Where the Ice Falls

by J. E. Barnard

  “Correct. Talking to me is entirely up to you.” She peeled the power-bar package open and took a bite. Salt and fat, crunch and delicious honey sweetness … She took another bite, leaving a silence she hoped he would fill.

  “The police sergeant yesterday … I think he thinks I put Eric in that shed.”

  “Did you —” Lacey changed her question on the fly “— did you know he was going to Black Rock that day?”

  “I knew it would be sometime that weekend.”

  “But you weren’t with him.”

  “No. I was out of town.”

  “Then tell the sergeant where you were and you’ll be clear.”

  He turned his cup in his hands. “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’s a secret.” He pushed his glasses farther up his nose. “Like, an official secret.”

  That was unexpected. And likely not true, unless he’d hacked into some government network, in which case he would have been under surveillance, if not under arrest, by now. “If it’s an official secret, you probably shouldn’t tell me, either. Tell me this instead: was it your sleeping pill in Eric’s pocket?”

  “Yeah, probably.” He seemed undisturbed by the question. “We swapped coats often enough. He hated pills, though.”

  “So, the only issue is proving where you were that weekend.”

  “Which I can’t.” Calvin opened his door and slid out. Lacey slowly followed, filing away his comments in her mental notebook.

  Lizi’s pink hat whizzed out of a trail beyond the snack shack. Zoe was behind her, with the stepsons presumably bringing up the rear. What about Zoe as a suspect, though? Did her current job for JP Thompson overlap with the accounting department, or the malware Eric had discovered? That could be checked. But really, would any mother send her teenage daughter to discover a body she’d left there? Shaking her head at her own thoughts, Lacey joined the others in greeting the returning skiers.

  Zoe kicked off her skis when she cleared the last bare aspen trunks and eyed the sky while her breathing settled after that last sprint. The sun had disappeared behind boiling grey clouds with ominously billowing white bottoms. Snow in that lot for sure. The few remaining trekkers were stowing gear and kids into their vehicles. Marcia was collecting her students’ equipment. Kai skied straight over to help. Lizi headed for the washrooms.

  “Good run?” Lacey asked Ari and Zoe.

  “Fast and hard,” said Ari. “Great workout.”

  He excused himself to get a hot drink, leaving Zoe alone with Lacey.

  “Are you really okay?” Zoe asked. “No lasting damage?”

  “Better since I had a nap. They plied me with more hot drinks, and food, too.”

  Zoe shook snow off her toque and pulled it back on. “And the dog? Is he okay?”

  “He’s fine. Sacked out in the truck. It was a good run for them both.”

  “I’m glad everything worked out.” Zoe started walking toward the cars, and Lacey followed. “I hope the Anders kids aren’t too shaken up. When Arliss talked me into asking them along today, I never dreamed something like this would happen. A bit close to home, I’d say.”

  “Arliss?”

  “Thompson. JP’s first wife. She lives next door to the Anderses.”

  “Ah. She’d know them better than either of us, then.”

  Lacey’s tone caught Zoe’s fractured attention. “Why’s that important?” she snapped. So much for keeping Eric’s feelings at bay.

  “Well, I just meant she’d know about the family relationships. For example, Aidan seems devoted to his siblings, but that could just be a cover for some deep-seated resentment. Maybe, as the eldest, he always had to look after them. You know, stuff like that.”

  Zoe corralled another surge of post-adolescent outrage before it hit her throat, but her voice still came out a bit sharper than she intended. “He didn’t resent Eric enough to lock him in a freezing woodshed, if that’s what you’re thinking! He was a good brother.” She sucked in cold air through her nose, keeping her mouth closed before anything more revealing could escape. When they reached her van, she propped the skis against it while she fumbled for her fob. Lacey silently helped her stow the equipment inside. With that done, Zoe forced herself to look up. “Have you got the grief counselling material for me?”

  “In my car. I’ll go grab it.”

  “I’ll come with you.” Zoe closed her tailgate. “I don’t feel right about shoving pamphlets at them on top of this fiasco, but I’ll give the stuff to Arliss and let her decide how to approach them. She can usually get people to do what she wants.” She shivered, partly from the cooling of her sweaty undershirt and partly from fear that she would never be free of Eric’s ghostly presence. Or his longing for the family she herself barely knew. She could feel so strongly that Eric wanted to go home with them. What kept him with her instead?

