Mrs. Harper insisted everyone, moms included, gather around the table for a group shot. I snapped off multiple pictures, hoping there was at least one where everyone had their eyes open and focused in the general direction of the camera.
After singing and cake and games and incessant music, the clock finally struck two and the party was over.
Now came the tedious part. Cleaning up and clearing everything out.
“Have you seen Grover?” Freddy asked. “He may have left without getting his money.”
That didn’t sound like the Mr. Squishy I knew, or barely knew, as it turned out. “Check the supply closet. Chances are he’s passed out somewhere.”
As I packed up my photo equipment, Gwen came up with a large rolling cooler. “Wendy, do you think the lodge could use ten gallons of ice cream? Turns out little girls don’t care too much for ice cream when they have fruit and a chocolate fountain. I don’t want to throw this stuff out.”
“Sure. We’ll put it in the freezer so you can take your cooler.” I grabbed Myra to help me. “Let’s put this ice cream in the walk-in freezer. Mother can serve it to the guests.”
When we got to the kitchen, Myra stared at the empty hook on the wall. “Where’s the key to the freezer? I thought I put it back when I was in here earlier.” She pulled on the freezer handle, but it didn’t budge.
We looked around but didn’t see the key. Ally said she hadn’t used the freezer.
I put a hand on Myra’s shoulder. “Okay, let’s retrace your steps. When did you have it last?”
Poor Myra seemed rattled as she tried to recall exactly what she had done earlier. “I came in here to get a soda for Freddy.” She pointed at the large commercial refrigerator. “That’s when I noticed the walk-in was unlocked. The key was on the hook as always. I didn’t think it was safe to leave the freezer unlocked with all these kids around, so I locked it and put the key back. At least I thought I did.”
She checked her pockets, inside the refrigerator, and on the floor.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” Ally held up the missing key. “It was on the floor over here by the garbage can.”
Myra let out a relieved sigh. “Thank goodness. I thought I was losing my mind.”
Just as she was about to unlock the freezer, Mrs. Harper stormed in. Her face was taut. “Stop! What exactly are you doing with that ice cream?”
I looked up in surprise. “We were just putting it up. Gwen offered it to the lodge so it wouldn’t go to waste.”
“She had no business doing that! I paid for that ice cream, and I’ll decide what happens to it.”
Wow. I had never seen anyone so possessive over dessert, unless you count me and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. Also, I would pretty much cut anyone who tried to take away my rocky road. “No problem. Where would you like me to put it?” I had a suggestion but bit my tongue.
“Put it in my car.”
“Are you sure? I have to take it out of this cooler and it might drip on your interior.”
“I said, put it in my car!”
“Yes, ma’am.” I almost saluted.
As Mrs. Harper stormed out of the kitchen, I motioned to Myra to follow her with the cooler.
But Myra had a sneaky grin on her face. “Crazy woman.” She opened the cooler and pulled out two of the gallon containers. “People like that shouldn’t be allowed to have their cake and ice cream, too.” She unlocked the freezer and gasped. She took a step back and nearly tripped over the cooler.
“What is it?” I followed her eyes as she stared inside the freezer.
There, slumped over in the corner and frozen stiff as a popsicle, was Mr. Squishy.
Chapter 3
“Well I’ll be,” Sheriff Tucker Grady said as he stared into the walk-in freezer. “That’s something you don’t see every day.”
Thank you, Captain Obvious. Way to earn that salary. “Can you get him out of here?” I didn’t want the police at the lodge any longer than necessary. A dead man on the property wasn’t exactly a booming endorsement for the business.
Grady stood with his arms crossed and chuckled. “Normally, I’d tell the boys at the funeral home to put him on ice, but this fella already is.”
Myra had gone into the office to warn my mother about what was going on. My father was out on the lake with a group of fishermen.
I shouldn’t have been surprised when my brother came in to get a look at the ghoulish scene, even though it meant having to see me. To be honest, I wouldn’t have been able to resist it either.
