“It’s easy to do. With kids and a husband, you have a lot going on. I wanted to ask about a pub in Vail called Bullwinkle’s. You know it, right? I think most of the locals do.”

“I know it. My husband and I go there sometimes, mostly during ski season.”

“It’s been there a while,” Ellie said. “Do you remember if Heather went there when she came to visit? You said she went out by herself sometimes.”

“We went there nearly every time she came to Vail. We were younger. Sometimes Heather went alone. It was the place everybody went back then. I guess if you’re single, it still is.”

“There’s been another murder, Anna. A woman from Denver named Barbara Meeks.”

“Oh no.”

“Barbara was killed under circumstances similar to what happened to Heather. They found her body in the same mountain park on the outskirts of Boulder.”

“That’s terrible news. I feel so sorry for her family. But surely the police can’t believe it’s the same man.”

“I know eight years is a long time, but there’s a chance it’s him. A woman who works at Bullwinkle’s saw Barbara with a man the weekend before she was killed. She’s doing a sketch with the Denver police. I’d like you to look at it once it’s finished. You might have seen him somewhere back then.”

“Yes, absolutely. I’ll talk to Gretchen, make sure she sees it, too.”

“That would be great. I’ll let you know as soon as I have something to show you.” Ellie hung up and looked over to find Kade watching her.

“So Heather went to Bullwinkle’s to pick up men,” he said darkly.

“We don’t know for sure that’s what she did there, but it’s certainly possible.” She walked over to him, gently laid a hand on his cheek. “I warned you when we started that dredging up the past would be painful.”

He caught her hand, turned his face into it, and kissed her palm. “I’m not sorry. If we’re right and the same man killed both women, he could kill again. We need to find him and stop him.”

“We’re going to find him,” Ellie said. “Which means I need to get to work. I’ve got some things to check on the internet.” Ellie’s cell phone rang. She grabbed it off the dresser.

“It’s Zoe,” she said to Kade. Zoe was working the Keller case, looking for proof that the man had been paid and, if so, figuring out who’d paid him.

“I’ve got good news and bad,” Zoe said. “The good news is Frank Keller made two ten-thousand-dollar deposits into his Wells Fargo account in Denver.”

Adrenaline jolted through Ellie. “Which confirms what we figured, that someone hired him to cause Kade trouble.”