ONE YEAR EARLIER
The day couldn’t be more perfect for climbing. Mount Olympus, at nearly eight thousand feet, was the highest in the Olympic Mountains.
He and Jack had always found the ascent treacherous. Shauna had dropped them off in Glacier Meadows and would pick them up in two days. It had taken two hours along the Crystal Pass path to reach the West Peak block, where the true summit glistened with snow.
Zach’s breath fogged in the cold air as he shucked his backpack and took out his climbing gear, then shot a grin at Jack. Jack’s turquoise eyes were always smiling, and more often than not, his auburn hair was in need of a trim. Since he’d married Shauna, she kept his neckline in a little better shape. Marriage had been good for Jack, and he loved being a daddy to little Alex.
The two climbed this peak every year on Zach’s birthday, but this year it looked like it might not happen because Shauna had a flight and needed Jack to pick up Alex. But luckily, her booking was canceled yesterday. Jack always put his family first, and sometimes Zach felt a little jealous. Silly, for sure.
“A little windy today.” Jack squinted up to the snow-covered peak. He’d been a little somber and distracted today, which was unusual.
The temperature hovered around fifty. Even in summer, the peak seldom shed all its snow and ice, but they’d come prepared with jackets and ice picks. No other climbers were on the slope today, so they should have a good day without having to worry about other people dislodging boulders or ice.
They put on their boots and attached their crampons. Jack set out climbing rope and ice screws. He was ready before Zach. “Looks like we’re the only ones out here so we should have a good time.”
Zach pulled on gloves. “How about we make this interesting? First person to the top chooses where we eat lunch. Loser has to pay.”
Jack’s grin flashed back at him, and he finally seemed to be himself. “You’re going down, buddy. This is my day. I can feel it in my bones.”
“Uh-huh. It’s my birthday, so that makes it my day.”
“True. So maybe I’ll let you choose, old man, and I’ll buy anyway.”
Both men moved into position. “Ready, set, go!” Jack called.
Zach drove the crampon on his right foot into the ice, then reached for fingerholds higher up. Jack was already a foot above him and moving fast, the rat. Zach tried to pick up the pace, but Jack seemed to have better toeholds and boulders to grip.
“Stupid crampons,” Jack said. “I just lost the one on my left.”
“Let’s call the challenge. I’ve got more in my pack,” Zach said.
“I’ve got good leverage here. I’m going on up. Catch me if you can,” Jack called back.
Zach’s lungs labored as he tried to catch his friend. He paused, then peered up. Jack was already at least five feet ahead of him. The climb was reaching the more difficult part. “Tie off, buddy! You’re getting too high.”
Jack’s response came faintly. “I will in a minute. There’s a ledge up here.”
Jack was fifty feet up, higher than Zach liked to free-climb. Frowning, he worked on catching his friend so they could tie off together. He got to within ten feet of Jack when a mix of ice and rocks tumbled past his shoulder.
“Heads up, Jack!”
More rocks tumbled down the rock face, and he frowned. Zach hadn’t seen anyone else out here, so the climb should have been free of this kind of danger. He searched above Jack to see if any other climbers were dislodging the debris. Nothing but blue sky.
Another rock slide started about twenty feet above Jack’s head, and this one included chunks of rock and ice as big as their heads. “Jack, look out! Tie off! Tie off!”
Jack paused and looked up, but before he could drive screws into the rock face and tie off, the largest of the boulders struck his shoulder. His left hand slipped free from its grip, and he tried to hang on with his right, but another boulder struck his head.
“No!” Zach screamed as his friend fell away from the face of the mountain. He made a futile attempt to grab Jack’s arm as he plummeted noiselessly toward the ground, but he missed. The thud when Jack hit the rocks below sickened him.
He’d surely broken some bones. Zach climbed down as fast as he was able, taking chances and nearly falling himself several times, but he had to get to Jack. He reached the bottom and ran to his friend’s inert body, where he threw himself down beside him.
He touched Jack’s neck. “Jack, where does it hurt?”
Jack’s eyes were closed, and a trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. Zach pressed his fingers harder against his neck, searching for a pulse. Not even a faint thump under his fingers. “No, no.” He rolled him over and put his ear on his chest. “Come on, buddy, stay with me.” Cell phones didn’t work here, so any resuscitation would have to be done by him.
He leaned down to check Jack’s breathing, but there wasn’t even a whisper of an inhalation.
His friend was gone.
Tears leaked from his eyes as he tried CPR, but after half an hour, there was still no response. He crumpled to Jack’s chest and sobbed. This was all his fault. He never should have challenged him to the race.
Shauna couldn’t sit still as she listened to Zach’s recounting of the day Jack had died. She paced the oak floors with Weasley in her arms and the dogs on her heels. The word pictures in her mind of that day were in vivid color and all too real. In those minutes she smelled the cold, crisp air instead of the warm, acrid smoke from the fireplace. Jack had been strong even at the end, plummeting to his death without a sound.