“What happened to the guy?” Tyler asked. “It’s one thing to stiff him for doing a bad job, but this is taking it too far.”
“Good one,” Sheriff Grady said before looking around to see who was doing the talking. When he realized it was Tyler, he narrowed his eyes and dropped his arms. “Oh, it’s you. I don’t suppose you had anything to do with this, did you?”
“Who, me?” Tyler waved him off. “I just came in to get a look at the joker who froze to death.”
“He’s a clown, not a joker,” I said without thinking. Those were the first words I’d spoken to my brother in ten years.
Tyler glanced at me as though I were a stranger and left.
“Don’t leave town, Tyler, until we get this all sorted out,” Grady grumbled.
It was getting cold next to the freezer, so I backed away. “What’s there to sort out? The guy was drunk, passed out in the freezer, and died.” Even as the words came out of my mouth, I realized how absurd they sounded. That’s when it first occurred to me that this could have been foul play.
“Maybe it happened that way, maybe it didn’t. We’ll have to see.” The sheriff told whoever was on the other end of the radio to get the crime scene team down here pronto. He looked around the kitchen. “Who’s in charge here? I’m going to need the names of everyone who has been in or around this building today.”
“Not it.” I held up my hands. “I was just here taking pictures.”
“But this is your place, right?”
“It’s my parents’ place.”
“Same thing. It’s all in the family.”
Before I could protest, Gwen swept in and handed Grady her business card. “Here’s where you can get in touch with me, Sheriff. I’ll be happy to provide you with any information you need. But now, my assistant and I are leaving. We have another party this evening, and we’ll be late if we don’t leave right now.”
Grady jammed the card in his pocket. “Hold on there, lady. I ain’t done questioning you.”
“Call my lawyer,” she said over her shoulder and flew out the door.
The normally in-charge sheriff seemed caught off guard. Maybe I should take a lesson from Gwen and be tougher in dealing with him. I turned to leave the kitchen.
“Where are you going, Ms. Fairmont?” he asked. “I’m not done with you yet.”
“Call my—”
Oops. I didn’t have a lawyer. Not in Cascada anyway. I tried to sound forceful like Gwen, but it came out more whiny. “Okay, but do you mind getting him out of there? I’ve got a couple of gallons of ice cream melting here.”
“Ice cream?” Grady sneered at me. “Who eats ice cream in the winter?”
*
THE GREAT ROOM OF THE Waterfall Lodge was warm and inviting, even on this cold and unfortunate occasion. Anything not nailed down was covered in wood, leather, or fur. An old canoe hung from the high ceiling right next to the taxidermy deer and elk. A large-mouth bass caught back in the day by my dad’s uncle adorned the fireplace. I remember thinking as a child that the big fish might one day fall into the fire and we’d have to eat it. The stone fireplace provided heat for guests as they gathered around the large farmhouse table for breakfast.
After assuring my mother I would handle things, Myra and I sat with the sheriff to answer his questions.
“So, I’ve got the basics.” Grady pulled out his notepad. “The Harpers were throwing a kid’s birthday party and Gwen Palmer was
in charge. The victim, Grover Ward, was hired as a clown. Various other people were there as guests or to help out. Is that right?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m sure Gwen can provide you a list with all the names.”
He nodded. “And you say you were here taking pictures?”
“That’s right.” I got up and stoked the fire. The wood crackled like a Fourth of July sparkler.
“What about you?” He pointed his pen at Myra. “What’s your role in all this?”
“I’m the head housekeeper here at the lodge. My role is nothing.” Her voice quivered as she spoke.
“What do you mean? Were you a guest at the party? You’re a little old to attend a kid’s birthday party.”
Classic Grady. Should we file a police harassment suit now or wait for more gems to fly out of his mouth? “Today was Myra’s day off,” I explained. “But Gwen hired her to help with the cleanup. That’s why she was there.”
“I see. So, you didn’t come until the party was over.”
