“Okay. Have you spoken to Ben this afternoon?”
“No. He’s not home yet. Why?”
“No reason. Thanks.”
Weird. She shoved her phone back into her pocket.
Half an hour later, she stood in the empty driveway. Ben still wasn’t home. She called his cell but got voicemail. She texted him and waited. A set of headlights approached, illuminating snowflakes that lazily floated to the ground. The circles of two headlights grew and lit Kalin as they turned by her and into her driveway.
Before Ben got out of the truck, Chica jumped over him and into the passenger seat. “Think she wants to go somewhere?”
Kalin laughed but saw Ben’s serious expression. “What’s wrong?”
He pulled Chica by the collar and dragged her out of the front seat. “I’ll tell you when we’re inside.”
Ben kicked off his winter boots and left them to drip melting snow in the front hall. He headed straight for the fridge and grabbed a beer. “Want one?”
“Sure. Give me your jacket.” Kalin held out her hand to Ben and hung both of their coats.
Before joining Kalin on the couch, Ben shoved a couple of logs into the fireplace and lit the kindling.
“What’s going on?” Kalin asked.
“Miller interviewed me today.”
“What for?”
“McKenzie’s murder.”
“That’s why Miller called me. He wanted to know where I was from the afternoon before McKenzie died until he fell. At least you know Miller.”
“It didn’t feel that way.”
“I can imagine. He can really go into cop mode. What did he ask you?”
“For fingerprints.”
“You were fingerprinted?”
“He said he needed to check my prints against the prints on McKenzie’s skis. He also wanted an alibi. I guess you already corroborated it. He probably called you just as I left the RCMP headquarters. I called you a couple of times but got your voicemail.”
“I was with Fred. Did you tell Miller what we were doing?” she asked, teasing him, trying to lighten the mood. She warmed at the memory of the evening they’d spent in front of the fire.
“As if. I said we walked Chica after work and then spent the night here. I had to give a timeline of the morning. What time we got up. How long it took me to get to work. Who saw me arrive at work. Lucky for me, William was in when I got there.”
“Why do you think he wanted to know all that?”
Ben inhaled sharply.
“Sorry. Stupid question. It’s because of the incident with McKenzie at the lift. Fred mentioned it today too.”
“Shit. How many people think I killed McKenzie?”
Tension exuded from Ben, and Kalin wished she hadn’t mentioned Fred. “I can’t imagine anyone believes you’re the murderer. Maybe Fred said you’re a suspect just to bug me.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“You better come in to the security office,” Fred said.
Kalin lifted her phone off the bedside table and checked the time. Seven a.m. “What’s going on?”
“Bar fight last night. Some of the racers were involved. Two spent the night in jail. We’ll have to decide what to do next.”
“Okay. Give me fifteen minutes.” Her head ached, and she barely had enough energy to stand, let alone go to work, but in spite of that, she shoved herself upright. Move your ass, Miss Mini Police Chief. “What are the roads like?”
“Ugly. The plows haven’t been by yet.”
Kalin decided she needed to look serious and put on dark blue pants with a matching blouse and topped the outfit with a tailored jacket. She threw on her ski jacket, chose her dressy winter boots and grabbed a set of keys.
Her Jeep was in the garage, and it was faster to take Ben’s truck from the driveway. She wasted several minutes scraping snow off the red Ford F-150 but arrived at Fred’s office within the promised fifteen minutes.
She blustered into the security office and shook snow off her head. “You left Ben’s name on the board.” She hung her ski jacket behind the door and ran her fingers through her damp hair.
“I left all the names,” Fred said.
Kalin put both hands on her hips. “Ben has an alibi.”
“I suppose that’s you.” Fred smiled, taking the sting out of his words. “Oh relax. I told you I don’t think Ben killed McKenzie.” He wiped Ben’s name off the board.
“So what’s going on?”
“Jeff Morley and one of the racers from the German team were arrested. There was a brawl in the bar. We don’t have too much time before they get here. I’ve asked to speak to both of them.”
“How come only two were arrested?”
“When the cops arrived, everyone else settled down. One cop pulled Morley off the German guy, and Morley hit the cop. The German took Morley’s side and pushed the cop. That’s enough for them to spend the night in jail.”
