Cold Dawn Part 29

"You hardly ever go out, Dom."

She raised her brown eyes. "Are you suggesting I'm hiding something?"

"Asking."

She twisted her hands together. "Nothing that matters."

"Whatever you're hiding, Dom, people are going to find out. It's hard enough to keep secrets around here when things are normal."

Dominique shut her eyes briefly, then spoke without looking at Rose. "I was married for about five minutes four years ago." She paused, rubbing her fingertips over the butcher-block tabletop. "He had money. Has. He's not from around here. Cleveland. He's an alpine skier, though. He loves Vermont. He took lessons from Derek. I did, too."

"Dom, as far as secrets go..."

"I got involved in prescription drug abuse," she said quietly. "I'm clean now. I have been for four years. Belair's my maiden name. I found myself in cooking-and here," she added, her voice cracking, "with you all."

Rose steadied herself against Dominique's admission. "Bowie knows?'

She gave a small laugh. "Bowie knows everything that happens around here, I swear."

"True," Rose said, still not satisfied. "Where's your ex-husband now?"

"Still in Cleveland. He's remarried. He's not a bad guy, we just weren't right for each other. We were both spoiled."

Rose saw it now. "You come from money."

Dominique's eyes lowered. "I'm what you all would call a *trust fund baby.' I didn't want anyone to know. I wanted to be known for myself, for who I am."

"Don't we all, Dom? Give us a little credit."

"I do now. It just became easier to keep not saying anything."

Rose felt her energy sagging. "I can't argue with that," she said softly. "The police know?"

"Everything, yes."

"Bowie?"

"He guessed," Dominique said.

"He's good at keeping other people's secrets."

"Maybe we ask too much of him, or he asks too much of himself." She stood back from the worktable. "I really do have things I need to do."

Rose smiled. "Cook to your heart's content, Dom."

When she reached Main Street, Rose noticed the air was warmer, above freezing. Nick would be back at the lodge by now.

No sooner did she have the thought than he called. "Do you want me to pick you up?"

She spotted Bowie's beat-up van down the street. "Thanks, but I'll get a ride. Be back soon. What are you doing?"

"Thinking and making calls. I brushed Ranger. He didn't like it."

"He never does." Rose didn't ask any follow-up questions and disconnected, walking down to Bowie's van. He was climbing in. "What're you doing in town?" she asked him.

"Stopped to see Liam to see what he knew about the fire. He said I just missed you."

"Have you talked to the police?"

"Oh, yes."

"Then you know Dominique was attacked?"

"I stopped by to check on her, but she was busy. I talked to her for two seconds, probably while you were with Liam. She's pretty shaken up." Bowie narrowed his eyes on Rose for half a beat. "You are, too."

"I don't deny it. Can you give me a ride up to the lodge?"

He nodded. "Where's Ranger?"

"Nick hiked back up to the lodge. Ranger went with him."

Rose shoved stuff off the van's front pa.s.senger seat and got in. The interior smelled like mud and cold, wet stone-at least not like gas, she thought.

They pa.s.sed the police station. "Every cop in town must be out at the lake," Bowie said.

"Probably so." She stared out the side window at the familiar landscape of her hometown. Snow had melted into her wool socks. She'd unzipped her coat, but she was still too warm. "When you were in that fight at O'Rourke's, did you ever imagine Derek and Robert would be dead in less than a year?"

"I wasn't thinking about the future. I was locked in to the idea that I needed to punch Derek in the head."

She couldn't help but smile at Bowie's irreverent tone.

But his eyes were serious when he glanced over at her. "That fight's in the past, Rose. It's not why Derek and Robert are dead."

"You protected me last year."

"You can look at it that way, but I wasn't really thinking. I was mad. Derek was out of control. I reacted."

"I keep wondering if I'd confronted my problems, maybe things would have gone differently this year."

"Don't go there. We are where we are. Whether or not it's where we would be if we hadn't dealt with these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds doesn't much matter."

They drove up the mountain in silence. As they came to the lodge, Rose said, "I miss Hannah."

"Yeah, me, too."

"I miss her, but I'm glad she's with Sean and not here now, for this."

"You're her friend. I talked to her earlier. She wants to be here for you. Beth, too."

"You told them to stay in California, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Do your work, Rose. Let the police do theirs. You're a can-do type, just like your brothers, but sometimes you have to know your limits. We all do."

