I pulled Boot into the house, yelling for Shelly. “Call James. Right away. Boot is here but Glory is missing in action.”
She rushed into the living room, cellphone in hand, watching me as I tried to pull the clumps of snow from Boot’s belly.
“Jamie? What are you doing now?” She listened. “What? Are you kidding me? God, well, whatever. Glory hasn’t shown up at the house, but Boot is here, on the leash. Something must have happened to her.” She listened some more. “Yes, I know, and Jamie? Beth took Garth’s truck to look for her, Glory, I mean. So be on the look-out for her.”
She put down the phone and put on her coat. “They were getting high. Garth and Jamie. Can you imagine? Jamie’s car is useless in the snow, so they’re heading out on foot to find her. She’d stay on the plowed roads, surely?”
I nodded. Snow removal in Mt. Abrams was a tricky thing. With so many narrow and twisted streets, the plows first came through to clear main roads, to give emergency vehicles access if necessary. Later, they came through again to plow the rest of the streets.
“Okay,” I said, thinking fast and getting my coat on. “We can split up. I think that the smartest way would be to go down Carter Road. You go that way, and see if you meet up with the guys. I’ll go down toward the Library and head down to Sommerfield.”
I went out, Shelly beside me.
“She probably just slipped,” Shelly said.
“Of course. But if she’s in a snow bank somewhere, she could freeze.”
“But if she started yelling, somebody would hear her. Some of those houses are so close together you can’t sneeze without your neighbor saying bless you.”
It wasn’t all that cold, and the wind had died down. If I wasn’t so worried, it would have been a nice walk.
We turned, following the tire tracks of Garth’s truck. Beth had gone straight down the hill, which made the most sense. We stopped and watched as the plow came through again. We had to step back as more snow flew up and on top of the existing snow banks, making them at least another six inches taller. At this rate, we’d need a pick axe to climb over the curb.
“Well, there goes the whole idea of following the tire tracks back home. She’ll never find her way back now,” I said. “What do you think?”
Shelly stamped her feet. I’ll go to James’s. You keep going down the hill.”
“Good idea.” I went on, and she turned and was lost in the dark.
I stopped and listened. Nothing but a scraping sound. Someone digging. I followed the noise.
A man was shoveling out a short parking spot on front of his house. I recognized the house, and maybe would have known the face if I could have seen it, but he had a scarf across his mouth and nose.
“Excuse me,” I called, “but did you see someone walking a dog? A white spotted cocker spaniel?”
He shook his head without pausing his shoveling.
I followed the plowed road down, almost to Upper Main Park. There had been plenty of sledding earlier, I could tell, but now the park was empty. I could not imagine her going any farther down the hill, so I turned right onto Davis Street. James lived almost at the end. It was possible Glory tried to make it up one of the smaller, unplowed side streets. With Shelly walking from the other direction, one of us was sure to find her. I pushed my hands deeper into my pockets and trudged ahead.
It was slow going. Although the plows had made a second pass here, the streets were still rough and slippery. Mt. Abrams roads weren’t in great shape to begin with, and I walked slowly to avoid a fall.
When my phone rang, my heart jumped. It was Shelly. James and Garth had found Glory, who had indeed fallen and had been rescued by that nice new family on Brenner Road. Her ankle had twisted, but she was fine. They were trying to figure out how to get her back to my house.
“Well, Beth is out here somewhere in Garth’s truck, unless she decided to drive back to New York. Let me see if I can call her,” I said.
I dialed Beth’s number. It rang until it went to voicemail.
Shoot.
I stood, thinking and trying to get my bearings. Which way to Brenner? I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to picture the roads, but in the dark, with everything covered in snow, I wasn’t sure. I thought that Brenner was behind me. No, it was the next street ahead. I walked on and I caught the sound of an engine. Beth?
I could see the lights of a car or truck farther down the hill, and I went toward it, trying not to fall. Yes, it was Garth’s truck, idling in the middle of the road. Thank God.
I jerked open the passenger side door and was ready to lean into Beth, but the truck cab was empty. The heater was running full blast, keys sitting quietly in the ignition.
I slammed the door shut. “Beth?” I yelled. “Where are you?”
Silence.
I suddenly had a very bad feeling. Why on earth would Beth leave the truck in the middle of the street like that? It made no sense.
