Snow Place to Die

by Mary Daheim

  “I didn’t say get,” Judith responded, carrying a mop and a bucket. “I said have more evidence. Which isn’t exactly right, either. What I meant was…um…”

  “You haven’t made up the evidence.” Renie sighed, balancing the towels and following Judith out of the supply room. “In other words, you’re going to tell one of your monster lies.”

  “I never lie,” Judith said, indignant. “I might fib, but only when it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “So what’s the fib?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I’m stalling. You got any bright ideas?”

  They were back in the lobby before Renie could come up with an answer. Ava and Nadia were exiting the women’s rest room; Russell and Gene were standing in the doorway to the library; Frank Killegrew and Margo were nowhere in sight; Ward and Max hadn’t yet returned from upstairs.

  The cousins began wiping up the wet floor. Nadia offered to help. The heat from the lobby was causing the snow to melt fairly fast. It was almost impossible to get the flagstones dry.

  “I suppose the snow that was up against the building was fairly soft anyway,” Judith murmured, more to herself than to Renie or Nadia. “I’m not sure that opening the front door was a good idea.”

  “It’s the only way to get help,” Nadia said, down on her hands and knees.

  “How’s Frank?” Renie asked, wringing out a towel in the bucket.

  “He’s fine, he’s really fine,” Nadia replied. “We went to check on one of the smaller conference rooms. Margo’s with him now. We may move our meeting there. It’s a bit chilly in the lobby with the door open.”

  “What about the library?” Judith inquired. “Isn’t that where you were earlier?”

  Nadia made a face. “Yes. But those big leather chairs are so…comfortable. Russell in particular tended to nod off.”

  Renie, who had also been kneeling, stood up. “This is a losing battle. Between the warmer temperature outside and the heat from the lodge, we’re getting a regular little stream across the floor. Look,” she said, pointing to the top of the open entrance way, “we could see barely six inches of daylight when the door was first open. Now it’s nearly a foot.”

  Judith followed Renie’s finger. Her cousin was right. She could make out a fallen tree branch across the drifted snow, or perhaps it was a piece of the roof that had blown off during the blizzard. From what Judith could tell, the afternoon was overcast, but there was neither snow nor rain falling on the mountainside. Perhaps their prospects were looking up.

  “Where the hell is Ward?” Max demanded as he exited from the elevator.

  Everyone turned to stare at the marketing vice president who was bundled up in a red and black hooded lumber jacket.

  “He went upstairs with you,” Ava said. “Isn’t he in his room?”

  “If he is, he’s in the can,” Max retorted, then pushed back a heavy glove to look at his watch. “It’s almost two-thirty. We went up to change just before two. What’s taking him so long?”

  Killegrew and Margo were coming from the conference room area. “Now, now,” said Killegrew, “what’s going on? I thought you and Ward were going to start digging.” He gave Max an accusing look.

  The vice president of marketing’s slightly simian features always looked pugnacious, but now they turned obstinate. “I’m not starting alone. I’ll wait for Ward if it takes all afternoon. What’s he doing in his room? Taking a nap?” Suddenly Max’s big, burly body sagged. “What is he doing?” he mumbled.

  “What are you talking about?” Killegrew demanded, taking a step forward and looking as if he wanted to shake Max. “Didn’t you two stay together?”

  Max paled. “We couldn’t. Not the whole time. We had to get our gear from our separate rooms. It seemed pointless to change clothes together. Hell, we locked our doors. I mean, I did, and Ward’s was locked when I tried it just now. Otherwise, I’d have gone in to see if he was in the can.”

  “Oh, dear!” Nadia’s exclamation was very faint.

  “Ward!” Ava clutched at the rolled-up collar of her blue sweater.

  Frank Killegrew seemed to be at war with himself. The muscles in his face worked, his strapping body twitched, his eyes darted around the lobby. “We’d better all go,” he finally said in a thick, uncertain voice.

  Nadia pressed both of her small hands against his chest. “Not you, Frank! You’ve already had one terrible shock today. Please, stay here. I’ll wait with you.”

  “So will I,” Russell chimed in. “I’m squeam…ooof!”

