Chapter 83

"I have to say, Maine is probably the only place I've ever been that's colder than Montana. And maybe more desolate."

Logan Tanner looked at Sophia, turned up the fleece-lined collar of his rancher's coat and pulled his Stetson down lower on his head against the light snow falling. A Stafford jet had just delivered them to the general aviation terminal at Northern Maine Regional Airport in Presque Isle, Maine. At the counter inside the terminal, a man had greeted them with the keys to a four-wheel drive SUV.

Sophia laughed. "I thought you Montana natives were from hardy stock."

"We like to think so, but I think you've got us beat."

"Welcome to Aroostook County," she told him. "It's nicknamed the Crown of Maine because it sits at the top of the state. Houlton, the county seat, is only three miles from the border with Quebec and New Brunswick in Canada. Can't get much more north than that unless you go to Alaska."