It wasn’t until after supper that Jane was brought abruptly down to earth. Fraser received an emergency call from his supervisor at the border station recalling him from the Highlands to return to the city. He was obviously upset but, after he went for a short walk with Caleb, he came back resigned and even cheerful. Caleb had offered to take Fraser’s place and stay the night at the facility until he could arrange to have a substitute come to the Highlands the following day. He did it with an offhandedness that made it seem ultra-casual. He even asked Fraser to tour the yard with him to make sure the area was safe. He listened patiently to Fraser’s advice and admonishments and then helped him load his van.

Fraser’s last words were to Jane. He stuck his head out the window as he was backing out. “Sorry about this. But you’ll be fine. You’ve got a good man here. If there’s anything I can do for you just give me a call.”

“I’ll do that,” Jane said. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine. Thanks for giving us such a good day.”

Then Jane watched as Fraser waved and then drove off down the road. She immediately turned to Caleb. “How did you manage to get him away from here?”

“I called MacDuff and told him to contact the president of the railway and tell him to get Fraser out of here before midnight. All business executives are eager to do favors for MacDuff.” He glanced at his watch. “Right on time. He only had another fifteen minutes.”

“Midnight? Are we running that close?”

He shook his head. “I figure we’ve got at least until dawn. As a last resort, I told Rodland to give me twenty minutes’ notice when Bohdan was near enough to be a threat. But I didn’t want to cut it any closer where Fraser was concerned. He was an innocent, and you’d just lost Campbell. It would have torn you apart if something had gone wrong.” He looked at Fraser’s taillights disappearing around the curve. “Do you know how much I wanted to push you into that van and get you out of here?”

“Fraser would have understood.” She wrinkled her nose. “You heard him tell me what a fine man I had to take care of me.”

“And you were very polite. So instead of doing what I want to do, we’ll spend a good portion of the night checking out the north trails and the forest.” He took her elbow and turned her back toward the camp. “And then I’ll open the trunk of the Range Rover and go over the three semiautomatic pistols and two rifles that I stashed there for you. I’m not sure about the handguns, but I’ve already got a plan for the rifle. I approve of long-range weapons for you.”