Dead of Winter_Aspen Falls Novel

by Melissa Pearl

  “Good enough to serve.” She’d winked.

  Rosie figured cookies were different but not impossible. Using her initiative, she set herself up in a free space and got to work following Mandy’s “fail-proof” frosting recipe. She then spent a few minutes Googling frosted cookies and decided to replicate the pale blue snowflake ones.

  It wasn’t long before she was churning out a tray of frosted sugar cookies. She grinned as she gently decorated the edges with the silver snowflake sprinkles she’d found on the decoration shelf in the pantry.

  “Who said you could frost the cookies?” Mandy snapped when she finally turned away from what she was doing.

  Rosie flinched and looked to Julio.

  “It’s okay, Mandy. She did the cupcakes with Louanne yesterday.”

  “The responsibility of presentation falls to me.” Mandy raced across the kitchen. “Louanne is—” Her eyes bulged as she stopped short beside Rosie and gaped at the tray. “Wow. They look…pretty good. I was not expecting that.” Her surprise was both insulting and elating.

  Rosie decided to focus on the positive—that Lulu’s baker liked what she had done.

  “There’s definitely room for improvement, but we could probably get away with serving these,” Mandy said, a little grudgingly.

  Rosie didn’t know whether to smile or frown at her statement. “Should I put them out?”

  “Uh, yeah. Check what’s still in the case first, though. These were an extra batch for the afternoon rush we get around three.”

  “Okay.” Rosie nodded and cautiously peeked into the coffee shop.

  Blaine and his partner had left, so she breathed a sigh of relief and confidently walked behind the counter to check the baked goods inventory.

  She hadn’t liked that other cop who’d been with Blaine. He’d said he was curious, but there was something unnerving about the way his bright blue eyes studied her. She didn’t want to share her sad, pathetic story with a complete stranger. It was bad enough that Blaine had been sitting there listening, looking just as interested as the young one.

  He looked like, what, twelve? He shouldn’t even be a police officer.

  Rosie crouched down to look inside the display case, taking the time to count how many cookies were left. She needed to calm down before she walked back into the kitchen.

  Had Blaine noticed her clam up?

  It’d taken everything within her not to run when that officer said Brookvale.

  She couldn’t be connected to that place. Not here.

  Getting comfortable in Aspen Falls was a bad idea.

  She had to remember her mission.

  Frosting cookies, making mayo and serving coffee wouldn’t keep her safe.

  And now that her car was headed to the junkyard, she knew her options were even more limited than before.

  But one thing remained just as true today as it had been yesterday.

  She needed to earn some cash as fast as she could.

  She might not be able to drive herself out of Aspen Falls, but she could buy a bus ticket right out of town.

  A ticket that would take her as far from Brookvale—and all of her problems—as possible.

  19

  Thursday, February 22nd

  8:45pm

  Blaine rubbed his tired eyes, scrubbing a hand down his face before focusing back on the file he was supposed to be studying.

  He was in Nate’s office. Even though he hadn’t been on duty all day, he’d decided to go in and help out his agitated brother, much to Erin’s annoyance. But she’d been working on and off throughout their whole day together and when she took another call, he’d had enough.

  So far, every one of Nate’s leads was turning cold.

  Nate’s interview with Bianca had been a bust. She refused to tell Nate anything, even though she admitted to being at the club the night Riley overdosed.

  According to her, Riley was not a close friend and they only knew each other from school. She had no idea who Billy was, and she stuck with that answer even when Nate pressed her.

  “The guy’s a frickin’ ghost,” Nate had said.

  Riley claimed she didn’t remember anything from her night. She was reluctant to talk, no doubt scared she’d be charged with taking drugs. But according to her best friend, Riley didn’t know they were drugs. They both thought it was candy.

  “Such bullshit. Candy is a street name for ecstasy, for fuck’s sake! When I called him on it, he played dumb, saying he didn’t know that,” Nate had ranted as Blaine stood in his doorway asking how it went. “Her friend was lying. I could see it in his eyes.”

  Slapping the file closed, Blaine reached for Rebecca’s case file. As soon as he opened it, those blue eyes hit him right in the chest.

  Rebecca Newberry. Only nineteen years old and she was gone.

  All because she trusted the wrong guy.

  Did she know what she’d been taking?

  Did she realize just how dangerous those pills were?

  Or had they been forced down her throat?

  Forensic reports showed no signs of a struggle. There was evidence of a sexual encounter, but it seemed to be consensual. The report indicated that she’d taken the drugs voluntarily. But what if Nate was right and Rebecca had thought she was taking the ecstasy she always had, when in actuality she’d been swallowing down a death sentence?

  But why kill her?

  Had she discovered something about Billy that he didn’t want people to know?

  Nate and Camila had spent the last two days visiting all their usual contacts in Aspen Falls, shaking down the people who lived on the edge of the law, wanting to do good but still knowing where all the bad blood in the town flowed.

  No one knew anything.

  The blue party pills were new on the scene. An import.

  A lethal drug that was infesting their quiet, peaceful town.

  It was pissing off the cops—and the regular dealers.

