There she didn’t often see light like this, so fresh it might have been poured unused from a bottle.
“You’re going to paint,” he said.
“I need to. I can’t waste this light.”
“I heard that part.” He sighed, looked at her and apparently concluded she was determined. “All right. Just stay on the hillside in the open and keep the radio with you. I’ll do the grocery shopping as fast as I can. No point in both of us going into town.”
She touched his arm. “I can take care of myself, Craig. If anyone bothers me, he’ll regret it, okay? They’ve got to know by now I’m just a painter. Neither of us have done a thing to make them nervous. They’ll probably just stay clear.”
“Probably.” He clearly didn’t feel he had a good argument against that. “I may be a little while. I have some things to take care of.”
“That’s fine. I’ll probably be back here by noon or one, because the dust will start filling the air again.”
“If you’re not,” he warned, “I’ll come looking for you.”
“Fair enough.” She laughed, gave him a quick kiss, enjoying the fact that she could do that so freely now, and went to climb into her car.
It didn’t strike her until she was setting up her easel on the hillside, hunting for the firmest ground, that he had said he had things to do.
What things? Surely he wasn’t going to confront Buddy again? Or take a look at those trip wires?
No, of course not. It was daylight now, and Craig was nobody’s fool. She spread her tarp and settled in.
* * *
“She’s painting again,” Cap remarked, looking through binoculars from one of the new watchtowers.
“So?” Buddy asked, standing beside him. “That’s all she ever does.”
“True,” Cap admitted. “That and hanging out with the ranger at that cabin.”
Buddy sighed. Cap had begun to seriously irritate him. “The ranger’s not a problem. He hasn’t even been back over here. If he’s got the hots for her, so much the better. He’ll be thinking about everything else but us.”
“What about your plan to turn us into heroes?”
Buddy shifted uneasily. It was a good plan, if they did it right. He was just worried that Cap might go too far.
“As long as she just gets lost and we can find her, it’s a good plan. If you kill her, this place is going to be crawling with Feds after that hiker. It won’t just be Craig. It’ll be the damned FBI. That wouldn’t be smart.”
“Depends.” But Cap lowered the binoculars. “Okay, I’ll play along. We’ll cause her a small accident today. Then when the search starts, a few of us join up.”
“Me included. They know me. If I don’t show up, it’ll look weird. The important thing is to make them forget about us. To look like the good guys to them.”
“It would help,” Cap said.
Buddy looked at him, feeling that Cap was agreeing with him without meaning it. He knew Cap had big plans, but in simple fact, Buddy couldn’t imagine how starting them here in this isolated place would make a damn bit of difference. He remembered Idaho, damn it.
“The thing is, we look innocent. They leave us alone and we can keep planning the big action.”
Cap nodded and let the binoculars dangle from his neck. “I’ll send one of my guys out to set up a problem. Then maybe he can lure her into that gorge again. You can live with a broken leg, right?”
The tone was almost scornful. “I just don’t want her dead. Neither should you if you’re half as smart as you seem to think.”
Cap frowned at him in a way that made Buddy climb down from the tower and head for his own cabin. His wife, Vera, was looking worn and tired these days, probably because she and the girls were having to cook and clean up after so many more. He felt a twinge of conscience.
But he also knew something else. If Cap went too far, he didn’t want his family in any potentially dangerous crossfire. Not like what happened in Idaho.
“Stay close,” he said to her. “You and the kids. The minute anything seems to be going cockeyed, you get to the safe room and don’t leave it.”
Weariness gave way to fright. “Buddy, what’s going on?”
“Nothing yet. You know what I told you to watch out for. You keep them kids close, hear?”
* * *
Craig loathed leaving Sky behind. No, there was no specific threat. No, he