by Linnea West
"Hey Max," I said, squeezing his hand. "What happened to Dawn? Did you find out any new information?"
"Once we got her in the interrogation room, she told us everything," Max said.
"Did she mention anything about Jake's wedding ring?" I asked. "That was the one thing that really didn't make any sense to me."
"Yeah, she said that when she took the cocktail ring, she also took his wedding ring," Max said. "That was more of a vengeance thing than anything else. She was mad as a wet hen that her plan didn't work, even though I'm not sure how she could be so delusional to think it would."
"What exactly was her plan?" I asked.
"Well, she didn't sign the divorce papers because she was under some strange assumption that they would stay secretly married," Max said, rolling his eyes. "She thought she had really pulled the wool over everyone's eyes. Anyway, I think her original plan was to scare Jake enough to run back to her once she told him that their marriage wasn't over. But then when she confronted him during his honeymoon, Jake totally blew her off. Once she knew that he wasn't going to come back to her or give her more money, she expanded her plan to include murder."
I burst into laughter because by the end of his explanation, Max had put on a voice like he was introducing a new true crime podcast series. He knew I had a weakness for them and I knew he was poking fun at me, but I couldn't help but think it was a little funny.
"Okay, I am getting a good picture of her motive, but how did she actually do all of it?" I asked. "How did the bottle of fish sauce get into Lyle's room?"
"This is where it gets kind of interesting," Max said. "Dawn is from California, so she had no idea that a winter storm could last so long. She figured it would end in a few hours and by the next morning, she could slip out and quietly fly back home while you all thought it was an accident. So when she realized that the storm was going to last for a while, she started to see that she needed to throw off suspicion, which she actually did quite well."
"That's for sure," I said. "I mean, she was on my suspect list, but Anna or Lyle made much more sense and Dawn knew to throw just a little bit of suspicion. It was just enough to make me take a second look without making me suspicious of her."
"Anyways, she sort of barged into Lyle's room one morning under the pretense that she wanted to see what his room looked like," Max said. "As she was pretending to enjoy the view out of his window, she shoved the fish sauce bottle behind the pillow on the couch. And apparently she is pretty good at picking locks, so she picked the lock to the honeymoon suite and hid the bag of medicine while everyone else was downstairs. Then while she was helping bring the dinner plates out, she added a little of the fish sauce and made sure to put it at Lyle's place for dinner."
"It's like she didn't really think through things, but they all just fell into place," I said.
"She was lucky that you didn't catch on," Max said. "But she was also unlucky because you are a great investigator. Of course you would catch on at some point."
I snorted and the pain shot through my head. I squinched my eyes shut and covered them with my hand. Max handed me a glass of water and I took a drink.
"Sorry, but I was definitely not a great investigator during this entire situation," I said. "I was tired and grumpy and I even gave up at the end."
Max took my hands in his and waited until I looked into his dark, friendly eyes. His gaze radiated such love and affection that I would gladly stare into them for hours.
"Tessa, you are a great investigator," Max said. "Everyone has some off days, but you still were the one on the ground, figuring out the clues and trying to put the pieces together despite being stuck in a blizzard with a killer. I don't blame you for taking a break from it."
Tears sprung to my eyes and I wasn't even sure why. I felt a surge of emotion crash over me, dulling the pain just enough to make crying bearable. I loved this man. I wasn't really sure where I stood with Clark and right now, I didn't care.
What I did care about was Max. We had agreed to be together under the condition that we were just having fun. No serious relationship and no monogamy needed because we were just keeping it light and fun. We both had a hard year and didn't want any sort of serious, rebound relationship.
But this felt different. I wasn't really sure what to call it, but I wanted more than what we currently had together. I wanted to be exclusive. I thought back to the 'I love yous' we had exchanged earlier, wondering if we would ever talk about them again.
"Tessa, I don't ever want to see you cry again," Max said, using his thick thumb to wipe away the tears on my cheeks. "I love you. And you don't have to say it back to me, but I want you to know that I love you and I want to be Max and Tessa again, like we used to be."
I started to cry harder; I couldn't help myself. But these were happy tears. Max and I were back together. I would deal with Clark and all of the fallout from this later. For now, I just wanted to be happy and revel in this moment.
"I love you too, Max," I said.
Max leaned forward and gently kissed me on the lips. He tried to sit back, but I put my hand behind his head, my fingers entangled in his blond, curly hair, pulling him back towards me to kiss longer. Max didn't like to show public displays of affection and recently, he didn't want to force affection on a girl with a concussion. But I didn't care. We weren't in public and my concussion would be there whether we stopped kissing or not.
