Absolutely, Positively

would take a while to wear off. Maybe a lifetime.

    “I'm fine, thanks to you.” She turned her head to look at him. Her eyes were enormous. “That was an incredible piece of driving. I thought we were going over the side.”

    “Good car.”

    Molly shook her head. “Good driver. Anyone else would have lost control. Josh was right. You do have terrific reflexes.”

    Harry dredged up a smile that he knew very probably resembled the skeletal grin of a Halloween mask. “We all have our little talents.”

    “Your little talent just saved both our lives,” she said with great depth of feeling. “If I weren't so terrified of unfastening my seat belt while we're sitting in the middle of this road, I'd give you a big, wet, squishy kiss.”

    “I'll take you up on that later.” Harry checked the mirror once more and then put the engine in gear.

    He could have caught up with the blue Ford, he thought with fleeting regret. He would have liked very much to do just that. And if he had been alone, he would have done it. There was little doubt but that he had a distinct advantage on a road full of curves such as this one. His reflexes and the handling characteristics of the Sneath guaranteed it. But it would have been a risky chase, and he was not about to put Molly in further danger.

    “Do you think we should report that car to the highway patrol?” Molly asked after a minute.

    Harry shrugged. “Sure. But I doubt that anything will come of it. Near misses aren't uncommon. Especially on back roads like this.”

    “We can describe the car. It was a late-model blue Ford.”

    “Yes, but there were no plates.”

    “No license plates?” Molly stared at him. “I guess that in all the excitement I didn't even notice. I hate to ask, but do you think it was a deliberate attempt to run us off the road? Or do you think the driver was under the influence, and we happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

    “I don't know,” Harry said honestly. “But I don't like coincidences.”

    “The guy was probably drunk.”

    “Maybe.”

    Molly slanted him an assessing look. “You're not thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?”

    “That the driver of the Ford was Wharton Kendall?”

    She sighed. “I knew it. You're thinking the same thing. It's highly unlikely, isn't it? I mean, Kendall is supposed to be in California by now.”

    “That's where he's supposed to be. But there seems to be a general consensus that the bastard is nuttier than a fruitcake. Who knows where he is.”

    “Why would he sneak around Icy Crest waiting to see if someone came looking for him? It doesn't make sense. He moved out of Shorty's cabin. Where would he sleep?”

    “In his car.”

    “Where would he eat?”

    “He could have a supply of junk food stashed in the trunk of the Ford.”

    “How would he know when and where to watch for us?”

    Harry thought about that one for a couple of seconds. “He could have hidden in the woods in order to keep an eye on the cabin. Waited to see if anyone came looking for evidence. Or someone in Icy Crest might have done the legwork for him. Maybe good old Pete or Shorty or one of the men standing around out in front of the grocery store called Kendall and let him know someone was in town looking for him.”

    Molly looked thoughtful. “That implies he had a phone available.”

    “Cellular car phones aren't exactly a novelty these days.”

    She made a face. “You have an answer for everything, don't you? The thing is, the good folk of Icy Crest all seemed to dismiss Kendall as a weird kook. I don't think they liked him very much.”

    “Even weird kooks have money. Someone in town might have been willing to take his cash in exchange for providing information.”

    Molly frowned. “Wharton Kendall doesn't have a lot of money. If he did, he wouldn't have had to apply for funding from the Abberwick Foundation.”

    “I don't think it would take more than fifty bucks to tempt any of those men who were hanging around Pete's store. Hell, Pete himself would probably turn in his own mother for twenty-five dollars and a shirt that was a couple of sizes larger.”

    “You could be right. Damn. This mess is getting more and more complicated, isn't it? Things could go on like this for a very long time.” Molly became very quiet.

    Harry understood quiet. He was accustomed to sinking into his own personal pools of deep silence for hours on end. He had been around Molly long