by Moore,Judy
“But, Lance,” Yvette said. “Sally barely ate anything yesterday. And she didn’t eat anything we didn’t eat.”
“No, I think she was smothered,” Gwen said.
The others stared at her as if they didn’t understand.
“Smothered?” Lance said. “Why would you say that?”
“Look at her wrist. See how bruised it is. It wasn’t like that yesterday. I think she was trying to fight somebody off. At first I thought she might have been strangled, but there are no marks on her neck.”
“Smothered!” Helga gasped. “One of you kill Sally for the money. You kill her before she could give it away.”
“Now, Helga,” Lance said. “Don’t jump to any conclusions. No one here would kill my mother. We all loved her.”
“Someone killed her,” Stephen said, looking suspiciously around the room. “A lot of people are going to get rich now.”
“Yourself included,” Glen reminded him.
Yvette gasped as she realized something. “Oh my God,” she said slowly.
Everyone turned to look at her. “What, honey?” Lance asked.
“Sally and Rachel switched rooms and nobody knew. The killer thought Rachel was Sally and killed her by mistake.”
The room became silent as the realization sunk in.
“Oh my God. You’re right!” Stephen cried. “Rachel was smothered too. I knew it wasn’t an overdose. I knew it.”
Stephen glared at the others in the room and looked like he was going to start punching people. “When I find out who did this to my wife, to my mother—”
“How could anyone do this?” Lance said, choking back tears. “How could someone kill our mother in cold blood? The police will catch you and when they do—”
“Stop it!” Gwen yelled. “All of you get out! Don’t do this while our mother is lying here dead.”
Glen stepped forward and took Gwen by the shoulders. She shook off his hands and screamed as loud as she could. “I said everybody get out!”
Everyone did as they were told and filed out of the room. They stood waiting for Gwen in the hallway outside.
“What are we going to do with the body?” Glen asked, adding, “I don’t think there’s room in the freezer.”
Gwen came to the door. “Nobody is putting my mother in a freezer! We’re leaving the room exactly as it is until the police get here.”
She took hold of the doorknob, turned the lock, and stepped outside the room, closing the door behind her.
“There, she’s locked in. The police can knock the door down to do their investigation when they get here. But nobody else is going in that room.” Gwen glared at all of them. “I don’t trust anybody in this house.”
Chapter Thirty-three
Yvette grabbed hold of Lance’s hand as they walked down the staircase. “I want to go home,” she pleaded.
“I do too, Yvette. I do too. I wish I could figure out a way to get us out of here.”
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Lance turned to the others. “I say we all stay together as a group until we can figure out what to do.”
Everyone agreed and went into the living room together. Lance and Yvette took a seat on the couch nearest the fire. Lance wrapped his arm around his wife, and she laid her head on his shoulder. They went back and forth between weeping and looking suspiciously at everyone else in the room.
Gwen, Glen, and Stephen crowded onto the other couch together, and Helga sat on the loveseat. She glared at Sally’s children. “You all so greedy,” she said accusatorily. “I not even surprised one of you killed Sally for her money.”
“Us? We loved our mother,” Lance retorted. “What about you? Mom told us you were in her will. Maybe you wanted your inheritance before Mom changed it. Why would she keep you in her will after you quit?”
“Sally my friend,” Helga said defensively. “I never hurt her. I love Sally.” She started weeping again.
Stephen eyed Helga too, but didn’t say anything.
“I wish I’d been a better daughter.” Gwen dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “I should have been nicer to her. She always told me to be thankful for my blessings, but I never was. If everything wasn’t exactly perfect, exactly the way I wanted it, I always complained about it or criticized her. I was such a jerk. I wish I could do it all over again.”
Stephen teared up too. “I wish I’d been better too. I put her through so much, but she was always there for me, not judgmental, just supportive.”
He wiped his eyes and stared suspiciously at the others. “I can’t believe I’m sitting here with someone who killed both my wife and my mother. When I find out who it is, your life isn’t worth two cents.” He moved his forefinger in a slicing motion across his throat.
Stephen glared at Glen this time.
Glen shifted uncomfortably. “Look, we can sit here and point fingers at each other all day, which we’ll probably do if we stay here,” he said. “I say we go finish breakfast, and then all go to our rooms and lock ourselves in. We’re just going to have to wait out this storm.”
Lance peered out the window. The snow had let up even more, but the snow drifts were huge. His helicopter wasn’t even visible. It was buried in the snow. “It’ll be days before we can get out of here,” he said, glumly.
Gwen stood up. “I like Glen’s suggestion. Let’s all go to our rooms. I can’t stand sitting here with someone who murdered my mother.”
They walked together to the kitchen, took what food they wanted with them, and then went separately to their bedrooms, each locking the door behind them. Lost in their sadness and fear, they forgot it was Christmas Day.
