Dark and Stormy

by Traci Tyne Hilton

  Dr. Hoffen dragged his hand through his thin hair. “On a usual day, this would be my top priority. I can see why it was weighing on you.” He stood up and turned to the window again. “But today there just isn’t much I can do.” He seemed to grasp the gist of my tangled version of events, but his eyes were wide and helpless looking. He paused and rested one hand on the kitchen counter. “Stina isn’t coming in—I suggested she keep away. No use adding more people to the mix. Tell Gretchen she can use Stina’s computer to get in touch with her…husband.” He stopped there, his face confused. “How old is Gretchen?”

  I shrugged. “Eighteen, I guess.”

  He shook his head. “I wish I could do something more. Maybe soon. Until then, let her use Stina’s computer. The internet is excellent in the business office. Please excuse me. I’ll touch bases with you later, I promise.” He put on his coat and left again before I could add any details, or get a mention of the frozen bras in.

  I stayed in my seat, finishing my tea and praying silently. I didn’t think a fast internet connection would solve Gretchen’s problems.

  Megan came downstairs again with an empty laundry basket. “Did I hear you say that Gretchen is married?” Her voice was quiet, and from the quiet upstairs I figured she had turned the TV on to hold the kids’ attention.

  “Yes.”

  She sighed and set her laundry basket on the kitchen table. “How awful.”

  I let out a long, slow breath.

  Megan pulled a chair up and sat next to me. “She’s just a baby.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  Megan rubbed her temple. “When your sister got married over travel weekend…”

  “It was different because my sister is twenty and kind of fast.” I shrugged. “Marriage might settle her down, it might not. But at least we know she decided to do it because she wanted to.”

  Megan gave me a knowing glance. “Exactly.” She stroked the edge of a plastic placemat. “But who knows what Gretchen was thinking.”

  “What should I do?”

  Megan bit her lip. “You need to send her to me.”

  I nodded. I could suggest it all I wanted, but would Gretchen come?

  “You mentioned, I think, that Gretchen has seemed sick.”

  “Yeah…”

  “I noticed that as well. Morning sickness. And the shadows under her eyes. Pregnancy mask. I have to agree with Garret. She needs to go home to her husband.” Megan shook her head. “What a terrible year this is.”

  “I don’t think she wants to go home. And…” I tried my best to think of the nicest way possible of saying my worst suspicion. “She got married on the way to Sweden. She hadn’t even had a wedding night. I don’t think she was the kind of girl to sleep with him before the wedding.”

  Megan pursed her lips.

  “What if someone else…”

  Megan nodded. “Every morning Garret follows her into the boys’ dorm. You might think I’m too busy with my kids to see what’s going on around here, but I don’t miss much.” She lifted an eyebrow.

  I blushed. If I told her now that no matter how often Isaac and I slipped away to be alone, he still hadn’t kissed me, she would probably not believe me.

  “This is a messy situation.” Megan said. “And though it’s obviously not as big a crisis as the one the poor Vaarland family are facing now, it can’t be ignored.” She looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. “I have about a half an hour before the kids start begging for quiet time to end. Can you get Gretchen here?”

  I took one more drink of my tea. “I can try.”

  “Do your best. I’ll be waiting in the kitchen with tea and cookies.”

  Tea and cookies. Did it get any better than Megan Hoffen?

  NINETEEN

  Isaac Daniels

  Dani ran from the Hoffen’s house like her shoes were on fire, but I caught her halfway to the girls’ dorm. “Come with me for a sec.”

  “I’ve only got like a half a minute.” She checked her watch.

  “I’ll make it fast.” I walked with her to the girls’ dorm, her hand in mine so she couldn’t slip away. And because I liked it. “Cadence needs you to help search the girls’ dorm for signs of green gelatin or food coloring.”

  “Why can’t she do it herself?” Dani’s eyes darted back and forth.

  “She’s got to take Gretchen into town.”

  Dani turned to me. “Now?”

