Rules of Deception

On a nearby table lay a freezer bag stuffed with passports.

“What’s this?” asked von Daniken.

“My man found it in the top drawer.”

“Looking for some toilet paper, was he?”

Widmer sniffed, and raised an eyebrow. Von Daniken had his answer. The officer had engaged in a quick and dirty search of the premises. The evidence was inadmissible, but so what? Lammers wasn’t going to be standing trial anytime soon.

“Holland. Belgium. New Zealand.” He flipped through the passports one by one. “A regular world traveler. Did your man happen to find anything else?”

“Under the cabinet,” said Widmer. “It seems that Mr. Lammers was aware that he had some enemies. Oh, and be careful. It’s loaded.”

Von Daniken kneeled down and stuffed his head into the space beneath the workbench. Clamped to the back wall was an Uzi submachine gun. He felt his pulse quicken. “Try and find out who sold it to him,” he said, getting to his feet and scooping up the passports. “I hope you don’t mind if I keep these.”

“I need a chit,” said Widmer.

Von Daniken wrote out a receipt for the passports and ripped it from his notepad. “All square. Now you have something to question Mrs. Lammers about. Inform her that we will deport her and her three children in twenty-four hours unless she tells us everything she knows about her husband’s need for multiple identities. We’ll see how closemouthed she is then.”

“That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?” asked Widmer. “I mean, her husband was the victim.”

Von Daniken buttoned his coat and headed out the door. “A victim?” His expression hardened. “Anyone with three passports and a loaded Uzi isn’t a victim. He’s either a criminal or a spy.”

6

Darkness pressed in from all sides. Jonathan blinked. His eyes were open, but the black remained absolute. He tried to raise his head, but found it locked into place. His legs and arms were likewise pi

He bolted upright in bed.

“Emma,” he gasped, his hands searching the mattress beside him.

He’d had the dream again. He needed to hear her voice. To feel her hand on his shoulder. He turned on the light. Emma’s side of the bed was unbothered. The crisp white duvet remained neatly folded down. A corner of her nightshirt extended from beneath her pillow.

She’s gone.

It came over him slowly, like an approaching storm. His breath quickened. His fingertips began to tingle. Something sharp and cold tore into his stomach and forced him to bend double at the waist. He sobbed.

She’s gone.

The words played over in his mind as images of her body lying alone and abandoned in the frozen darkness tormented him.

Finally, a measure of calm returned. His breathing slowed. The terror passed, but he knew it wasn’t gone for good. He could feel it lurking nearby, waiting.

He stood and walked to the window. Snow continued to fall heavily, and the faint light of dawn cast the low, stately clouds with a funereal hue. The view gave out over rolling hills dotted with chalets. A half mile farther on, a forest climbed the flank of the imposing peaks that cradled the town.

Opening the balcony door, he stepped outside. Cold scrubbed the air clean of scent, and his first breaths burned his throat and lungs. He stood at the railing, studying yesterday’s route. His eyes followed the path deep into the mountains, through cloud and mist to the hooded peak of the Furga. And beyond it, to Roman’s.

I know this mountain and I didn’t do anything to protect you from it.

I know this mountain and I left you alone on it.

I know this mountain and I let it kill you.

When his shivering grew uncontrollable, Jonathan stepped back inside. He was struck by how neat the room appeared. He knew that it was foolish to think it should look different now that she was gone. Yet he couldn’t help feeling betrayed by its normalcy, when nothing was normal at all.

He sat down at the desk and opened the drawer. Sunscreen, pocketknife, maps, lip balm, bandana, beacon, and the two-way radio lay scattered inside. He picked up the radio and flicked it on and off. It was dead.

A wire…a detached wire.

After coming off the mountain, Jonathan had been taken to the police station where he’d been examined by a doctor, then made to answer a fusillade of questions. Full name: Jonathan Hobart Ransom. Birthplace: A

And then the questions about Emma. Birthplace: Penzance, England. Parents: deceased. Siblings: one sister, Beatrice. Occupation: Nurse. Administrator. Human being with an oversized conscience and a “duty to interfere.” Wife. Best friend. Anchor.

There were other questions. About his experience as a mountaineer. About how he’d failed to monitor the weather. About Emma’s fall and whether or not she was bleeding when he’d left her, and his failure to spot the radio’s defect prior to climbing. And finally, about his decision to continue climbing when he’d realized the storm was intensifying.

It wasn’t his decision, he wanted to say. It was hers. Emma never turned back.

Setting the unit on the desk, he let his eyes wander to the mountains. Jonathan could trace the begi

But even then Jonathan was showing signs of an independent streak. Like all boys who idolize their older brothers, he had no intention of being left behind. His father, who was forty years old and never missed a chance to have a meal with his cocktail, might stop. But not him. And so, when Ned Ransom pulled up after four miles and suggested they break for an early lunch, Jonathan sprinted ahead, defying all calls for him to come back. He didn’t stop until he reached the peak almost eight miles later. One hundred yards ahead of his brothers.

The die was cast.

By the time Jonathan was sixteen, all he cared about was climbing. An equivalency test freed him from high school. College wasn’t a consideration. Summers were spent guiding up Mount McKinley, winters combing the slopes as a ski patrolman. Every pe

It was at this time that he became aware of a flaw in his character. The flaw derived from his almost u