  Margo had belted Russell in the stomach. “Don’t you dare say that again, you chicken! Go ahead, stay down here and cower in the corner. I’m going.” She lifted her chin at Ava. “How about you?”

  Ava shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  In the end, it was Max, Margo, and Gene who got into the elevator. The cousins would join them in the hallway, but they’d get there via the back stairs. They’d also bring an ax.

  “I don’t really want to do this,” an unenthusiastic Renie said as they went down to the basement. “What we find isn’t going to be nice.”

  “Probably not,” Judith sighed, “but we should be there as witnesses.”

  “Why?” Renie asked as they headed for the alcove that housed the woodpile.

  “Why?” Judith hesitated. “Well, because we need to know everything if we’re going to figure out whodunit. More evidence, that’s the ticket.”

  “I thought you were going to make some up,” Renie replied in a peevish voice.

  “I was, but real evidence would be better.” Judith found two axes, but chose the one with the longer handle. “Let’s go.”

  When Judith and Renie got back to the second floor, they saw Margo trying to turn the lock with a paper clip. She wasn’t having much luck. Max and Gene hovered behind her. Judith had considered offering her expertise, but thought better of it; perhaps it wouldn’t be wise to admit that she could not only crack a safe, but pick a lock.

  “I could push it in,” Max said. He had taken off his lumber jacket to reveal a heavy olive-green flannel shirt.

  “No,” Gene said, avoiding Max’s gaze. “We don’t want a gaping hole. That is, in case…” His voice trailed off.

  Max saw the ax in Judith’s hand. “Then we’ll chop around the lock.”

  Gene nodded. “Go ahead. Let’s hope Ward didn’t shoot the dead bolt.”

  Ward hadn’t. It took Max almost ten minutes to hack away at the solid pine, but eventually he freed the lock, doorknob, and brass plate from the door itself. Gingerly, Max reached into the opening and swung the door free.

  The room looked like all the others that Judith had seen. It appeared to be empty. Max led the way, going to the foot of the twin beds, peering beneath them, checking the small closet, then opening the door to the bathroom. He looked in the tub. There was no sign of Ward.

  Renie was shivering. Judith put a hand on her cousin’s arm. “Hang in there, coz,” she whispered.

  “I’m okay,” Renie said under her breath. “It’s cold in here.”

  “It is, actually,” Judith agreed. She glanced at the small fireplace. The grate was empty.

  “I don’t get it. I saw him go in.” Max scratched his bald head, then went back to the closet. “His parka’s gone. So are his ski pants. Look,” he went on, pointing to a hanger. “There’s the blue shirt and the navy cords he was wearing earlier today. He must have changed.”

  “Weird,” breathed Margo. “What did he do? Go outside?”

  “He couldn’t get outside,” Gene reminded her. “He must have left this room, locked the door behind him, and…” OTIOSE’s legal counsel turned a bleak face to the others.

  “My room’s just across the hall,” Max said. “If anything had happened out in the corridor, I would’ve heard it.”

  The room, with its chilly atmosphere and missing occupant, seemed to have acquired a sinister air. In a body, five unsettled people made for the door. Max closed it beh
ind them, then stared down at the hole where the hardware had been.

  “What are we going to tell Frank?” he asked in a dismal voice.

  “The truth,” Margo retorted. “Frank can take it. Besides, we don’t know if anything happened to Ward. He might be wandering around the lodge looking for us.”

  The suggestion, no matter how overly optimistic, buoyed Max and Gene, who fairly bounded to the elevator. Even Margo seemed more amiable. As Judith and Renie hung back, they heard Margo call to them, “Come on, squeeze in. I’m skinny as a flagpole and you’re kind of small, Serena.”

  “I used to be,” Renie murmured, but she and Judith managed to fit into the small car.

  Killegrew, Nadia, Ava, and Russell were waiting for them with an air of dread. “Well?” the CEO demanded when they stepped out into the lobby. “What’s happened to Ward?”

  “Nothing,” Margo replied. “We couldn’t find him.” Her face fell slightly as she looked around. “He’s not here?”

  “Of course not,” Killegrew growled. “You mean he wasn’t in his room?”

