As I pulled to my usual spot on the shoulder, I noticed a gray pickup in Snook’s drive. It had a rusting tailpipe and a bumper sticker saying Give Wildlife a Brake. I’d seen it before, couldn’t recall where. Rusty pickups were all the rage in Yellowknife.

I decided to hold tight.

Good call.

Ten minutes later, the side door opened, and a man stepped from the house to the carport. His face was in shadow, but his form looked familiar.

The man got into the truck and backed toward the street. While shifting gears, he glanced my way.

We registered mutual expressions of shock.

Horace Tyne.

Without a word, Tyne gunned it up Ragged Ass. Pebbles spit by his wheels ticked the side of the Camry.

What was Horace Tyne doing with Nellie Snook?

I got out, crossed to the house, and banged on the door.

Snook answered right away, holding a ball cap in one hand. “Don’t worry. I’ve got it.”

Realizing I wasn’t Tyne, she frowned. “You’re like a bad rash. You just keep coming back.”

“Was that Horace Tyne?”

“What do you want?”

“You told me your father left land to you and your brother.”

“Don’t remember saying that, but so what?”

“Did the land also belong to Annaliese?”

“He did it to salve his conscience for ignoring us all our lives. That’s my opinion, and I’ll never change it.”

“Think a minute. Do you own the land outright or the mineral claims?”

Snook’s brows winged farther down. “What’s the difference?”

“Where is the land?”

“All I know is it’s not here in Yellowknife. A town lot might have value. This is a worthless hunk of nothing so far out on the tundra no one would buy it.”

“Have you tried to sell?”

“Right.” She snorted. “That’d happen. Now that the deeds belong to me outright, I’m going to offload the land to charity. I’m tired of shelling out for all three of us. Annaliese and Daryl never had a nickel to spare.”

“You plan to donate the property to Horace Tyne?”

“Yes.” Defensive. “I sign a few papers, I’m out from under the taxes, or the fees, or whatever it is I’ve been paying.”

“For his preserve.”

“When they open the new mine, the caribou won’t have no place to go. Their migration routes will be shattered.”

Something cold clammed into my gut. “Which new mine?”

“Gahcho Kué.”

I grasped each of Snook’s upper arms and locked my eyes onto hers. She stiffened but did not pull back.

“Nellie, promise you will do nothing until you speak to me again.”

“I don’t—”

“You own mineral claims, not land. The claims could be worth a great deal of money. Someone wants to get them from you. That person may have killed Daryl and Annaliese.”

She looked at me like I needed a shot of Prozac.