Hilltop, AK—Tuesday, 3:30 p.m. AKDT

“She get caught up at work?”

Amarok swiveled on his stool to see Shorty, the short, wiry, bowlegged proprietor of the Moosehead, wiping down the bar. “Must’ve.” He’d been having a beer, his Alaskan malamute, Makita, lying at his feet, while watching the Giants play baseball. He’d figured Evelyn would arrive any minute. She had more to do than most people, so he could understand why she might be a little late. Now that Shorty had interrupted the game, however, Amarok’s eyes were drawn to the huge clock between the two moose heads, which hung on the wall staring sightlessly down on the most popular gathering place in town. That clock indicated she was more than “a little” late.

She would never make Shorty or Shorty’s sister, Molly, both of whom were supposed to be meeting with them to go over the menu for the wedding, wait for thirty minutes without some form of communication.

“Want to give her a call?” Shorty asked.

“Yeah.” He could’ve walked to the pay phone back by the bathrooms, but Shorty did him the courtesy of putting the business phone within reach. Since there was no cell service in the area, he and everyone else in Hilltop couldn’t communicate as easily as most of the rest of the world. But Evelyn had a landline at the prison. Why hadn’t she taken a minute to let them know she was running so far behind?

Had something gone wrong at work?

Anxiety began to roil in the pit of Amarok’s stomach. Something could always go wrong when dealing with the men she studied. But the biggest threat to her had been Jasper Moore and Amarok had arrested him seven months ago. Although Evelyn had worked with other killers—still did—none had become quite that fixated on her, not any who were now in a situation to harm her, at any rate.

He’d believed any danger to the woman he loved was finally under control.

But was it really? She’d had Jasper transferred to Hanover House. Not only had she deemed it poetic justice that he would become her captive instead of her becoming his, she’d also longed for the opportunity to study the one man who’d sent her on the odyssey to understand evil in the first place.

Sensing his sudden anxiety, Makita lifted his head and twitched his ears forward as Amarok dialed the prison. Amarok told himself he was getting worried over nothing. In a few moments, he’d hear her voice. Maybe she’d sound a bit harried—she was probably trying to get out of the office so she could make their appointment—but she would apologize for the delay and he’d finish his beer and the game while she drove over.

That didn’t happen, however. When Penny Singh, her assistant, told him Evelyn had left three hours ago to grab some files from home and hadn’t returned as expected, the fear he’d shoved away suddenly lunged at him again. “Why didn’t you call me?” he asked.