Jo smiled at her sister. “The Vermont State Police might take me.”

Beth almost spit out her coffee. “Scott would just die, wouldn’t he?”

A muffled sob back toward the glass case drew their attention, and they both turned as Nora Asher burst from the café kitchen, whipping off a dark green apron and charging for the front door.

Jo started to get up, but Beth shook her head, subtly pointing as Devin Shay quietly came out from the kitchen, hesitated, then followed Nora outside.

“What was that all about?” Jo asked.

“Devin’s in over his head with that girl.” Beth sat back, still and serious now. “He’s in over his head with a lot of things these days. He’s had a rough time since he found Drew Cameron. That was a tough one, Jo, I have to tell you. Drew was a father figure to Devin. He almost didn’t graduate. He’s been in and out of trouble ever since-nothing too bad, but it could turn bad fast.”

“Does he have any plans to go to college?”

“Talks about community college, but he can’t plan what to have for supper much less what he’s going to do six months from now.”

Jo looked out at the street, but she couldn’t see the two teenagers. “How long have he and Nora been seeing each other?”

“A month, maybe. She’s only been in town six or seven weeks. She’s a hard worker, but she’s using Devin-not consciously, I’m sure. She’s just caught up in the romance of living in Vermont.”

“Mountains, moose, maple syrup, pretty cows.”

Beth barely cracked a smile. “She likes the idea of hooking up with a ‘native’ Vermonter. Devin didn’t climb off a Norman Rockwell painting. I didn’t, either.”

“What’s he see in Nora?”

“Everything he isn’t.”

Jo drank more of her coffee and watched the sun dance on the clear, copper water in the shallow river. She remembered Drew fussing about why Sean had wanted to buy the gracious old house in the first place, never mind why he hung on to it. The three friends-Beth, Dominique and Hannah, Devin’s older sister-had applied their talent, vision and energy into creating their cozy, very popular café. They’d sanded, painted, scrubbed, added cottage-style furniture and come up with a varied, appealing menu. Dominique was responsible for most of the food, Hannah for keeping the books and managing the staff, and Beth for maintenance and comfort food.

Finally Jo shifted back to her sister. “What else?”

Beth drummed her fingers on the table. She’d finished her scone and most of her coffee and seemed ready to jump up and get out of there. While Jo was off chipping away at a career in the Secret Service, Beth had stayed in Vermont, gone to college, worked-but Jo wasn’t fooled. Her sister had the same restless energy as she, but Beth funneled hers into her life in Black Falls.

“Beth…”

“It’s nothing. Never mind. Have you figured out what to do with your cabins yet?”

Jo went along with the change in subject. “Besides hope for a fire? No.”

“What about your neighbor?”

“Elijah? I haven’t seen much of him.”

“He’s at a loose end. You’re at a loose end.” Beth shook her head. “A soldier and a federal agent with nothing to do. My definition of dangerous.”

Jo smiled. “We can’t get into too much trouble out on our quiet Vermont lake.”

Her sister was serious again. “He should be dead, Jo. He tied a tourniquet on his leg and expected to fight until his last breath and save his men. Instead-he lived.”

“He says he’s fully recovered.”

“He probably is. Physically, at least. He’s lucky. You’ve had advance medical training as a Secret Service agent-you know how dangerous femoral artery injuries are. I can’t imagine one in the middle of a firefight in the remote mountains of Afghanistan. It’s a miracle he lived. An absolute miracle.”

“Was anyone else injured?”

“Rose tried to pry what she could out of him and his doctors. It’s not much. He was part of a joint special operations team that came under attack. A Navy SEAL was killed. Another was grievously wounded. Elijah spent a month in the hospital. He did rehab and supposedly got some kind of staff assignment for a while. Now he’s home.”

“Permanently?”

“Who knows? There are lots of rumors about Elijah, as you can imagine. Including that he’s not satisfied with the official explanation of his father’s death. Scott helped with the search.”

“Tough time.”

