Murder at Sunrise Lake

“Were you ever a ‘thing’?” Stella asked, following Raine into the kitchen and leaning against the counter.

“One doesn’t have a ‘thing’ with Lucio. He isn’t that type of man. He makes that very clear to any woman he goes near.”

“You have a lot of animosity toward him, Raine, and that’s unusual for you. You can be full of contempt when men get arrogant and try to act like they know what they’re talking about when they don’t, but you’re never downright hostile toward them like you were with him. Not that I think Mr. Rossi was aware of it.”

“He was aware. Not much gets by him. Don’t let him fool you, Stella, he’s not a nice man. He may have come here to see his son, but he’s been head of a crime family for years. He’s committed all sorts of crimes, from things very small to murder. I don’t know if men like him do the actual killing, but they certainly order it. These days they try to fly under the radar of law enforcement, so they don’t do the kinds of things they did in the past, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t committing crimes.”

“I’m sorry about your father, Raine. I had no idea. And your family. You speak of them so lovingly. It must be so hard not to see them, especially your mother.”

“I’ve come to terms with it for the most part. There are moments it hurts like hell and I cry myself to sleep. It’s her choice. She made that choice never to see me, knowing I didn’t know the circumstances of my father’s business.” Raine stuck her chin in the air and shrugged. “As much as I’d like to undo the things that led up to my father’s death, I can’t undo them. They happened. I met someone, I fell for him and I told him I could see him this one evening because my father had gone out to check on things at the warehouse. I had no idea that was information he had been waiting to hear. I went to see my supposed fiancé and he was beating the shit out of my father at the warehouse and killing his men. They took his shipment. We left for California. Someone put out a hit on him anyway.”

“Do you believe it was Mr. Rossi?”

“At this point, I have no idea who did it. For all I know, it was one of my father’s business partners. They lost men, sons. Brothers. Cousins. And a lot of money. They should have put the hit out on me. It would make more sense.” Raine sighed. “That’s why I live in the Sierras, Stella. I find my peace here. We’ve formed our own family. We might be strange and a little dysfunctional with all of our secrets, but we work and we’re loyal to one another.”

They could hear the sound of the helicopter in the distance. It would set down in the meadow far enough from the house. Raine glanced at her watch. “I’d better free the hound. Daisy is going to have to do her business and run around like a maniac before we get on that bird.”

“Be safe, Raine.”

“You too. I hope Sam doesn’t get too upset about his father being here without him.”

Stella hoped for that very thing as well.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Was everyone from Search and Rescue in the near vicinity?” Stella whispered to Sam. “That seems a little unusual.” She tried not to look suspiciously at Sean, Bale, Edward and Jason.

Sean had every reason to be in the park. His work took him there, after all. She supposed Bale, Edward and Jason could go see him while he worked. There was nothing that said they couldn’t. Yosemite was beautiful and the various campsites would be closed soon. She just pictured them leering at all the female campers.

Denver often guided hikers through the park to some of the off-the-beaten-path trails and he, apparently, had taken a small group into the park, so he was close when the call went out for Search and Rescue as well.

Stella’s nighttime security guard, Sonny Leven, had taken his brother out to the park for a hike. They had a permit to hike up the back side of Whitney. What were the chances?

“Not everyone, but it was good they were close to help,” Sam said. “The recovery wasn’t easy.” He sounded tired and Stella leaned into him. She knew that he was just as upset over the fact that they were unsuccessful in saving the two hikers—maybe more so.

“Vienna examined both bodies as we waited for the sheriff to get there. Multiple broken bones of course, you’d expect that. The strange thing was, because you had said that about the killer grabbing at their fingers, she really paid attention and both bodies had two breaks in exactly the same place on the ring finger of their left hand.”