Page 6

6

As Bear raised his arms in the air, maul gripped tight, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. By now, he knew what that meant. Lila was here.

He let the axe fall on the birch round that he’d placed atop the chopping block. It split cleanly in two, the pieces springing to either side of the block. He bent over and tossed them onto his growing pile, then turned to face her. “Problem?”

Lila was tending to the bar on this chilly October day, while he took some time to catch up on firewood. He’d felled two standing dead this morning, and had already bucked up the first one. He loved splitting wood in the fresh crisp air of near-winter. It was hypnotic. Relaxing. It gave him time to think.

“It’s not exactly a problem. Or maybe it is a problem. I haven’t decided yet. I guess it depends on how you answer it.”

He frowned down at his tiny bartender. Lila barely cleared five feet, and he was six foot four, which meant he was over a foot taller than her. He knew that she was around thirty, but she looked younger because of her size and the way she took the world in with such delight, as if everything was new and interesting to her. Her eyes were a deep violet that held both light and shadow.

He already knew that she wasn’t all lightness and laughter. She had another side that she didn’t show, didn’t talk about. He could see it right now in the clouds in her eyes.

“Okay. Shoot.”

She winced at his choice of words. Oh well. Too late now. He waited.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you found the woman in Snow River?”

His eyebrows lifted. “I got a question, too. Why didn’t you notice her?”

“What?”

“She was right below where you were parked that day on the overlook. Didn’t you say you were there for a while?”

“I…I was.” Flustered, she touched her hair. Her natural color was white—a pure silvery white. But she loved to add color to it, and at the moment, three different shades of orange brightened it—tangerine, tomato, and pumpkin. A feast of orange. “I got there when the sun was rising, but then I fell asleep. I slept for a few hours, I guess.”

“And when you woke up, you didn’t notice something strange at the river’s edge?”

“No.” Color stained her cheeks. “You woke me up when you tapped on the window. You’re…well, you’re quite large. You must have blocked my view.”

“So you had no idea she was down there.”

“No! Of course I didn’t. If I did, don’t you think I would have said something?”

He didn’t answer. Theoretically, yes. But it still bugged him that she hadn’t noticed the body. It had caught his attention right away. Impossible to miss, really.

“I’m pretty sure there was nothing down there when I first pulled up.” Lila shoved her hands into the pockets of her sheepskin vest, handmade by Ruth Chilkoot. “I was watching the sunrise, and there was plenty of light. I would have seen it.” She thought about it again, then nodded more firmly. “Yes, I definitely would have. I was looking at the sandbars and the way the water ripples through them. I remember that.”

“Why did you stop there?”

“I…I don’t know. I wanted a moment to say goodbye before I left.” Her eyes darted to meet his. She hadn’t given him the courtesy of saying goodbye. But he didn’t need to dwell on that.

“Okay, so you pulled over and watched the river for a while. You saw nothing resembling a dead body. And then you fell asleep?”

“Well, eventually. At first I tried to leave. That’s when I realized that I’d run out of gas.”

“But you had enough gas to get to the overlook. And then just happened to run out?”

Her eyes widened. “I mean…I must have, obviously. I did reach the overlook. Are you saying…”

He didn’t know what he was saying. Just that none of it was holding together in his mind. If she hadn’t noticed the body when she first parked there, it must have snagged on the shoreline sometime while she was asleep. And what were the odds that she’d run out of gas right before that happened?

“Anyway, why are you interrogating me like this?” She sucked in a breath. “Am I a suspect?”

He let out a bark of laughter at the thought of the petite Lila knifing someone in the back and dumping her in the river. “You’d have to ask Officer Cromwell, but I’d be shocked if you were on his list.” Then he sobered. “But he is going to want to talk to you. If he gives you any trouble, let me know.”

A gust of wind stirred her brightly colored hair, leaving a few strands clinging to her cheek. She impatiently brushed them away. “Why would he want to talk to me?”

“Potential witness. I had to explain why I was in the area when I found her.”

“What did you tell them?”

