by Linnea West
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Other Books in the Series
About the Author
Copyright
Chapter One
January in Shady Lake, Minnesota can usually be described as really, really cold. It seems that there is always at least a week's stretch or maybe even longer where the high temperature of the day doesn't even get above zero. But when you move to Minnesota, that is kind of what you sign up for.
I don't mind the cold as long as there is snow. Every once in a while, there is a cold spell where it is below zero for days without any snow in sight or even on the ground. It is a miserable feeling to be able to see your breath but the streets are just dirty and icy.
One bright spot in our winter now is the Below Zero Festival that Shady Lake has been throwing for the past five years. The town council got together and decided they needed a bright spot in the middle of winter. After the holidays in December, winter can drag on for a long, long time. (There was even a year that it snowed two feet in May and there was a snow day just a few weeks before school let out for the summer.)
The Below Zero Festival had any sort of winter activity you can imagine involved in it. There is a week-long medallion hunt, snowshoe hikes, sledding parties, a dance, an outdoor hockey game, ice skating on the lake, an ice fishing competition, and many more things. It gets people out of the house and moving around and hopefully, happy enough to stick it out through the rest of winter. Maybe not the rest of winter, but people would at least be able to make it to spring break when they could fly somewhere warm for another break.
The entire town was decorated for it. Everyone left their outdoor holiday decorations up and lit them up again like it was December again. The entire downtown still had large garlands and lights up, but the wreaths had been replaced by large snowflakes. The festival gave us another chance to use the beautiful decorations that had been put up in December.
This is actually the first time I'll be able to go to the Below Zero Festival as I just moved back to Shady Lake this year. After I moved away and went to college, I moved to the Twin Cities with my husband Peter. I had been living the high life until Peter died in a car accident and I had gone into a tailspin. My parents had thankfully recognized that and came up to collect me and bundle me off home here to Shady Lake.
So now I am a thirty year old woman who lives with her parents, but that is alright because my parents actually live in a bed and breakfast so I feel like that makes it less weird. I have five siblings so we lived in a larger home as we were growing up. Instead of selling the house and downsizing when most of us moved out, they built on an addition to live in and made our house into a bed and breakfast.
Tonight is the kickoff for the festival. The entire length of downtown was blocked off as a sort of street party. I pulled my station wagon into the public parking lot downtown and shut it off. Townspeople were already milling about everywhere even though it wasn't actually supposed to start for another half hour or so. Everyone was bundled up in big puffy jackets, knit hats with pom-poms and big warm mittens. I couldn't tell who anyone was, but I was sure I knew most of them. Shady Lake is a smaller town that feels a lot smaller than what the population sign says. I'd have to wait until I was closer to tell who anyone was.
Businesses had sales sitting out on folding tables on the sidewalk, selling things like mittens and hot chocolate. My best friend Mandy runs the Donut Hut and even though it usually closed at lunchtime, Mandy had made a bunch of extra donuts to sell at the kickoff tonight so I decided to go find her table first. One of my major downfalls is that I often let my sweet tooth lead the way.
"I'm off to find Mandy," I said as my parents and I climbed out of the car. "Would you like to come with me?"
"We will definitely be getting some donuts, but not yet," my mother Teri said as she looked in the mirror and adjusted her hat. "First I'd like to check out some of the sales before all of the good stuff is gone. Sue said she had some cute, locally-made mittens that I'm sure are going to sell out very, very fast."
My father Gary was standing behind her and he rolled his eyes slightly at her mitten excitement, but followed along when she set off in search of the mittens. My parents were the kind of couple that I wanted to find a love like. I'm not quite ready for a serious relationship right now, but I think one day I will find love again.
And speaking of love, Clark Hutchins was headed towards me right now. Clark was a little different from the other men in town because he wasn't actually from Shady Lake. He moved here a few years ago to teach social studies at the high school.
"Hi there Tessa," Clark called. He gave a little wave and a wink as he walked towards me.
Clark was tall and handsome with dark hair and dark eyes. He was literally tall, dark, and handsome. And for some reason, he liked me. I could never quite figure out why. I try to be kind to myself and I am certainly much nicer to myself than I had been as a teenager. But I am short, a bit on the dumpy side, and while I think I have a cute face, I have no idea how to accentuate it with makeup or a cute hairstyle. In short, I have no idea why he has decided to date me, but I'm glad he has. I did have a deep, dark fear that I don't really like him, but just enjoyed the attention from someone I haven't known my entire life. For now, I pushed that fear down and just admired his handsome face.
"Hey Clark," I said as he walked up. He wrapped me in his arms and I pressed my face into his chest. I could feel the warmth coming from him and I would have loved to stay hugging him for a while, but I finally had to let go.