“No, not exactly. I was here the whole time helping Freddy.”
“Who’s Freddy?”
“My boyfriend.”
“And why did Freddy need your help?”
She twisted her hands nervously. “Because some of his hoofers get out of line if they don’t get enough attention.”
Grady scratched his head. “I thought you said this was a kid’s party. Why would he bring hookers?”
“I said hoofers. You know, horses.”
No wonder they say you should never talk to the authorities without an attorney. We were getting nowhere fast. I held out the fireplace poker. “Look, Freddy brought horses for the kids to ride on the trail. Myra helped him out. When the party was over, she and I went to put the leftover ice cream in the freezer, and that’s when we found Mr. Squishy—I mean, Grover, the clown.”
“So why was he in the freezer?”
“Beats me. He showed up drunk. Maybe he thought it was a closet and passed out.” I set the poker back in the stand.
Grady cocked his head at Myra. “Was it locked when you found him?”
I glanced at Myra, who looked as frozen as Grover. When she didn’t answer, I said, “Yes. Myra had locked the freezer earlier because of all the kids around. She didn’t want anyone to get hurt. That’s the kind of person she is. Kind and thoughtful.”
What was I doing? Now I sounded like an accomplice trying to give her a character reference.
Grady stared Myra down. “Why would you lock the door with a guy inside?”
Myra jumped up. “I didn’t know he was in there! I didn’t look inside first.”
Grady thought for a long moment. “Did you have some kind of beef with this Squishy?”
“No! I never even met him before today.” Myra’s face reddened and tears welled in her eyes.
The front door of the lodge opened, and a deputy stuck his head inside. “Hey, chief, we found a liquor flask on the floor of the freezer. Might have been the clown’s.”
Grady turned to me. “Do you normally keep a flask in the walk-in freezer here at the lodge?” Sarcasm dripped from his question.
“Like I said, this is my parents’ resort, not mine. But no, I can’t imagine that flask was already in there.”
“Bag it for evidence,” he yelled to the officer and stood up. “That’s all the questions I have for now.” He glared at Myra. “You’re free to go, just don’t leave town. As for you, Ms. Fairmont, be sure to tell your brother I’ll be contacting him.”
I stood up and stamped my foot as I’d seen the birthday girl do a few hours earlier. “What does Tyler have to do with this?”
Grady adjusted his oversized Stetson. “With his record and a crime so close to home, I just want to make sure he didn’t have his finger in this pie.”
“Cake, not pie.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
He grumbled as he headed to the door. “This is the last thing I need now with this movie company in town. I’m already short-handed with having to send security up to the falls.”
“Too bad people couldn’t be more considerate of your schedule before they get themselves killed.” I flashed him a big, fake smile as he left.
Just as the sheriff walked out, a woman walked in. She was clad in white fur, from her Russian-style hat to her stiletto boots. “Be careful with those bags,” she instructed the man following her with an armload of luggage. At first glance, the bags looked like Louis Vuitton. Then I noticed the logo was an L and W. Must have been a knockoff by his cousin, Louis Wuitton.
The woman pulled off her fur gloves and pounded repeatedly on the bell on the front desk.
She was probably with those movie people. No one who regularly stayed in the mountains would dress like that. By the looks of her, this wasn’t exactly a top-rated film company.
Mother appeared and went into hostess mode. Hopefully, she had enough reservations booked to hold the lodge over for a while. An accident or a murder or whatever had happened on the premises could be really bad for business. I crossed my fingers that it would all get resolved quietly and without a lot of fanfare.
My cell phone rang. It was a number I didn’t recognize. “Hello?”
“Hi, I’m a reporter with the Albuquerque Observer. I’m doing a story about the frozen clown and wanted to see if I could ask you a few questions…”
Chapter 4
Cricket, my new cat, greeted me when I got back home. She rubbed against my legs until I finally picked her up. We sat on the sofa while I told her about the clown. She seemed uninterested.
