Snow Way Out: A Mystic Snow Globe Romantic Mystery (The Mystic Snow Globe Mystery Series Book 2)

by M. Z. Andrews

  Lane knew darn good and well he wasn’t some perfect guy.

  But he also knew he was willing to quit chewing tobacco if it meant he’d found the right woman. He knew Evanee was the fastest person he’d ever met that could quell his temper. He knew he could be trained to drop his laundry in the basket and put his dishes in the dishwasher. Learning to stop cursing might be an issue, and he never intended to give up Henny Penny, but in his heart, he knew he could treat her like a queen, despite the fact that he didn’t own a white horse.

  He’d wanted to talk to her about that kiss on the ride to the city hall, but she’d managed to talk on and on about the food she’d made for the festival practice and to fill the air between them with talk about everything but the kiss they’d shared. Now, as he pulled into a parking spot and saw her standing there patiently waiting for him, he just had the urge to pull her aside and kiss her again.

  “Hi, Lane,” she chirped as she jumped into the car.

  “Hey, Ev,” he said, his voice gruff from the emotion he felt welling up inside.

  “Are you ready to head over to Calvin’s?”

  “Yup.”

  She nodded. “Oh, before I forget, this is for you.” She flipped a square envelope in his direction.

  “What is it?” He glanced down at it. Nothing was written on either side of it.

  “Oh, that’s umm…” She paused.

  Lane thought he could sense a bit of tension suddenly in her voice.

  “That’s, ummm—the invitation to Annie Adams’s wedding.”

  “Annie Adams’s wedding?” he repeated, unsure of what that was about.

  “Yeah, you remember I mentioned the other day that Bluebell wanted to know if you’d be Gracie’s date to the wedding?”

  Lane’s mind was blown. After everything, Evanee still wanted him to be Gracie’s date? Was this her way of letting him know that she wasn’t willing to give up on her silly notion of finding a Prince Charming and that he most definitely wasn’t that? He dropped the envelope down onto the newspaper resting between the seats.

  “Got it.”

  Lane’s mind raced as Evanee shifted about uncomfortably in her seat.

  “So, what have you been up to?” she asked.

  “Nothin’.”

  “You alright?”

  “Yup.”

  “Lane…”

  “We better get over to Calvin’s before it gets too dark.”

  Her voice was small then. “Okay.”

  The ride to Calvin’s took place in complete silence. Lane had been unable to bring himself to speak to her. He had to work through his own thoughts before he could put them into words.

  “So am I leading the way this time, like I did with Maddie?” asked Evanee as they pulled up Calvin’s driveway.

  “No, I’ll take the reins on this one,” said Lane gruffly.

  Evanee reached a hand out to him. “Lane, can we talk before we…?”

  His heart throbbed in his chest. He looked up into the sky. “It’s getting dark. We don’t have time for talking right now.”

  “Yeah, okay,” she sighed.

  He parked the truck in front of Calvin’s house and they both got out. Calvin was seated on the edge of his deck with his legs dangling over the side, drinking a bottle of beer. Shards of shattered glass, jagged necks of broken beer bottles, and an empty cardboard beer case covered the ground in front of him. He’d been sitting there for a while.

  The combination of the frustration between him and Evanee and the sight of Calvin casually chilling with a beer sent a surge of fury through his body. Without pausing, he rushed towards Calvin and threw a fist into the skinny man’s scraggly face.

  “Lane!” screamed Evanee, chasing after him.

  But Lane couldn’t stop himself from driving a fist into Calvin Lancaster’s face for a second time. “You killed my mother, you son of a—”

  “Lane, stop!” Evanee clung to Lane’s arm, pulling with all her might.

  Calvin’s beer went sailing out of his hands and he curled into a ball to protect himself.

  “You killed her!”

  “I didn’t kill anyone!” Calvin hollered back as Lane continued to pummel him.

  Evanee pulled on Lane’s arm. “Lane, this isn’t the way to do it!”

  “Bullshit!” he screamed, but he stopped punching. He didn’t want Evanee getting hurt in the crossfire.

