Page 71

Jesus. No discipline. The son of a bitch was jerking off again.

Paul slammed down his laptop lid and stared at his burner. No problem. Let Pete have his little fun. Depending on how things worked out, it might be his last.

CHAPTER 71

THE NEXT MORNING, Auguste Poe was standing on a step stool in the freezing cold, leaning over the engine compartment of his ailing Hummer. The four-ton vehicle had no problem handling deep snow, but it had starting issues when the temperature dropped below fifteen degrees. Poe had just installed a new heavy-duty battery and tightened the clamps. He was checking the cold-start solenoid when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

“Psst! Mr. Poe!”

He turned and looked down. It was Virginia. She was standing by the fender in a heavy parka, with a fur-lined hood around her head.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“About what?” Poe replied, as if he didn’t know exactly what was on her mind.

“About the competition. The race at the arena. Do you think we could win?”

“Win? With the Hummer?”

“Yes, with the Hummer. I know we’d need modifications…”

Poe was still unsettled from his trip to New York, and the memories it had stirred. He knew he couldn’t afford another distraction. But he couldn’t help it. He closed the hood and latched it. “Modifications? No kidding. We’d need to install heavier shocks, hoist the suspension, upgrade the transfer case, mount competition tires. And with all that, we’d probably still be the runt of the litter.”

“I could drive it, Mr. Poe. I know how to race.”

Poe had no doubt about Virginia’s skills, and by now she knew the massive Hummer as well as he did. There was nobody else in the household he would trust to even park it. Not Holmes, not Marple, and definitely not Helene. She still refused to go anywhere near the thing.

Poe caught a flash of movement in a second-floor window of the lodge. He looked up—and there she was, between the massive wood A-frame beams. Grey was looking down. Not waving, not smiling, just watching.

Poe packed up his tools and grabbed the step stool. “I can’t think about this right now.” He headed across the driveway toward the porch steps. When Virginia didn’t respond, Poe turned around. She was staring down the driveway, as if she were frozen in place.

“Virginia! What are you looking at? What’s going on?”

She turned around and blinked, like coming out of a trance. “Sorry. I thought I felt somebody out there. Like somebody was staring at me again.”

Poe walked back, hooked his arm through hers, and escorted her to the porch. “It’s bright out here,” he said. “Maybe you’re a little snow-blind.”

Virginia shuddered and gripped Poe’s arm tighter. “Anyway,” she said, “I found a garage in Varna that works on truck bodies and they said they could start on it quickly. If I bring it over today, I think they might be able to…”

The front door opened. Holmes was standing there. “Edwards is on a Zoom call in the comms room,” he said, staring at Poe. “He wants to talk about New York.”

Poe rolled his eyes. He turned to Virginia as they walked inside. “We’ll discuss this later,” he said under his breath. “Maybe.”

Virginia nodded. Poe could see her disappointment. He followed Holmes through the kitchen and into the comms room. The big screen was lit up with a video call from the FBI field office. Marple, her hair now tinted slightly auburn, was busy stalling Burton Edwards, whose face filled the screen. He was wearing a suit, but his hair was still in undercover mode, long and unkempt.

“Here they are,” said Marple, pulling Poe and Holmes into camera range. “I told you they weren’t far.”

Edwards got right to the point. “What were you two doing in Manhattan yesterday?”

Holmes stepped up. “We were visiting my attorney. I don’t know if you recall, Agent Edwards, but I was recently accused of murder.”

“I heard something about that,” said Edwards. “Did you do it?”

“That’s nothing to joke about,” said Marple. “We all know that Oliver Paul is the killer.”

“A total frame job,” said Holmes. “I’m practically cleared.”

Poe leaned into the camera’s frame. “How did you know where we were yesterday?”