When she didn’t answer, Donatti moved toward her, feeling for his emptied holster. Decker took out his pocketknife and cut Terry’s binds. He said, “I can get us back. I have a compass.” He moved slowly, but within ten minutes they were back on the trail. Donatti ran down as fast as he could without losing his footing, while Decker led Talia down with Rina behind him with the gun. As soon as they got to the bottom, Donatti said, “She’s not answering me.”

“There’s no reception here,” Decker said. “Chris, you go down to the car with Rina and take Terry to the hospital. Call the police when you get some bars. I’ll wait here with Talia.”

Rina handed her husband the gun. “Be careful.”

“Always.”

Chris gently slid Terry inside the limo, then himself. Rina sat on the other side, and then the car sped away.

Talia shrugged and looked at Decker. “What now?”

“Now we wait for the police.”

“I’m cold.”

“Not as cold as Terry.”

Talia shrugged again.

Decker said, “How’d you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Get her to come with you.”

“It wasn’t planned,” Talia said. “I saw her walking on her own and it just came to me. I knew about the miner’s shed from my own hiking. The next day I bought a padlock and waited. It took a few days, but I finally managed to waylay her. I put a gun to her head and that was that.”

Decker said, “She was tied up, Talia. With plastic ties. That seems pretty planned.”

“Well, once I decided to lock her up, I had to do it right. I didn’t want her escaping and telling Chris until I had a chance to explain.”

“Explain what?”

She turned and looked at him. “Why I did it, of course.”

Decker had no answer.

She said, “She was classy. I’ll give her that. She saw the determined look in my eye. She didn’t beg for her life or freedom or anything. I think she knew I’d never hurt the kids. I dunno. Maybe she just had enough of life. She looked worn out. I think that’s why I let her live instead of shooting her on the spot. I found out I just couldn’t do it.”

“But it was okay for her to be tied up and freeze to death?”

“Yeah, she was lucky. One more day out here in the cold and she wouldn’t have made it. I don’t know how your wife knew.” She turned to Decker. “Maybe it was a woman thing.”

That could be, because Decker sure as hell had had no idea that she was the guilty party. He said, “You were coming back to your office to get the rings?”

Talia nodded. “I picked them out. They should have been mine in the first place.”

Decker said nothing.