  Calvin clumsily sat up, grabbed one of the broken beer bottles off the ground, and scrambled up to the top of the deck, where he huddled in a corner. His arm shook as he held the makeshift weapon in front of him. “I didn’t!”

  Lane’s adrenaline pulsed wildly in his veins. He wanted to destroy the old man. He didn’t care if he’d had a miserable life. He deserved a miserable life! He’d killed her.

  “I’m gonna put you away for the rest of your worthless miserable life for what you did to my mother and to my family.”

  “I don’t even know who your mother is!” hollered Calvin, blood pouring from a cut on his lip.

  “Rachel Dawson was my mother.”

  The ragged, frenzied old man shook his head. “Rachel Dawson?”

  “Rachel Church Dawson,” said Lane, staring at Calvin as he breathed heavily.

  “Rachel Church was your mother?” Calvin’s eyes were wide as if he’d seen a ghost.

  “Yes. Steve Dawson was my father.”

  A weathered, dirty old hand went to Calvin’s gaping mouth then. “Oh my God,” he breathed.

  Lane nodded and pointed at the man. “See? See? I can see it in your face. You killed her, didn’t you?”

  But Calvin’s head shook from side to side. “I didn’t kill her,” he whispered. “I didn’t.”

  “You did! I see it in your eyes.”

  “No, I swear…”

  Lane crossed in front of the porch to get to the stairs.

  Calvin shoved out the broken bottle. “Don’t come up here!”

  Evanee put herself between Lane and Calvin. “No, Lane. Not like this.”

  “He killed her,” cried Lane. The emotion of the situation blurred his eyes. “Maddie told us she told you where Rachel was!”

  “Maddie?” said Calvin as if he hadn’t heard that name in years. “Maddie Cromwell?”

  “Yes! She told us she saw you at the Sports Stop. She told you that Rachel was alone at the fire hall. You went there to see her that night, didn’t you!”

  Calvin’s hand went to his mouth again. “The Sports Stop?”

  “Yes! So you left the Sports Stop and you went to the fire hall. You started that fire!”

  “I didn’t start the fire,” he said, but his face told a different story.

  “If you didn’t start the fire, then why do you act so guilty?” asked Evanee. “Why did your face have all those scratches on it when the police found you?”

  Calvin’s hands went to his face then, to touch the wounds hidden behind his grizzly beard. “Rachel,” he whispered. “Rachel did this.”

  Lane’s eyes widened. To hear the admission that his mother had been the one to inflict the wounds on Calvin’s face heated his blood to boiling.

  “You bastard!” He lunged, but Evanee held him back.

  “Why did she scratch your face, Calvin?” asked Evanee.

  The man looked frightened of his own shadow as he cowered in the corner. “I dunno,” he muttered.

  “You do know, Calvin. Admitting it is the only way you’ll be able to face the demons that haunt you. You went to the fire hall, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” he finally said.

  “You attacked Rachel?”

  “Yes,” he whispered. “I’s so mad at her. She was my girlfriend for all them years. An’ then one day she broke up with me, an’ jus’ a few days later Steve came back to town.” He shook his head as if he could still see her face. “An’ then they was a couple. An’ then she was pregnant,” he mumbled.

  “She had a baby,” said Evanee. “A son. Lane’s her son.”

/>   Calvin’s eyes widened and he looked up at Lane. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I loved her.”

  “If you loved her, you wouldn’t have killed her,” snapped Lane bitterly.

  “I didn’t kill her! I told ya. I went there ta talk to her. I wanted her back so bad. I was drunk,” he admitted. “An’ I tried to get her to love me again, but she jus’ kep’ hollerin’ at me.” He covered his ears like he could hear her cries. “An’ I tried to make her love me, but she wouldn’t.” His fingers caressed his scars then. “She scratched me, an’ I ran!”

  “Bullshit, Calvin! You didn’t run. You burned the place down to get back at her for scratching you, and for leaving you and falling in love with my father!”

  His head swiveled violently. “I didn’t.”

  “You did!”

  “No! I swear.”

  “If you didn’t kill her, then who did?” asked Evanee.