"Mayor Green is going to give his speech soon," Clark said, taking my mitten clad hand in his. "Let's go give it a listen."
I let him lead me towards the small stage that had been set up in the intersection of Main Street and First Avenue. Everyone was slowly making their way over and I waved at people here and there, even though there were several people I couldn't recognize from the thin strip of face showing between their coat collar and their hat. I took the risk of waving to people I didn't know well and all of my waves were well-received because that's just small town living.
Chapter Two
Ronald Green, the mayor of Shady Lake, was pacing back and forth on the stage. He wasn't nervous, he was just trying to greet each and every person as they approached the stage for his speech. Ronald was a short, pudgy man with a proclivity for wearing sweater vests. Strangely enough he was called M
ayor Panda by most people, but sometimes when you glance at him, you could swear he was a giant panda in a checkered sweater vest.
As I walked up to the stage, I glanced around for Ronald's wife. Melinda was standing towards the side of the stage scowling. Everyone was giving her a wide berth because she was a generally grumpy woman. While Ronald was an ever-cheerful man, Melinda made up for it by never being happy. Somehow she and Ronald went together, happy and grumpy. All of Ronald's love for Shady Lake was balanced out by Melinda's contempt for the town. Even before he was elected mayor, Ronald had insisted on being at every single activity that Shady Lake had to offer. Wherever Ronald went, Melinda went also even though all she did was stand to the side with a frown on her face.
When Ronald spotted me, he gave a big wave. I waved back, eager for the festival week to start. When I lived in the big city I had worked in marketing and now that I was back in town, I was putting my skills to the test by marketing all of the activities that Shady Lake had to offer.
Ronald checked his watch and then stepped up to the microphone with a large smile on his face. The crowd quieted down so they could hear our beloved mayor speak.
"Hello everyone," Ronald said. "I'm so glad you all came out for this very cold start to the Below Zero Festival. I'm sure you've all seen the list of activities going on this week and have made a plan to make it out to as many as possible. Let me give you a quick run-down of what this week will have in store for us."
Ronald read down the list of the festival activities and when he got to the snowman building competition, Clark squeezed my hand.
"I think we should enter the snowman competition," Clark whispered to me.
I nodded back to him and hoped I wouldn't get in over my head. I had a bad habit of agreeing to do too much at one time and then becoming overwhelmed. And I really didn't want to let Clark down because I was already unsure of my feelings for him when he was happy with me. Upsetting him would send my emotions into a tailspin. I tried to push that thought out of my head.
"Now I'd like to tell you about what I think is the most exciting part of the festival," Ronald said. "Every year, Officer Max Marcus hides a gold festival medallion somewhere within the city limits of Shady Lake. In previous years, the prize has been $50. This year, we are so excited to announce that the prize is now $500."
The audience oohed and awed even though this wasn't actually news. The Shady Lake Tribune had announced the new prize last week when they did a large story on the festival.
In fact, their intrepid reporter Chelsea Goodman was standing at the front of the stage, hurriedly scribbling in her notebook. She turned and caught my eye and while I gave her a small wave, she simply narrowed her eyes at me and turned back to the stage. We went to school together and while I'm a bit unclear why, she does not like me. Oh well, I tried to keep rising above and being the bigger person. But not always.
"I'd like to welcome Officer Marcus to the stage to tell us a little bit more about the medallion hunt," Ronald said.
Max stepped up to the microphone and gave me a wink. We had dated for several years in high school and always thought we would get married. But I had moved away to college and we had ended up getting married to different people. Oddly enough, Max's wife had died of cancer just months before Peter had died. I also dated Max, which in contrast with the freshness of my relationship with Clark, had a comforting familiarity. He was also the opposite of Clark in terms of looks too. Max was short and stocky, but in a muscular way. He had blond hair and blue eyes that could melt my very core.
And while I was unsure of my feelings for Clark, my feelings for Max were just as strong as they had ever been. We had basically grown up together and even when I was married to Peter, I still had a small part of my heart that would always be Max's. I always thought that part would be dedicated to friendship, but here we were dating again.
"Now, in the past few years the medallion has been found by Gerald Pinkerton," Max said. Before he could continue on, there were several shouts and jeers from the crowd.
"He's a cheater," Lennie Mickelson yelled from the front of the crowd. Lennie was actually an out of towner who was in town just for the festival and the medallion hunt. I had talked to him that morning, he had been passionate about finding the medallion.
"Gerald is a fraud," Charlie said at the same time. Charlie, his siblings, and his father Rich owned the new bar in town called the Loony Bin. When I say new, I mean the newest bar that opened several months ago but will be the "new" bar until another one opens sometime. I didn't know much about Charlie, but I did know that he had been talking a big game around town about finding that medallion and winning the prize.