  “Yeah. And Bel is going to go with them, just to get off campus for a few minutes. That means you would have the girls’ dorm to yourself.”

  “But I need to get Gretchen to Megan’s. Megan has a few minutes right now to sit and talk, heart to heart. She’s got tea and cookies.”

  I shook my head. “Can’t do. Gretchen has some kind of appointment. And while they are all in town, Stina is going to meet Cadence. It’s a big deal, and it’s carefully lined up. It has to happen.”

  “What kind of appointment?” Dani twirled hair around her finger.

  “Cadence texted everything I know. I didn’t ask.” I suppose I could have asked, but if Cadence was willing to handle the Gretchen situation all by herself, I was glad to let her. “This is your best chance to check out Bel’s room.”

  Dani chewed her lip. “But this is Megan’s best chance to help Gretchen.”

  “She’ll just have to do it later. What’s the problem? She’s got all day.”

  “What?” Dani frowned.

  “What?” I checked my watch, too. The school Saab was supposed to drive out in about two minutes.

  “Megan has three kids. That’s like the exact opposite of having all day.”

  “But you could watch the kids for her, couldn’t you?”

  “Because I don’t have a job either?” Dani scowled, her face reddening. A look I hadn’t seen since the last time she got arrested in France.

  “What?” Her response to the situation seemed out of proportion. I never said she didn’t have a job, but surely the kitchen could do without her for the little matter of a murder investigation, which was my main concern at the moment.

  “I work in the kitchen. Do you think Johanna wants me babysitting instead? We have about ten thousand pounds of fish to pickle, not to mention all of the cookies we have to bake. I can’t just up and babysit whenever you want me to.”

  “Hold on.” I lifted her hand to my mouth and kissed it. “I left you with the wrong impression. I could babysit the kids if we needed it. Or Cadence. Or…I don’t know. There are enough people here.” Her face relaxed for half a second. Then she caught site of the Saab as it pulled away with Gretchen riding shotgun.

  “You didn’t even think to ask me what was going on, did you? I tried and tried to get you alone last night so we could get on the same page. When did this appointment come up, anyway? And why did you not mention it earlier this morning? I’ve been up since six making breakfast for you all, thank you very much.” She looked like she was going to keep talking, so I leaned in and kissed her. I hadn’t planned on it, but it seemed the most effective way to turn the situation around. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her towards me. She seemed to melt into me, like in a movie. Her lips parted and my breath caught in my throat.

  Then she pressed both hands against my shoulders and pushed me away, hard. “What?” Her face was seriously red now. She stepped backwards and stumbled over the snow-covered curb.

  “What?” I reached out for her. The taste of her lip balm clung to my lips. Strawberry.

  I love strawberry.

  “You kissed me to shut me up!” Her voice carried well across the quiet campus. I could almost feel the eyes of the policemen on my neck.

  “No, of course not.” Which was absolutely a lie, but seemed like an important lie in the moment.

  “It’s been two months since Nice, and I have been…I’ve been…” Her voice caught. Her eyes filled with tears.

  I stared at her, my mouth open. What had she been…? Why was she crying? Would it be w
rong to kiss her again?

  “Oh!” She kicked the curb, then stared at my shins like they were next.

  I backed up.

  “OH!” This time she hollered louder and kicked the curb harder.

  I made the executive decision to escape. I turned my head slightly, like something had caught my eye. I copied her and hollered, “Oh!” followed by “Hold on a sec!” Then I ran, which probably looked as foolish as it felt.

  I had clearly ruined the great plan we had worked out to check the girls’ dorm for clues, but in the distance, where I had pretended to spot something, I noticed Troy hauling wood. I’d have him go check for clues. As the RA who deemed himself the appropriate party to handle the pranks crisis, he’d have to do the dirty work.

  I caught up with Troy and offered to carry some of the wood. He didn’t take me up on it. “You know you completely blew that, right?”

  “Huh?” I had been hoping that my romantic gesture—er, I guess just “gesture” had gone unnoticed.