  “How the hell are tainted drugs getting into Aspen Falls? And where are they coming from?”

  Nate pinched the bridge of his nose and huffed. “If we could only track down this Billy guy.”

  “We’ve questioned every person who might have known the victim and they all say the same thing.”

  “Rebecca would disappear to see this guy.” Nate’s frustration was obvious. “I’m pretty sure Riley knows something. She definitely flinched when I mentioned his name, but she wouldn’t give. I laid it on as thick as I could and she just kept saying the same fucking things! And then her parents kicked me out.” A muscle in Nate’s jaw worked.

  “Maybe he has some kind of threat hanging over her. Maybe she’s scared of him.” Blaine made a face and shook his head. “These girls must have been leaving the area when they met up with him. It’s the only explanation for why no one can identify him. Maybe he was seeing both girls and staying private so they never bumped into each other.”

  Nate snapped his fingers. “Maybe they did and that caused friction. Maybe they were trying to knock each other off.”

  “Or maybe he was trying to silence them so they didn’t take their anger public.”

  “But if Riley was that pissed off at him, surely she’d want to tell the police about it, knowing we’d arrest his ass.”

  “She’s scared, though. He’s said something to her to keep her quiet.”

  “How would he have gotten to her? She’s had people around her twenty-four-seven since the overdose.”

  “Maybe he has shown up, but because no one else knows who he is, he’s gotten away with it.” Nate scraped tight fingers through his dark blond hair. “We need to go back and question everyone connected to Riley again. If Billy’s contacted her, then they may have seen him without realizing it. Hopefully someone will slip up and give us something useful.”

  “That’s going to take a while. You might want to wait until tomorrow and get a little extra police power behind you on that one.”

  Nate softly cursed under his breath and
loosened his tie a little more before plunking down into his chair with a thud.

  Blaine glanced at the clock on the wall. “How long you been here?”

  Nate cast blurry eyes on his watch and grunted. “Coming up on twenty-five hours.”

  “Dude, seriously, go home. Go see Sally.”

  He tipped his head back. “I’m useless company right now. How can I take time off to relax with my girlfriend when some asshole is out there poisoning kids?” He lurched forward in his seat. “We have to break this chain before someone else goes down. We have to get these guys.”

  His eyes shone with a fire Nate had been fueling ever since the day his mother died.

  A hit and run.

  The person who mowed his mother down was never caught, and Nate had never gotten over it.

  It was like he wanted to find and catch every bad guy in the world just to make up for the fact that his mother never got the justice she deserved.

  The office phone rang, and Nate sighed as he reached for it.

  “Harford,” he muttered, his eyebrows dipping as he listened to the caller.

  Blaine studied his face carefully, trying to figure out who he was talking to as Nate attempted multiple times to end the call. Short, polite cutoffs and one-word answers eventually won out, and Nate hung up with a frown.

  “Who was that?”

  “Detective Monroe.”

  “Who?”

  “He’s from out of town. He’s working on a missing persons case and thinks we can help.”

  “I’m guessing you don’t have time for that shit right now.”

  Nate grimaced. “As soon as I established the missing girl wasn’t Rebecca Newberry, I diverted him, but he just won’t give up. Thinks he’s hot shit just because he’s coming from a department twice the size of ours.”

  Blaine snickered. Inflated egos and a god complex were part of the territory in law enforcement, and it seemed like the guys in the cities donned those attitudes like it was part of their uniform. Those guys thought they were the bomb. Blaine just thought they were assholes.

  “What city is he from?”

  “Brookvale.” Nate took the file from Blaine and flipped through the pages while Blaine eased back in his seat.

  Brookvale.

  His mind flashed with an image of Rosie, the tight pinch of her face when Matt was questioning her about where she’d come from. She’d clammed up big-time, her eyes rounding a little when he’d mentioned Brookvale.

  For a second, Blaine had thought he’d imagined it, but now that Nate was talking to a detective from Brookvale about a missing persons case…

  But it couldn’t be Rosie, could it?

  Maybe she’d just left a bad relationship behind in Brookvale, or she’d gotten fired and just didn’t like the idea of sharing all of that with a stranger and a guy she knew in high school.

  Rounded eyes and pinched lips didn’t mean she was on the run and hiding from the law…or whoever the hell reported her missing.

  Nah, it wasn’t Rosie.

  Even so, Blaine couldn’t help asking, “Who’s the missing person?”

  Nate glanced up. “Huh?”

  “Um…did this detective tell you anything about the missing person?”

  “I didn’t ask for details.” Dropping the file with a huff, Nate rested his hands on his hips. “And don’t sit there judging me. I’ve got a case to solve, and as much as I’d love for this guy to find his missing person from Brookvale, I need to focus on keeping the citizens of Aspen Falls safe.”

  Blaine’s eyes narrowed as his exhausted brother scrubbed a hand down his face.

  “Seriously, dude, go home. If you don’t see Sally soon, she’s going to think you’ve died here.”

  Nate snickered. “She’s probably at work. Shit, I don’t even know her roster this month.”

