A Fright to the Death (10 page)

I looked out the window.

“It’s coming from out there,” I said, pointing toward the woods.

Mac cocked his head. “Sounds like dirt bikes.”

“It must be snowmobiles,” Vi said.

We squinted and peered out the window in the direction of the woods. Wally had come back in and joined us at the window.

“Did you hear that weird noise?” he asked.

Then I caught sight of them. Two snowmobiles broke into the clearing from the trees. They were still pretty far away, but approaching quickly. It looked like a bear drove one of them.

As they drew nearer, I saw that one of the riders wore a backpack strapped across his chest like a baby carrier. The one with the bear also had a person riding just behind. The riders wore ski masks and goggles, and the fluffy layer of snow sprayed around them as they approached.

Mac and I stared at each other, mouths open.

The knitters thundered out of the lounge. Mavis and Selma led the charge, moving rapidly toward the back door. “We’re saved!” Selma announced as she hurried past the reception hallway.

The rest of the knitters followed in her wake. They acted like castaways spotting a cruise ship.

I trailed the crowd down the hall toward the back door. I heard the engines rev and then cut out.

The gang poured out the back door, no one bothering to put on coats.

I felt my breath catch when I saw the riders dismount. The bear bounded off the snowmobile and let out a very canine woof. His huge doggy face smiled up at his copilot—Dad.

He pulled off his ski mask and his shock of white hair stood up even more than usual. I viciously suppressed the comparison to a cockatoo. Mom immediately greeted him with a big hug. His face was red from the cold but he looked delighted at his hero’s welcome. Baxter leaped and barked in his joy at seeing Mom again and when he spotted me, he barreled toward me and jumped, knocking me into a snowbank. My beloved mastiff weighs almost as much as I do.

The other rider was my nephew, Seth. Taller than me now at fourteen, his lanky frame and blond hair reminded me of his mother, my sister, Grace. He came to my rescue and pulled Baxter away while Vi helped me up. Vi walked over to Dad to get the scoop from him.

Seth threw a snowball for Baxter to chase and he bounded off into the garden.

“What are you doing here?” I said to Seth.

“What are
you
doing here?” he said. Tuffy’s head popped out of the backpack, his nose twitching as he assessed the
situation. Tuffy was Seth’s shih tzu and they had been inseparable since they met last summer.

“Our flight was canceled and we had to find a place to stay, then we got snowed in,” I said.

Seth nodded. “I knew your flight got canceled—the airline called the house. But how did you end up here . . . with them?” He tilted his head toward the ladies.

“We didn’t know they were here,” I said quietly.

“Great. I bet Mac was really happy to see them.” Seth had been privy to Mac’s exuberance at getting away from the psychic dream team.

“You get more sarcastic every day.”

Seth grinned and bent down to let Tuffy out of the bag.

Tuffy sniffed the ground and minced his way over to a mound of snow that looked like it used to be a bush. He lifted his leg and left a yellow stain before kicking up the snow with his back legs. He trotted back to Seth and sat on his foot.

By this time all of the knitters had come outside to see the snowmobiles, the dogs, and the newcomers. Vi introduced everyone.

“So, tell us!” Vi said to Dad.

“Yes, Frank. What are you doing here—not that we aren’t thrilled to see you . . . ,” Mom said.

“We got a call from the airline that Clyde’s flight was canceled and we couldn’t get through on her cell. We couldn’t reach either of your phones or the hotel. I saw on the news that a lot of this area was without power and we got worried.” Dad shrugged and smiled when he got another hug from mom.

“We hoped you had heard from Clyde and would know where she was staying, but didn’t expect that you’d all be
here,” Seth added. He succumbed to a hug from Mom. When she released him, he continued his story.

“Papa’s police scanner told us the police and emergency crews were working to clear accidents off the road.” Seth lowered his voice and said to me, “I had to keep my eyes on the ditches all the way here.”

“How did you get here so fast?” I asked.

“We left when it was still dark out,” Seth said. “Papa wanted to get on the road right away.” Seth bent down to pick up Tuffy, who had begun shivering.

“We tried to get through by car, but there’s a big tree blocking the road to the hotel,” Dad said.

Gasps and tsks went through the crowd. Mavis mumbled that we were stuck here until spring. Tina, Heather, and Amy stepped aside and whispered.

“I saw a snowmobile rental place,” Seth said. And out of the corner of his mouth to me, “While I was watching the ditches for your crumpled car.” He raised his voice and said, “They told us there was a path through the woods we could use if we went slow.”

