Glenda moaned. Ethan went down on his knees beside her, checked her pupils. Her eyes opened. “Ethan? What happened? Oh, goodness, my head hurts.”

“It’ll be okay now, Glenda, just hang in there. Larch, get Glenda to Dr. Spitz’s house as soon as the others arrive. Don’t leave her, okay?”

“Jeff’s gonna freak,” Larch said.

“Yeah, he will, but she’ll be okay.”

“She’s going to have a big shiner. Jeff’s not going to like that. They’ve only been married six months.”

“I’ll talk to him. Go, Larch. Glenda, you take nice light breaths and stay awake, okay?”

Glenda nodded and moaned.

Joanna said, “Glenda, I’m sorry I hit you so hard, but I had to. I had to break you free of Blessed.”

“I don’t know,” Glenda whispered, her hands pressed against her head. “I can’t remember.” Larch nodded as he pulled Glenda up against his shoulder and walked her out of the kitchen.

Ethan hugged Autumn against him. “Did you see Blessed? Do you know where he is?”

Joanna said, “No, Sheriff. But when Glenda came into the kitchen through the back door, I knew Blessed had gotten to her—her walk was different, and she had this look, scared me to death. That sounds stupid but—”

“No, it doesn’t. Autumn, if your mom leaves anything out, you just pipe up, okay?”

Autumn pressed even closer, nodded against his waist.

Joanna said, “She had her gun already against her side, but the thing is, like Ox, she didn’t want to hurt Autumn, and that meant I could act.”

Ethan said with a calm he wasn’t close to feeling, “She could have shot you between the eyes in an instant.”

“But she didn’t,” Joanna said, giving a sideways look at Autumn.

Autumn pulled away a bit. She smiled up at him. “Mama slammed her twice, Ethan, right in the head. Did you see her? She was awesome.” She sent her mother a beaming smile.

Ethan heard his deputies outside, and relaxed. He picked her up and hugged her until she squeaked. “I’m proud of both of you.”

Joanna scooped her daughter out of Ethan’s arms and kissed her face a good half-dozen times, until the little girl was giggling. “We’re a good team, sweetie. You got her in the back with that pot—what a swing. I think I see a Yankee in the making.”

Autumn patted her mother’s cheek. She looked over at Ethan. “I’m glad you came back, though, Ethan. I was a little worried.”

Joanna said, “Why did you leave, Ethan? It was really early when I heard you drive off.”

He looked at Autumn, shoved the horrific words back in his mouth, and shrugged. “I had something pretty urgent to take care of.”

He saw her stiffen. She guessed, he thought, that Blessed had done something to get him away from the house, something awful. She swallowed. She didn’t want to know, at least not yet.

Thirty minutes later, Faydeen called to tell him they’d identified the victim. “His name is Harold Spalding, sixty-six, a retired bush pilot from Sitka, Alaska. A neighbor of his at the campsite said his daughter and her family were coming in today and they planned to spend a week exploring Titus Hitch. He was going to teach his grandkids about survival skills in the wilderness.”

Only now he wouldn’t. Blessed had seen to that.

Ethan knew he’d have to meet with Harold Spalding’s daughter and family. He’d tell her that her father had been murdered, but no more. But what could he tell her about the motive? He felt battered, and his rage at Blessed was beyond anything he’d ever known, though he’d been powerfully angry when he’d been at the DEA at what he’d seen the drug lords do. He walked back into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot Joanna had brewed. It was strong and rich. It cleared his head but didn’t lessen the anger in his gut.

31

Tuesday afternoon

A black FBI helicopter set down on the country road in front of Sheriff Ethan Merriweather’s house, whipping up the hot afternoon air and bringing everyone outside. Autumn yelled, “Oh, my. Look, Ethan, Mama, it’s the President! He just landed on the road!”

“Shows you how important we are,” Ethan said, and grinned. “I didn’t even have to call him. Service right to our front door.” He watched a big man wearing a white shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows, black slacks, and boots climb down. He turned to help down a woman, tall and slender, dressed as he was, all the way to the black low-heeled boots. She had incredible hair, a beautiful red, vivid as an Irish sunset. The man waved to the helicopter pilot and the bird lifted off.