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past the Whittaker place. Bowie still lived there.
    Rose drank some of the water Liam had placed in front of her. "Given Bowie's history with Derek and where he lives--"
    "The police will want to talk to him if they haven't already," Liam said heavily. "I've had my issues with Bowie, but he had nothing to do with Cutshaw's death. You know that, don't you?"
    "Of course," she said, resisting the temptation to look at Nick for his reaction.
    Liam grabbed his cloth and another glass. "What about you, Rose? Have you had much to do with Cutshaw lately?"
    "I barely knew him."
    "Then what was he doing out at the Whittaker place?"
    She drank more of her water, just to give herself something to do and repeated what she'd told the police and then Myrtle Smith. "I have no idea." She slid off the stool and stood up straight, turning to Nick, who hadn't said a word since entering O'Rourke's. "I'm sure I'll see you back at the lodge at some point."
    Ranger jumped up and followed her outside. Rose grabbed his leash in one hand and broke into a run. He matched her stride, his tongue wagging, as if he thought they were finally playing--finally having the fun he'd anticipated at dawn.
    The wind and cold whipped tears out of her eyes, and when she reached her Jeep, she choked back a sob and got Ranger into the back, patting him, hugging him. He was so damn soft, so warm and reliable.
    "I can tell you anything, can't I, buddy?" She sniffled and stood up straight, laughing at his eager expression as he panted at her. "Good dog, Ranger. Good dog."
    She shut him in and climbed into the front seat. She checked her rearview mirror but didn't see Nick on Main Street. She wouldn't be surprised if he was having a beer with Liam, getting what he could out of him about her, Derek Cutshaw and life in Black Falls.
    In his place, Rose thought, she'd probably do the same.
    She started the Jeep, picturing the backpack and sleeping bag in the shed. Had Derek planned to camp there, waiting for her? He wouldn't have come to her house. He'd have known she wouldn't have let him in. Out at the boarded-up farmhouse on the river, he'd have been able to catch her by surprise, force her to talk to him. But why now? Why after a year?
    Nick .
    Had Derek found out Nick was in town and would come to see her?
    But how would he know, and why would he care?
    I still care about you, Rose.
    She knew better. Derek had never cared about her in any of the ways that mattered.
    She pushed back her questions and circled around the common--the children and their teachers still hard at work on their snowmen--and drove out toward the lake and Bowie O'Rourke, hoping this time Nick Martini wouldn't follow her.

Four
    R ose navigated the dirt road--now covered in snow and ice--along the shore of a spring-fed glacial lake a few miles outside the village and pulled in behind Bowie O'Rourke's mud-and-salt-encrusted van. He'd parked in front of the dozen small, run-down cabins on twenty acres that her father had left to Jo Harper, a shock to everyone in Black Falls, including Rose. She sometimes wondered if he'd suspected, at least intuitively, that his end was near and had deliberately put Jo into close proximity to Elijah, his second-born son, who had built a house just through the woods while on visits home from the army.
    Leaving Ranger cozy in the back of her Jeep, Rose picked her way along an icy path to the cabin where Jo and Elijah had holed up when they ran off together as teenagers. An angry, frustrated Drew Cameron had discovered them. Jo, the daughter of the Black Falls police chief, had just graduated from high school. Elijah, a year older, had been knocking around town, aimless. After their three days on the lake had been disrupted, Elijah left Black Falls for boot camp and a career in the Special Forces, Jo for college and the Secret Service.
    The cabin door was open, and Rose found Bowie inside, wearing his usual bright orange sweatshirt, complete with stains and tears, and baggy