“How did you get Baxter to ride on it?” I asked while rubbing Baxter’s ears. He looked up at me, tongue lolling with a huge doggy smile.

Dad shrugged. “Seth just told him to hop on and he did.”

Seth and I exchanged a look. His ability to communicate with animals was still our secret, but they’d figure it out soon if he kept convincing the dogs to do crazy things.

“You two are quite the heroes,” Mac said from the doorway.

Everyone turned to see Mac smiling and Wally looking at Baxter with a mixture of fear and fascination.

Vi announced she was freezing and gestured everyone
inside. “You two won’t believe what’s been going on around here,” Vi said. “There’s been a
murder
.”

“Oh, Frank, I’m so glad you’re here,” Mom said and hooked her arm through Dad’s.

Mac and Wally grabbed two duffel bags and the bag we used to tote dog food off the back of the snowmobiles and brought them inside.

Vi launched into her story of ghosts, murders, and yarn bombing as she shepherded the gang back to the hotel.

Seth hesitated outside with the dogs.

“Do you think it’s okay to bring them in?” he asked. “We couldn’t leave them alone at home but we didn’t think about where they would stay.”

“Why don’t you clip their leashes on and we’ll just keep them close until we figure out what to do. It’s too cold to leave them outside,” I said.

The general hubbub in the back hallway drew Jessica out of her office.

“Oh, my. What’s going on?” she said.

Vi explained about our rescuers.

“Rose says the generator isn’t working?” Dad said. “I can take a look at it if you like.”

“If you think you can get it working, I’m sure we’d all appreciate it,” Jessica said. “It’s not getting any warmer.”

Dad nodded and rubbed his hands together. There was nothing he liked better than to fix things.

Vi leaned over toward me. “I hope he doesn’t blow the place up.”

“It’ll be fine, Vi. He knows about generators, he’s been dealing with the one at your house for years.” Vi crossed her arms and watched him walk away with Wally.

“Jessica, the guys brought the dogs with them,” I said.
“Do you mind if they stay, or should they try to find a hotel that will take them and is within snowmobile distance?”

Jessica looked at Tuffy, who was shivering in Seth’s arms. “How cute. No, it’s fine. He doesn’t look much bigger than Duchess.” Baxter had been by the back door sniffing the bag with his food and he took this moment to amble forward through the crowd.

“Oh. This one is a bit bigger.” Jessica’s face had gone a shade whiter. “I think maybe we should put them out in the cottage.”

“Cottage?” Mac said.

Jessica nodded. “It’s for families and small groups. It sleeps six and has a small kitchen. The dogs can get outside easily.”

“Wally never mentioned a cottage when we were checking in,” I said.

“Well, we haven’t been using it this winter. But it will only take Holly a little while to open it up and get it ready. It’s not as convenient in the winter because it’s away from the main hotel. He probably didn’t even think of it with the storm coming on Thursday.”

A cottage would have been the perfect place for Mac and I to stay. I would have to have a word with Wally later.

“Oh, Frank, Seth and I can stay out there with the dogs,” Mom said.

Vi nudged me in the ribs. “It’s just you and me now.”

The knitters dispersed to the lounge to continue their projects.

“Nice sweater, dude,” Seth said and couldn’t hide his smirk.

“If you’re jealous, I’m sure one of the ladies could make you one,” Mac said.

“Um, no.” Seth shivered dramatically. “So, do they have any food around here?”

Mom went to pack her bag and we left the dogs with Vi. The knitters dispersed to put their things away before their break. Seth, Mac, and I wandered to the kitchen to check on timing for lunch—I figured they’d be getting ready to serve it soon.

Emmett stood at the long worktable arranging sandwich supplies for the buffet. René entered through the other door, lugging a large pot of red soup. He and Emmett had loaded coolers with all the perishables and they kept them outside in the snow. Based on their muttering I deduced it wasn’t going very well.

“Hi, René,” I said. “We have a hungry newcomer—any chance he could get an early sandwich from the lunch buffet?” I asked.

René turned and looked Seth over. “Sure, anyone who arrives on a snowmobile should at least get a sandwich.”

Emmett pulled the rest of the things out of the cooler to
show Seth the choices. Seth stepped forward to help and the two of them began discussing sandwich fixings.

René had set the large pot on the floor when he closed the door. He bent down and started to lift it onto the stove. Mac stepped forward to help and they carried it across the kitchen.

I heard a crash from the other side of the door and Vi’s voice raised in alarm.

Jessica cracked the door open and said, “Help!” and just as I turned to see what was wrong, a white streak flew into the room straight at René.

