Ring In the Year with Murder--An Otter Lake Mystery

by Auralee Wallace

  “On the count of three.”

  I nodded. “One … Two…”

  “Grady!” we both shouted.

  “What?” he shouted back.

  “Bryson! Get Bryson!”

  But I don’t think he heard us because just then the distinctive braap! of a snowmobile engine tore through the night air.

  What the…?

  Freddie and I exchanged confused looks.

  “Where’s that coming from?” Bethanny asked.

  “Hey! Hey!” Freddie said, once again slapping my arm frantically. “That’s my snowmobile! And … and that’s Tyler! He’s wearing my coat! What … what is he doing?”

  “Oh no, he must have heard us talking about Bryson! I think he’s going after him!”

  “Tyler! No!” Freddie shouted. “Stop! Your mother is going to kill me!

  We watched as the teen sped the machine across the lawn. Bryson saw him coming and put his hands up, but Tyler didn’t let off the gas.

  “He’s headed right for the…”

  “Ice slide!”

  At the last second, Tyler made a spectacular leap off the snowmobile, tackling Bryson. Maybe the tackle hadn’t been completely necessary given that Bryson had had his hands up, but it looked awesome.

  The snowmobile kept racing forward right to the ice slide.

  Up … up … flip …

  … crash.

  Chapter Forty-two

  Not long after, we were all downstairs. I had found an old slipper of Mrs. Masterson’s to cover my bare foot. Hopefully Matthew wouldn’t mind. Amos and a few other uniforms were trying to clear people out of the house, keeping only the key players behind for questioning. Grady was talking to Joey while Amos was keeping watch over the Arthurs. The other officers had already set about securing all the crime scenes. There were still a few guests hanging around. It was tough getting everybody out, not only because of the logistics, but also the rubbernecking going on by the partygoers. Yup, that’s how we do in Otter Lake.

  After the takedown outside, Freddie had sped off to check on Tyler and investigate the state of his snowmobile. Candace and I headed for the smoking room while Bethanny excused herself to call her boyfriend. I put another log on the fire while Candace poked around her phone on the sofa.

  “Be careful not to delete anything,” I said. “Who knows what Bryson has been up to in your accounts.”

  “Yeah, actually, I think I’d better stop now. There’s an e-mail here from me to Gerald Arthur. It has a link to an article about a COO embezzling millions of dollars from his company eight years ago. The name of the guy is Brian Williams, but the picture looks a lot like Gerald. I wonder how Bryson made that connection.”

  “Private detective maybe?”

  “Maybe.” She sighed. “Wow, my head hurts.” Candace’s face was worn and sad. Sobering up was never fun.

  “Do you want me to see if Matthew has any pain medication?”

  “Um…” Just then something drew her eyes from me to the door. “Grady’s out in the foyer.”

  “Oh,” I said, getting to my feet. “I’ll give you guys some privacy.”

  “Actually, no, I don’t think I really want to talk to him right now. This night has already been so…” She couldn’t seem to find the energy to finish the thought. “Besides, we both know it’s over. Neither one of us needs to say it. At least not tonight.” Candace pulled a pillow onto her lap and hugged it. “Actually, now that it’s done, a part of me is relieved. It’s really exhausting trying to keep someone in a relationship who doesn’t want to be there.”

  I pinned my lips together. I wanted to say something that might help, but I didn’t think there was anything I could say that would accomplish that particular feat.

  “You should go talk to him,” she said, eyes still on the other room.

  I looked at her. I wasn’t so much confused at what she had said as I was concerned about whether or not she really meant it. This was a pretty awkward test for our new friendship.

  She met my eye. “I’m not going to pretend to understand what it is that you and Grady have together, or if it’s healthy, but I also don’t think either one of you will be able to move on with anyone else until you figure that out for yourselves.”

  Okay. I guess we were good. I took a step toward the door.

  “Wait! You don’t think you’re getting off that easy, do you?”

  Or not.