  You can hear me.

  Aidan’s little blue car pulled up beside them, and he lowered his window. “We’re heading into town. Thanks for asking us along.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” said Clemmie. “Can you tell Lizi I’ll text her when we’re back in cell range?”

  Their tail lights jiggled as they drove away, dragging a piece of Zoe with them. She didn’t realize she was gritting her teeth until Lacey touched her shoulder.

  “What?”

  “I asked, are you okay?”

  “What? Yes. Yes, fine. I just realized I’m freezing. I need to get my gang home. Looks like I’ll have to drag Kai away from Marcia first, though.”

  Lacey fell into step beside her. “My legs could use a stretch, now that they’ve warmed up.” They walked in silence until Lacey said, “You work in JP’s office, right? Can I ask what Eric was like to work with?”

  Eric again! Zoe flinched, but covered the movement with a sideways skid. “Ooh, icy bit here.” She hollered up the empty slope to Ari and Lizi. “Come on, we’re leaving.”

  Kai clipped the last set of skis onto the roof of Marcia’s SUV. “Be right there.”

  “Nice young guys,” said Lacey. “Helpful.”

  “Their mom did a decent job with them. Probably better than I would have in her shoes.”

  Marcia kept loading poles as the women approached. “Snowstorm coming in,” she said over her shoulder. “I sent the class on ahead. Don’t want to be responsible for them getting stranded.”

  Like Eric did?

  Zoe’s eyelid twitched. “Lacey, meet Marcia. She’s a good instructor if you know anyone who needs ski lessons.”

  “We’ve met, I believe.” Lacey held out her hand. “The Christmas market in Cochrane.”

  Marcia eyed her closely. “Oh. Okay. Yeah. You were with …”

  “Dee Phillips. The real estate lawyer.”

  “Right. Right. Still in a wheelchair, huh? No skiing for her this winter.” And with that, she turned to Kai. “Thanks for the help.”

  “No worries.” He slung his skis and poles over his shoulder. “Keys, Zoe? I’ll load these.” He strode away, and his siblings followed.

  Through a thickening fog of exhaustion and emotional turmoil, Zoe smiled at Marcia. “You’ll bill me for that lesson, right?”

  “Email okay?” Marcia pushed back her sleeve, exposing a bulky black wilderness watch, complete with a rim compass and what looked like GPS readout. “Gotta run. Nice meeting you again, Lacey. Happy holidays.” She leaped into her vehicle and was pulling away before Zoe could finish saying goodbye.

  “Well, that was rude.” Zoe rubbed a gloved hand over her throbbing forehead. It was exhausting trying to juggle the dead as well as the living.

  Lacey took a few steps and waited for her to catch up. “So, Eric. Smart kid? Good at his job?”

  Zoe’s teeth clenched again. She opened them enough to mutter, “I didn’t work there when he was interning.”

  “You’d have heard if he was causing any trouble, though?”

  “That’s not really your business, is it?”

>   “I’m just trying to get a handle on who would want him dead.”

  Zoe stopped. “What did you say?”

  Lacey was staring at her. “Surely you know the RCMP is treating his death as suspicious.”

  “Yes, but …” Zoe’s head was spinning. She’d likely have fallen if Lacey hadn’t grabbed her arm. “I guess … I … I didn’t really think about what that meant. Somebody wanted him dead? As in, locked him in that woodshed on purpose?”

  She was dimly aware of Lacey guiding her across the icy ground. Suddenly she was in the back seat of the van, with Lizi tucking a blanket around her. She closed her eyes, closed out the world, and abandoned herself to the storm inside.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Lacey watched Kai shut the van’s side door on his sister and stepmother. “Think she’ll be okay?”

  “Dunno. That’s on me. Dad warned me she’d been having bad chills. I shouldn’t have insisted we keep skiing. If she can’t come to Marmot tomorrow, that’ll be on me, too.”