Finally, I let him pull away from me, but not too far. I felt like I had been waiting so long to be together like this. I felt like the world was spinning, but this time it wasn't caused by my concussion.
As Max grabbed the remote and flipped to a different channel to find something, anything to watch that would mean we could cuddle together for longer, I realized that Clark and I had never really talked about what had happened. I mean, we had the one fight after I caught him kissing Candy. But I had no idea where we stood or how I was going to tell him about Max and I being together again.
Right now that didn't matter. As Max started laughing along with the laugh track of an old sitcom, I ran my fingers through his hair and thought about how lucky I was that being stuck in a bed and breakfast during a blizzard with a killer had led me back to the love of my life.
Other Books in the Series
Book One:
Halloween Hayride Murder
Tessa Schmidt was floating through life after losing her husband Peter in a car accident until her parents convinced her to return to her hometown of Shady Lake. Moving back to the small town in Minnesota where she grew up provides a welcome retreat as she helps run the B&B where her parents live while hanging out at her best friend Mandy's donut shop. She has even started to go out on a few dates, mostly with her high school boyfriend, Max and the new teacher in town, Clark.
With the annual Halloween Hayride coming up, Tessa is excited to be part of the committee that runs the town's largest fundraiser. Everything is going great, until Earl Stone tries to personally profit from it.
As everyone tries to make sure the Hayride is on track, Tessa finds something that really might shut it down for good: someone murdered Earl in the field where the Hayride takes place. And they did it by running him over with the Halloween Hayride!
Can Tessa figure out who killed Earl and get the Halloween Hayride back on track before it's too late?
Read it now on Amazon. (Also available in Kindle Unlimited.)
Book Two:
Christmas Shop Murder
Tessa Schmidt, lover of all things seasonal, is happy to hear that Shady Lake is going to have their very own Christmas shop. Sue Peterson is going to turn the Used-A-Bit, her second hand store, into a Christmas shop set to open on Black Friday. Tessa's family owns a bed and breakfast and she has decided to undertake the large task of decorating for the holidays, so the new shop is just what she needs. Unfortunately, the landlord of the building has died and the new landlord, Claire Freeman, is not willing to cut Sue any slack on her past due rent. Once December i
s over, Sue's store is out and Claire's self-service dog washing and grooming salon is moving in.
As if Tessa isn't busy enough decorating and working at the bed and breakfast along with volunteering to help Sue set up the Christmas shop, her mother slips on a patch of ice and breaks her leg leaving, all of the family holiday preparations to Tessa. Tessa has so much on her plate that it is almost overflowing.
But then Black Friday comes and Claire is found dead in the Christmas Shop just before the grand opening. Multiple people close to Tessa come under suspicion, so once again she finds herself investigating a murder to make sure that everyone can be home in time for Christmas. Will Tessa be able to solve the murder while maintaining her holiday cheer?
Christmas Shop Murder is available now on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited.
Book Three:
Winter Festival Murder
The small Minnesota town of Shady Lake is hosting the annual Below Zero Festival and this year, the medallion hunt has upped the prize money. Tessa Schmidt isn't sure why, but that $500 has people going crazy. Even worse, every year Gerald Pinkerton wins the medallion hunt and almost everyone thinks he has been cheating, but they just can't prove it.
And then, Gerald winds up dead at the bottom of the sled hill and the medallion is missing from where it had been hidden. Accusations are flying, and they are especially flying at Trevor, her best friend Mandy's long time boyfriend. Tessa doesn't even like Trevor, but she has to help when her best friend asks Tessa to clear Trevor's name. Amongst all of the murder and mayhem, she gets guilt tripped into entering a snow sculpture competition with Clark after making Max upset at her. As she tries to keep her love life together, she is also wading through clues.
Tessa wants to prove that Trevor didn't do it and get back to only worrying about her love life, but can she find out who killed Gerald before the blizzard hits?
Winter Festival Murder is available now on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited.
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About the Author
Linnea West lives in Minnesota with her husband and two children. She taught herself to read at the age of four and published her first poem in a local newspaper at the age of seven. After a turn as a writer for her high school newspaper, she went to school for English Education and Elementary Education. She didn't start writing fiction until she was a full time working mother. Besides reading and writing, she spends her time chasing after her children, watching movies with her husband, and doing puzzle books. Learn more about her and her upcoming books by subscribing to her weekly newsletter.
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Copyright
Valentine's Blizzard Murder by Linnea West
© 2019 Mikki Tuohy
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact:
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