Ice Cold Killer Read online

  I pulled away first, slightly flustered. "Uh, should I feed him two?"

  "Two to three," Winston said between bites.

  Nate was reluctant to leave the task to me. "I'll be right back, Charlie. I'm going to go upstairs to wash. I've got a lot of river grime on me."

  I dropped the next two fish into Charlie's waiting pouch. Cora harrumphed loudly to let me know things were not going her way. "Uh oh, did you drop butter on your un-butter-able dress?" I asked.

  Charlie squatted down to digest his fish. I headed to the sink to wash my hands.

  "No, it's not the butter. It's ex-wives." Cora was putting down her phone as I sat across from her with my plate.

  "Ex-wives?" Opal looked at her. "Does this have something to do with your new boyfriend, Simon Snowstone?"

  "Yes, his whole family is coming to the island for the hockey tournament."

  Cora harrumphed again then bit some toast.

  Tobias finished showering his potatoes with salt. "I spoke to Simon yesterday about his accounts. He was complaining about seeing Trudy again. They've barely spoken since the divorce. His son, Avery, is playing in the tournament. Simon's brother, Larry, will be here too, but he's more interested in a handout than hockey games."

  Cora sat forward with interest. "Simon mentioned to me that his brother was constantly broke and trying out new schemes to make money. He was an investment banker like Simon, but he always lost money for his clients. He's a real loser from what Simon's told me."

  "That's because you always gauge a person's success in life on money," I said between bites of egg. Cora made no move to deny it because she knew it was true. Once she'd discovered that the sixty-something Simon Snowstone was divorced and owned the largest house and biggest boat on the island, she hatched a plan. In her mid-forties, she was still beautiful enough to steal the attention of any man in a crowded room. She accidentally bumped into him down at the marina, and that was all it took. Simon was smitten, and my sister was happily back in a relationship with a man who would shower her with the things she loved, namely expensive trinkets like designer handbags and the occasional piece of jewelry.

  My eyes swept toward the doorway as I heard footsteps descend the stairs. My gaze flitted toward Opal. She was holding back a smile. "What?" I asked.

  Opal looked at Cora and they exchanged conspiratorial winks. "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all."

  I rolled my eyes, knowing exactly what the winks were about. "You two need to find more hobbies."

  Three

  The construction crew Nate worked with on the northern lighthouse remodel had been awarded the contract to remodel the Southern Lady, the lighthouse on the southern tip of the island. But work had been put on hold until the snow and frost had cleared. That meant May at the earliest. I worried that Nate would move back to the mainland for more work, but he was industrious and had marketed himself as a handyman. And winter always brought plenty of reasons to hire a handyman. He got a call right after breakfast. With everyone else working and Opal retired to her room for a Rock Hudson movie marathon, I was left alone with Charlie. He finished the last two fish and gladly waddled back to his cozy spot in the laundry room for a nap.

  While waiting for Charlie to finish his meal, I'd thumbed through my recipe box and decided a pot of lentil soup and loaves of fresh sourdough were the perfect pairing for dinner on a cold, winter night. Unfortunately, I was low on potatoes and carrots, which meant a walk to Molly's produce stand. While she had far less selection in winter, Molly still managed to fill her produce baskets with some cold weather delights like pumpkins, acorn squash and sweet potatoes.

  I pulled on my boots. They had a nice chunky tread for gripping icy ground. I was layered like a wedding cake with two shirts, a sweater, a scarf, a beanie and my favorite winter coat. I stepped outside and instantly felt the cold in my lungs. It was one of those extra frigid days where the sky was mostly blue. Without a shred of clouds or fog to keep the icy ocean air off shore, the temperature remained bone-chillingly cold. I'd found after a few winters of trying to keep warm that the right gear was the best way to go. My face was cold ,but the rest of me was snuggled and warm in my many layers.

  My boots crunched the softening frozen ground as I strolled toward the harbor. The exercise had erased some of the doldrums I was feeling this morning. The reaction to seeing Michael's coat still had me feeling out of sorts. I wasn't sure whether seeing it had revived the sorrow or if there was something else, something that was leaving me feeling ruffled. I pushed it out of my thoughts and picked up my pace.

