Chapter 9
After a week,Nick had to inform Mark Jones that Charlie’s trail had gone cold.
No trace of her.
Has she left town?
I don’t think so. I posted a camera at the only road out, and another one at the airstrip. She’s still here, IMO. Unable to locate her so far.
Then get your ass out of there. Waste of time.
Roger that.
Firelight Ridge had gotten the best of him. He didn’t like it. He didn’t want to leave without having completed his mission.
But he had no choice.
It left Nick with an empty feeling, not just because he hated not fully completing an assignment, but he’d hoped to set eyes on Charlie one more time.
I’ll get the first flight available once I get to Anchorage.
Good. Call me when you’re en route. We’ll regroup from there.
Oh good. That would be fun. Nick set his jaw, already anticipating the scathing grilling he would undergo. Quite possibly, he was going to get fired from this job.
He wouldn’t care, except for the issue of who they might hire instead.
In his threadbare room at the Lamplight, he quickly packed up his bag, then left a hefty tip for the girl who cleaned the room every couple of days, and who did a terrible job. But she was a great source of information, so he didn’t mind leaving her a hundred dollar bill.
When he checked out, Bethie Lund, the reception clerk, turned the volume down on her TV—unusual for her. “You’re leaving already?”
“I am.”
“But…we thought you might stay for the summer. We have some great bands coming for the bluegrass festival in July. Then there’s the salmon run in Snow River. You can’t miss that.”
“It does sound tempting.” Nick gave her his kindest smile. “You never know, maybe I’ll make it back up here.”
“Well then…” She poised her pen over the reservations calendar. “Do you have a forwarding address?”
“I…that’s an odd question.”
“Is it?” She blinked at him. “We ask all our guests.”
“I can’t imagine why.”
“It’s just a precaution.”
“Against what?”
They locked gazes and tried to stare each other down. Man, she was good. This forty-ish Swedish woman, built like a grain silo, didn’t give an inch. And she had his credit card.
Eventually he gave in. “Heading back to Chicago.”
She graciously handed him his card. “Fly safe.”
The long gravel road back to civilization made him remember the exhilarating chase the other direction, when he had Charlie in his crosshairs. Her long blond hair caught by the wind, the tense set of her slim shoulders, the wild rush of anticipation of coming face to face with her again.
“I’ll see you again, Charlie,” he murmured out loud. “Pretty damn sure of that. One way or another.”
As soon as he reached the turnoff at Klutna, his phone gave off a series of dings as it picked up cell service.
An unknown number from an Alaska area code caught his eye. Missed call. Voicemail. He played it.
Charlie’s throaty voice filled the car. “Leaving so soon, Nick Perini? We didn’t even get a chance to catch up.”
He pulled over to the shoulder with a lurch and a squeal of tires that startled a flock of chickadees. Parked on an embankment overlooking the Snow River, he opened the voicemail. She’d left the message ten minutes ago. He punched the number to call it back.
“You’ve reached The Fang. We’re open when we’re open. Don’t bother to leave a message,” growled Bear’s voice.
He called back. Then again. On the third try, Charlie answered. “Heyyy, Nick! How’s your trip going?”
“Well played, Charlie. But you’re just delaying the inevitable.”
“We’ll see. Last I heard, you’re heading back to Chicago headquarters.” Damn that Bethie Lund. He should have known. “I hope they don’t spank you too hard.”
He wanted to laugh, or curse her out, he wasn’t sure which. One thing he did know, the sound of her voice ran through him like a shot of bourbon. “Sweet of you to worry about me.”
“Why wouldn’t I worry? We’re good friends who tell each other the truth, aren’t we?”
“You want the truth?” He stared at the wide braided channels of the Snow River, which came into being somewhere in the mountains past Firelight Ridge, and flowed in broad curves toward the Gulf of Alaska to the south. “You should meet with me. I’m your best shot, Charlie. I mean that sincerely.”
“My hero. Do tell me more.”
“I like you, Charlie. If they hire someone else in my place, they might not feel the same way. You’re better off with me, I can guarantee you that.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
Mark Jones would probably be furious, but he went ahead and told her. “Hobbs Financial Services hired me. But all they want to do is talk.”
“Can you guarantee that too?”