  Candace got to her feet and walked toward me. “Now, I know this is going to be very hard for you, but…”

  I looked at her, confused.

  “But you did save my life, so…” She reached her arms out to me. “We’re going to have to hug it out.”

  Okay, I may have been still getting used to this whole hugging thing, but it was actually kind of nice. Candace smelled like cupcakes. How did she smell like cupcakes? I was pretty sure I smelled like a wet, mildewed newspaper that had just spent an entire winter on the floor of a car. And that was not good. Nobody wanted to smell like that.

  “Now, go talk to him. Quick. I don’t think I can be this mature for much longer.” She sniffed. “I might start drinking again.”

  “No. No,” I said, slicing my hands in the air. “Do not do that. I’m not going back out on that roof.” I spun on my heel just as Joey stepped through the door.

  “Is it all right if I come in?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Erica, seriously, you’d better get going.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Grady’s talking to your mother.”

  I whirled around.

  “And take the turban off!”

  I whipped the hat off my head. I had completely forgotten it was there. I was also surprised it had stayed on during the roof rescue. I shoved it into my pocket before running out into the foyer, my one snow boot slapping against the tiles.

  It looked like my mother and Grady were just finishing up their conversation … and she was passing him some sort of package?

  “Mom,” I said, waving a frantic hand to get her attention. She said one last thing to Grady then walked toward me.

  “Do you need more aloe for your scrapes?” she asked, patting the bag at her hip. My mother always carried around her all-natural first-aid kit.

  “What did you say to Grady?”

  She blinked. “What do you mean, what did I say to Grady?”

  “Don’t act dumb,” I said, pointing a finger at her face.

  “Well,” she said, rolling her eyes. “If you must know, I was going to give him some much-needed insight into his deplorable behavior last spring, but I didn’t.”

  “Why not?”

  She inhaled deeply. “I couldn’t do it. He already seems so … worn out.”

  I nodded. “Well, thank you. I appreciate it.”

  “I am a healer at heart,” she said, putting her hands into prayer position.

  I nodded. I wanted to go talk to Grady, but not with my mother around, so I said, “Do you have anything in your magic bag that might help Candace with her hangover?”

  “Umeboshi.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Umeboshi. It’s a pickled plum. You suck on it.”

  “Of course you do. That sounds great. She’s in the smoking room.”

  My mother nodded and glided off, coins jangling from her waist. I felt a little bad sending my mother in to break up Candace’s conversation with Joey. But, you know, in the big scheme of things, it was probably best that I not worry about Candace’s love life. There was no excuse for the plum though.

  I hurried over to Grady who by the looks of it was just finishing up another conversation with Amos. They exchanged nods before the deputy walked away.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  “I heard you nearly died again,” he said, scratching the back of his head. “I really wish you’d lay off the heights.”

  “Yeah, me too. Soon I’m going to be too scared to climb a flight of stairs.” I couldn’t tell if it was because
of all the danger we had just been in, but Grady didn’t look right. I mean, I wasn’t expecting him to look happy. We’d all had a pretty rough night. But he looked pale. Maybe even … sad? I was just about to ask him if he was okay when he said, “I also heard you saved Candace’s life.”

  I looked down at my hands and shrugged. “She’s a good person.”

  “Have you seen her?

  “She’s in the smoking room, but, uh,” I said, tossing a look over my shoulder, “she’s kind of busy at the moment. My mom’s making her suck on pickled plums.”

  Grady frowned then held up the small brown paper bag my mother had given to him. “I guess I was lucky to get off with just the tea.”

  I smiled.

  “Still,” he said, “I need to talk to her.”

  I had to stop him. And it wasn’t just because we needed to talk. I really got the vibe that Candace had meant earlier when she’d said she wasn’t ready to see Grady. “She, uh, doesn’t want to talk to you right now.”

  What looked like more pain crossed Grady’s face. “Yeah, I guess it’s not the time to ask her to forgive me. She has every right to be mad.”