  “She’s an adult. She decided. And you all enjoyed it, right?”

  “Too right. It was good sport and amazing country. Wild.” Kai put his hand out. “Sorry for burying you. One lesson and I thought I knew it all. Marcia warned me about hot-dogging.”

  “I survived.” She shook his big paw. “You only had the one lesson with her? I assumed it was more.”

  “She’s a good teacher. You should see her cabin. Filled with trophies and news clippings about her wins; she was a biathlon champ twice. You know, skiing and shooting. Good pick for a zombie apocalypse team.” He turned as Ari tooted the van’s horn. “Gotta jet. Happy holidays, Lacey.”

  “You, too.”

  Lacey watched as they drove away, wondering why she felt so calm. For someone who had barely escaped death, she was not feeling terrible. All the care she’d received from Zoe and the others had warmed her soul. She was accustomed to being the caregiver, the one in control. In more than one sense, today had been just what she needed: a change of routine, a chance to set aside her caregiving duties, and a clear reminder that most people were helpful if given the chance.

  She walked back to the Lexus and the sleeping dogs as fat snowflakes scudded across her path. Now she had to manage driving home in the growing gale. Snow spun across her headlights. Spruce branches slashed over rooftops. Coming down the final stretch toward the Bragg Creek Arts Centre, she passed a vehicle pulled hard against the snowbank. It looked like the ski instructor’s big brown Suburban. It was still running, though the four-way flashers weren’t on.

  She’d stress all night that she’d left someone stranded in the storm if she didn’t at least check to make sure they were okay. She backed up level with the driver’s door and hit the power window. “Everything all right?”

  It was Marcia. She lowered her phone from her ear and opened the window just enough to yell out, “Fine, thanks,” then rolled it up again.

  All right, then.

  Lacey drove on. Beyond a screen of bare poplar branches and dark firs, the Elbow River swirled grey as the clouds above. At the intersection, an owl swooped across the road in front of her and into the Arts Centre parking lot, its white feathers blurring its outline against the snowy ground. Suddenly, the ski-laden SUV pulled up beside her, abruptly turned right, and sped across the bridge. Boney lifted his head and heaved a loud sigh.

  “Almost home,” Lacey told him.

  As the snow thickened on the windshield, Lacey slowed, not because of the worsening visibility, but due to the weight of Dee’s house looming ahead. She’d taken up the burden of Dee’s recovery gladly. She’d accepted the temporary extra care of Loreena. She would enter the warm glow of holiday lights and not even mention being trapped today, because she didn’t want to burden either of them with a moment’s worry about her. When Sandy returned, she would take a few days to hang out at Tom’s. The thought of just eating and sleeping, playing with the boys, and watching mindless action movies with Tom in the evenings was immensely appealing.

  She took the dogs in through the mudroom, wiping off their damp feet and giving their coats a quick ruffle with a towel to loosen any shards of bark or other bits of wilderness. Eight gangly legs hurtled through the kitchen door. She followed, pausing to turn on the kettle for tea. “Hello! I’m back. Anybody want anything?”

  Loreena’s thin voice filtered into the kitchen, “If that’s tea you’re making, I’ll take some.” She added, clearly not to Lacey, “No, honey. You sit. You’ve been up and down a dozen times this afternoon and I’m sure your leg is sore.”

  “Shall I bring everyone some?”

  “Thanks,” said Dee.

  Loreena, wrapped in blankets, smiled as Lacey entered. “Thank you, dear. Did you have a good afternoon?”

  Dee looked up from fussing over the dogs. “Wasn’t as grim as you expected?”

  “It had its moments. Boney got stuck behind an icefall and had to be dug out.”

  “Idiot.” Dee smooshed his ears. “And how was your sleuthing? Everybody’s alibis check out?”

  “Calvin — the computer nerd who helped Eric with the malware — he says he has one, but it’s a secret. The brother and sister seem completely without motive, and their reactions are what you’d expect for people who recently lost a brother that way. Zoe has no motive, either, unless … could she run an accounting scam behind JP’s back?”

  “I doubt it. She wasn’t even there during the past five years. She only came back last month to babysit the place while JP’s in England.”

