“The light stuff. And I just dropped it off. Carson drank one but left the rest. A second one was opened, but then the cap was put back on—badly—after a few sips. I figure that was Max.”
“The eleven-year-old. Great. Just great.”
Yolanda chucks Rory under the chin. “See, this is why I will be your favorite auntie.”
“This was an actual break-in.” Phil walks over from behind the bar. “The last time was when the back door was left unlocked awaiting a supply run.”
“And the stockroom? I presume that was their goal. Did they get in?”
“No, and I’m not sure itwastheir goal.” Phil motions me to the bar. When I walk over, he points at the door leading into the stock and brewing room. “No sign of a forced entry attempt.”
I examine the knob and lock, and then the door. “And the point of entry into the building itself?”
“The back door, whichwasforced open. Brian and Devon were gone, and Isabel and I hadn’t arrived yet.”
Anders calls over, “Back door’s easy to break into.”
“By design,” Yolanda shoots back. “I was told that the main doors didn’t require heavy security. What counted was the stockroom.”
“Hey, I wasn’t blaming you. I was pointing out that it’s easyenough to get in the back. My guess is that they came in that way and then saw how hard it would be to get into the stockroom and left. They only had an hour max before Iz came to open up.”
“But wouldn’t they know that the stockroom is heavily secured?” Yolanda says as I walk to the back door. “Anyone can come into the Roc during business hours—even the kids. The stockroom is right there. They’d know they’d never break in with less than an hour, midday.”
“That presumes someone thought this through,” Anders says. “We have a few new residents. One could have an unreported alcohol dependency.”
I examine the back door. “Someone desperate enough could have realized the Roc was temporarily empty and broken in with a crowbar, which we stock in the toolshed.”
Anders nods. “They come to Haven’s Rock, figuring they can hide their addiction, only to discover how tightly we regulate the alcohol.”
I rise. “See, this is the kind of crime I like. No dead body. Not even missing booze. A mental puzzle with no real consequences.” I look at Dalton. “Hey, boss, mind if I investigate this one? You can handle the hikers, right?”
He only shakes his head. He’s been quiet during all this, as he sits at the bar. Quiet because he doesn’t really give a damn about a theft-free break-in at the Roc. Not when we have…
“Hikers?” Anders says. “You saw someone out there?”
I tell the story. By the time I’m done, Isabel has served drinks to everyone—including me—but only Yolanda and Dalton have touched theirs.
“My money is on a Rockton council spy mission,” Anders says. “They’ve tried restarting Rockton and, from what Émilie says, it’s struggling. They’ve already reached out to her.”
Yolanda raises her hands. “They’ve reached out to Gran to see what you guys are all up to. They suspect you’ve started your own version, but they don’t know it’s in the Yukon again.”
“Logically, though, the Yukon is the safe bet,” Phil says as he fingers his beer glass.
At one time, he’d been the council’s liaison with Rockton, working in a cushy office with the very uncushy job of conveying the council’s word from on high, which was usually “Whatever you are doing in that town, stop it.” Then he’d been exiled to Rockton himself, where he’d put in his time, waiting to be brought home.
Phil could have gone home when Rockton closed. He also could have taken his big “retirement” package and started a new career. So why is he here? The woman standing beside him. He’s even stopped insisting he’s only helping until we’re up and running. That’s another twenty bucks Dalton owes me. If Isabel isn’t leaving, Phil isn’t leaving, and Isabel is never leaving.
Phil continues, “If I were still working for them, I would have said to start searching right around here. That’s why I argued for settling further afield. This is where you’re accustomed to being—with the landscape and the climate. You also have ties in the area. Eric’s brother and his wife. Sebastian’s girlfriend. Even Jen and Tyrone Cypher. Ideally, you would want to be within a day or two’s hike from all of that. Which is exactly where you are.”
Yolanda shrugs. “But if the council wanted you back—specifically Eric, I presume—they could just keep hassling my grandmother until she agreed to let you tell them to fuck off yourself. They’re not going to track you down here for that meeting.”
“No,” Anders says. “They’d track us down to sabotage us soEric has no choice but to join their venture—or let them take over here.”
Yolanda sighs. “You know you’re all a bunch of paranoid freaks, right? I mean, I love you for it, but that’s what you need me for. To tell you that you’re seeing bogeymen in shadows.”
“We probably are,” I say. “But we didn’t come back to discuss the possibility of murdering two potential council spies in their tent. We need to decide how hard we want to lock down.”
“Completely.” To my surprise, that comes not from Anders or Phil, but from Isabel. “A complete lockdown with full patrols until we are certain these alleged hikers are gone. I presume you and Eric will be heading out in the morning to check on them?”
