I felt old. In the chilly breeze, my running clothes seemed inadequate, and the only warmth in the world was my skin under Hollis’s hand. “I’m all right,” I said steadily. “I think I’ll finish my run and get back to the motel.”

“Where’s your brother? You want me to go get him and bring him here?”

Suddenly, my head felt as light as a balloon. I realized that the combination of intense fear followed by intense relief—and then equally intense anger—had just made me numb. And it was something, you know . . . hearing Hollis be intuitive enough to hit on the one thing I found I wanted above all else. But I wasn’t going to ask him for it.

“I appreciate your concern,” I said very softly. “But I’m just going to run, now.”

I don’t know if he understood or not; I hope he did grasp my sincerity. Since we were on the side of a public road, I didn’t want to hug him. Even if we’d been in a more private situation, I’m not sure I’d have hugged him. But I tried to smile at him as I began to jog down the road. I moved very slowly, because my body chemistry was all screwed up; my muscles didn’t know if they were cold from inactivity or warm from adrenaline, and my mind was scurrying around many different corners, but focused on one thing—finishing this run, out of pride.

I got back to the motel with no further incident. I had completed my self-assigned distance. I was walking around the parking lot outside my room, cooling down, trying hard to put the fear behind me. Stupid. I was stupid, stupid, stupid.

My brother came down the road, finishing up his own run. I hastily went to my own door and slid in the plastic card.

“No, you don’t!” he called out. “You stay right there.”

Shit. I kept my back to him.

He spun me around by one shoulder. He looked me up and down.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

He’d run into one of the lawmen.

“Yes,” I said, trying not to sound sullen. “I’m fine. Who told you?”

“I saw Hollis Boxleitner,” he said. “That where you were last night?”

I nodded, not meeting Tolliver’s eyes.

“We have to get out of this place,” he said. “We could go if they found out who did this.”

“Maybe it would do some good if I could get to Helen’s body,” I said. “I might pick up something.”

“Hollis said she got a phone call after we’d left her place that morning. The lawyer called her. Paul Edwards.”

“What about?”

“Hollis didn’t say. I don’t guess he mentioned it last night?”

“No.” I could feel my face heating up.