by Meg Muldoon
Julie looked like a bull ready to charge. Her nostrils flared slightly, and her blue eyes burned like coals. She was staring at Kara like she wanted to rip my best friend’s head off.
“Ms. Van Dorn?” Eleanor said, clearly seeing that her words hadn’t made much of a dent. “Ms. Van Dorn, did you hear me?”
Julie’s expression suddenly changed. The plastic façade came back.
A moment later, a fake smile flooded her face.
“My apologies, Councilwoman,” she said, lifting her head in the air. “I’m afraid you’re right. I’m just wasting my time here.”
She gave Kara and me one long nasty look before backing away and hurriedly heading down the hallway in the direction of the restrooms. The sound of her skyscraper heels furiously clicking against the linoleum let everybody within a five-mile radius know what kind of mood she was in.
Councilwoman Tunstall let out a long, troubled sigh.
“Well, now that the power is back on, Cinnamon, I think we should gather everybody in the auditorium and speak to them about the situation,” she said, ignoring the deafening noise of Julie’s heels. “And as the two remaining judges, I feel that it is up to us to do so. What do you think?”
I took in a deep breath.
Eleanor was right. Julie might have been in the wrong, but fighting with her about it wasn’t going to help anything.
It wouldn’t change the fact that we were all where we were now: stranded in the biggest snowstorm to hit Christmas River in recent memory.
“I think that’s a level-headed idea, Eleanor.”
She smiled, the skin around her mouth pulling with the effort.
“Good,” she said. “The sooner the better, I should think.”
I nodded, then looked over at Kara. The anger in her eyes had faded slightly with Julie gone.
“We’ll talk after,” I said.
“Okay,” she said.
I squeezed her arm, then followed the Councilwoman back into the auditorium.
Trying my very best to get a grip and regain my cool along the way.
Chapter 28
“Screw that! I’m not staying here ‘til you ladies deem it okay for me to go home. Where are we… Communist Russia?”
Though I had expected as much from a pinheaded pipsqueak like Barney McBride, the sexist way in which the Redmond bar owner said the word ladies really got under my skin.
But like Councilwoman Tunstall had said earlier: now was no time to let my lower nature get the better of me.
I cleared my throat.
“Well, in a way, you’re right Barney,” I said in a strong, steady voice so that everybody could hear me. “It is like Russia out there today. It’s as cold, I’d reckon. And as dangerous, too.”
“I refuse to—” Barney started, but I didn’t let him finish.
“Now, it’s up to each and every one of you whether you want to brave those roads to get home tonight,” I interjected. “But it’s the official recommendation of the Sheriff’s Office that you all just stay put until the road conditions improve. It’s better to be safe than sorry, and we’ve got electricity, and enough food and water here to last us for some time.”
In that regard, we’d been fortunate to get stranded in a culinary school. The classrooms were packed with food.
“Not to mention, there’s plenty of chocolate to eat,” Eleanor added, adjusting her black-rimmed glasses and smiling wryly.
In a rare misjudgment, the councilwoman’s joke did not go over well with the crowd.
“Well my wife and me ain’t taking no part in it,” Barney shouted back.
He turned around to face the gathering.
“And it’s my official recommendation to the rest of you that you ought to get out of here while you can. Otherwise, you poor suckers are gonna be stuck here until the spring thaw.”
“That’s enough, Mr. McBride,” Eleanor said sharply. “You’re free to do as you please, and so is everybody else here. But that doesn’t mean we have to put up with listening to you babble on.”
Barney put his cowboy hat on dramatically and grabbed ahold of Libby McBride’s arm. He stomped his way through the crowd, and through the chaos of damaged chocolate sculptures. Many of the chocolate entries had been badly mangled during the power-outage pandemonium, and it was painful to see the destruction of such works of art. Samantha Garner’s Princess Bride-inspired piece, in particular.
A moment later Barney nudged his wife through the front doors of the auditorium, and slammed the heavy metal with all his might behind him.
The Councilwoman sighed, running a hand through her short, orange-tinged hair.
“Those of you who wish to follow Barney and brave the roads out there are welcome to,” she said. “But if you choose to stay, we’ll do our best to make you comfortable until it’s safe to leave.”
I scanned the crowd, watching the faces of everybody as they absorbed the information.
It wasn’t lost on me that one of them may have taken a heavy, blunt object to a man’s skull less than half-an-hour earlier.
And if I were in that person’s shoes, I’d be trying to get out of the auditorium as fast as humanly possible.
I studied their faces, watching for something. Maybe a distant look of relief. Maybe something like smugness. Maybe something like guilt. I didn’t know what.
All I knew was that I didn’t see anything remotely resembling any of those things.
Instead, what I saw in the faces of my fellow Christmas Riverites and Chocolate Championship Showdown attendees was worry and concern mixed with a little bit of fear.
Those of us who lived in Christmas River were used to big winter storms.