  “No, he wasn’t.” Max seemed to topple from his brief elation. “I suppose we could search the basement.”

  “We went down there to get the ax,” Judith said. “We didn’t see him. But then we really didn’t look. We went straight to the woodpile.”

  “Let’s go.” Max was already heading down the hall towards the basement stairs. Margo and Gene followed, but this time the cousins held back.

  “We’d have heard him if he was there,” Judith whispered to Renie.

  “Probably,” Renie replied. “But the basement is pretty big.”

  “Why would he go down there?”

  “To get more shovels?” Renie shrugged, then added in a doubtful tone, “I wouldn’t think he’d go alone.”

  Nadia gestured at the flagstones. “It’s been melting quite steadily. We’d better mop up again.”

  “I’ll get more towels,” Renie volunteered, starting out of the lobby.

  “Not alone, you won’t,” Judith said, hurrying after her.

  “I’ll join you,” Nadia put in, almost running to keep up with the cousins. “Frank’s safe. The others are here.”

  “Goodness,” Judith said in amazement she hoped didn’t sound feigned, “your devotion to Mr. Killegrew is really admirable. But then I work for myself. When you’re your own boss, you can’t look up to yourself.”

  “Frank Killegrew is a very exceptional man,” Nadia declared as they reached the supply room. “I was with him when he was a Bell System vice president. In fact, I worked for him from the time I left my post with the Red Cross in New Delhi and moved back to the States. Frank had just made middle management. Twenty-four years. I was teasing him the other day, and saying we had a silver anniversary coming up this November.”

  “Really.” Judith surveyed the towel supply, which was beginning to dwindle. “That’s a long time.”

  “We’ve made a good team over the years.” Nadia’s voice was wistful.

  Judith started out of the supply room with her stack of towels, then stopped. “Say, Nadia, I’ve got an odd question for you. Remember last year when you were at the lodge?” She paused for Nadia’s faint nod. “You told us you drove the company van back to town after Barry disappeared. Where did you get the key?”

  Nadia rested her chin on the armload of towels. “The key? Oh, dear—where did I get it?” She pursed her lips. “Oh! I found it on the coffee table in the lobby.”

  Judith’s face fell. “You don’t know who put the key there?”

  “Keys,” Nadia corrected. “There was a small ring with three, perhaps four keys on it. One was for the ignition, one was for the storage compartment in the undercarriage, and the other one—or two—were…” She paused. “I’m not sure. Maybe they were duplicates of the others.”

  “But you still had no idea who left them on the coffee table?” Judith persisted.

  Nadia shook her head. “No. At the time, I assumed Barry had left them after he’d…gone off.” Behind the big glasses, Nadia lowered her eyes.

  “I see.” Judith didn’t know what else to say. She’d come up against a dead end. The three women traipsed back out to the lobby.

  “Drat!” Renie exclaimed as they reached the entrance. “It’s snowing again. I can see it coming down by the top of the door.”

  “It must have gotten colder,” Ava said, getting up from one of the sofas. “Once the sun—whatever there is of it—starts going down around three or four o’clock, the temperature drops.”

  “I could use another Scotch and soda,” Killegrew called from his place near the hearth.

  Nadia set down her stack of towels and hurried over to serve her master. Judith and Renie exchanged sardonic glances. A moment later, Gene, Max, and Margo appeared in the hallway.

  “No luck,” Max stated, looking disturbed. “We searched every freaking nook and cranny. No Ward.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Killegrew said in a gruff voice. “He has to be somewhere. What about the other rooms?”

  Margo gave Killegrew a skeptical look. “Why would Ward be in somebody else’s room? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “We know he went to his own,” Gene put in. “We saw his clothes.”

  Killegrew drew back on the sofa, squaring his broad shoulders and tossing his slide rule from one hand to the other. “That doesn’t mean he stayed there. For God’s sake, use your brains. My executive vice president didn’t just evaporate in a cloud of smoke! I say, everybody check out their own rooms. Andrea and Leon’s, too. Let’s hit it!”

  Everyone scurried for the elevator except the cousins and Killegrew, who gave his key to Nadia. Even Russell was dragged along by Margo, despite his squeals of protest.