  “Would she cover for him if he did the scam himself, maybe to save money on alimony or cheat on his taxes or whatever?”

  “Wow, paranoid much?” Dee eyed her sternly. “You’re a civilian now, remember.”

  Loreena’s blue eyes flicked between the two younger women. “Is it paranoia, Lacey, or do you have grounds for suspicion?”

  Lacey leaned back in an overstuffed armchair. Outside the window, the snow kept falling. “Honestly, I’m groping in the dark for some angle Bull Drummond can follow up on. The longer Eric Anders’s death is hanging over that chalet, the longer it is until Dee can sell it. Zoe, though … she was very evasive whenever I asked her about Eric. Could be a sign of a guilty conscience.”

  “You flinch whenever Dan is mentioned,” said Dee.

  Lacey’s breath cut off like she’d been punched in the throat.

  Loreena said sharply, “Dee! That’s cruel. Honey, I’m sorry. She’s only trying to show that Zoe’s reaction could have lots of causes.”

  Lacey’s face stung like she’d been slapped. She had to escape from these well-meaning people. Fingernails digging into her palms, she said with false calm, “Shall I start supper?”

  “You go ahead,” Loreena said. “I’m not hungry.”

  Later that evening, when Lacey brought up Loreena’s tea and pills, the older woman was frowning.

  “What is it, Loreena?”

  “I hate to bother Sandy at her son’s house, but with this snowstorm, I’m worried. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

  “Have you tried calling her cell?”

  “I texted her twice on Dee’s phone, but she hasn’t replied.”

  “She could be driving with her phone off to save the battery. If she’s not here in an hour, I’ll follow up. You get some sleep.”

  Downstairs, Lacey picked up a novel and read until she realized she hadn’t taken in a word in half an hour. Sandy still hadn’t arrived, and she wanted to go to bed. Surely the nurse had stayed in Airdrie because of the storm. She should have called, though, so they wouldn’t worry. It was after ten now. Was it too late to phone a house with little kids? Sandy would be back by breakfast time, and then Lacey could arrange a getaway for herself. Maybe Tom knew someone who wanted a house-sitter over New Year’s. Total solitude would be heaven on earth.

  In the dazzling morning that followed the night of freshly fallen snow, Lacey assembled a tray for Loreena. “Tea, boiled egg, toast, ja
m, and pills. Where are the Christmas napkins?”

  Dee tugged one from a drawer and passed it over. “Your car’s not back yet. I’d better phone Sandy’s son. Mom’s already asked for her.”

  “It was a rough night for driving.”

  Dee propped her hip against the kitchen island and scrolled through the contacts on her phone. “She doesn’t strike me as the type not to call, though. Is it too early for me to?”

  “Just call already. I’ll need a report for your mom when I take this up.” Lacey filled the teapot while Dee placed the call.

  Dee had barely introduced herself when she gasped so loudly Lacey dropped the teapot lid. “What’s wrong?”

  Dee put a hand over the mouthpiece. “Sandy isn’t there, either. She left yesterday, right on schedule.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Lacey reached for the phone. “Is this Sandy’s son? Hi, my name’s Lacey. When exactly did your mother leave?”

  “Yesterday at suppertime. About five.”

  “In the middle of the blizzard?”

  “It hadn’t started here yet. I figured she’d reach you before it really whited out.”

  “By then it was already heavy over here. You’re sure she intended to come straight back?”

  “That’s what she told me.” He sounded more irritated than worried. “She said she might stop by Big Hill Springs — that provincial park in the gully. We used to picnic there when I was a kid. She wanted to see what it looks like now.”

  “I can check on that.”

  If it was the same one that Lacey remembered, Big Hill Springs was a small park off the range road that ran straight west from Airdrie. She and Jan had taken the dogs there last summer, on the way to pick up some donated art for the museum. Maybe the car was sitting in a snowbank, and Sandy with it. “Is there anyone she’d stop to visit? A friend from the old days, maybe?”

  She ran through the other questions any police officer would ask: Sandy’s age, the clothes she was wearing, whether her cellphone was charged up, any medication or any illness that might affect her driving? How about her mood: any depression or emotional strain?