Mountain Ice (David Dean Mysteries)

"That was Edith Shipton!" Cynthia said. "I thought the car looked familiar!" She pivoted around, as far as her seatbelt allowed, practically hanging over the seat as she looked out the back window.

"Are you sure?" Dean asked.

"Yes! And I recognized her coat, too! I wonder if the man she's talking to is her creep of a husband."

Dean had been concentrating on his business at hand, driving, and hadn't even glanced at the two cars. It was all he could do to keep his eyes on the road. By the time he looked back, they were around a curve and the cars were no longer visible.

"It seems strange she'd be out here, three or four miles from town," Cynthia continued.

"Did she act as if she knew the other person?" Dean asked.

"I don't know. But he was standing very close to her. Do you think we should go back and see if she needs help?"

"No!" he answered, loud enough to startle Cynthia who quickly turned her head to him.

"I don't mean to snoop," she pouted defensively, adjusting her seat-belt. "She did say her husband was stalking her, after all." Cynthia looked over at her husband. "We could turn around and drive by. Just to make sure. I'm positive she didn't notice us the first time."

Dean rolled his eyes, but smiled inwardly at his wife's concern as he looked for a place to turn around the jeep. While he wanted to avoid further involvement in Edith Shipton's troubled world, he felt proud of his wife inherent sense of compassion toward anyone in trouble. Stray dogs and stray souls. It didn't seem to matter.

Just as they had reversed their direction, Edith Shipton passed them, driving down the mountain, not speeding but too fast by Dean's conservative standards. She was easily recognizable, her dark hair streaming in the breeze of her partially open window. She looked straight ahead and didn't see them. Dean caught enough of a look to see a contented smile on the face of the well dressed woman.

"She doesn't look too damn terrorized to me," Dean grumbled as he looked for another spot to yet again reverse his direction. The next opportunity proved to be the same jeep road cut off where they'd first seen Edith speaking with the man in the second car, which was now nowhere in sight.

"He must have driven south, away from Ouray," Cynthia mused. "That's even stranger."

"What's so strange? One of them probably pulled the other over to ask directions," Dean said as he backed into a K-turn. He immediately regretted fueling further speculation.