Beth nodded. “The worst. It’s not Elijah’s fault his father died, but in my opinion, he’s looking to assuage his own guilt for not being here. Of course, that wasn’t his fault, either.”

“Maybe he has legitimate unanswered questions.”

“And maybe his questions have no answers. Uh-oh. Speak of the devil.” Beth pushed back her chair and made a face. “He’s all yours, Jo.”

Jo glanced back toward the street and saw that, in fact, Elijah had arrived at the café. She grinned at her sister. “Chicken.”

“You bet. He scares me when he comes in here and orders a scone. Can you imagine, Elijah Cameron sitting down with a scone and butter?”

“You’re bad, Beth. Honestly.”

Her sister laughed. “Scott would agree with you. I’ll have to tell him you two have common ground after all.” She got to her feet and gathered up her plate and mug. “My hamstrings are on fire. I need at least a day’s rest before we go for another run.”

“It felt good, running up here instead of in the city-”

“And running with your out-of-shape sister instead of all your buff Secret Service friends.”

“You’re not that out of shape, Beth.”

“Ha,” she said as she dumped her plate and mug in a dishpan on a side table and scooted out, passing Elijah on his way in. No Red Sox cap today-the sun caught the ends of his close-cropped tawny hair, reminding Jo, somehow, of him at nineteen. But she knew it would be a mistake to fall back on old habits.

Plus, he was obviously in some kind of cantankerous, rotten Cameron mood.

He didn’t say a word to Beth, then ignored Jo, or maybe didn’t notice her, and headed straight for the glass case, where Hannah Shay was unloading cookies from a big metal sheet onto an evergreen plate. She had on a frumpy skirt, and her fair hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail that emphasized the delicate bone structure of her face.

She gave Elijah a cool look. “What can I get you? The cookies are still warm. I have peanut butter, chocolate chip-”

“Is Devin here?”

More coolness. “No, Elijah, he’s not.”

“Where is he?”

“I’m sorry.” Hannah tucked the empty tray under one arm. “I don’t have time to talk. I have to study.”

She set the tray on the spotless counter, peeled off her apron and walked calmly out from behind the case. Whatever was going on between her and Elijah, Hannah, Jo thought, had herself under control. She always did. She was in her late twenties but seemed older, perhaps because of the hard life she’d led. She’d grown up in an isolated hollow just outside Black Falls, a different Vermont from the one Jo had known. After her mother died, Hannah took over as guardian to her two younger brothers, Devin and Toby, who were just ten and eleven at the time. Their father had abandoned the family over and over before finally running his car into a tree and killing himself not long after Toby was born. In addition to running the café with Beth and Dominique, Hannah was putting herself through law school. Most people in town had learned not to underestimate her.

“It’s good to see you, Jo,” Hannah said graciously. “Dominique makes amazing scones, doesn’t she?”

“She does. Nice to see you, too, Hannah.”

Hannah didn’t make a gibe about Charlie Neal and the video, but that wasn’t her style. Instead of going out the front entrance, she left through a side door that opened into the house’s center hall and headed up the curving stairs to the apartment she shared with her brothers.

Elijah made a move toward the door. He had on his canvas jacket, jeans and scarred hiking boots, and he looked as if he wanted to punch a fist through the nearest wall. Not that he was angry at Hannah. Something else, Jo thought.

She cupped her coffee mug in both hands. “Hannah doesn’t want to talk to you.”

He walked over to her table and helped himself to a chunk of her scone. The intensity of a moment ago seemed to have vanished. “I figured you for raw eggs and wheat germ in a blender.”

“Everything in moderation,” Jo said. “Beth and I ran this morning.”

“Did you? I just saw you stretching in your undies down by the lake.”

“Don’t get your hopes up. Those were my yoga clothes.”

He winked at her. “Looked like undies to me.”

The man was hunting trouble. “Don’t you have a job?”

“I stay busy. I saw you on your roof yesterday. Checking for bats?”

“Rot. I don’t want leaks.”

“If a bat gets in, you can scream. I’ll come rescue you.”