Chapter Thirty-four
Glen awoke to the afternoon sun beating in the window directly onto his face. He swung his legs out of bed, walked to the sliding glass door, and peered out at the landscape. He was surprised to see that the snowfall was much lighter now, and spots of bright blue pierced the grey winter sky. As far as he could see, the land was white—there wasn’t a pinch of color anywhere.
He checked his watch—1:30 p.m.
“Gwen?” he called, checking the bathroom.
There was no response. Maybe she’s downstairs, he thought. Opening the door, he checked the hallway. Everything seemed to be quiet. He walked swiftly to the stairs and hurried down to the living room. He looked around and then went into the kitchen.
“Gwen!”
Helga came into the kitchen at the sound of his voice. She eyed him warily. He noticed she was carrying a large butcher knife, so he stood at a distance.
“You haven’t seen Gwen, have you?”
Helga shook her head. “I haven’t seen anybody. Everybody in their room.” She raised the knife. “You stay away from me.”
Glen raised his hands. “I have no intention of coming anywhere near you, Helga. I’m just looking for my wife.”
He checked the other downstairs rooms and looked out on the patio. Then he headed upstairs and knocked on Lance’s door.
Yvette opened the door a crack and peeked out at him.
“Yvette, have you seen Gwen? I can’t find her.”
Yvette’s eyes grew large. “No, Glen. Lancie and I haven’t left the room. He’s so upset about his mother, and so am I. I gave him a massage and he fell asleep. Do you want me to wake him?”
“No, that’s okay. I’ll check with Stephen.”
“I hope you find her, Glen.”
As he walked down the hall to the study, he passed the room where the murder took place, shuddered at the thought of his dead mother-in-law inside, and then tapped on Stephen’s door. There was no answer.
He pushed the door and discovered it was unlocked. Peeking in, he saw that Stephen was asleep on the fold-out couch, and no one else was in the room.
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He closed the door, checked his room again, and then went to the master suite, although he couldn’t imagine why Gwen would want to go in there. He checked the bathroom, the walk-in closet, and the balcony, but no Gwen. Passing the canopy bed, a shiver went down his spine as he thought about Rachel.
Before going downstairs, he went to the door of the bedroom where Sally’s body was and turned the door knob just to be sure Gwen hadn’t somehow gotten the door open and wanted to spend time with her mother. But the door was still locked.
He went downstairs, grabbed his coat, and went outside. The snow was nearly thigh level. Moving slowly, he managed to circle the house, but saw no sign of Gwen. He hollered out her name several times and even heard an echo come back. But there was no response. Gwen was gone.
Chapter Thirty-five
Glen raced up the stairs and pounded on Lance’s door. Lance was slow to answer it, and when he did, he held a pair of scissors in his hand as a weapon.
“Gwen has disappeared,” Glen announced breathlessly. “I’ve looked everywhere, inside and out, but I can’t find her.”
“Oh God. This can’t be happening. Again.”
Yvette came running up to Lance and grabbed his arm. “All the women in the family are dead except me,” she cried hysterically. “We have to get out of here.”
“Now, honey. Just because Gwen is missing, doesn’t mean she’s dead. She’ll turn up,” Lance said, trying to be strong for his wife. “No matter what, I’ll protect you. I promise.”
To Glen, he said, “What are we going to do?”
“Are there any hiding places in the house or outbuildings where she might be? She may have just panicked and wanted to hide.”
Lance thought about it for a few moments.
“There’s a decent-sized storage room under the staircase, and there are some utility rooms back by the generator where we were this morning,” Lance said. “There’s also the shed over by the ski trail where we keep all of our skiing equipment. It’s quite a distance over there—probably farther than the length of a football field from here. It won’t be easy to get to in this snow.”
Calmer after her outburst, Yvette suggested, “What about binoculars? Maybe we could look to see if we can find her.”
“That’s a fantastic idea, cupcake. I have a pair of high-powered binoculars in my bureau. I’ll get them.”
Lance hurried across the room and pulled open the bottom drawer. “Here they are.” He held up a large pair of binoculars in a black case.
“Great,” Glen said. “Why don’t you two look, and I’ll go down and check out the storage rooms.”
After Glen left, Yvette walked to the door and locked it. With a serious look on her face, she asked her husband, “Do you think Gwen might be hiding from Glen?”
Lance looked surprised. “You know, I hadn’t thought about that. Do you think so?”
Her face took on a pensive look. “Well, if she thinks Glen is the person who killed her mother and Rachel, she might be afraid of him and not want to be alone with him.”
“I hadn’t thought about it that way. I thought whoever had killed Mom and Rachel had also gotten to Gwen.”
“I did too at first,” Yvette said. “But if I thought you had killed them, I would be afraid to be alone with you, and I would probably try to hide someplace.”
She added giving him a kiss on the cheek, “Not that I would ever think that you were a murderer.”
He hugged her. “You know I could never murder anybody.”
“I know you couldn’t. You’re too sweet.”
“So, do you think Glen did it?”
“I don’t know,” Yvette said. “I do know he doesn’t love Gwen the way he should. The way you love me.”
“How do you know that?”