“That my bartender had left and I wanted to make sure she got all the pay coming to her.” He said it with an expression that hopefully showed nothing but “just the facts, ma’am.” “I caught up with you at the overlook and shortly afterwards, spotted the victim. You said nothing about it.”

She frowned at the ground, which was littered with wood chips from his firewood chopping. “When you put it like that, it does sound suspicious.”

He just grunted and shifted the maul to his other hand. He watched her gaze travel along his torso and arms all the way to his hand, where it settled on his worn leather work gloves. “Are you suspicious too?”

“Don’t worry, I don’t think you climbed down the embankment, stabbed a woman in the back and pushed her into the river,” he said dryly.

“Oh no, it wasn’t a stabbing,” she said absently. “It was a knife-throwing. That’s not exactly the same thing, although it’s pretty close.” She seemed unaware of the frown growing on his face. “Is there a word that’s better than knife-throwing?”

Finally it clicked. She went pale. “I…I…”

What the hell?

“Did you see something, Lila? You can tell me.”

“No. I was asleep. I didn’t see what happened.” But she knew something. He saw it on her face.

“Lila.” He wanted to hold her, put his hands on his shoulders to emphasize his point. But he’d never touched her that intimately, not deliberately. He’d always avoided physical contact with her. Other than the random occasional brushing of the arms, he’d always kept a careful distance between them. But this was important enough to break the rules. “If you know something, you should tell me. Because Cromwell might be a dick, and he’s a real hardass, but he’s a good cop. He will get it out of you, and he won’t be happy if he has to work for it.”

Her pupils dilated as she tilted her head up to meet his eyes. “I don’t know anything.”

“But you know the knife was thrown?”

“No! I just…I can’t explain it. I…” She turned away from him, looking so distressed that his stomach twisted.

“Sorry,” he muttered. His hand tightened on the axe, reminding him that he’d been holding it this whole time. Maybe that was why she was upset. He probably came across as an axe murderer trying to strong-arm answers out of her. “Not trying to upset you.”

Over her shoulder, he saw a Blackbear PD rig roll down the road. No doubt that was Cromwell here to take her statement. It had taken him long enough, but that was nothing unusual out here.

“If you want to avoid talking to the police, you should get going.” He jerked his head toward the road. “That’s gonna be Cromwell. Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you.”

He expected her to skip away at that point. Maybe he should have kept Lila’s name out of it, but it was too late now.

But as always, Lila surprised him. She turned back to face him and straightened her spine. Her face was so pale that her eyes were nearly purple. The color of courage, he thought. “I’ll tell you how I know about the knife-throwing, but you have to promise me that you’ll keep it in confidence.”

“I’m no gossip,” he growled. “Everyone knows I can keep a secret.”

“Yes. That’s why I feel comfortable telling you. Well, maybe not comfortable, but at least not terrified and sick to my stomach.” She put a hand on her stomach, as if testing to make sure that was actually true. “Or at least not too sick.”

Sweet lord, he didn’t want to be responsible for a nausea attack. “You don’t have to?—”

“No.” She flung up a hand to stop him. Amazing how a tiny fairy-like person could suddenly show so much power. “A woman was killed. I want to help find who did it. But I can’t tell the police.”

He held his tongue while she wrestled with what came next.

The police car pulled up alongside the bar and came to a stop. Lila was about to run out of time if she wanted to tell him anything before Cromwell showed up.

She drew in a deep breath, then spoke quickly, the words spilling out in a rapid-fire flow. “I have enhanced intuitive abilities. I sense things. Sometimes I get very strong feelings that something’s going to happen, and then it does. Sometimes images come to me, very vivid and real. But I can’t say if they’re true, if it’s something that actually happened, or if it’s something my mind conjured up. It’s not evidence of anything. I should never have let that slip out because it means nothing. Except that I know in my heart that’s what happened. That’s it. So now you know.”

She folded her arms across her chest and lifted her chin.

Between his years as a police officer and his time as a bartender, Bear had become an expert at reading body language. And right now, as she silently waited, he knew Lila Romanoff was braced for—and expecting—his rejection.