She bit off a sigh and set down her mug. “I can’t believe I almost eloped with you.”

“Sure you can.” The intensity was back, not quite contained behind his winks and teasing. “What’s the matter, Jo, don’t you have a sexy bad boy waiting for you back in Washington?”

“A straitlaced FBI agent. He follows the rules. We just started seeing each other.”

“Bet he loves your video.”

She didn’t respond and wished she hadn’t let Elijah goad her down this road. He’d always known what buttons to push with her-physically, emotionally.

There was a straitlaced FBI agent. But they weren’t going anywhere together, and they both knew it.

Elijah narrowed his deep blue eyes on her. “Ah.” He looked amused now. “You don’t know what he thinks of your video. He doesn’t return your calls, does he?”

“I haven’t called him.”

“Want me to-”

“Do nothing, Elijah. I want you to do nothing.”

“If I were in your shoes,” he said, “I’d make up a straitlaced FBI agent just in case having an old flame next door became a distraction. Isn’t that the big thing with the Secret Service-prevention?”

“We do pretty well with snipers, too.”

It wasn’t something she should have said, but it had no effect whatsoever on Elijah. He grinned at her; it wasn’t a pleasant grin. “See you, Agent Harper. Do more yoga. Go back up on the roof. I like watching the wild turkeys, but you’re prettier, even armed.”

She resisted shooting him as he headed out. Once the door shut behind him, she counted to three, breathed, then set her mug and plate in the dishpan. She didn’t know whether to blame her run, boredom or what for letting herself get into a sexually charged verbal sparring match with an out-of-work ex-soldier or whatever Elijah was these days.

Ex-lover. He would always be that to her.

She pushed a flood of memories aside and quickly ducked into the center hall. She didn’t hear anything from upstairs and resisted going up and knocking on Hannah’s door. Only pure nosiness made her want to find out what was going on between Hannah and Elijah.

Instead, she zipped up her fleece jacket and stepped outside. The village of Black Falls was located in a narrow river valley in the heart of the Green Mountains that ran up the middle of Vermont. Its attractive main street was lined with renovated old houses-clapboard, brick, stone-that were often the subject of Vermont postcards. Most had been converted into shops and businesses.

Across the street, the midday sun peeked through the naked trees on the sliver of a town green and sparkled on brightly colored fallen leaves. Not a bad place to be, Jo thought, even with Elijah in town. She felt some of the tension of being around him ease. She enjoyed the chance to spend time with her family. They’d all had spaghetti up at her parents’ place last night.

But she still had an afternoon to kill and wasn’t used to being at a loose end.

As she reached her car, her cell phone rang. Service was spotty in the nooks and crannies of south-central Vermont, but she had a decent signal.

“Jo…thank God.”

She recognized Thomas Asher’s strangled voice. “Thomas? What’s-”

“There’s been an accident.” He gulped in a breath and rushed forward, his words coming fast. “I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t an accident. The police…I can’t think…I…”

“Whoa, Thomas, slow down. Start from the beginning. Who’s hurt?”

“Alex. Alex Bruni. Jo-he’s dead. I can’t believe it. He was hit by a car outside a hotel across from his office. He…The police say he was killed instantly. It was a hit-and-run. The driver took off.”

“Does Nora know?”

“Yes. I called and told her.” He sounded slightly calmer now that he had delivered the news. “I don’t know how much she heard or didn’t hear-we didn’t have a good connection. Jo, could I ask you to check on her? Would you mind? Nora doesn’t know many people up there. I’d feel better if you could-” His voice cracked. “I’m in shock. Alex and I have been…we were friends for more than twenty years.”

“Thomas, do you have any reason to suspect Nora is in any danger?”

“No! No, no, she’s not in danger. I’m just worried about her emotional state. She and Alex didn’t get along that well, but she’s close to her mother. Carolyn will get the first flight she can out of Hong Kong, but it’ll take a while.”

“Have you been in touch with the police?”

“What?”