  Blaine stood and tried to eyeball his brother. It was hard when he was the shorter man, but he puffed out his chest and gave it to him straight. “Sally is the most patient, most beautiful woman I know. You are lucky to have her. But you won’t have her forever if you don’t go the hell home and act like a decent boyfriend.”

  Nate cringed. “She understands.”

  “Understanding only lasts so long, brother.” Although he spoke softly, Blaine’s warning was like a siren blast.

  And Nate didn’t like it.

  Blaine turned his back on his brother’s scowl and grabbed his coat. “Have a good night.”

  His cheerful farewell was met with an icy silence.

  Stepping out of the office, Blaine shrugged on his coat with a frown, worried he might have dented their relationship. It was fragile at the best of times. Nate had resented him when they were growing up. Blaine was the product of a much-hated stepmother. She’d sailed into Nate’s life when he was still mourning the loss of his mom, bringing with her the mean-spirited Silas. He was the stepbrother from hell. And then Blaine had been born.

  Nate’s childhood hadn’t been easy. Far from it.

  In the end, it had been rough for all three sons.

  Everyone had lost something they loved.

  Everyone had been left wounded and bleeding on the inside.

  It wasn’t until Blaine graduated and ended up working with Nate at the Aspen Falls PD that he decided it was time to mend some bridges.

  It was slow, hard work, but Blaine and Nate had finally found some kind of mutual respect. A respect Blaine was anxious not to destroy.

  But he couldn’t stay silent on the Sally thing.

  Nate didn’t deserve her. Not by a long shot. But she loved him enough to stick around.

  “For how long, though?” Blaine worried as he dug out his keys and headed for his car.

  He’d become friends with Sally in the last couple of years and she’d opened up to him occasionally, crying into her wineglass as she lamented the fact that she was in love with a guy who never stopped working.

  “He’s obsessed with his job, and I’m obsessed with him,” she’d said tearfully, the specially prepared meal turning cold as they waited for Nate to show up for his birthday dinner. “Sometimes I wish I could stop, but he’s Nate. He’s owned my heart since the day I met him.”

  Blaine’s chest constricted. Losing Sally would kill Nate. He didn’t always know how to show it, but Blaine was sure he adored Sally and the guy would be lost without her.

  Pushing the door open, Blaine shelved the memory as he walked into the freezing night air.

  Snowflakes danced around him as his boots crunched across the packed snow in the parking lot. It was a soft, pretty snow—light and playful. Hopefully just a short fall that wouldn’t be detrimental to the roads and town services.

  Holding up his keys, he unlocked the door and slipped into his car.

  As he started the engine, he thought about driving back to his apartment. Would Erin be there, or had she gone back to her brother’s place for a decent night’s sleep?

  The idea of going home to keep fighting about why he wasn’t moving to Minneapolis kind of depressed him.

  Inevitably, his thoughts sought an escape and flew to Rosie, and the picture he had of her on his couch…and in his bed.

  He shouldn’t be thinking of her that way, yet he couldn’t seem to help it.

  He really wanted to figure out her history, and find out why she thought she was such a loser. He wanted to see her smile again, and watch her cheeks tinge pink when he winked at her.

  He relived their brief lunch encounter from the day before and saw the tight pinch of her lips when Matt had questioned her.

  “Brookvale,” he murmured.

  Rosie had definitely tensed up when asked about it. Matt had listed a bunch of cities, but she markedly paled when he’d said Brookvale. Just like she had when he asked why she needed cash.

  Why was needing cash a problem?

  Had she run from Brookvale?

  Why?

  And why did this detective think his missing persons case was linked to Aspen Falls
? Was it too much of a stretch to think it might be Rosie?

  Blaine stilled, staring out at the snow with his hand poised to shift the car into Reverse and back out of his spot.

  Could Rosie know something?

  It was obvious she was hiding from her past. Something had her spooked and made her unwilling to share.

  It was a stretch, but Blaine was willing to take it. They’d established a connection the other night when he’d saved her from freezing to death in her car.

  If he popped in to see her—friendly, non-threatening—then maybe he could get something. A little comment that might enlighten him.

  And even if she wasn’t the person this detective was looking for, he could at least find out what was going on with her. Maybe offer to help.

  Shifting into gear with a grin, he pulled out of the parking lot, dodging thoughts that going to see Rosie wasn’t only just about the case.

  He could try to deny it, but that small spark he held for Rosie Sweet had never died, and having her back in town was only fanning the flame.

  Going to see her was probably a big mistake.

  Clearing his throat, he ignored the niggle of guilt and stayed his course.

  It wasn’t like he was going to see Rosie to make a move or anything. He was simply looking for a little truth.

  20

  Thursday, February 22nd

  9:25pm

  Rosie’s tongue poked out the side of her mouth as she held the frosting bag and carefully outlined the cookie. Julio had been kind enough to stay a few extra minutes and give her some tips on how to perfect the art of decorating. After he left, Rosie decided to bake a fresh batch of sugar cookies and try to frost the lot.

  She’d called to make sure Louanne wouldn’t mind. Her surrogate grandmother had chuckled and said she could spend the whole night baking if she wanted to. As long as she cleaned up after herself and locked up when she left, the place was hers.