  “I dunno,” said Calvin, sadness in his eyes. “I always wanned to know,” he slurred. “But I never did.”

  Lane tried to force his way past Evanee. He was going to make Calvin talk if it was the last thing he did!

  But Evanee shoved him back. “No, Lane! No! He said he didn’t do it!”

  “You believe this guy? He’s a drunk! How can anyone believe a word that he says! Maddie saw him at the Sports Stop.”

  “Fine, then we’ll go to the cops. The cops can arrest him, and we’ll go from there.”

  Suddenly Calvin’s head snapped up, like he’d just been struck by lightning. “I was there with Heather,” he said earnestly. “Heather knows I’d a never killed no one. Ask her!”

  Evanee’s head jerked towards Calvin immediately. “Steve’s ex?”

  Calvin nodded.

  Lane looked at Calvin in surprise. “Heather was at the fire hall with you?”

  Calvin’s head shook. “No, she was at the bar. But she knows me, ’n she knows I’d never do nothin’ like that. We were good friends back then, me ’n her. Ask her. She’ll tell you. Just ask her!”

  Evanee patted Lane’s arm. “We gotta go, Lane. He’s told us everything he knows.”

  “He hasn’t told us everything. He started that fire,” Lane huffed.

  But Evanee tugged on his arm harder. “Lane, let’s go. Please?”

  He looked down at her. Her green eyes glimmered in the moonlight, pleading with him. But his temper boiled the blood in his veins. He couldn’t leave now. “Not until I get what we came for.”

  “We came for the truth, Lane,” she whispered in his ear. “I think we got the truth. Now let’s get in the truck. We need to talk.”

  Her breath was hot in his ear. He stared at her more seriously now.

  “Please?”

  “Fine,” he grumbled. He pointed a finger at Calvin Lancaster. “But I’ll be back. You’re not going to get away with what you did to my mother.”

  “I’m sorry,” whispered Calvin. “I’m so sorry…”

  In the truck, Lane turned to Evanee. “What? What in the world do we need to talk about?”

  Evanee’s eyes skirted about in the darkness. “Can you just drive?”

  “Evanee…”

  “Just drive, Lane.”

  Lane sighed but did as he was asked and pulled them out of Calvin Lancaster’s driveway. When they finally pulled back onto the main road that would take them to town, Evanee turned to him.

  “Lane, what if it wasn’t Calvin that killed your mom after all?”

  “What are you talking about? Who else would it be? He damn near admitted that it was him.”

  “But he didn’t admit it. He admitted to attacking her. She warded him off—that’s where the claw marks came from. But we don’t know that he started that fire.”

  Lane shook his head, refusing to even look at her. That sounded ridiculous. Calvin had started the fire. He was sure of it. “I can’t believe you’re going to take the side of a drunk man.”

  “I’m not taking his side, Lane. But think about it. Your grandmother said that she thought your dad’s ex-girlfriend had something to do with the fire. And who did Calvin just mention today? Your dad’s ex-girlfriend. Isn’t that a little suspicious?”

  With one arm strung out in front of himself, draped over the steering wheel, Lane glanced over at Evanee and shrugged. “Not really. Stoney Brook’s a small town. Everyone’s friends with everyone. How’s that suspicious?”

  Evanee sighed. “I wouldn’t say it was suspicious, except for the fact that your grandmother suspected her for some reason. That makes me suspect her. Now listen, Calvin Lancaster’s not going anywhere. But we need to speak to this woman before we press on him any harder. We have to be sure it wasn’t him.”

  Lane slammed his hands against his steering wheel. “We’re gonna drag more people into this?” His head shook. “I don’t like it.”

  “Lane, for all these years, the town pointed fingers at your dad. Simply because he was her husband, and they didn’t have all the facts. Now we’re doing the same thing to Calvin. We’re pointing fingers at him, but we don’t have all the facts. How can we accuse him with one hundred percent certainty if we don’t interview all the relevant people?”

  He groaned.

  “And what if she did have something to do with the fire? Maybe she was upset at your mother for taking your dad away from her. Maybe she decided to start the fire to keep them apart so she could have him.”

