Killer Winter

by Kay Bigelow

  Cots and Leah shook their heads.

  “Let’s go there, if only for a few weeks. It will get us away from all this,” she said, waving her hand at the city outside the living room windows. “If nothing else, it will be warmer.”

  Leah didn’t reject the idea out of hand. In fact, it sounded appealing. She was as tired of the frigid cold as the next person. She looked at Cots. It was obvious he was considering the offer, too.

  “The flights are expensive, though.” Peony winced as she said it, probably not having considered the financial part before making the suggestion.

  Leah suspected the price of a ticket to Xing was prohibitively expensive and apparently not within Peony’s budget.

  “Let me worry about that,” Leah told them.

  Leah hadn’t told anyone about the call she’d gotten from Quinn’s attorney. He had informed her she was, thanks to Quinn, an enormously wealthy woman. Quinn had left all her considerable wealth to Leah. She’d also made two bequests—one to her long-time assistant, Klara, and one to Cots that would make him wealthy, too. She didn’t know whether he’d heard from the attorney yet. She’d call the lawyer later to let him know how to get in touch with Cots.

  She wasn’t entirely certain about how she felt being Quinn’s beneficiary. She would always wonder whether the money was obtained from the Grandini family or through legitimate means. She knew enough not to make any decisions about the money right then. She was too angry with Quinn, too betrayed by her, and still trying to piece together how she felt about her, to make any rational decisions about being her beneficiary.

  “Do you think the department would let us take a vacation?” Peony asked.

  “Do they have police departments on Xing?”

  “A good one in Victoria where I live,” Peony told her.

  “How about private detectives?”

  “Those, too.”

  “Let’s go, then.” Leah felt her heart lighten a little with the decision. Maybe she could start a new life on Xing. Maybe Cots and Peony would like a new start as well. She hoped so.

  She could feel the depression lift just a little with the decision to leave New America. There were way too many things here to remind her of the good times with Quinn, streets they’d walked hand in hand on, restaurants they’d dined at, people they both knew. Here she only had betrayal, memories, good and bad, lost hope, and depression to look forward to. Now she’d found a scintilla of hope for a future. Hope will be my new mantra.

  About the Author

  Kay Bigelow was born in Alabama and three months later began her world travels. She has lived in Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, and much of the US. Her novels and short stories are often set in the various places she has lived. She has finally settled down (for the time being) in a small town in northern Washington State.

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