  Troy shook his head.

  “Dani isn’t free to check for clues right now. I’ll take over the furnace.”

  Troy sized me up. I didn’t appreciate it. I could haul wood as well as he could.

  “Dani’s not free, eh?”

  I exhaled a sharp breath. “I seem to have made a serious misstep.”

  “Epic.”

  “If we want to get the search in this morning, we’re going to have to do it ourselves.”

  Troy laughed. “Ourselves? I’m tending the home fires.”

  “I think it might be a bad idea to send me in there…” I turned back to the girls’ dorm. Dani was gone. Where she had gone, and in what mood, I could only guess.

  “You’re going to have to brave it yourself. I’d think fast if I were you. You have some serious repair work ahead of you.”

  I thought about asking him what had happened that I had missed, but I didn’t actually want to know. Dani wasn’t a morning person. She had been getting up very early all break. She was high-strung anyway, and of course, there was the murderer on the loose.

  It would work itself out sometime after lunch, I was sure.

  “I don’t think it would be appropriate for me…”

  Troy snorted. “Fine, fill the furnaces. Skip the boys’ dorm. Skip the kyrka. Leave some wood for the Hoffens. They use a wood burning stove most of the winter.”

  “You’ll take some wood over to the girls’ dorm with you?” I eyed the chimney on the dorm in question. It was without smoke.

  He laughed and walked away. I took that as a no.

  Xavier was busy splitting and stacking wood, so I didn’t interrupt him. I knew we had to have a sit down before too long to talk about what he may have observed but not recognized as important and that kind of thing, but now wasn’t a good time.

  I hauled an armload of wood to the Hoffens and set it in the woodbox by their back door.

  As I shut the lid on the box the door swung open. “Hey Isaac. Where’s Gretchen? I’ve been expecting her.”

  I shrugged. “She had an appointment in town. I can tell her to swing by when she gets back.” I tried to smile like the conversation didn’t bring up the awkward scene with Dani.

  “No.” Megan frowned and looked toward the girls’ dorm. “Dani has her eye out for me.”

  I stood next to the woodbox, waiting for Megan to shut the door. Megan wasn’t much older than I was. Definitely under thirty still, and pretty cute. I had to hand it to Hoffen who had to be over forty. He had done all right in the wife department.

  She took a deep breath. “You really screwed that up, by the way.” She tilted her head in the direction of the dorm. “Good luck fixing it.” She had a twinkle in her eye that I chose to ignore.

  I nodded, hoping it would stand in for an acknowledgment that she had spoken and I had heard.

  She chuckled and shut the door.

  So Megan, Troy, and Dani were in agreement, and I was in the dark.

  I had screwed up by kissing Dani, and it looked like everyone on campus had seen it happen.

  If I had learned anything at all from romantic comedies, kissing her was supposed to fix things in moments of crisis, not make them worse.

  Megan was right though, I would have to fix it somehow, because I definitely wanted to kiss her again.

  In the meantime, I hauled wood over to the huset, but the furnace on our big, main building was roaring. I carried the wood over to the skola and stoked the fire there, though I don’t know that anyone had plans to use the school room, the library, or the student lounge.

  The only building left was the girls' dorm, where Dani may or may not have been lying in wait to yell at me, kick me in the shins, or both.

  I filled the wheelbarrow with wood this time. I didn’t want to make several trips to the danger zone.

  The snow around the woodpile was pretty churned up. The guys had been chopping pretty much non-stop all break, hoping to stock up a nice big pile for the next few months. But Xavier had finished up for the time being, and I was alone with the wood. I wiped my forehead with the back of my gloves. It wasn’t a small campus, but I was supposed to be an athlete. Hauling wood shouldn’t have been this hard.

  Tillgiven had one big automatic wood splitter that still wasn’t working. If it had been, filling our wood needs would have been pretty easy. We had a pathetic assortment of equipment to use until it got fixed. The heavy duty manual splitters were pretty efficient, and I had seen a couple of wedges lying around, but we only had two splitting mauls and one sledge hammer, so even if we focused all of our efforts on our heating needs, we could only have three guys chopping at a time.

