“Gabe invited us to see his new movie,” Alexei said. “Food first, then a showing in his private theater. Dessert after, and then we went down to the boat and came home.”

“It was pretty late when the party ended, after ten. Dark by then.”

“It’s only an hour trip.” Alexei shrugged. “It was a clear night, and calm. Stars from horizon to horizon.” First gleam of humanity.

“Did anyone see you come home?”

“Sergei Pete was on the slip when we pulled in. He caught my line, helped snug us down.” He gave Liam Sergei’s phone number.

“Did you talk to Erik Berglund that night?”

Alexei shrugged again. “Said hi, how you doing.”

“Nothing about his work?”

“No.”

A murmur of feminine voices, the words indistinguishable. “Erik Berglund showed me around his dig that day. He said he was trying to prove the existence of a traditional trail that led from the dig site to Soldotna and Kenai. He seemed to think it would affect exploratory drilling in the Bay.”

Alexei snorted. “A broken snare and a couple of arrowheads is not going to make any difference to the oil companies or to the state.”

“He used to work for UNESCO. He seemed to think that they might step in.”

Alexei rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, we all heard how he wanted to turn the Bay into a World Heritage Site. Chungasqak Bay is not Mesa Verde. Besides, we don’t need UNESCO coming in and telling us what our history is. We know what our history is.”

He stopped when Kimberley reappeared. She set a creamer and a sugar bowl down on the tray and sat down, again on the very edge of her seat, eyes fixed on her clasped hands. Wy followed and sat down next to Liam.

“Forgive me, Ms. Petroff,” Liam said, “but another guest said that he saw you in conversation with Mr. Berglund.”

She clasped her hands again, but before she did he could see that they were in fact trembling. Her face was pale and she would not meet his eyes. “We went to high school in Blewestown together. We were just catching up.”

“But the person who saw you said that your conversation looked intense. What were you—”

Alexei stood up. “That’s enough. I’ll see you out.”

“Mr. Petroff—”

“We have nothing further to say to you, Sergeant. We’re sorry Erik’s dead but we don’t know what happened to him. You’ve seen that so-called trail down to his so-called dig. Have you considered that he might have just fallen down it?” Alexei stepped around the coffee table and perforce they stood up. By sheer force of presence Alexei shepherded them inexorably out of the living room, down the hall, and out the door.

As they came down the steps, two young men in their late teens pulled up in a pickup and hopped out. They were carbon copies of Alexei. “Hey, Mom.” They looked curiously at Liam and Wy as they passed into the house. “You okay?”