“Nothing big. Mostly just cleaning up the snares. Hare, grouse, ptarmigan. Oh, and an ermine that was sniffing around the snares. It’ll make a good baby blanket.”
“Nice,” Dalton says. “Can we grab one of those grouses, too? Before Mathias gets hold of it?”
“I’ll drop it at your place.” Jacob glances up and over his shoulder. “I don’t know how far you guys plan to go, but I’d suggest sticking to the path around town.”
Dalton’s answer is a grunt that his brother knows is a request for more information. Jacob waves at the sky, as if this is information enough.
Dalton peers up.
“Snow’s coming,” Jacob says when Dalton doesn’t respond.
Dalton shrugs. “Eventually. It’s too early for a thaw, and yeah, the temperature has dropped, but the wind’s still blowing from the south.”
“I don’t like the look of that sky.”
“It’s been overcast all day.”
Jacob lifts both gloved hands. “Not arguing. I’m just saying that if you don’t need to go farther, maybe stick close to town. I was over by the mountain and decided to head back early. I didn’t like the air there. Felt like a storm.”
“We will take that under advisement,” Dalton says.
I quickly add, “We’re not going far. We just have business to discuss, and we can’t do it on the town loop.” I pull the sat phone from under the furs. “We have this, too.”
“But we won’t go far enough to need it,” Dalton says. “Give us an hour, and we’ll be back.” He looks down at the two dogs, snuggled together as they rest on the path. “The real problem is separating these two and deciding who’s making way for whom on this path.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
I don’t ask whether Dalton thinks a storm’s brewing. Yes, his brother can be overly cautious—living most of his time in the wild means he’s more concerned about storms than Dalton, who’s accustomed to a solidly built town full of resources. But if Dalton thought there was a chance of trouble, he’d get us back home. Asking might make him second-guess and cut our walk short.
“Regarding Sebastian,” he says, a few minutes after we part ways from Jacob. “Since the drug used was one he takes, and there are capsules missing, logically, it came from his stash. Either he did it or someone stole them. Those are the only options.”
“They are,” I say.
As the path narrows, Dalton falls back behind the sled. “I’d like to jump on theft as the answer, but that’s complicated.”
“Because it requires someone knowing Sebastian has the pills, and it seems the only people he told are staff members. Of course, while I’d love to say none of them could have done it, we know that’s not true.”
In Rockton, we had several cases where the culprit turned out to be a trusted staff member, even a good friend.
“Could be that someone from the dinner party told someone else,” Dalton says. “Casual conversation. Talking about sleep aids. Names come up, including Sebastian’s.”
“True,” I say. “It’s still a leap from Sebastian mentioning he takes ‘something’ to Kendra’s attacker realizing he’s taking seriously strong medication. If the person only wanted sleep meds, others at the table said they also have some. I’ll need a list of who said that, but I can’t see anyone deciding, from that list, that the person whose place they want to break into is Mathias.”
I adjust a fur that’s slid down behind me. “Unless Sebastian was theonlyname mentioned in a secondhand conversation.”
“Could be. I can’t see someone listing off everyone who’s taking meds so they could just give one example, and it’s him. But yeah, the theft answer isn’t an easy one.”
“Which leaves Sebastian as a suspect.”
We continue on in silence until Dalton says, “You want me to play devil’s advocate on that?”
I smile over my shoulder at him. “Please.”
“Okay.” He rubs his hands together, gloves swishing. “I am now an advocate for the devil, arguing why the nice young man who rescued Kendra could actually have been her attacker.”
“Because that nice young man is also a sociopath who murdered his parents?”
Dalton moves up beside me. “Strange how that should be the obvious answer, and yet it isn’t. You ever get the feeling we have some skewed ideas of what constitutes ‘nice people’?”