  The Salty Bottom tooted its horn as it reached its Frostfall dock. I could see Captain Frannie Bueller and her bright orange beanie at the helm. There was more than the usual share of winter passengers onboard, which I was sure pleased Frannie. Business was generally slow this time of year. Everyone was arriving for the annual hockey tournament. The event was big a deal on Frostfall Island, mostly because it took place in January, a month where very little happened. The tournament helped erase some of the loneliness, and it gave the island's business owners a nice boost. Seraphina Butterpond, my good friend, Cora's boss and the owner of Tea, Tarts and Tittle-Tattle, had been baking cranberry and walnut tarts for the occasion. They were a winter favorite, chock full of nuts, brown sugar and an amazing crumbly topping that I had yet to decipher. Sera said the ingredients were secret, so I stopped asking. I was fairly certain butter was a big part of the secret. In my experience it usually was.

  "Anna," Molly laughed, "almost didn't recognize you in all that winter gear." Molly was equally layered under a pink and purple ensemble. "I've got some delicious kabocha squash. Works great in soups." She picked up a pumpkin shaped squash with dark green, rough skin. "Quite sweet. Tastes a little like chestnuts, in my opinion. They're all the rage right now."

  My laughter produced a nice white puff of air. "I didn't realize squash could go in and out of style, but I did see a recipe for tasty looking muffins that needed kabocha so I will take one. And I need some potatoes and carrots for lentil soup."

  Molly closed her eyes a second. "Hmm, it's been too long since I had lentil soup. My mother used to make it. We'd sit around the dinner table dipping buttery pieces of bread into it."

  "Buttery pieces of bread into what?" Frannie asked. She picked up an acorn squash and studied it. "I've been thinking about trying a recipe I found for acorn squash. You top it with apples, walnuts and brown sugar. I think it's a vegetable dish I could actually get Joe excited about. He's such a toddler when it comes to food. What grown man pulls the tomatoes and lettuce off a burger?" She put the acorn squash back in the basket. "Who am I kidding? I don't have time for a complicated recipe."

  "Acorn squash are hardly complicated," Molly started then waved it off, remembering who she was talking to. Frannie was always better on giving advice than receiving it. She was also good on gossip, and when she glanced furtively around, Molly and I both inched in realizing she had something to tell.

  Frannie motioned discreetly with her head, though the bright orange beanie made it less than secretive. "See that woman with the questionable face-lift?"

  Molly and I snuck peeks in the direction of the dock. Some of the passengers were gathering up their gear, mostly duffles and hockey equipment, to carry off to the hotel. A woman who looked vaguely familiar was talking to two thirty-somethings, a man and a woman. The woman's mouth was stretched wide distorting the features on her face. I tried to imagine her without the stretched mouth and realized why she looked familiar.

  I turned back to Frannie. "That's Trudy Snowstone, Simon's ex-wife. She looks so different."

  Frannie shrugged. "You know how the rich immediately resort to plastic surgery when the first signs of old age appear." Frannie adjusted her orange beanie over her thick hair. "I myself welcome every wrinkle and gray hair with a celebration. I've earned each one of them, and no one, especially not a doctor with a sharp scalpel, is going to take them away." She hunched forward a little. "Anyhow, the f
ace-lift is not the intriguing part of my story. Several years ago, Trudy's daughter, June, the young woman in the baby blue parka, was supposed to get married to a man named Rex Cummings. There was a big, expensive wedding planned on the mainland. Well, the groom never showed up to the dress rehearsal. He called the whole thing off the night before the wedding. Worse than that, he didn't even give a reason for calling it off."

  Molly nodded knowingly. "Probably another woman."

  "I do remember something about a jilted bride-to-be," I said. "Is that her brother? The tall young man holding the gear bag?"

  "Sure is. That's Avery Snowstone. He's here to play in the tournament, and guess who else is playing in the game?" she asked. If she'd had a long thin moustache, she would have been twirling the ends.

  "Let me guess," I said, "the vanishing groom?"

