Three hours later, Walt was perched on the queen bed of his hotel room with pages of the Cameron Young file around him. On the way back to the city he had stopped at a liquor store and found a bottle of Richland single estate rum. It wasn’t his preference, but it would do. For the first time in a while, he wasn’t looking for the rum to carry his problems away. Today, as he read the old case file, he was interested only in getting reacquainted with the players involved in the Cameron Young investigation. If he was going to meet Avery Mason and discuss the case with her, he needed to remember every detail. But there was another reason for Walt’s anxiousness to revisit the Cameron Young case. Despite what Dale Richards had claimed, Walt knew better. The case had been abandoned, but it had never been formally closed.

THE CAMERON YOUNG INVESTIGATION

Planted on a five-acre clearing in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, the main house was a grand log-style design by Murray Arnott. Built from Alaskan timber, the exterior featured a colossal A-frame grand gallery reminiscent of a Vail skiing lodge with dual windows angling into the peak and providing views of the mountains. To each side of the steeply angled roof, the home carried on in rustic extensions of horizontal logs that made up the bedrooms on one side and the recreation area on the other. The interior featured formal dining and living rooms, a home theater, an ornate library, and five bedrooms—each with private bath. The open floor plan centered around an impressive stone fireplace that climbed up to the vaulted ceiling. Twenty-foot windows offered endless views of the Catskill Mountains. The kitchen was mahogany and stainless steel, with sturdy wooden beams shooting up the pitched ceiling. A sweeping wooden staircase off the back patio led down to a pool, which was still covered this early in spring. Twin creeks ran on either side of the property and offered the constant rhythm of babbling water that shut out the rest of the world. A bridge arched over one of the creeks and led to the small studio the owner used for quiet days writing his novels.