“What torque setting did you use?”
“13.6 Nm.”
She gave him a satisfied smile, a nod.
“You were serious. I’m impressed.”
“Of course. I’d never joke about a spark plug.” She winked, then sat down where Griffin had been. “Still blowing pretty goodout there.” Her voice emerged just above a whisper, roughened, but it seemed it might be stronger.
The blizzard became a hum behind him.
“Reminds me of working with my grandfather. He had a barn full of used vehicles he was constantly stealing parts from.” He tightened down the other plug.
“He lived in Alaska?”
“Copper Mountain, all his life. Loved to work with his hands. Simple work, he said. Sweating always cleared his head. I spent a lot of time with him, especially after my sister went missing. Made me feel like my life wasn’t falling apart, like maybe I’d survive. Maybe he was trying to fix me too.”
Oh. He looked up at her. Aw. He hadn’t meant to reveal that.
Especially since her eyes widened, her face awash with a stricken expression. “Your sister went missing?”
He sighed. He hadn’t meant to go this far, tell her this much. Finally, “When she was fifteen—I was seventeen, away at Boy Scout camp when it happened. Came home ... it was bad.”
“Did they find her?”
“Yeah. She’d been...” He lowered his voice. “Actually, she was a victim of a serial killer in the area.”
Keely’s hand pinned over her mouth.
“We only just caught him recently. But it ... it devastated my family. My parents’ marriage didn’t survive it. Mom moved away to Montana. Want some cocoa?”
She shook her head, but he got up and walked over to where River and another woman had left a thermos on a workbench. He filled a cup. The door hung open, so he walked over to it, looked out to the swirling wind. Took a sip of the cocoa. It found his bones.
“Of course you were a Boy Scout.” Keely walked over. “I should have guessed that.”
He held up a three-finger salute. “Be prepared.”
She laughed. It had a sweetness to it that found a place inside him that didn’t feel quite so hardened over.
“Is that why you became a cop?”
“Because I was a Boy Scout?”
“Your sister.”
Oh. “Probably. I don’t know. My dad was an Air Force Security Force, sort of like an Army MP. He was stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, but my grandparents lived in Copper Mountain, so we were in town a lot. And then, after my sister died, my dad left the military and moved home.” He glanced at her. “Where’s Caspian?”
“Inside, playing with Wren. She found a ball and is teaching him to fetch.”
He’d sort of expected Caspian to be sitting by the door where he’d left him, whining. But he didn’t want to worry about the dog running away in the storm. “Good luck with that. She’d have better luck with her socks.”
She laughed again. He could stand here all day. And weirdly, Moose snuck into his head ...“God uses circumstancesto wake us up,get at things inside.”
“Whatthings?”
“Maybe there’s stuff.”
Maybe.