The ash-gray cat was a stray who adopted me the second day I moved into the house left to me by Gran. According to a local psychic, Cricket may occasionally be channeling the spirit of my dead grandmother. All I know is that she had a way of making me feel and think things that Gran would have wanted me to feel or think. And she nagged me the way Gran used to nag my grandfather.
In case you are wondering, Cricket doesn’t actually talk “people” to me, but she definitely lets me know what she’s thinking. If you have a pet, you probably understand.
The day’s catastrophe had left me physically and emotionally exhausted. Why had I agreed to go to the movies with Nancy? Oh yeah. It was Saturday night, we were both single, and I was celebrating the first birthday party gig I’d gotten since I opened my new photography business. Yippee.
I took a quick shower to wash off the popcorn and sugar smell and got ready to go out. I had turned off the ringer of my phone after I hung up on the reporter, so I checked to see if Nancy or anyone I knew had called. It seemed safe to turn the ringer back on. Hopefully, the reporter had found something more newsworthy to cover.
Anyway, how could news of Squishy’s demise have spread so quickly? Someone must have posted something on social media. I did a quick search, and sure enough, there was a brief story about a clown who was found frozen to death at a child’s birthday party in Cascada. The article didn’t list any names nor did it mention the Waterfall Lodge. Relieved, I poured myself a half a glass of wine and sat back down with Cricket. I must have dozed off, because I nearly jumped out of my skin when Nancy rang the bell.
She looked gorgeous, as always, with her flowing chestnut hair and skinny jeans tucked into her boots.
It didn’t seem fair. “Why isn’t spin class working as well for me as it is for you?”
“Maybe because I don’t cheat and turn down the resistance on the machine when you think nobody’s looking. You’re not fooling anyone, not even Sherry Grady.”
“Who are you? The exercise police? I suppose that means you don’t want a glass of wine.”
Nancy crooked her eyebrows. “Are you kidding? That’s the whole reason I go to spin class in the first place. That and the pastries at Karol’s Kafé.”
“Don’t even mention sugar to me. After being around all that cotton candy, chocolate, cake, and ice cream today, I think I got a cavity.”
“Uh-oh. How much did
you eat?”
“None, believe it or not. I was waiting until after the party to gorge myself. But by then I’d lost my appetite. Dead bodies will do that to you.”
Nancy sat across from me in a club chair and was immediately joined by Cricket. “What? I thought you were at a birthday party, not a funeral.”
I refilled my glass and gave her one. “Have you been under a rock all day? I thought the Cascada gossip chain would have gotten to you by now.”
“I was showing cabins to a couple in the upper canyon all afternoon. Spotty cell service.”
“Well, hold on to your hat, sista, because you’re never going to believe this.” As a natural-born storyteller, I proceeded to give her everything in detail, starting with the clown showing up drunk all the way to Sheriff Grady’s warning about my brother.
Nancy hung on every juicy detail. “And when am I going to finally get to meet this brother of yours? I mean, I’ve seen him around town, but we’ve never met.”
“Don’t get your hopes up, although we did exchange a few unpleasantries. Anyway, what do you think of Squishy’s death?”
“It had to be murder, right?” Nancy swallowed down the last of her wine and held up her glass for more. “I mean, how do you accidently freeze to death? Even if he were locked in there inadvertently, you would think someone would have heard him banging on the door.”
“Not necessarily.” I poured the last of the bottle into her glass. “Between the loud music and the screaming kids, it was pretty noisy in there. The kitchen is off the main room.”
“Do you think the housekeeper, Myra, is going to be charged with accidental homicide or something?”
“No!” I slammed down my glass, spilling a few drops on the coffee table. “Of course not. Why would she?”
“Because she was the one who locked him in there. You said she admitted it.”
I hadn’t thought of it that way. “I can’t imagine she’d be charged with anything. We don’t even know for sure that he was in there when she locked the freezer.”
Freeze Frame (Killer Shots Mysteries Book 2) Page 2