  Lane thought about it for a second. “Ugh, fine. But I’ve never even heard of this woman before this week. She prolly don’t even live around here anymore.”

  “It’s possible we’ll have to go on a road trip, I guess. We’ll see. But it’s also possible that she’s not far away. Let’s go talk to your grandma in the morning. She’ll know where Heather lives now.”

  Lane nodded. “Alright.”

  Evanee opened her door. But before climbing out, she reached across the seat to touch his arm. “I promise we’re getting closer.”

  “Yeah, I know we are. Thanks for everything. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Lane barely waited for the door to slam before skidding out of her parking lot and heading for home.

  34

  Friday morning, Lane felt like he was in a completely new mindset when he pulled in to pick Evanee up. He’d had the night to sleep on everything, and when he woke up, he realized that he’d allowed emotion to cloud his judgment the night before. Not just in accusing Calvin Lancaster and refusing to consider anyone else as a suspect, but also because he’d been so hard on Evanee. He’d nearly shut down completely when she’d passed him the wedding invitation.

  What had felt like a blow to both his heart and his ego the night before had been softened in the light of day. He realized Evanee had only done what Bluebell asked to her to do. It didn’t necessarily mean that she’d blown him off. He’d also come to the realization that by accepting the wedding invitation from another woman, he’d possibly sent Evanee mixed signals. Maybe that had been a test that he’d failed royally. Maybe he was supposed to have refused the invitation, thus proving to Evanee how much she meant to him. Regardless of Evanee’s intent behind giving him the invitation, when he woke up that morning, he knew he had to make everything right again.

  “Hi, Lane,” said Evanee as she hopped up into his pickup.

  “Hey, Ev.” He pointed at her shop. It was darker than usual. “Are you closed for business today?”

  Evanee nodded. “Yeah, too much going on today to even think about working. I’m on the town beautification committee, and we’re supposed to help set up and decorate the festival ‘set.’”

  Lane had been to the Renaissance Festival enough times to know exactly the set she was talking about. A fake town the local school’s industrial tech classes put up every year.

  “Plus I’m in the parade and have to get ready for that. I thought about asking Gemma to run the place by herself today, but in the end, I thought we’d be too busy for one person to work alone, so I decided to close for the three-day weekend.�
�� She let out a deep sigh.

  Lane nodded. “Good. Hey, I just wanted to take a quick second to clarify something.”

  Evanee looked at him curiously. “Oh, what’s that?”

  He leaned forward and plucked the wedding invitation up off the newspaper he’d dropped it on the day before. “I don’t want to go to this wedding.”

  Evanee plumped out her bottom lip. “Oh. Okay?”

  “Okay?”

  She shrugged. “I figured you weren’t much of a wedding type guy. I told Bluebell that, but she wanted me to ask anyway.”

  Half of his mouth quirked up into a smile. “I’m not much of a wedding type guy, you’re right, but that’s not why I don’t wanna go.”

  “Oh?”

  He swiveled in his seat so he was facing her. Then he reached across the seat and took her hand. “Ev, I don’t wanna go with Gracie Adams. That’s why I don’t wanna go. I didn’t want to confuse you about my intentions. I have no interest in dating Gracie Adams.”

  Evanee’s face flushed red. “Well, Bluebell’s going to be disappointed,” she said quietly.

  Lane rolled his eyes. “I don’t give a hoot what Bluebell Adams thinks,” he said. He took the invitation, tore it in fourths and tossed it in the air. “I just care about you. I didn’t want you to think I was interested in any other woman.” He studied her face carefully. He thought he saw a glimmer of a smile on her face. “Okay?”

  She nodded and looked down at the hands in her lap. “Okay.”

  “Good. Now, are you ready to go see my grandmother and figure out more about this mysterious woman named Heather?”

  “Yes! I’m ready.”

  “Alright, then.” Lane backed out of her driveway and headed towards his grandparents’ place.

  As they began to drive, Evanee leaned forward and picked up the pieces of paper he’d thrown around the vehicle. “I know you don’t care what Bluebell Adams thinks, but I do. I really don’t want to be the one to have to tell her.”