  Xavier had said he’d look at the splitting machine to see if he could fix it. I wondered if he'd had a chance or not.

  Two of the loose wedges were lying on a patch of ice by the wall of the huset. I grabbed them to toss them in the cellar where the boiler was located. It seemed like leaving them lying in the moisture wasn’t the best idea. I scanned the ground for the splitting mauls, but they weren’t out. I shoved open the cellar door and dropped the wedges against the wall.

  Two of the splitting mauls were leaning against the wall as well, and the two manual splitters.

  The third maul wasn’t outside or inside.

  My first thought wasn’t pretty. As far as I was concerned, there was only one job a splitting maul would have been used for that wasn’t splitting wood. My stomach turned.

  I stepped inside. It was a pretty basic cellar, concrete floor, unfinished walls and ceiling, empty except the big wood burning boiler and a stack of wood. I walked the perimeter of the room, taking my time to look at every inch of the floor, but the maul wasn’t in the room.

  Xavier and Troy had been doing most of the wood splitting, so they had probably told the police there were supposed to be three.

  But if they hadn’t…

  I rolled the wheelbarrow of wood to the boys’ dorm where an officer who looked about my age stood guard. He had the distant look the guys at Buckingham palace had, so I cleared my throat.

  He turned to me, “Hej.”

  “Hey.” I parked the wheelbarrow. “I was loading wood up and noticed that one of the splitting mauls is missing.”

  The officer narrowed his eyes. “Ja? Like for chopping wood?”

  “Yeah. That kind. I haven’t asked around about it. Someone might know where it is.”

  “Or…” The officer smiled knowingly.

  “Or it could have been disposed of after killing Rolf.”

  The officer nodded again. “Tack så mycket. I’ll pass it along.” He pulled out his walkie-talkie and started talking in Swedish.

  I rolled the wood over to the girls’ dorm, glad to have shared what I saw, but sick to my stomach still. Murder was so much more…murderous…when you really got to thinking about things like the wood splitting maul that someone had used on someone else’s head.

  TWENTY

  Dani Honeywell

  Whil
e I was perfectly aware that there were far more serious things going than Isaac’s ruining my ideal-first-kiss moment, I couldn’t help but be really, really, really mad at him. There were several boys in my past who, had they known, would also be very mad at Isaac.

  Not saying I was perfect or anything, but “saving my first kiss” had been a great way of getting out of awkward situations with boys I hadn’t really liked. Three times in fact.

  So.

  Anyway.

  I wasn’t going to be a baby about it.

  I was going to be very grown-up, righteously indignant.

  Just as soon as I stopped being so mad.

  The first way I channeled my anger was to check all of the boys’ stuff that was being kept in the common room of the girls’ dorm instead of the girls’ rooms.

  No one who thought kissing was a good way to shut me up deserved to get to boss me around.

  Troy’s stuff was folded nicely in a big Coleman duffel bag. I picked his limited clothes out item-by-item. I hadn’t expected to find evidence of green gelatin or food coloring, and I didn’t find any.

  Nick’s stuff was next. Since we worked in such close quarters, in the kitchen day after day—for the last week and a half at least—I felt a little disloyal digging through it.

  His bags didn’t have the same sparse, military feeling that Troy’s had, but he wasn’t a filthy pig either. And none of his hastily folded kitchen clothes had any signs of green contamination. I zipped his bag up, relieved.

  I almost didn’t check Isaac’s suitcase. Not out of loyalty though. Mostly because I wanted to pitch his bag out into the snow and then kick it across the yard.

  Instead I zipped open his suitcase and lifted out his black sweater. It was scratchy, but it smelled like him. Like soap and some kind of ‘boy’ deodorant. I looked over my shoulder, then lifted the sweater to my nose and inhaled.