But this was far beyond what anybody here was used to.
“I know it’s scary,” I said. “But we’ve gotten through plenty of storms here in Christmas River. And if we all just stay calm and make an effort to be nice to one another, then we’ll get through this one, too. The way we always do.”
I realized in that moment that I was trying to convince myself of that as much as I was trying to convince the group of frightened onlookers.
I just hoped that they couldn’t tell.
My eyes zeroed in on Julie, who was standing in the front row. Her arms were crossed against her chest, and she was scowling at me.
Though I knew that I’d been right to stick up for the police department and Sheriff’s Office, part of me regretted that I hadn’t been better at keeping my mouth shut.
Julie wasn’t a nice person, as was clear now. And I wagered that she was more skilled in the art of spreading nasty rumors than most.
I doubted if I would make it out of this snowstorm with my reputation intact.
“If there aren’t any questions, then I guess that concludes the meeting,” the councilwoman said. “Those of you who plan to leave, please be careful and take care out there. Those of you who do decide to stay, please see either Cinnamon, Julie, or myself if you need anything at all. We’ll do our best to accommodate you.”
There was a long silence, and I once again scanned the crowd, waiting to see who would leave, and who would stay.
Only a handful of people started heading for the auditorium doors. And none of them looked particularly guilty.
A moment later, the auditorium was once again filled with the sound of hushed conversation that grew louder with each passing moment.
I let out a brief sigh of relief.
Most folks had the good sense to stay and wait out the storm.
Which gave me more time to find out who had tried to kill Cliff Copperstone.
And why…
Chapter 29
“You’ve reached Sheriff Daniel Brightman. I’m either away from my phone right now, or I’m out on a call. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as…”
I hung up before it could go to Daniel’s voice mailbox.
Hearing the recording yet again wouldn’t ease my worry any.
I rubbed the hard plastic of the phone between my hands nervously.
“Still nothing?” Kara said, raising her eyebrows.
After the meeting, I had gone back out into the now mostly-empty hallway to get some privacy. But shortly after, Kara found me.
I was glad of it.
Because there was something I needed to tell her.
I shook my head, answering her question about Daniel.
If the roads had been good, he would have already been at the hospital by now.
But with the roads being the way they were, there was no telling how long it would take to get there.
Though Daniel had only left about half an hour earlier, it had felt like an eternity. My mind raced in every direction with all the gloomy possibilities of what could be happening and why he wasn’t answering his phone. Maybe the car had slid off the road, the way the ambulance had. Maybe they were now in a ditch somewhere. Maybe they had hit a tree.
Or maybe Daniel’s cell phone just didn’t have reception.
Or maybe something had happened, and they’d had to pull off and tend to Cliff. Maybe Cliff had…
I was driving myself crazy with maybes.
I smiled weakly at Kara.
“How’s John and baby Laila?” I asked.
Last I had seen, Kara had been on the phone, too, talking to her husband.
“Oh, they’re just fine,” she said. “John offered to drive over here and pick us up, but I told him that he better not do anything so foolish. And besides, who would look after Laila if he did that? He can’t take her out in this, and I’ll be damned if I’m the reason he totals his new Dodge Charger.”
She sighed wistfully.
“Still, it’s nice to have someone offer to do that for you.”
She smiled a little bit to herself.
“And here I’d been thinking the wining and dining part of our relationship was over.”
She gazed out the window, apparently lost in thought.
“I’m sorry that you got stuck here on Valentine’s Day,” I said, suddenly feeling guilty over it.
Kara, had after all, come here to the Chocolate Championship to support me. And now, whatever plans her and John had had for the day of love were dashed.
She didn’t seem to be too concerned about it however, waving her hand in a brushing motion.
“Psshh. Please, Cin,” she said. “I can guarantee you that John’s not too broken up over it. This gets him off the hook for anything romantic that he was supposed to plan, but didn’t.”
After a moment, she looked back over at me, her thoughts clearly having moved on.
“Can you believe Julie Van Dorn?” she said. “That harpy is a piece of work, all right. I tell you, if Eleanor hadn’t stepped in when she did, I might have…”
She paused for a moment, obviously struggling to put into words what she would have done.
“I don’t know exactly,” she settled on. “But it wouldn’t have ended well for that no-good, disrespectful bit—”
“Is that really why Julie quit working for Pohly County?” I said, interrupting her before she started flinging expletives. “Because of Daniel?”
When Kara had mentioned that, I’d been a little shocked. I always knew that Julie had been a little flirty with Daniel, but from what I understood, it had always been harmless.
Being flirtatious and charming had practically been part of Julie’s job description at the county. And I also knew that many good public relations professionals used those qualities in their jobs.
“I don’t know if it’s really true,” Kara said. “But Moira Stewart said she heard it from a receptionist who works at the county.”
“Then it’s probably a crock of nonsense,” I said.
Kara shrugged.
“Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe not. That old woman’s right about more things than you think, Cin.”
I didn’t much care for gossipers. Especially ones like Moira who fabricated a good percentage of the rumors she spread.
But I couldn’t deny that Moira was often more right than anybody gave her credit for.
“How come I didn’t hear anything about that?” I asked. “I mean, Daniel never said anything. And it seems like gossip like that would have gotten back to me.”
Kara sighed.
“Well, I can’t speak for Daniel,” she said. “But as for Moira, I asked her as a special favor to me to keep the lid on it. I mean, not that I care two straws for Julie’s reputation. But I just thought about you and Daniel, and figured that you wouldn’t want folks talking about that. Even if nobody did anything wrong.”
I looked over and smiled at her.
Kara was my best friend for a good reason:
She always had my back.
“Thanks for—”
“Look, Cin,” Kara interrupted, her tone deathly serious. “There was something I was going to tell you before we got into a brawl with that harpy.”
The expression on her face matched her tone.
“I might not be any better than Moira by telling you this,” she said. “I mean, it’s got nothing to do with anything, really. It’s not even anything that—”
“What is it?” I said.
She sucked in a deep breath.
“Well, earlier today, when I first arrived – you know, before the judging started? After crossing that parking lot, my hair was a giant bird’s nest of a mess. I mean, that wind out there just ruined the nice up-do I had going. And I thought, I can’t meet Cliff Copperstone looking like this. I mean, I looked like Tippi Hedren in The Bir—”
She noticed me lifting an eyebrow at her.
Not that I didn’t want to hear the trials and tribulations of Kara’s long beautiful blond tresses, but there were more important things at hand.
She paused, taking the cue to get on with the story.
“Anyway, when I came out of the bathroom, the hallway had mostly cleared. Most everybody was in the auditorium by then getting their displays ready. But you know who I did see, sitting in the student lounge area all by his lonesome?”
“Who?” I said.
“Cliff Copperstone,” she said with gusto. “And oh my goodness, Cin. I was so excited to see the man in person. I mean, he’s even better looking in real life than on television. Maybe a little shorter, and he’s a tad older-looking without all that make-up, but he’s got that tattoo and those dark eyes and he’s so…”
She trailed off, noticing my impatient look.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “So I saw him out there, and I thought since he was by himself, it might be the perfect time to ask him to take a selfie with me. So I stepped in the lounge, and I was about to ask him, but then I saw something… something that, well, kind of shocked me.”
I furrowed my brow.
“What was it?”
She glanced around to see if anybody was eavesdropping.
“The man was crying, Cin,” she finally said. “I mean, he looked… he looked just devastated over something.”
That’s what I had first thought when I’d seen him during the judging break, when he supposedly had been trying to rebook his flight on the phone.
But then I had smelled the booze on his breath, and had thought better of it.
“Are you sure?” I said. “He was actually crying? It wasn’t something else?”
She shook her head.
“No, he was crying, all right. I was so taken aback, I clear forgot that I wanted to get a picture with him. I just sort of scurried away and pretended like I hadn’t seen him there. I mean, I felt embarrassed for the guy, to be honest. And a little sad, too. He really looked like he was in pain.”
I ran a hand through my hair, unsure of what to make of it.
A large gust of wind hit the building, and tiny ice crystals richocheted off the window in front of us like marbles being thrown against a wall.
I felt a chill suddenly pass through me.
“You don’t know what he was upset over?”
I asked.
She shook her head.
“No,” she said. “But whatever it was, it must have been something big. That’s why earlier, when you were saying how rude he was acting, I was wondering if he wasn’t just having a bad day.”
She sighed.
“I guess we know the answer to that now, though, don’t we?” she said. “Between whatever that was over, and him slipping on the ice and hitting his head, and the storm keeping the ambulance from getting here… I guess he’s had one hell of a bad day.”
Kara didn’t know that it was even worse than that.
I peered at her for a long moment.
“What?” she said, noticing my strange stare.
“You’ve got to keep this between you and me,” I said. “Okay? This isn’t something that can get out. It’s not for gossip.”
Her baby blues grew wide.
“What is it, Cin?”
I glanced around to make sure we were really alone.
“You know how Cliff slipped and hurt himself on the ice?”
She raised her eyebrows, as if to say Duh…
“Well,” I said, lowering my voice. “Daniel doesn’t think that’s what happened.”
Her face caved in a look of confusion.
“What do you mean?” she said. “What else could have happened?”
I leaned in close to her, about to explain it. But just as I did, Kara suddenly got the memo.
I watched as her eyes bulged with the revelation.
“But… but… who would want to do that to…”
She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence in her shock.
But she didn’t need to.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But whoever it was, they’ve got to still be here, Kara.”
Her jaw came unhinged in utter astonishment.
Chapter 30
I wasn’t a detective.
I wasn’t a cop.
I couldn’t even rightly call myself an amateur sleuth.