He didn’t answer, because he really couldn’t guarantee that. Jones had been tight-lipped about anything beyond “find her and set up a meeting.”
“Meet me in Klutna. I’ll cancel my flight. We’ll work something out. I promise.”
“You promise? How could I ever trust anything you say?” Her scathing contempt made him wince.
“I can see why you’d have trouble trusting me. It’s very understandable. But we had a connection back in Indiana, right?”
“That’s not helping your case, dude.”
He winced. Of course it wasn’t, since their whole relationship probably seemed like deception to her.
“Just give me a chance here. Let’s meet in person. I’ll turn this car around and go right back to The Fang.” He would have already done that, except that he would have immediately lost the connection.
Like an echo, she said, “You would have already done that if you could keep me on the line.”
Smart woman.
“I don’t trust you. I don’t believe anything that comes out of your mouth. I don’t believe you’re an investment researcher. I don’t believe you have a daughter you only met recently. I’m not even sure if you rescued that bird.”
“Hector? You saw him yourself.”
“Be honest. Did you break that bird’s wing on purpose so you could pretend to help it?”
“No. I’m not a monster.” The idea that she’d believe he’d do such a thing horrified him.
“Monsters never think they’re monsters, do they? Did you also invent a long-lost daughter because you knew that would endear me? Were those stock photos you showed me?” Before he could argue further, she barreled onwards. “Look, Nick, you’re not going to find me. You don’t know if I’m planning to stay in Firelight Ridge or hop a plane out of here. I know you had cameras all over town. But seriously, outside Lila’s place? Not cool, man.”
The hardware store? He hadn’t put a camera near the hardware store. He’d thought about it, but decided it was too intrusive. Charlie was still talking. “If you try to come back, I’ll hear about it, whether or not I’m still here. That’s the only reason I’m calling you now. To say goodbye and that’s a wrap on our little cat-and-mouse game. Sometimes the cat wins, sometimes the mouse, and that’s just the way it is.”
The call ended. Nick stared blindly at the flowing river glinting in the sunlight.
Was Charlie calling herself a mouse? That was ridiculous. And if she thought she’d won….well, in a way she was right. She’d evaded him. But she had no idea what might come in his wake. In the end, she might decide that she hadn’t won.
Shit. He’d really screwed this up. And that hardware store camera bothered him. Was someone else spying on Charlie, or maybe Lila? Surveillance cameras like the ones he used were specialty items. They wouldn’t be easy to come by out here. Who else was spying on Firelight Ridge residents?
Maybe he should go back and warn them. But Charlie had made it pretty clear she wouldn’t believe anything he said anyway.
Still, worth a try.
He called The Fang again. This time, Bear answered.
“Hi Bear, this is Nick Perini. Don’t?—”
“She doesn’t want to talk to you.” Bear hung up.
Jesus. Should he call back yet again? Charlie knew about the camera at the hardware store, so she’d probably already disabled it. If Charlie was the target, clearly she could take care of herself. If Lila was the target, well…she had Bear on her side. Nick had come to know Bear as someone with a terrifying exterior and an endlessly kind heart.
Anyway, they weren’t his responsibility. Mark Jones was the one paying him. He placed his next call to Jones.
“Checking in as requested.”
“Good. Listen, what’s your best guess? Is Charlie going to stick around there?”
“I doubt it.”
“Why? You said she has friends there.”
“Yes, but…” He made a series of quick calculations. His gut said that Charlie was going to stay here for a little while. But he didn’t want to tell Jones that. He didn’t trust him. How to misdirect, but not appear to be doing so? “I think she’ll come back for her father.”
“Isn’t he in prison?”
“Yes, but he’s extremely important in her life. I’d say he’s probably at the heart of everything she does.”
“Old Donnie Santa Lucia, huh?”
The nickname had Nick’s ears perking up. Did Mark Jones know Donato? It sure sounded like he did. Interesting. He’d never mentioned that. There was nothing about Hobbs Financial in the file on Charlie. In fact, the file had barely even mentioned her father, other than the fact that he was in prison.
This called for some off-the-books research.
“Okay, Perini. We’ll debrief more later. Bested by an amateur, but I guess you can’t win ‘em all.”
Nick ended the call with his traditional middle finger salute, then started up the car and got back on the road.
So much for his Firelight Ridge adventure.
For now.