“Look, I know how difficult this situation is,” Laurel said, “but don’t do anything simply because you’re angry, Denis. You need to listen to me. I know you. We go back a long way. We’ve worked together for years.”

“I realize that,” Denis replied, “and I’m sure you know I’m grateful for your help. By the way, does Lisa know about our relationship? Did you tell her?”

“Of course not.”

“All right. So what’s your point?”

“My point is, you and Lisa have history, but that has nothing to do with what’s happening right now. You have to put that aside.”

“This is not about me having a grudge against Lisa Power,” Denis snapped.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. This woman is putting everyone at risk. I know she’s a friend of yours, and I know the whole town loves her, but right now, I can’t afford to think about any of that. She’s a threat, and with every hour that passes, she’s becoming more of a threat. She is armed and dangerous. I’m going to do what needs to be done to take care of this situation before it gets worse.”

“What does that mean?” Laurel asked.

“Exactly what I said.”

“What are you going to do? Shoot her? Do you think that’s the answer?”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but that’s up to her.”

“Lisa won’t turn to violence,” Laurel insisted. “Trust me. That’s not who she is.”

“Your word doesn’t count for much right now,” Denis replied. “And I believe your husband would tell you that she’s already violent. She attacked him, remember?”

Laurel said nothing.

“Meanwhile, what do we do about the boy?” Denis asked. “That’s where this all started, and we’re still no closer to getting him back.”

Laurel grimaced and stared through the office windows at the first glimmers of morning over the river. “I promise you, Denis, we will find Harlan. I told you that from the beginning. Sooner or later, we’ll convince Lisa to give him to us. But right now, that may be the least of our worries.”

21

Before dawn broke, the temperature fell, and the freezing rain turned to snow. As Lisa drove, the whole world became white around her. Snow poured through her headlights and swept across her windshield. She had to go slowly. The Camaro was unfamiliar to her, and the car’s tires fought for traction on the ice.

She wanted to go south toward Minneapolis, but she assumed that was what they expected her to do. So she headed north through town, making multiple turns, staying on the side streets while she figured out their next move. The darkness and the snow gave her cover, which she needed, because she knew the word would be out soon. Everyone would be looking for a blue Camaro.

On Atlantic Avenue, she passed one of the local diners. Despite the early hour, the neon sign told her that the restaurant was open. She could get food and coffee and make a plan. She pulled into the diner’s unpaved parking lot and drove to the far back, where the Camaro couldn’t be seen from the street. There were only four or five other cars in the lot.

“I’ll be right back,” she told Purdue. “I won’t be long. Do you want something? Maybe pancakes?”

“French toast.”

Lisa smiled. “Okay. That’s my favorite, too.”

She climbed out of the sports car into the snow, which whipped into her face. She wore a flannel shirt under her leather jacket, but she was still cold. She trudged through the long parking lot to the diner entrance, and she peered through the window before going inside. The interior was long and narrow, with laminate booths. It wasn’t even six in the morning, and only a couple of the booths were filled. She slipped through the door and took the first empty booth near the front window, where she could keep an eye on the street.

Her desire to remain anonymous lasted all of five seconds.

“Lisa Power!”

The excited voice of the waitress boomed through the mostly empty restaurant like a foghorn. In an instant, everyone in the diner was looking at her. Some obviously knew who she was; some were simply curious. As Lisa forced a smile on her face, the waitress hurried over. She slipped into the booth and leaned across the table to grab Lisa’s hands.

“Lisa, I am so thrilled to meet you!”

Her name tag read MISSY. She was slim and in her fifties, with sandy-brown hair in a messy pile on her head and a long face dotted with a few age spots and wrinkles. She wore a homemade crocheted blue top and jeans, with an apron tied around her waist. She had the throaty voice of a smoker and brought a whiff of cigarettes with her.

“I’m sorry—do you mind if I call you Lisa?” the waitress went on. “I feel like I know you. I am a big, big, big fan. Me and my sister and my mother, we all love your books. They are not going to believe it when I tell them you came into the diner. Can we take a selfie together?”

“Well, I’m in a little bit of a hurry, Missy.”

“Oh, this won’t take long!”

The waitress already had her phone in her hand. She rushed around to the other side of the booth, squeezed next to Lisa, and slung an arm around her shoulder. She extended her other arm with the camera and beamed at the lens. Lisa did her best selfie smile as Missy squeezed off several photos.

The woman clambered out of the booth again, looking pleased. “Thank you so much. This is amazing. I’m going to post these to Facebook right now.”

“No,” Lisa interrupted, too loudly. “Actually, would you mind waiting until I leave?”

“Oh, sure, sure, whatever you like. I bet we’d have people rushing over here as soon as they saw it. I get it—you want to have your breakfast in peace. I totally understand.”

“Thank you. Actually, could I get my order to go?”

“Absolutely. Anything you want, hon.”

Lisa didn’t bother looking at the menu. Every diner had the same things. She ordered french toast times two, plus coffee and hash browns and a side of bacon. Missy wrote it all down and headed to the kitchen counter to pass along the order. Lisa stared down at her hands rather than look around the diner, because she could feel the eyes of the other people sneaking glances at her.

Nervously, Lisa kept an eye on the diner window. The snow fell like a cloud over the world, but little had accumulated on the ground so far. Instead, the streets shone with a frozen glaze. As she sat there, she saw a Pennington County sheriff’s vehicle roll past the restaurant, and she held her breath, wondering if the SUV would turn in to the parking lot. But it didn’t. It continued down Atlantic Avenue out of sight.

“You know, I read Thief River Falls in one day.”

Missy was back, and she took a seat opposite Lisa again, as if they were old friends. She put a mug of coffee in front of her.

“Really?” Lisa said politely.

“Oh, I couldn’t put it down. My mom and I had to battle over who got to read it first, but I won. I love that you used real places around here in the book. Every chapter I would go, ‘Hey! I know right where that is!’”

“Yes, readers like that.”

“We sure do! And of course, I thought it was hysterical that you used your own house as the scene of the murder. That was so wild.”