The cat jumped up onto his chest and climbed up to his shoulders, where she sat hissing in the direction of the door. René tried to get a better grip on the pot with a cat stuck to his neck. Just as I started toward René to help with the cat, the door flew open and Baxter charged in with a deep bark. He ran at the chef and the cat. René backed up until he hit the table. He dropped the pot, and Mac’s grip slipped as well. They sprayed a good amount of bouillabaisse all over the kitchen and themselves. The cat continued to hiss and must have been digging in its claws if René’s shouts were any indication.

A stream of angry French ensued and I was glad that I didn’t understand a word he said.

Baxter slipped in the mess on the floor and then began sampling it. Mac stood looking shocked as the red liquid soaked into his jeans.

At that moment, Wally entered the kitchen through the swinging door from the dining room. He carried a large, several-tiered cake and was backing into the room with it.

Duchess hissed again. Baxter looked up from his soup and narrowed his eyes. Duchess launched herself at Wally and Baxter followed. Wally was caught off guard and threw his hands up to protect himself from Baxter. The cake went
flying. Wally ended up covered in frosting and Baxter began gulping down bites of cake.

“Not Isabel’s cake!” Jessica cried. She hurried forward but stopped when she started to slip in the frosting.

Duchess ran toward Seth and attached herself to his neck. Baxter gave chase again and I stepped in front of him to stop his progress. I grabbed his collar.

“Baxter!” I scolded. “Sit!”

Baxter looked at me mutinously, but sat.

“Look at what you did,” I said. Baxter hung his head and refused to look at me.

René, Mac, and Wally were covered in either bouillabaisse or frosting.

Tuffy had wandered in as well and hid behind Seth’s legs, growling.

“We must get these animals out of the kitchen!” René said, his face almost as red as the soup.

I dragged Baxter to the door. Vi was there and took the dog. I handed her some paper towels to wipe the soup and frosting off his feet. Tuffy followed Baxter and cast a menacing glance backward at Duchess.

René stood with his arms out, surveying the damage to his chef’s whites.

“I don’t know how that cat always finds me. It’s like she knows I don’t like cats and does it to spite me.”

“You’re covered in soup,” Jessica said. She dabbed ineffectually at the red spots.

René was already stripping his chef’s smock off. He wore a sleeveless T-shirt underneath and I spotted a fleur-de-lis tattoo on his upper arm.

“Cool,” Seth said. He pointed to the tattoo. “Are you from Quebec?”

René tilted his head at Seth as if trying to figure out how
he had come to that conclusion. He glanced at his arm and shrugged a new smock over his head.

“No, I am from France,” René said.

Jessica pried Duchess off of Seth. The cat had begun purring and clung to the boy like she had found a long-lost friend. “I’m going to take Duchess back upstairs—I don’t know how she keeps getting out,” Jessica said and went out the door that led to the dining room to avoid the dogs.

“Let’s get your sandwich finished up so I can move these coolers outside, and clean up this mess,” Emmett said. He cast a concerned glance at René who was still muttering under his breath.

Seth shrugged. “I can finish it.” He picked up a knife and spread mustard on the bread.

Mac and I grabbed paper towels from the sink area and began wiping up the mess on the floor and the walls. We dabbed at his jeans, but they would need to be thrown in the wash—if they survived at all. I handed Wally a roll of paper towels and he began wiping up the cake and frosting.

“The cake was for Isabel—to celebrate her new book,” Wally said as he dumped the remains in the trash.

“I can make another one,” Emmett sighed. “Why did you bring it back in here?”

Wally held his hands out. “I was trying to help. The title was spelled wrong—I wanted to have you fix it before anyone saw it.”

After most of the mess was under control, I left Seth to his food prep and ducked back out into the hall to see how Vi was doing with the dogs. Mac followed and went upstairs to change.

“What happened?” I said to her.

“Baxter just went nuts when he saw that cat. I don’t know why—he’s never had a problem with cats before. . . .”

I wondered where she got her information since he had been known to chase the neighbor cats up a tree. I knew he wouldn’t have hurt Duchess—it was more of a game to him than anything else. I had seen him slow down while pursuing an older cat. It seemed the chase was the goal, not actually catching the feline.

“You’re going to get yourself kicked out of here and then what will you do?” I said to him.

He had the decency to lower his ears and look at the floor, but I wasn’t fooled.

“We better check on the cottage and get these guys out of here before they cause any more trouble,” I said to Vi.

She nodded and headed off toward the front desk to talk to Wally.

