Erik laid his hand on his heart and let it thump a few times. “You had me at booze, but Dom, too?” Gabe rolled his eyes and Erik snorted again. “Like you wouldn’t tap that.”

“Seriously, dude? That woman comes with her own freight train of baggage.” He turned to Liam. “You’re invited, too.”

“Thanks, but—” He looked at his phone. “I’ve got just about enough time to get from here to the airport to pick my wife up when she lands.”

“The hot pilot, right?” Liam raised an eyebrow and McGuire grinned. “I’m not blind. Bring her along.”

“I’ll ask her,” Liam said, knowing he would do no such thing. He hadn’t seen Wy for a week and what he had in mind for the evening didn’t include an audience.

Gabe read his expression. “Yeah, never mind. Rain check.”

“Works.” He looked at Erik. “Thanks for the tour.”

“Anytime.”

“I’ll follow you up,” McGuire said.

The way up was arduous but less death-defying. They stood at the top for a moment to catch their breath. “You get this view from the house?” Liam said.

“Oh, yeah.”

Liam looked towards it but the trees were impenetrable. “How long have you been here?”

“Almost a year.”

“Buy or build?”

“Bought. Some dot-com gazillionaire built it, spent about twelve days in it, and decided it was too far from the nearest server farm.” Liam laughed and Gabe smiled. “Seen anything of that FBI agent or that reporter?”

“Mason and Dunaway? Dunaway’s always in and out on stories. I’ve talked on the phone to Mason a time or two.” Liam looked at him. “Did I remember to thank you for giving Kate Shugak a ride back from Adak that time? I still owe you for that.”

Gabe shrugged. “I can always use more hours in the G-2.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked away. “I was real sorry to hear.”

“Hear what?”

Still not looking at Liam, Gabe said, “That she died.”

“Who died?”

McGuire did look at him this time, clearly annoyed. “Kate Shugak.”

“What?”

“You didn’t know? I thought Alaska was the original seventh grade classroom, everybody knows everything about everybody else.”

“Kate’s not dead, Gabe.”

“She got shot. I heard. Her and that monster dog of hers, too.”

“True,” Liam said, “but she didn’t die. Monster dog, either.”

McGuire stared at him. “Kate Shugak’s alive?”

Liam got the feeling McGuire was tap dancing but he couldn’t figure out what around.

“I was told she was dead,” McGuire said slowly.

“Who told you that?” McGuire didn’t answer, and the answer dawned. “Erland Bannister? Your business partner in Newenham?” McGuire looked away and Liam said, “Yeah, well, he actually is dead. And never a man whose word you could trust when he was alive, by the way.” Liam checked his phone again. “I gotta book.”

The one-lane dirt road was just as awful going out as coming in and he achieved the paved surface of East Bay Road again with the feeling of having dodged an enormous repair bill. McGuire could afford to turn that poor excuse for a road into the Champs-Elysées, so why put up with what was basically a hog wallow?