  I touched his elbow. “I think she knows you didn’t mean to hurt her.”

  He nodded. “I hope so.”

  Something was really wrong here. Obviously he didn’t like how things had ended with Candace, but it was more than that.

  “I, uh, left her alone with Joey back there,” I said, jerking a thumb back at the room. “Was that a mistake?”

  Grady’s eyes darted from mine. He probably knew I was trying to gauge if he was jealous. “It should be fine. There’s nothing violent in his record. He jacked a couple of cars when he was a kid. His family was pretty poor, and he had a sick sister with medical bills. He’s not even on parole. He’s free and clear.”

  I nodded. Not that Grady could see it. He was still looking away.

  Up in the attic it had felt like we were finally breaking down all the walls between us, but now Grady had his right back up. I didn’t want to ask him why though. I was too afraid of what the answer might be. “Um, have the Arthurs said anything? Why were they trying to frame you?”

  He shook his head. “My guess is that they were trying to see if they could get away with it—right up until the last minute—so they didn’t have to run again. It didn’t matter if it looked like Candace committed suicide or I did it. It’s early in the investigation though. Maybe they just wanted revenge and getting away with it was bonus. They had a lot of backup plans.”

  Well, Gerald had said they were resourceful. “What about Bryson? Tell me he is going to get nailed with something.”

  “We’ll try, but men like Bryson…”

  I put up a hand. “I know. I know.

  “So…” I said, rocking slightly in my boot and slipper.

  He looked down at the floor, but I could see the muscles at his jaw clenching. “Erica, I think I may have given you the wrong impression earlier. Up in the attic.”

  “Okay. You mean, the part about how we broke up because—”

  “No. No.” He shook his head. “I meant everything I said. I’m talking about why I was saying it.”

  I waited. Not breathing.

  “When I told you I shouldn’t have gotten together with Candace so quickly, that I should have talked to you first”—he paused, shaking his head—“I didn’t mean … we should have just picked up where we left off.”

  I felt like an icy fist had punched a hole right through my rib cage and pulled out my heart.

  “Right. Of course.” I was looking at the floor now too.

  “It’s just we have been on this roller coaster for so long, and I … I don’t want that anymore.”

  “I don’t either!” I knew there were still people around. People probably watching us, listening to every word, but I didn’t care.

  “I believe you,” he said quietly. “I know on some level we both really want to be together, but it seems like no matter how hard we try—”

  “Grady, you know how good it can be between us.”

  “Erica, Chicago was five days. Five amazing days. But the snow globe thing you were talking about, that wasn’t real life.” His voice had risen too. “My real life is here. In Otter Lake.”

  “So is mine now.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Especially not with you. It hurts too much.”

  “Wow,” I said, blinking my eyes. “I really didn’t see this coming. I thought if you and Candace broke up that…” I blinked my eyes some more. “It doesn’t matter what I thought.”

  “Maybe I’m just not in the right headspace to be dating anyone. I don’t like who I’m turning into. Stressed all the time. I need to figure some things out. Then we could maybe—”

  “Sheriff?” Amos called out from across the room. “I’ve got Bryson’s uncle’s lawyer on the phone? He’s demanding to talk to you immediately.”

  Grady sighed and rubbed his forehead. “We can talk more later, okay?”

  “That’s, uh…” I shook my head quickly. “You know, don’t worry about it. I think we’re good.”

  “Erica—”

  “No, it’s fine. I get it,” I said. “You’d better go take that phone call.”

  He looked like he might say more, but then he just walked away.

  I stood in the exact same spot a good few minutes. Then I noticed Freddie standing beside me. Hard to say how long he had been there.

  “So…” he finally said. “What was that all about? You guys picking a wedding date?”

  “Not the time, Freddie,” I said, barely keeping my voice from cracking.

  “Is there anything I can do?”

  I shook my head. “I’m not fine.”

  “Sorry?”