I went to the driver’s side. Yes, there were footprints. Someone, slipping and sliding, had left the truck and headed back up the hill. So why hadn’t I seen her?
“Beth?”
The houses on either side of the narrow street were dark. Of course. People were up at the clubhouse. It was still fairly early, I thought. I took out my phone and checked the time. It was after eight. Later than I thought. I’d spent more time wandering around in the dark than I realized.
I leaned against the front bumper. Did I take the truck, pick up Glory, and leave Beth wandering around?
“Bad Ellie,” I said aloud. My voice sounded high-pitched and scared in the silence.
Then I looked down. The snow beneath the front bumper of the truck was spotted, as though something dark had dripped from the front of the truck.
I think I stopped breathing.
I pulled off my glove and stooped down to touch the dark spot with my finger.
It was sticky.
I knew what that meant.
As I rubbed my finger against my thumb, my cold flesh turned dull red.
Blood.
I staggered away from the truck and sat back in a mound of snow, trying to think. Beth had hit something. A dog? A deer? There were even bears wandering around Mt. Abrams, but that was in the spring. Bears hibernated, right?
I clenched my teeth. The wind had picked up, it was getting colder, and my brain wasn’t working right. Where was Beth?
I had to roll over to push my way out of the snow bank. I turned the flashlight app on my phone on, and tried to follow the footprints, but they swerved back into the street and had been erased by the second plow. Now what? I went back to the truck, climbed in and sat in its warmth for a minute. I put the truck in drive and started slowly down the street.
If I were Beth Riley, and I’d hit a deer, what would I do? Probably nothing. I certainly wouldn’t go out in the snow to check if it was okay. So why had she left the truck?
I rolled down the window and called her name into the darkness. My voice echoed loudly over the sound of the engine. I knew that snow distorted noise, but I stopped the truck and turned off the engine anyway, listening.
Nothing.
I started again, turning the windshield wipers on high as the wind started swirling the snow around so hard that it looked like the blizzard had returned.
Could she have tried to walk down to the train station?
I turned down Blackburn and felt the truck start to skid. I fought down panic as I braked gently and turned the wheel into the skid. It did no good. The truck kept moving, almost sideways, down the road, not stopping until it swerved into the mountain of snow the plows had thrown up on the side of the road.
I threw the truck into park, turned off the engine and sat there, trembling. I was done. I leaned forward, my forehead against the steering wheel, taking deep breaths to calm my racing heart. I tried to dial my phone, but my hands were shaking too much. I finally calmed down enough to say, loudly, “Siri, call Sam.”
He answered on the third ring. “I just got here, Ellie! Miss me already?”
“Ah, Sam, so this happened. James and Glory and Garth took Boot for a walk. They were gone a really long time, so Beth took Garth’s truck to look for them.”
“Ellie, really—”
“I’m not done. Boot ran home alone, so Shelly and I went looking for Glory. I just found Garth’s truck, sitting in the middle of Windsor Road, with the engine running. There’s blood on the bumper and Beth is gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?” he asked, his voice sharp.
“Gone as in not in the truck, not on the street, not within shouting distance. You know. Gone.”
He was saying something to someone else in the room, the words indistinct. Without the heater blasting, I was getting cold fast, and I wondered how I was going to get back up the hill and home. A text came from Shelly, asking where I was. Sam was still talking to someone else. I started feeling sleepy.
“Ellie, listen to me. I’m on my way out there. Where are you?”
“I went looking for Beth. I’m in Garth’s truck, but it skid into a snow bank and I’m afraid to try to get it back home.” My voice cracked. I was so tired. “I’m going to try to get to Carol’s house.”
“Good. Where is the truck?”
“On Blackburn. Halfway down the park.”
“Okay. Don’t worry, I’ll get it back to the house. I’ll call you when I get to Blackburn.”
I hung up. Carol’s house was only three blocks. Uphill, to be sure, but just three blocks. I called her.
“Carol, are you home? I’m on my way, okay? If I’m not at your front door in fifteen minutes, you need to come out and look for me,”
“What? Ellie, what’s wrong?”
“Are you home?”
“Yes.”
“I’m walking up from Blackburn. Fifteen minutes.”