When she wheeled around to face him, Zach’s head was down, and his voice had fallen to a husky whisper. His cheeks were wet, and compassion welled like a warm flood in her chest. She’d discounted for too long how much he’d loved Jack. She’d been too immersed in her own pain to notice his.
She cleared her throat and swallowed the lump there. “What could have caused the rock fall?”
“Maybe melting snow and ice, but neither of us were expecting much trouble. There was so much rock scree tumbling down that I looked hard to see if anyone up there had dislodged it.”
“Was there a place for someone to hide?”
He swiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “Well, sure. Boulders and outcroppings would have provided good cover. I wish I’d thought of all this sooner. I would have checked the top of the slope for signs of a pry bar. It’s much too late now.”
She pointed at the phone on the sofa. “His message lends credence to the possibility someone wanted to kill him.”
“Maybe. But if I hadn’t challenged him to a race, we would have been tied on. The rocks falling wouldn’t have dislodged him.”
“But one struck his head. The autopsy ruled he died of blunt-force trauma to the head. That big rock probably was what killed him.”
She’d fought so long to blame him that arguing for his exoneration felt odd, though she knew it was right. Facing the truth meant looking at everything from a different angle. “What about that whole Jupiter thing? I don’t understand what Jack meant.”
“Maybe the sheriff will.” Zach glanced at the grandfather clock. “It’s a little late to call him tonight, but we need to follow up with him tomorrow. I’ll copy everything on this phone tonight because the sheriff will confiscate it when we tell him.” He frowned again. “Jack was trying to warn you about something.”
“I wish he’d spelled it out better.”
Zach reached for his laptop and lifted the lid. “Let’s see what kinds of hits we get with Jupiter.”
He settled in the armchair and began to type. This search could go in myriad directions. There was no telling what Jack had meant.
“Jupiter was the Roman god of sky and thunder, and he was the head honcho to the Romans.”
“I hardly think Jack would be thinking of a Roman myth.”
He shrugged and looked back at the computer. “There’s a company named Jupiter that sells musical instruments. Jack played the trombone in high school.”
“Keep looking. That’s not it.”
“Projection equipment, a hotel, a lighthouse.”
She put down the squirming cat. “Wait, the hotel. That’s in Portland, and we went there for our anniversary a couple of years ago.”
He stopped and clicked on a link. “They’ve got an art gallery that showcases emerging artists, but nothing is jumping out at me that might lead anywhere.”
She agreed it didn’t feel right. They’d only been there two nights and hadn’t interacted with anyone. “This is hard. I think I need some hot spiced cider. How about you?”
His nose stayed planted at this screen. “Yeah, I’ll have some.”
As she warmed the water and prepared the hot drinks, she ran through any kind of Jupiter reference she’d heard of. She carried the hot mugs back toward the fireplace. “Hey, didn’t you guys have a friend who pitches for the Jupiter Hammerheads?”
He took one of the mugs, and a bit of color came to his cheeks. “Yeah. Harry Richards. We went to college together, but he really wasn’t a friend. More like a constant thorn in our side. He was here a few weeks before Jack died. They got together for coffee, which surprised me. Jack usually didn’t give Harry the time of day.”
She sipped the spicy cider and felt a surge of energy. Maybe they were on to something. “Would you have a way of contacting him? Maybe he’d tell you what they talked about.”
Zach set down his mug and grabbed Jack’s phone. “I bet this has his number.” He scrolled through the phone, then stopped. “Here it is. It’s really late in Florida, though, so I’ll have to call tomorrow.”
“At least we have some sort of lead.”
“Maybe. It might not mean a thing.”
She stared into her cup and tried to think of any other Jupiter reference Jack might have mentioned, but nothing came to mind. It was pushing eleven o’clock as well. Maybe after some rest, they could figure this out.
She glanced up. Zach stared at her with an intent expression that made her mouth go dry. Surely that was longing she saw in his eyes, but if it was, what did she do with it? Ever since she’d heard him talking to Alex about heaven, her feelings had undergone a seismic shift. She relived the sensation of the rough stubble on Zach’s cheek under her lips.
He didn’t glance away and neither could she. In that moment, she saw into his soul and knew he saw into hers. There was a knowing that was impossible to explain, but it also felt immensely disloyal to Jack. Hadn’t she promised to love him forever?
She bolted to her feet. “I need to get to bed.”
“Shauna, wait!”
She ignored the plea in his voice and fled to her room, where she shut the door and locked it behind her. If he’d approached, she couldn’t have helped throwing herself against his chest. All the guilt in the world wouldn’t have kept her from kissing him. What was she going to do? She had to stay here until it was safe to take Alex home, but how did she resist the irresistible?