Paul averted his gaze and kept his body loose. He couldn’t give off signs he understood their words, or they’d move their conversations to a different room.

“Put his body with the others.”

Others?

He held back the smile that wanted to spread at hearing the plural word.

Rivera had been busy. Unless there was someone else in these woods.

Was it possible they had an unknown ally?

Chapter Fourteen

“Have you ever been inside Jeb’s cabin?” Xavier asked as he shined a red beam of light through the kitchen window.

“No. Jeb didn’t want it included in my historical inventory. It’s in the historic district nomination because it’s a contributing element—Jeb’s feelings don’t change that—but the information is scant and the photos were taken from the lake without trespassing on his property. Jeb was pro-historic-preservation protections, but adamantly antigovernment.”

“How did he justify both positions?”

She shrugged. “I’m sure it worked in his mind.”

Xavier circled the cabin with Audrey at his heels. He found an unlocked window on the north side, glad he wouldn’t need to break in this time. He hoisted the pane and found it moved smoothly in the old frame. From what he’d seen in daylight when they inspected all inholding properties two days ago, the hundred-plus-year-old cabin had been meticulously maintained. The thought triggered yet another pang at the death of the owner who’d cared so much for his lakeside cabin.

Xavier remembered seeing Jeb in the lodge the night he met Audrey. Jeb had been playing checkers with Audrey’s friend, George. Both men were of a similar age, and for a brief moment, Xavier had imagined himself and Jae, friends since elementary school, facing off over checkers in the lodge when they were in their seventies.

On the other side of the room, he’d seen Harriet and Daniel Jamison enjoying a cocktail, and Jae had pointed out the couple had been married for nearly seventy years. At the time, Xavier had wondered what it would be like to have that kind of life partner, and he’d envied both their longevity and their relationship.

Hours ago, he’d invaded the Jamison cabin, and now he would trespass in Jeb’s. Little had he known that night in the lodge that dominos were already falling. The thin rectangular bricks had twisted and turned as they fell, following switchbacks on a hillside, bringing him to this moment.

Somehow, someone had learned his reason for being in the lodge that night. They’d staged their weapons in the forest above the lodge complex two weeks later—a mere week after public notice had been sent to inholding landowners, a group that included antigovernment activist Jeb McCutcheon.