I turned off the phone and stuffed it into my pocket. I left the keys in the ignition, and got out of the truck. I started walking up the hill, my head down against the wind. In the silence I heard a trilling sound, and was so startled I almost tripped. I froze, listening. There it was again, and I recognized it as the chatter of a raccoon. I lifted my head and looked out into the park. There was no movement in the trees. I stepped up onto the snow bank and strained my eyes.
There, just on the other side of snow bank, covered by a thin layer of snow, was Beth Riley. I recognized the fur coat, and Cait’s boots on her feet.
She was staring up at the night sky, blood staining the snow behind her.
Someone screamed. And then again. I turned and stumbled down, and fell hard on the street. As I hit the ground, I felt the hard impact of the ground against my cheek and I gasped with pain.
That’s when I realized that the person screaming was me.
Somebody was calling my name, and I squinted through the dark. Someone was coming in my direction, moving slowly and carefully, a flashlight in hand.
Carol grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. “Ellie, what are you doing out here? Oh, my gosh, you’re practically frozen. What happened?”
My teeth were chattering so hard I couldn’t answer. I tried to tell her about Beth, but I couldn’t form the words. I pointed toward the park. I could see her frown, then watched as she climbed the snow bank. She stood for a second, then climbed down the other side.
I closed my eyes until I felt her hand on my shoulder.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said.
I let her lead me up the street, onto her front porch, and inside.
Emma McLaren met us, tut-tutting and shaking her head. She peeled off my coat, knelt down to pull off my boots, then actually started rubbing my feet. Carol, now coatless, pulled me and set me in a chair in front of the fireplace.
I held my hands and feet toward the heat. “I need to call Sam.” My teeth were chattering so hard I almost couldn’t get the words out.
Emma wrapped my fingers around a steaming cup of something. “Drink,” she said.
There was tea, and brandy, and a few things I could not recognize by taste or smell, but a shock of warmth went right down to my toes.
Carol dug my phone out of my coat pocket and handed it to me. I hit redial.
“Sam, where are you?”
“I’m almost to Blackburn. Did you make it to Carol’s?”
“Sam, Beth is dead. She’s right up from the truck, in the park. You won’t be able to see her from the road. She’s on the other side of the snow bank.”
The line went dead. I stared into the fire.
I felt a touch on my shoulder, and Carol knelt beside me, a plastic bag of ice in her hand.
“Hold this against your cheek,” she said quietly. “You’ve got quite a bruise there.”
I kept one hand on the mug of tea, and held the ice to my cheek. The throbbing pain lessened after a minute. I looked up at Carol. “She was dead, wasn’t she?”
She nodded. “Yes. Ellie, what can I do?” Carol asked.
I shook my head, and my phone made a noise. I looked down. It was Cait, texting me to see if it was a good time to talk. I texted back with warming fingers, no, so of course she called seconds later.
“Mom, is everything all right?”
Luckily, my teeth were no longer chattering, and I felt like I could keep the rising panic out of my voice. “Oh, honey, it’s all good. But you know, blizzard. Stuff. How are you? How’s the snow there?”
“Amazing. Tessa is really learning lots, and Aunt Suzie and Dad haven’t fought once.”
I forced a laugh. “Yeah, well, it’s only Wednesday. Can I call you tomorrow morning for a longer chat? I’m kind of in the middle of things right now.”
“Sure, but we’re out early, like, by nine. How about lunchtime? We usually come in around one for a break.”
“Good. That’s good. Love to Tessa.” I hung up, glad they were away from all this.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I need to get home.”
“You need to sit here for another few minutes,” Emma said. “The shock hasn’t worn off yet. Breathe, dear.”
I nodded and finished my tea.
Emma had brought her cats over to Carol’s, and they had curled up on various parts of her body, making her look even warmer and more crazy-lady. She stroked Frito as Biscuit tried to balance herself between the back of the chair and Emma’s neck. “Not to speak ill of the dead, but I did not like that Beth person,” she said.
I hadn’t noticed Emma at Beth’s talk, but it made sense that she was there. “Oh?”
Emma sniffed. “She was a very negative person, hiding a very devious heart behind that smiling make-up. I think she was a taker. And she was taking from someone who couldn’t afford it.”
“Really? And what makes you say that, Emma?”
She cocked her head. “I just got a feeling, you know? It hit me, very hard, when I first met her. As she spoke, the feeling got stronger. She was almost evil.” She stroked the cat and gazed into the fire as she spoke.