"Now hold on there," Max said. "Let's not be throwing out accusations. Each year is a new competition and each year is a new chance for everyone to try and win the medallion hunt."
Charlie made his way through the crowd until he was standing next to Lennie. They looked at each other and nodded, each seeming to recognize that while they were in solidarity about Gerald being a cheater, they were still rivals when it came to finding the medallion.
"There is no possible way that he has found the medallion every single year without cheating," Lennie said. "I participate in medallion hunts all over the state and have never seen one where the same person wins every single time."
At this point, I started to look around to try to find Gerald. I finally spotted him towards the back of the crowd with a giant smirk on his face. He didn't seem to care about the accusations. Either he was actually a cheater or he was just very secure in his medallion hunting abilities.
"Come on guys," Max said. His pleading wasn't a sad sort of plea, but instead was more of a stern warning for them to stop. He had on his police officer voice. "If you are finished, I'd love to get on with sharing the first clue."
Charlie and Lennie glanced at each other with a look that said they both still thought Gerald was cheating, but that they didn't want to do much about it.
"Before I give you the first clue, let me remind you how it works," Max said. "Every morning this week until the medallion is found, a clue will be printed in the Shady Lake Tribune. The medallion is within the city limits of Shady Lake."
The crowd was growing restless. Looking around, you could tell who was going to really hunt for the medallion by who was hanging on Max's every word. Curiously, Gerald seemed to be calm, cool, and collected when compared to the other jittery participants.
"Here is the first clue: You are close to the mark if you are in one of Shady Lake's park."
I did a little eye roll at the not quite rhyme. Max never had been a very good writer. I know that the clues start very general and become more specific as the week goes on, but that was a bit too general. Shady Lake was full of parks. In Minnesota, you could find parks everywhere. I felt like the only thing this clue really told us was that it wasn't downtown.
"One more reminder," Max said. "Please be safe as you search. This is a fun competition, so don't take it too seriously."
A murmur ran through the crowd as the townspeople talked about the clue and where they were going to search. I turned and looked at Clark, who smiled down at me.
"Are you going to search?" I asked him.
"I might go out a few times," Clark said. "But I like to wait to really look until a few more clues come out otherwise I don't really know where to start looking. As a local, I may enlist your help."
Clark winked at me and I blushed a little bit. He made me so anxious, but in a good way.
On stage, Max had handed the microphone back to Ronald who was standing at the front of the stage, waiting for the crowd to settle down a bit. He had a big grin on his face, like usual.
"Shady Lakers, I would like to say one more thing," Ronald said. "I'd like to invite the winner of the medallion hunt for the last five years to come to the stage and share a few tips for searching for the medallion."
The crowd went silent as Gerald made his way to the stage. If looks coul
d kill, Gerald would have millions of imaginary daggers flying at him right now. He seemed totally oblivious to it and made his way up the stairs and to the microphone.
"Hello there," Gerald said. "I can give you all one tip while you search which is to just keep at it. Don't give up. All of my other tips, I'm not going to tell you because I am also looking for the medallion this year and I don't want to give all of my secrets because I would love to win again. Scratch that. I am going to win again."
When Gerald spoke, he had a way of making you hate him. If he was a bit more sincere as he spoke I would assume that he was someone who enjoyed the medallion hunt, but instead he had this sort of sneer on his face that was easy to hate.
"So to all of you out there, you can hunt as much and as hard as you'd like, but I will once again be the winner."
That seemed to be just too much for the crowd. Looking around, most people were throwing a glare in Gerald's direction. Charlie and Lennie especially looked furious. Gerald smirked at all of the hate, seeming to be feeding off of it. Even Clark was giving him a nasty look.
"Good luck everyone," Gerald said with an evil smirk. That seemed to push the crowd over the edge.
"I swear if you find the medallion you'll be sorry," Lennie yelled.
"You watch your back Gerald Pinkerton," Charlie yelled.
Max walked up and snatched the microphone away from Gerald, pushing him back towards the stairs to get off of the stage.
"Now listen all of you, this is a fun competition," Max said. "Don't you dare ruin this for everyone."
Charlie looked a bit ashamed. He stared at his feet, which he was shuffling a little bit. I spotted his father, Rich, shooting him a look from a different part of the crowd. Charlie must have noticed it too because his demeanor changed instantly.
Lennie on the other hand just gave a sort of shrug. He wasn't from Shady Lake, so he didn't care that much. He was simply here for the competition and Gerald was the one thing that seemed to be standing in his way.
Ronald took the microphone once more with a big smile on his face. He wasn't going to let anything get him down.