I sat and petted Baxter and Tuffy while waiting for Seth. He eventually appeared, munching on a muffin that was left over from breakfast.

“Did you leave any food for the rest of us?” I asked. “We have to get through another day or two, you know.”

Seth broke off a piece and shared it with the dogs. “There’s plenty,” he said through a mouthful of muffin.

As I pointed out some crumbs Baxter had missed, the lights clicked on. And I heard the whirring of a fan blowing in the heating vents.

Seth and I heard a round of applause and cheering start up in the lounge.

“Papa’s a genius with the generators,” Seth said.

I nodded and thought I had underestimated my dad’s skills. If he could fix something that the maintenance guy had been unable to repair, either Dad was way better than I thought, or Kirk was a terrible mechanic.

“Let’s get the boys outside after all the cat excitement,” I said.

We grabbed our coats from the hooks by the back door and stepped outside with the dogs.

The crunch of snow underfoot was the only sound in the softly padded yard. We took the dogs through the garden toward the cottage, which I had assumed was some sort of outbuilding, but now saw was a small house. The walkway became more snow covered as we moved farther from the parking lot.

I smelled snow on the air and knew that we were in for more of it later that day. I started thinking about winters as a kid when we had lost power and schools had shut down. It only happened a couple of times, but it had been fun then. In Crystal Haven, we lived close enough to town to at least walk to buy food and I had had access to all of my things. And there wasn’t a murderer on the loose.

“So what’s the deal with that chef guy?” Seth interrupted my thoughts.

“He’s engaged to the owner’s daughter and I guess he’s trying to make the restaurant some sort of destination dining. Why?”

“In New York, I took French in school and we had this teacher from Quebec.” He threw a snowball for Baxter who chased after it with glee. “He was really cool and taught us all the swear words.”

“I’m sure your parents are thrilled that their tuition money was well spent.”

Seth grinned. “Did you hear what he said when the cat jumped on him?”

“Something angry in French,” I said.

“He said, ‘
Tabarnak
.’”

“So?” I said. Baxter returned and bounded around Seth until he made another ball to throw.

“It’s a swear word, but only in Quebec. Someone from France wouldn’t use it.”

“So, you think he’s not French, but Canadian?”

Seth nodded. “I don’t know if it matters. Who cares where he’s from? But why would he lie about it?”

It was a truth in police work, and probably many other fields, that people lied. Sometimes it was a big lie and sometimes a small one. The trick was figuring out which it was and how it related to the case.

Baxter loped back to us without the snowball and waited for Seth to make him another one. Tuffy barely cleared the snowdrifts and after finishing his business, pawed at Seth to pick him up.

“He’s covered in snow,” I said. “We better get him inside and dried off.”

We turned and made our way back to the hotel. Holly came out of the cottage as we passed and said it was ready.

“I’ll ask Kirk to clear a path from here to the back door so your parents can get in and out easily,” she said as we walked back together.

“It feels like we’re all going to be stuck here for a while. Unless we use the snowmobiles to shuttle everyone out of here.”

“Well, now that the power is back on, it won’t be too difficult to tolerate.”

She held the door for us and we went just inside the door with the dogs.

“Do you have any old towels we could use to dry off the dogs?”

She nodded, went down the hall toward the kitchen, and came back with a pile of fluffy white towels that looked anything but old.

“You can use these. Maybe you can put one on the floor there so they don’t drip too much.”

She patted Baxter and he leaned into her hand. Tuffy stretched his head forward to sniff her leg while Baxter distracted her. Tuffy seemed satisfied she wasn’t dangerous because he stepped closer and wagged his tail. Holly bent down and rubbed his ear. Tuffy sat and looked at her adoringly.

“Wow, he doesn’t usually like strangers,” Seth said.

Holly shrugged. “Dogs typically like me. It’s cats that I have a hard time winning over.”

“If you’re talking about the white cat, she seems to be nothing but trouble,” I said.

“She’s not so bad,” Seth said. “She just got scared of Baxter.”

“Duchess? She’s been in a snit since Ms. Carlisle moved here,” Holly said. “I used to find her up in the turret room sleeping in the sunshine in the window. I think when she had to share her room, she got mad.”

“She didn’t belong to Clarissa?”

Holly snorted. “Hardly. They barely tolerated each other.” She lowered her voice. “They were too much alike. Predatory and entitled.” Her eyes grew large and she put her hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

I was surprised by how easily she had criticized her dead boss, but remembering the way Clarissa had berated her, I couldn’t really blame her.

I held up my hand. “Don’t worry about it. Already forgotten,” I said. But I did file it away to mention to Mac later.