She rushed to the front door and peeked through the fisheye peephole to observe the newly repaired elevator. The green arrow flickered six times. He was going up to Betty’s floor and that meant they were still alive!

Grace’s fingers were trembling as she fumbled in the tote bag and slipped a round into the chamber. Then she ran to the stairwell and took the stairs as fast as she could, blessing her dancer’s legs. There was no way she could get there first, but they were barricaded in Betty’s bedroom. And she was coming with the gun that would save them.

“Oh, God! I was right!” Ellen’s voice was shaking. Since she was good at puzzles, Jayne had given her the notebook and she was frantically working to divide the letters from Johnny’s message into words.

“What does it say?”

Moira didn’t take her eyes from the screen as she changed cameras and locations, desperately trying to locate Walker. They’d buzzed Grace on the intercom to tell her that he was up and moving, but there had been no answer.

“The words are, Jayne If You Get This I Am Dead Cocaine In Dolls Watch Out Marc. And then it stops. Johnny must have discovered that Walker was putting cocaine in my mannequins and he was killed before he could tell anyone. And the last part is a warning for Marc. Oh, I hope he’s all right!”

“There he is!” Moira pointed to the screen where Marc had appeared.

“He’s coming down the hallway. Thank God!”

Ellen jumped to her feet. “I’ll get him. You keep on trying to find Walker.”

TWENTY-ONE

Marc was approaching the door when Ellen opened it, pulled him inside, and threw her arms around him. “Thank God it’s you! We thought Walker had killed you!”

“What?”

“Come on.” Ellen tugged him toward Betty’s room. “We’re all holed up in here.”

Marc still looked dazed and Ellen realized that she hadn’t explained the situation. “Sorry, I forgot that you don’t know what happened. Johnny left a warning for you on Jayne’s piano and Betty’s all right now, but Walker killed her nurse. Grace went down to get one of her father’s guns and we think she’s okay, but we lost Walker when we tried to track him on Betty’s television and now we don’t know where he is.”

“There’s Grace and she’s got the gun.” Moira pointed at the screen where Grace was just reaching their landing. “Go let her in, Ellen. I’ll keep trying to find Walker.”

Grace came in and rushed over to hug Marc, who was sitting in a chair by the door. “You’re alive! We thought . . . it doesn’t matter now, but Walker came down to the menagerie while I was there and I had to hide behind the Kodiak bear and thank God he didn’t spot me! I rushed right up here as soon as he’d left, and I managed to load this thing, but I hope to God you know how to shoot it!”

“Uh . . . sure, I do. No problem.”

Marc’s voice sounded strange. Ellen hoped he’d recover enough to do them some good. She patted him on the shoulder and handed him the notebook with Johnny’s message. “Here, read this. Johnny left a coded message warning you that Walker was using my mannequins to transport drugs, but he . . . he was murdered before he could write the rest.”

“We think Walker’s still in the building,” Moira explained, turning back to the screen. “He hasn’t come out of the entrance and I’ve been switching back there every couple of seconds.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find him.” Marc stood up. “You ladies stay right here. It’s safer that way. And don’t open the door for anyone but me.”

“But . . . will you have to kill him?” Ellen’s voice was shaking. “He doesn’t have a gun.”

“Then there’s no problem. Give me the rifle, Grace.” Marc smiled as Grace handed him the rifle and the extra shells. “Perfect. You loaded the rifle with these?”

“Yes. Did I do something wrong?”

“Not a thing. I don’t want to leave you unarmed, so you keep this one. I’ll run up and get my hunting rifle.”

After Marc had left, Moira clicked the button for his floor and they all watched anxiously for him to appear. Ellen let out a relieved sigh as they saw him crossing the living room floor. “He made it!”

“Thank God!” Grace reached out to grip Moira’s hand tightly. “I don’t know whether he’s brave or foolish, but I’m sure glad I don’t have to go out there again.”

Paul kept the snowmobile on a path across the ridge that roughly paralleled the access road. There were clouds over the moon and the wind whipped up the loose snow to drive it against his face in what felt like needles of ice. He could feel Jayne shivering on the seat behind him and he wished he’d been able to run upstairs to get her parka. Betty’s fur coat was stylish, but no match for warmth.

“Are you all right, honey?” The wind whipped his words away in a blast of freezing air, but Jayne leaned close to him and shouted that she was fine, although she suspected the tip of her nose was already well on its way to turning into an icicle.

The engine of the snowmobile coughed once and started to sputter as it came slowly to a stop. Paul swore in Norwegian again, and got out of the driver’s seat.

“What’s the matter?” Jayne felt her heart beat faster. She hoped nothing was wrong.

“We are out of petrol.”

“Out of gas?” Jayne gave a cry of alarm. “Oh, no.”

Paul patted her shoulder. “It is just that I now must switch to the second tank.”

Jayne gave a sigh of relief as Paul went around to the side of the machine and flipped a switch, then got back on and tried the motor. She could hear it turn over, but it didn’t catch. Not on the second time, or the third, or fourth.

Paul frowned. “I think it is submerged.”

“Flooded,” Jayne corrected him. “What can we do?”

“We must wait until the extra petrol drains out and then it will start.”

Jayne sat for a moment, realizing that all the time they’d saved by cutting over the ridge was being lost now. Then the clouds rolled past the moon and it was bright once more. Jayne was just beginning to feel some hope, it would be easier to travel now that they could see clearly, when she spotted a dark furry shape barreling out of the trees ahead, charging straight at the snowmobile.

“Black bear!” Jayne pulled the gun out of her pocket and steadied it with both hands. “Get behind me, Paul.”

Jayne lined up the sights and fired. Thank God Jack had talked her into taking that firearms safety course after Paul had left! She hadn’t gotten around to buying a gun, but she’d learned how to use six different types of weapons, a forty-five automatic among them.

The bear gave a roar that nearly deafened them and kept right on coming. Jayne was sure she’d hit it, but the bullet must have bounced off its thick skull. She seemed to remember hearing that someone had pumped twenty rounds into a black bear before it had dropped. She had to make every shot count.

Jayne could see the bear’s teeth now, viciously sharp and gleaming in the moonlight. She squeezed off another shot, aiming right into its open mouth, and then another and another. This wasn’t the same as shooting at paper targets. This was real!

She tried to stay calm as she aimed carefully and emptied the magazine. The bear was almost on top of them when it staggered and dropped to the snow.

Paul’s voice was shaking. “I thought we had bought the ranch, honey.”

Jayne was too rattled to correct him. “Just try the engine again. And hurry!”

While Paul tried the engine, Jayne stared at the bear. It was a big one, five hundred pounds at least, with claws twice as long as her fingers and jaws powerful enough to rip a man’s leg right off his body. Black bears were known to be vicious when awakened in the winter, and one half this size could kill with a swipe of its claws. Jayne didn’t know what she’d do if it got up again. The gun was empty. She kept on staring at it, as if she could keep it motionless by the sheer effort of her will.