  Frannie drooped a little, disappointed that I'd guessed so easily. She turned to Molly with a complaining groan. "Mystery and intrigue is never as fun with Miss Smarty Pants."

  "It was easy to deduce because you prefaced the whole thing by building up the story about the failed wedding and…" I noticed both of them looked irritated. "Right. I'll keep my deductions to myself."

  Molly laughed and handed me my bag of potatoes and carrots.

  "Here's something you don't know," Frannie started, then looked at me with a skeptical lift of her brow.

  I put up my free hand in surrender. "I have no idea what you're about to say, I promise." It was a lie. I could only assume she was going to tell us that she brought Rex over on an earlier boat.

  "Rex Cummings," Frannie said again (insert moustache twirl here), "was a passenger on an earlier ferry ride. He had his hockey gear with him. I don't see how the two can avoid running into each other."

  "Certainly not if they're all here for the tournament," Molly said. "Guess it'll make for an interesting game. Hey, Anna, isn't Cora dating the newly divorced Simon Snowstone?"

  I nodded begrudgingly. I never liked to discuss Cora's love life, mostly because it was a fleeting, changeable thing. Simon might be the current catch of the day, but she could just as easily end it. "I think they're seeing each other at the moment."

  Frannie and Molly exchanged the same kind of conspiratorial glances as Opal and Cora had this morning when they caught me watching, a little too eagerly, for Nate to return to the table.

  "Well, well," Molly said as she ran my card through her card reader, "seems like the dreary winter days just got a little less dreary."

  Four

  I'd decided on pancakes for Friday morning breakfast. Everyone had lapped up the healthy lentil soup, so I figured we could counter all that health with fluffy pancakes. Cora ate one cake without syrup.

  Opal mocked her measly breakfast. "My, my, it seems that someone is trying to keep her waist small so she can squeeze into her tightest dress for this evening's winter gala."

  "Darn right," Cora said and set her fork down to leave behind at least half of the dry pancake. "When did women decide to stop wearing corsets? Now we have to starve ourselves just to keep a trim waist."

  I cut off a big, maple dripping piece of pancake. "Speak for yourself. And if men don't like my waist size that's their problem." Nathaniel returned from his morning of fishing, and I instinctively lowered the filled fork. He wasn't wearing or holding the raincoat.

  Cora cleared her throat and looked pointedly at the fork I'd just returned to my plate. "You were saying?" She batted her lashes.

  "Shut up," I muttered and pushed up a smile. "Nate, your stack is keeping warm in the oven."

  "Great, I'll just wash up. I saw Tobias coming down the trail. He should be here soon."

  Cora wriggled in an exaggerated shiver. "Just thinking of stepping out into that frigid air fully dressed makes me cold. I can't imagine swimming in the ice cold bay."

  I got up to pull Nate's plate from the oven. "Tobias claims it's more invigorating than swimming in summer."

  As I said it our resident polar bear stepped inside. Tobias' face was red from the cold, but his eyes sparkled with energy. "Great swim. All of you should try it."

  We all muttered our no thanks as he headed out of the kitchen to shower and change. I put together a plate for Tobias and placed it in the oven. Nate sat down but reluctantly. I knew he was itching to feed Charlie, and the pelican must have sensed that his breakfast had arrived. We could hear him clattering around in the laundry room on webbed feet. Winston had already left for work, so Nate and I were in charge of babysitting for the day.

  "Do you have work today?" I asked Nate as I set the plate in front of him.

  "Haven't had any calls yet. I need to talk to Samuel if you are interested in a walk to Sera's tea shop." Nate had struck up a friendship with Sera's husband, Samuel. They were both interested in mountain biking and had even taken a few trips to the mainland together to ride trails. I was thrilled that Nate and Samuel had bonded, but every time they traveled to the mainland, I worried that Nate would decide to stay there. And that worry proved to me that I'd already grown far too attached to the man. What was I thinking? I let my guard down for a second, and I was scooped right into a big crush. I was too old and cynical for a crush.

  And with that self-admonishment, I practically jumped at the invitation. "Sure, I'd love to see Sera. I know she's busy this weekend with the hockey tournament, but I'm sure she can spare a few minutes for her friend."