  “I’m not fine.”

  “I know,” he said, nodding. “You never were.” Then he quickly tagged on, “I didn’t mean that how it sounded.”

  “Like I’m really not fine. Not at all fine.”

  He let a moment pass before he added, “You want to talk about it?”

  “Oh my God, no!””

  “Right. I understan—”

  “You know,” I said, feeling the tips of my ears burn, “I’m starting to think Grady has more issues than I do.”

  Freddie shoved his hands in his pockets. “So you do want to talk about it?”

  My shoulders slumped. “No.”

  “You’re sure now ’cause it kind of seems like—”

  “He needs time?” I threw a hand in Grady’s direction. “To do what? To realize that he’s screwing this up all over again?”

  “I hear y—”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Right.”

  We stood there for another two or three minutes, not talking.

  Suddenly, I spotted Sean walking out from the far hallway with Stanley in his arms. He was looking at Freddie, but I could tell he wasn’t sure if he should come over. Freddie hadn’t noticed him.

  I cleared my throat. “I think your dog is doing better,” I said, tipping my chin in their direction.

  “What is Bean still doing here?” Freddie was trying to make it sound like it was all weird that Sean was hanging around, but there was something that sounded an awful lot like pure fear under all his casual disdain.

  “He’s probably waiting to talk to you.”

  “What for?”

  I sighed. “He likes you, Freddie.”

  “But why?”

  “You know what? I am feeling way too sorry for myself right now to be nice about this.” I looked down at my feet. I at least needed to find my other boot before I could feel any pity for anyone else. “Who knows why Bean’s interested in you, okay? Maybe it’s your dog. Maybe it’s your fashion sense. Maybe it’s your somewhat amusing contempt for the world. I don’t know. But the fact is he is interested in you.”

  Freddie didn’t answer.

  “You know what?
You can do something for me. You can go over there and talk to Sean.”

  “I don’t know if I can do that.”

  I felt my hands curl into fists. “Freddie, for better or worse, you are my best friend, but if one of us doesn’t get better at relationships real soon, we are going to die alone … together.”

  “Oh my God,” Freddie said with just the right amount of horror.

  “I know.”

  “I’m going.”

  I shook my fists out. “Good.”

  “Wait. Is good your new fine ’cause—”

  “Just go!”

  “Okay, but I’ll be right back.”

  “I never doubted it for a second.”

  The Morning After

  “Aww … you do love me.”

  I made a frustrated sound at the back of my throat. “Shut up.”

  Freddie snickered.

  I sat all the way up in bed. “I don’t understand, so Grady left … but did he come back? When did we start drinking?” I grabbed the turban off the bed. “When did I put this back on? We missed midnight, right? Wait … oh boy.”

  “Now you’re remembering,” Freddie said with a chuckle.

  I closed my eyes, but all I could see were sparkling blooms exploding in the darkness of my mind.

  Chapter Forty-three

  “Your breath smells like antifreeze.”

  Stanley managed to lick Freddie’s chin despite his cone of shame.

  “But I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Stanley did look like he was feeling better. He also looked quite happy curled up snug in Freddie’s arms.

  I would’ve smiled if I could remember how. I was actually kind of numb, but even though I hadn’t had time to process everything that had happened tonight, I did know that Freddie having Stanley was undoubtedly a good thing. An hour or so had passed, and Freddie, Sean, Stanley, and I were hanging out in the club chairs Tweety and Kit Kat had occupied earlier. Most everybody had gone home—including my mother. She wanted to whip up some more aloe lotion for my scrapes. The twins had left too. They had a busy day ahead of them tomorrow given that they had at least some of the inside scoop. Freddie and I were still waiting to be questioned, whereas Sean … I think he just wasn’t ready to say good-bye. Turned out, he was going to med school. The server gig was just to help pay bills over the holiday. I kind of got the impression that this freaked out Freddie even more. I mean, sure he wanted to be half of a power couple, but not the lesser half.