  “We’ll go last,” Renie said. “We can’t all get in the elevator anyway.”

  “You bet you’ll stick around,” Killegrew said ominously. “I’m not staying down here by myself. It’s not that I’m afraid,” he added hastily. “It’s just that we agreed on the buddy system. If you don’t sail your ship by the book, you’ll end up on the skoals.”

  “That’s shoals, Frank,” Margo called, just before the elevator doors closed on her and Max, Gene, and Russell.

  Nadia and Ava decided to take the stairs. Killegrew, with his fresh drink, put his feet up and stared off into the crackling fire. The cousins returned to their task of mopping up.

  “Consider the big picture,” Frank Killegrew said suddenly.

  Judith and Renie turned curious gazes on OTIOSE’s CEO. “Which big picture?” Renie finally asked.

  “The future of telecommunications in the Northwest,” Killegrew said, sounding sententious. “Where do you see yourselves ten years from now?”

  “Paris?” Renie had gotten to her feet.

  Killegrew waved a beefy hand, then retrieved his slide rule from the coffee table. “I’m talking about your lifestyle, your quality of communications service, your wants and needs when it comes to…ah…”

  “I think,” Renie said slowly, “you need to be more specific.”

  Killegrew’s blue eyes narrowed. “Okay, try this. If OTIOSE goes down the toilet, a whole bunch of other, smaller, less efficient companies will leap into the breach. You think it’s bad now with all your different phone bills and companies? If you can’t figure out which one can fix your inside wiring or your outside line or even your five different phones, think what will happen then. Rates will go up, quality will go down, you’ll be lucky if you can get two tin cans and a piece of string to call your next-door neighbor.”

  “I don’t call my next-door neighbor,” Renie retorted. “She hates me.”

  Killegrew didn’t try to hide his exasperation. “Don’t act stupid. You get my point.” He waited, his eyes moving between Renie and Judith. “How much will it cost us to keep the two of you from shooting your mouths off?” he finally said.

  “Let’s start the bidding at three point five million and stock options,” Re
nie replied. “That’s each. Our silence isn’t merely golden, it’s platinum.”

  “Too much.” Killegrew’s chin jutted.

  Renie flicked a wet towel at the air. “It’s not negotiable. Remember, I want to be in Paris in ten years.”

  Ava and Nadia returned via the elevator. “No luck,” said Ava in a grim voice. “The others are checking the…deceaseds’ rooms now.”

  Judith nudged Renie. “Our turn,” she said under her breath.

  In the elevator, Judith expressed her shock over Killegrew’s offer. “Is he serious? Does he think he can bribe us?”

  Renie shrugged. “The idealistic stuff about OTIOSE got nowhere. What else did you expect?”

  “This is terrible.” Judith leaned against the rear of the car. “You were right. He’s unscrupulous.”

  “I’ve been trying to tell you, they all are,” Renie said as the doors slid open to reveal the second floor. “Most of them, anyway.”

  Max and Gene were coming out of Andrea’s room while Russell quavered in the hallway with an irritated Margo at his side. “No Ward in any of the rooms,” Max said in a morose voice. “Try yours.”

  The cousins’ room was empty, too. “What about the third floor?” Gene asked.

  “Why the hell would Ward go up there?” Max demanded. “The only thing of interest is Leon, and he’s stiff as a board.”

  “It was a thought,” Gene said apologetically.

  Max sighed. “I suppose we’d better look. Come on, Gene. The others can go back downstairs.”

  Along with Margo and Russell, Judith and Renie took the elevator to the lobby. No one spoke during the brief descent. As soon as they stepped out of the car, Killegrew made a request.

  “We could use some appetizers to go with these drinks,” he said, looking put upon.

  Margo sneered. “You’re the only one who’s drinking, Frank. I don’t think the rest of us have much of an appetite.”

  “There’s some cheese and crackers,” Judith said. “If you like, I can make up a tray.”

  Killegrew nodded. “As I said, we have to keep up our strength.”

  The cousins trekked off to the kitchen. Russell Craven was at their heels, hemming and hawing.