A Malicious Midwinter

by Dee Ernst

  We followed the noise to find a dozen people around the huge worktable in the center of the kitchen. Vivian was nowhere to be found. She was upstairs, Lynn Fahey explained, catching up on some sleep. About fifty families were taking shelter at the clubhouse. They weren’t all sleeping there, of course, but were preparing food for their families and making sure their kids got warm. Some older folks were there and would, I knew, spend the duration of the power outage in one of the many empty second floor rooms. We chatted, helped peel apples for the largest apple crisp ever baked by a human being, then turned back toward my house.

  The sun was sinking, and the sky was gorgeous. We stood there for a few minutes, drinking in the twilight, looking across the frozen lake.

  “I wish the moon was going to be full tonight,” Shelly said. “I love that white, bright snow in the moonlight.”

  “Me too. But look how bright it is anyway. And look, oh, thank God. It’s a plow. Maybe they’ll all be gone by tomorrow.”

  “Maybe James and I should head back to my house,” Shelly said as we resumed walking. “You know, just in case.”

  “Well I gotta tell you, Beth has barely spoken to anyone all day, and when she has, she’s been very polite. She and Glory almost had a civil conversation over whether Boot was an English or American cocker spaniel. I think you guys are good.”

  I was feeling pretty smug when I got back to the house. My community was doing well; the streets were being plowed. Now, if the trains were back in service, my life would be perfect.

  Sam’s Suburban was running, and as I went inside, he had his coat on.

  “I’m going back in,” he told me. “I can get through now that the main roads are clear. We just cleared away where the plows blocked the drive, and I refilled the generator. James here knows what to do if there’s a problem.” He kissed me hurriedly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  He closed the door behind him.

  Boot looked up at me expectedly. Shoot. Now I’d have to be the one to take her out.

  But Garth unfolded himself from the couch and reached for his coat. “I’ll take her. Come on Glory, before it gets too dark.”

  Glory jumped up off the couch. “Sure, it will feel great to get out for a bit. Is it really cold?”

  “Not too bad,” I told her.

  “I’ll go with you, if you don’t mind” James said. “I’ll get a few things from the house. Shel, you need anything?”

  Shelly shook her head. “Nope. I stashed extra undies in my coat pocket. I’m fine. The roads look good, but be careful, okay? It’s probably pretty slick out there, and I think it’s starting to flurry.”

  She was right. The air was full of tiny, swirling snowflakes.

  Garth took Boot’s leash and headed out, James and Glory behind. Shelly and I went into the kitchen, where Beth was sitting, slumped in a chair, staring at her phone.

  “When is the internet coming back on?” she asked.

  “No clue.” I had taken out chicken thighs earlier, and Shelly and I set about chopping.

  Beth sighed and drank the last of what was in her glass. The bottle was nowhere around. Had she finished it? Stashed it away?

  I had no idea what she was looking at on her phone, and did not ask. Pretty soon the chicken was sautéing with the peppers and onions, pasta was cooking, and I even set out a Sara Lee frozen cream pie to thaw. Things started smelling pretty good.

  I looked around. Usually, Boot was underfoot when things were cooking. I glanced into the living room. Empty.

  “They’re still gone?”

  Shelly glanced at the kitchen clock. “They’ve been gone half an hour. That’s pretty long for Boot to be outside in the cold, but maybe they stopped in at Jamie’s house.”

  James lived in Mt. Abrams, farther down the hill. Shelly took out her phone and sent a text.

  Beth stood up so suddenly I backed into the counter in surprise. “I’ll go out and look for them. They may have gotten lost.”

  “Beth, James lives here. He kinda knows his way around,” I said.

  “But Glory and Garth don’t. What if they dropped James off, and tried coming back on their own? They could be wandering around out there in the dark.”

  She had a point. Normally, the correct answer to that sort of thinking was that Boot, having walked Mt. Abrams all her life, would know the way home and lead them back here. But Boot, for all her charm and lovability, was not the smartest cocker spaniel in the world.

  “Let’s just wait for James to text back,” Shelly suggested.

  But Shelly, apparently, was not someone Beth had any confidence in. She marched into the living room and sat down to put Cait’s clunky old boots back on her feet. “I’m not going to wait. Do you know how easy it is to freeze to death?”

  Was she kidding? Or drunk? Her words were clear and she seemed to moving quite steadily.

  “Ah, Beth, are you really going to walk all over Mt. Abrams in the dark?” I asked.

  “Of course not,” she said. “I’m going to take that truck out there. Garth left the keys.”

  Sure enough, the keys were sitting on the coffee table.

  “Then let me come with you,” I said.

  “No, my dear, I think not. I’m not drunk, if that’s what you’re all thinking. I’ve been sipping that disgusting bottled protein water all afternoon.”

  “And what if you get lost?” I asked.

  She pulled on her mink coat and swept her hair back dramatically. “I have an uncanny sense of direction,” she said. She opened the front door and stared outside. “Besides, no one has driven past here since the plows went through. I can always follow the tire tracks back.”

  “Beth, I find it hard to believe that you’d go out in this snow to look for Glory when you obviously have all sorts of reasons to not, well, care about her well-being,” I said.

  She drew herself up. “I know you think I’m a heartless bitch, and you may be right. The truth is, I have to mend my relationship with that girl. After all, we are going to have a few touchy months ahead of us. I may as well start now.”

  “Well, if you’re going to make a grand gesture, at least let me go with you,” I said.

  Nonsense,” she huffed, and swept out the door.

  I cursed and sat down to pull on my boots. “I bet she drives straight into the lake,” I muttered.

  Shelly had been watching from the front window. “I don’t think so, Ellie. She’s cleaned off the truck. I think maybe she was telling the truth, and she is sober.”

  “Yeah, but Boot is my dog.” I trundled back out into the snow, turned and started toward Garth’s truck, idling now in the drive, windshield wipers going, lights flashing. Beth pulled the truck out slowly, and as I approached the passenger side, the window opened up.

  “Ellie, dear, go back inside,” she called from the driver’s side. “I’ve got this,” And without giving me a chance to even reach for the door handle, she drove the truck onto the street and turned, slowly, to the left. I watched as she made her way down the street. When she came to the corner, she stopped, then turned again left down the hill.

  She was right, the street was dusted with a new layer of snow, and her tire tracks could be easily seen.

  I exhaled slowly. She’d find Glory, Boot would be exhausted and sleep all through the rest of the night, and everything would be just fine.

  I went back to the house, got undressed, and sat with Shelly on the couch.

  “I shouldn’t have let her go,” I said. “She’ll get lost on the hill, probably run out of gas, and start pounding on people’s front doors at midnight.”

  “You couldn’t have stopped her,” Shelly said. “And no one will mind taking her in. You know Mt. Abrams. A stranger asking for help is just another day’s work in this town.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, that’s true. In fact, whoever does take her in will get bragging rights for helping out the famous writer.”

  “Yep. You’d better be careful, you might lose your Friend of the
Library MVP award.”

  “Do they have those?”

  “I’m sure they do.”

  We sat in companionable silence. The television was on, but was on mute, and we watched the red animated cloud of high-pressure work its way across the state.

  “I hear a dog barking,” Shelly said sitting up. “Does that sound like Boot?”

  I got up and looked out the front window.

  Yes, it was Boot. I could see her little body outlined against the snow, and even with little moonlight, her shape was unmistakable. She was running up the street toward me. Apparently I’d been wrong about her finding her way home on her own, because her leash was dragging behind her.

  Glory was nowhere to be seen.

  Chapter 5

  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 swirli
ng 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.”