“The police. If Ambassador Bruni was killed in a hit-and-run-”

“Right, of course.” He seemed to have trouble focusing. “The police are investigating. I don’t know the details, Jo. I was here at my office working on a presentation when I heard.”

“How did you find out?”

“Alex’s secretary called me. So that I could tell Nora before she heard it on the news.” He was breathless, obviously shaken. “I didn’t have to tell Carolyn. Thank heaven for that. I think the police told her. I spoke to her, of course-I assured her I’d take care of Nora. Jo…”

“I’ll check on her right now, Thomas. I’m sorry about Ambassador Bruni.”

“I knew him longer than Carolyn. People wonder why we stayed friends after they got together, but there was never a question…” He sobbed openly. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

“How did Nora take the news?” Jo asked, trying to cut through his grief.

“Hard to tell. She stayed calm, but it’s such a shock. I just want to be sure she’s okay. She’s so young, Jo-she should be at college, with professors and counselors and friends.”

“Do you want her to make arrangements to get back to Washington?”

“I don’t know. A funeral is on hold for now, pending the-the autopsy…” He seemed to drift off, then added quietly, “It’s hard to think about the future.”

“Then don’t. Think about what you need to do right now. Are you alone?”

“Melanie’s on her way.”

The fiancée. Jo pulled her car door open. “That’s good.”

“We’ll come up there if we need to. Nora and I-we used to be so close. I wish you’d known us then. She doesn’t communicate with me the way she used to. Remember being eighteen?”

Staying on the lake next to Elijah, she’d been remembering being eighteen a lot. But she wasn’t going there. “Why did Nora quit school? Was there a precipitating incident-a crisis, anything?”

“I think it was pure impulse. She loves Vermont, or at least the idea of it.” Thomas’s tone cooled noticeably. “Her decision to take a break from college has nothing to do with Alex’s death.”

“All right. I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve laid eyes on her.”

“I haven’t even asked how you are,” he said quietly.

“I just had a warm scone and coffee at the café where I understand you and Melanie met.”

“Ah.” He seemed to try to sound cheerful. “The Three Sisters Café of Black Falls, Vermont, has the best scones anywhere.” But he choked up with emotion. “Jo…”

“I know, Thomas. I’m so sorry. I’ll go look in on Nora now.”

“Thank you.”

He hung up, and Jo climbed into her car and stuck the key in the ignition. Her head felt pinched, tight. Had Nora talked to her father before she’d fled the café? Was that why she was so upset? Had Devin known her stepfather was dead?

Had Elijah known?

She debated, then dialed several law enforcement friends in Washington. No one picked up. A cell signal wasn’t the problem this time. “From hero to goat,” she muttered. She wasn’t offended. She relented and tried her boss.

Francona picked up on the first ring. “Thought you’d be in a canoe.”

“Ambassador Bruni’s stepdaughter lives in Black Falls. She just took off from the café where she works-”

“Three Sisters on Main Street. I’ve got the Web site up now.” He paused and added, “Quaint.”

“The owners aren’t sisters.”

“Beth Harper’s your sister.”

Jo didn’t respond.

“I’m surprised the lakes up there aren’t all frozen. Do you own a canoe?”

Yesterday, she and Beth had appropriated the canoe left on her property. Elijah’s, no doubt. “Actually, no.”

“Borrow one. Rent one. Whatever.”

Jo sighed. “Did a report on Bruni just cross your desk? Is that why you had the café Web site up?”

“Wear a life vest.”

He disconnected.

Mark Francona was difficult and exacting on a good day. Today, Jo thought, wasn’t a good day.

She drove up along the town green and crossed the covered bridge over the river, heading up a hill toward the country estate where Nora Asher lived.

“I’d give my life for Elijah.”

Jo gripped the wheel and pushed back the image of Drew Cameron on their walk among the cherry blossoms. She didn’t know anything that would connect their unsettling conversation and his death two weeks later, much less Alexander Bruni’s death a few hours ago.

But something was wrong in Black Falls, she thought, and had been for some time.