“A woman can tell. He doesn’t say nice things to her or about her. He’s flirty with other women.”
Lance seemed surprised. “I always thought he was just kidding around. I thought they just bantered and sparred, you know, like some couples do, but that it wasn’t really serious.”
Yvette thought about it. “Maybe. But I wouldn’t like it if you talked that way to me. Sometimes they say really hurtful things to each other.”
“I would never talk to you that way.”
“I know. We wouldn’t be married if you did.”
Lance thought for a moment. “But I don’t think Glen would kill Gwen. It wouldn’t make sense. If he murdered my mother so Gwen would inherit, he would lose her inheritance if Gwen died before she got it.”
“No he wouldn’t,” Yvette corrected him. “Your mother died first, so your sister inherited then. If she dies after, Glen would inherit from her.”
Lance considered what Yvette said. “You know, that’s right. I hadn’t thought about that.” He looked at her proudly. “How’d you get so smart?”
“Just because you’re pretty, doesn’t mean you can’t be smart too.”
Chapter Thirty-six
Lance stood on the balcony scanning the pristine white countryside with his binoculars. He methodically checked the landscape in vertical lines up and down, as if he were mowing a lawn. He started in the far west and moved east.
When he looked northeast, about fifty yards north of a large snow-covered box that he knew must be the ski shed, he thought he saw something red in the snow. Focusing the lenses tighter on the object, he was sure it was red, and there looked like there was something greenish brown too.
Lance opened the sliding glass door a couple of inches. “Honey, come her and take a look at this.”
Yvette threw a blanket over her shoulders and stepped out onto the balcony, shutting the door behind her. Duchess immediately got up on her hind legs and began to scratch rapidly on the glass.
“Did you see something, Lancie?”
He stood behind her and positioned her shoulders directly toward the spot. “Look out there,” he pointed. “About fifty yards left of the ski shed.”
“Is the ski shed that big lump of snow?” she asked.
“Yes, that’s it. Now go straight to the left about half the length of a football field.”
Yvette moved the binoculars slowly along the line that Lance had directed.
“I don’t see anything.”
“Keep looking. There’s something there.”
She kept scanning the area for several moments, adjusting the focus twice.
“Wait! I do see something. Yes, it’s red and kind of spotted around. And there’s something dark green. It looks like it might be clothing.”
Yvette took the binoculars down from her eyes and looked gravely at Lance. “I think it might be blood.”
There was a loud rap on the door. Lance crossed the room to answer it, but not before stopping at the desk to pick up the scissors. “You stay back, dear,” he told Yvette.
“Who is it?” Lance asked through the door.
“It’s me, Glen. I checked all the storage rooms, but I couldn’t find Gwen.”
Lance glanced over his shoulder at Yvette. “Lock the door behind me when I leave, and don’t answer it for anybody but me. Okay?”
Yvette nodded. “Be careful, Lancie.”
In the hallway, Lance stood away from his brother-in-law, holding the scissors tightly, and told Glen what they had seen through the binoculars.
“Oh God,” Glen murmured. “Please don’t let it be Gwen.”
“We need to go check it out,” Lance said. “Let’s go get Stephen. The three of us can go together.”
They hurried down the hall to the study. Lance rapped on the door. “Stephen!”
Stephen opened the door. He looked like he had just woken up.
“Gwen is missing,” Glen told him.
“What?”
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“We think we see blood in the snow north of the shed,” Lance said.
“Oh God.” Stephen grabbed his sweater and pulled it on. “Let’s go check it out.”
They hurried down the stairs and stopped at the coat closet. Stephen handed each of them a heavy jacket, gloves, and a ski mask. “We need to go to the utility room out back to get snowshoes. They’ll make things a lot easier.”
Stephen led the way to the utility room outside the kitchen door. The other two waited in the kitchen while Stephen went outside and pulled out three pairs of webbed snowshoes and ski poles.
“Glen, put these on,” Stephen said, tossing a pair of snowshoes to his brother-in-law. “They’re the best thing for walking across unplowed snow.”
Glen stared at the wide, odd-looking mini-skis. “I’ve never worn these before,” he said, sitting down on a kitchen chair and strapping one on. “They’re really light.”
“They will definitely do the job and get us there a lot faster,” Stephen said.
Before he put the snowshoes on, Lance hesitated.
“I don’t know if I should leave Yvette,” Lance said, lowering his voice. “I don’t like the idea of her being alone in the house with Helga.”
“I don’t blame you,” Glen whispered back. “Helga’s walking around with the biggest butcher knife I’ve ever seen. She scared me to death with it a little while ago.”
“Stay if you’d rather,” Stephen said. “Glen and I can go.”
Lance looked back and forth at Stephen and Glen. He decided he needed to go with them.
“No, I want to come. It’s better if we stay together. Just give me a minute to go back up to warn Yvette to beware of Helga.”
Lance ran up the stairs two at a time. When he reached the room, he tapped lightly on the door.
“Yvette?”
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, cupcake.”