"It's easier on a search than with something like this. It all feels so out of control, with no rules."

"There are rules. Rule one-you don't get to kill someone. Rose, you okay with this guy?"

"I can handle him."

"Could he have set the fires? It only takes a cell phone to detonate a simple homemade bomb."

"It wasn't Nick, Bowie. Absolutely not."

Bowie grinned at her. "See? There's an attraction there." He pulled into the lodge parking lot and glanced in back at Poe. "Look at him. Not a peep out of him. Ranger's influence."

"Ranger's not perfect, you know," Rose said. "Poe looks tired. Did you have him out running this morning?"

"He charged around while I was working. He's in good shape. He's just lazy. The vet said he needed to lose weight, so I've been getting him out more. It's good for me, too."

"Dominique said she was meeting you at the lake this morning. What happened? Where were you?"

"Late," he said, his voice heavy with regret.

"Why?"

He threw the van into Park and looked over at her. "I made a stop to give an estimate. It took longer than I expected. The police have all the details. You want them, too, Rose?"

"I'm not doubting you. Don't get defensive. I just wanted to know."

"Maybe you want to know too much. Maybe you should get on a d.a.m.n plane and go train dogs in Alaska or something. I worry about you, Rose."

She let his worry roll over her. "Thanks for your concern. Bowie, are you and Dominique seeing each other?"

"She and Poe are both trying to get in shape. She wants to run a half marathon this summer. Nothing more than that."

"I grew up here. I can be private all I want and it won't do me any good. Everybody's always sticking their noses in my business."

He grinned at her. "Like you'd have it any other way."

"You're a good friend to have, Bowie. Thanks for the ride."

"Anytime."

"Want to come in?"

He shook his head. "I have work to do. Call or come find me if you need a friend."

Rose promised she would and thanked him as she got out of the van.

She spotted A.J. down by the shop and walked in that direction. He was pacing, clearly agitated, and she a.s.sumed it was because of the scene at the lake. He shoved a hand through his hair. "I can still smell smoke," he said. "d.a.m.n."

"I'm sorry, A.J."

"Yeah. Me, too. I've been trying to sort everything out in my own mind. I don't see how a couple of ski-b.u.m drug dealers had anything to do with the death of that woman in California and this missing actor."

"We can come up with a thousand different scenarios if we want to." Rose recognized a middle-aged couple ski from the lodge on the groomed trails in the meadow. "Most guests won't a.s.sociate what happened at the lake with the lodge. It's far enough away-"

"They could see the smoke from the dining room."

"A fire in the middle of winter, down in the valley. It's understandable they'd look."

"A fatal fire on top of another fatal fire just the other day." Her brother stared at a display of winter sports gear in the shop window. "I'd hoped winter fest would be a fresh start for everyone in town."

"It still can be," Rose said. "There's time to figure out what's going on and put an end to it."

"That's what we keep saying. It's what we said in November when Jo and Elijah confronted those two killers. It's what we said in January when Hannah and Sean figured out Lowell Whittaker was behind this network of a.s.sa.s.sins."

"The lodge is busiest in the warm-weather months. By then, most people aren't going to remember if this all happened in another town, or even know that it happened at all. We're in the middle of it. We'll know. I've been to the scene of so many disasters-"

"This isn't a natural disaster."

Rose sighed. "I'm not helping, am I? Okay. I'm going to find Ranger."

A.J. s.h.i.+fted back to her. "Lauren panicked when she heard sirens and saw smoke. I don't know how much more of this she can take."

"She's strong, A.J. So are you."

"She's scared." He let out a breath, shook his head. "Never mind. We'll get through it. You just concentrate on staying safe yourself. When you radioed this morning and I saw the smoke..." He stood up straight and managed a small smile. "I was glad Nick was with you."

She grinned at him. "Ha, the faith my brothers have in me." She touched his arm. "We're going to be okay, A.J. You know that, right? Whatever happens."

"Yeah," he said, and followed several guests into the shop.

As she headed back up to the main lodge, Ranger bounded toward her with the energy of a puppy. Nick's influence, she decided, her heart jumping when she saw him ambling toward her.

She believed what she'd said to A.J. They'd be okay. What other choice was there?

Twenty.

Beverly Hills, California G rit could tell the Black Falls women were restless, frustrated that they were on the other side of the continent while so much went on at home. Sean was more accustomed to not being in the eye of his hometown storms but the events of the day had clearly disturbed him, too.