  "It's a date then," Nate said as he slathered his pancakes with maple syrup.

  Cora and Opal were back to their silly winks and nods. I ignored them… sort of.

  After a quick cleanup, a breakfast session with smelly fish and a comical bird (now that he was feeling better, Charlie's delightful personality was coming out) and a layering session where I realized I was probably wearing enough clothes to take a short vacation without needing a suitcase, Nate and I strolled to the 3Ts. It was more of a fast, huddled march than a stroll, but that was the best way to travel on a freezing winter day. At one point, my boot took off ahead of me. Nate grabbed my arm as I flailed around like a windmill. Thanks to him, I avoided a painful fall.

  Sera's shop was warm and welcoming with the scent of cinnamon spice tea adding its glow to the air. I pulled up my favorite stool, the one that the mysterious Laramie had sat upon.

  Samuel leaned out from the back room when he heard Nate's voice. He came out wiping his hands on a towel. "Nate, I was hoping you'd stop by." The two men walked to the far end of the counter for their conversation about bikes. Sera carried over a hot cup of cinnamon apple tea.

  "I'm brewing the cinnamon myself from fresh cinnamon sticks," she noted.

  I took a sip. "Hmm, really good." We both glanced down toward the two men at the end of the counter.

  Sera laughed. "He's been keeping his eye on that front door all morning hoping his new buddy would walk in."

  "That's so cute. I'm glad they're friends." I looked around the shop. Most of the tables were filled but then it was too cold to utilize the outside eating area. In summer, Sera's outdoor tables were always packed. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces. "Looks like the hockey crowd is arriving."

  "Yep, already had a few loud discussions between rival team members. But so far everything has been good natured and all in fun. With any luck, we'll get through the weekend without any calamities."

  I lifted my tea in a toast. "Here, here to that. We've been calamity free since summer. I'd prefer to keep it that way."

  Sera filled a pot of tea, carried it to a table and returned. "I told Cora to come in for the later shift, but now I'm regretting that decision."

  "I'm enjoying my tea. Don't feel the need to entertain me."

  Sera hurried to the kitchen. I heard the familiar squeak of her oven door as she placed a tray of tarts in to bake. After refilling several pots of tea and delivering hot, bubbly cranberry tarts to some customers, she had a moment to chat.

  "I assume Nate is going to the big gala tonight," Sera said as she glanced their directi
on again.

  I'd been so busy I hadn't given the winter gala much thought. "I'm not entirely sure. You'd have to ask—"

  "Hey, Nate, are you going to the winter gala tonight?" Sera yelled across the shop.

  Nate looked puzzled. "Uh, hadn't really planned on it."

  Sera put her hands on her hips. I knew what was coming next. One of Sera's speeches that couldn't be ignored and would eventually end in the receiver nodding yes. "If you're a local, and living at Moon River makes you a local, then you absolutely cannot miss the winter gala. It's the only bright spot in a long, cold winter and not going would be like not attending your grandfather's funeral or your sister's wedding. In other words, your absence will be noticed and frowned upon. It's just something you do when you're a Frostfall local, so dig out your shiny dancing shoes—" She paused and lifted her brow. "You do have dancing shoes, right?"

  Nate looked at me with a sort of pleading, get me out of this look, but I was taking too much delight in watching him squirm. He sensed my amusement and shook his head gingerly. "And I stopped you from slipping on the ice and everything."

  "Stop deflecting," Sera said sharply. "If you don't have any dancing shoes, a pair of athletic shoes will do. Just make up for it by wearing your Sunday best."

  "My Sunday best?" Nate asked. "Not sure I have a Sunday best, or a Monday or Tuesday best either, for that matter." His blue gaze once again implored me to intervene. (Those blue eyes were hard to resist.)

  "Sera, I think we can let Nate slide this year because this is his first winter on the island."

  Sera's stern posture slumped a little. "But I was looking forward to seeing the two of you out on the dance floor."

  I laughed. "You know I never dance at the gala. I prefer to continue my longstanding tradition of winter gala wallflower."