I stared. Mt. Abrams was split on the Emma McLaren verdict. Half the town thought she was a true witch, who could see and feel things that others could not. The other half thought she was a doddering fool who was nothing special other than having a way with herbal teas. I was usually on the fence, but she may have just knocked me over to one side.
“She couldn’t help herself, really. She was just the kind of person who had to get the last little stab in, right to the heart. That’s what killed her, you know. That last little stab.” Emma looked up from the fire and smiled brightly. “More tea?”
Carol walked me up to the little house where Glory, Shelly, and Garth had been waiting. The young couple who lived there were gracious and kind, giving us a toboggan so we could pull Glory back up the hill. They had originally offered to dig out their little Fiat and give us a ride up, but we talked them out of it easily. The going was rather slow, but not terrible.
We didn’t talk the whole way.
When we got to the house, Garth carried Glory into the living room, where she propped her obviously swollen ankle up on the coffee table, looked around like she didn’t recognize where she was, then started crying.
Garth sat by her side, patting her hand. James, Shelly and I went into the kitchen, where I poured some of Sam’s Johnny Walker.
“Beth is dead,” I said in a low voice. “She’s lying in the park.” Having said the words, I started to shake again. I took a quick gulp of scotch.
“What?” Shelly choked out a whisper. “She’s dead?”
I poured another glass and handed it to her, then one to James.
“I found the truck. It was still running. There was blood on the bumper, and I thought she hit a deer, so I went looking for her.” I suddenly realized that the blood had been hers. “I think someone ran her over.” I took another gulp, and felt it burn in my chest. “Sam knows. He’s on his way.”
James turned white and emptied his glass.
“Should we tell them?” she asked, nodding toward the living room where Glory’s sobs had turned to sniffles.
I shook my head. “Not right away. I need to hear what happened out there.”
“We should put some ice on that ankle,” Shelly said. We all nodded together and finished our little juice glasses of scotch.
I went back into the living room and sat on Glory’s other side, and tugged at her sleeve, trying to get her to top crying. It took a few minutes. She finally took a deep breath and looked like she was ready to manage a word or two when Shelly came in with a plastic bag full of crushed ice, and a towel, James following behind.
“Let’s get this swelling down,” Shelly said, folding the plastic bag in the towel and setting it gently on the offending ankle.
Glory winced, then shuddered.
“Glory, you need to tell us what happened,” I said
Glory sniffed. “She tried to run me down.”
“Who? Beth?” I asked, pulling back. “Beth tried to run you down? With the truck?”
On her other side, Garth was swearing steadily under his breath.
Glory nodded. “I was coming up one of the streets that hadn’t been plowed yet. I thought it would be shorter. Boot kept tugging on the leash, and the snow was pretty deep, so I was having a hard time. Then Boot changed direction really fast, and the leash slipped out of my hand.” She wiped her eyes with the back of one hand. “Sorry.”
I glanced at Boot, sleeping by the fire. “No, she does that. Go on.”
“Well, that’s when I slipped. Face down in the snow. I was so pissed off, but I wasn’t hurt. And then I heard the truck. It was at the top of the street, so I waved my arms. I thought that maybe Garth had left James’ house and somehow made it up to get the truck. I was in the middle of the street, and the truck was coming right at me and I saw it was Beth at the wheel, and I honestly thought, well, this is good, I’ll get in the truck and Beth will take me back, but she didn’t slow down at all.” Tears filled her eyes again. “She came right at me. I was in the middle of the street and she came right at me and I had to jump, like, really jump to the side of the road, and she went past me. That’s when I hurt my ankle, and I was scared to death she’d come back around to try to finish the job, so I just started yelling, and Phil and Teri heard me and took me into their house.” She was sobbing again. “I thought she was going to come back. I mean, she wanted to kill me. Why?”
“Because she knew you could ruin her,” Garth said bitterly. “She was worried about her precious career.” He glared at me. “Where’s Sam? He’s a cop, he needs to arrest her. Attempted murder.”
“Beth is dead,” I said quietly.
I had always thought that, when confronted with the discovery of their crime, a killer would say something or do something, even if it was just a telltale expression that would give them away. But I guess that only happened in books, because as I looked at the faces around me, they were completely blank.