“I’m guessing they were both drunk.”
“They were.”
“Does their behavior warrant banning them?”
“You didn’t ban McKenzie when he pushed Amber. I don’t see how you can ban these guys.”
Touché. “They were fighting with cops.”
Fred took a deep breath. “And McKenzie shoved an employee.”
A knock on the door interrupted them. Constable Miller stuck his head in. “Morning. I have your two friends waiting in the car. Do you want me to bring them in?”
“Sure. Thanks,” Fred said.
Kalin pointed to the BOLO list. “You better erase the rest of the names.”
Miller escorted two sullen men into the room and motioned to the empty seats across from Kalin. “Sit here and be polite.” He turned to Fred. “You need me here for this?”
“I don’t think so,” Fred said.
Kalin recognized the top German skier and was awed to be in the presence of an Olympic medalist. Reminding herself not to be a star struck groupie, she examined the men and kept her breathing shallow. Day old sweat and stale beer were the fragrances of choice. When they were alone, with the door closed for privacy, Kalin resisted the urge to open a window and directed her first question to Jeff. “What happened last night?”
“This guy hit me for no reason.”
“Das ist nicht…That is not true,” Edwin Bucher said. “He hit me first.”
Kalin recorded their comments in her notebook. Jeff had a bruise under his left eye, and his shirt was ripped and dirty. Edwin was in about the same condition, except his bruise covered his entire right cheek. For a young man, he didn’t have a lot of hair, and his large forehead shined with sweat droplets. His small mouth and thin lips weren’t in proportion to the rest of his face. “This isn’t going to work if you don’t cooperate. Fred and I have to decide what to do with you, and we can’t do that if you don’t help us.”
“What do you mean?” Jeff asked.
“Normally you’d get banned from the resort.”
“You cannot ban us. We need to train,” Edwin said.
Edwin spoke in a formal manner, and Kalin realized it was the way he spoke English as a second language. Maybe he wasn’t nervous at all.
“Then you two better tell us what happened.” Fred wore his poker face, and Kalin could see he was in no mood for crap.
“Well?” Kalin said to Jeff.
Jeff swallowed twice and cleared his throat. “He insulted my brother, and we got into an argument.”
“What did he say?”
“He called Donny a cripple and said he couldn’t possibly tune skis. That’s why I’d never win a race.”
“Is that true?” Kalin asked.
Edwin had the grace to blush before he nodded.
“Is there a reason you said that?”
Edwin jerked his head in Jeff’s direction. “I wanted to get in his skin.”
Kalin suppressed a smile at the slip in English. “Then what happened?”
“He hit me. He got so angry. He exploded
on me.”
“Did you hit him first?” Kalin asked Jeff.
“I lost my temper. It’s no big deal.”
“I think it is.” Kalin pointed to Edwin’s face. “You could’ve broken his cheekbone.”
“It is not broken,” Edwin said. “I provoked him.”
“So this is a competitive thing?” Kalin asked.
Both men nodded.
“It couldn’t have been fun spending a night in jail.”
Both men shook their heads.
“You’re both going to get a warning. I’m not going to ban you, but, and I mean this, any more trouble and I will. Understood?” She glanced at Fred, who remained expressionless. She wasn’t sure if she passed or failed his test.
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
Edwin stood and disappeared in seconds. Jeff hovered.
Fred got up, opened a window and leaned against the sill. His sharp eyes watched Jeff carefully. “Is there something else?”
“My dad can’t find out about this.”
Odd a man his age would worry enough about what his dad thought and ask for them to be discreet. “We won’t tell him, if that’s what you’re asking,” Kalin said.
“I’m asking if there’s any way to keep this quiet. You don’t know my dad, but he won’t deal well with this.”
“How are you going to hide the bruise on your face?”
“I’m not. I’ll tell him I was in a fight that I won but not about jail. He thinks I spent last night with a girl.”
* * *
Kalin and Nora collected their meals from the buffet in the cafeteria. Kalin led Nora to an isolated corner, thinking about her morning talk with Jeff Morley. They were early. Not many of the racers had come in from the mountain yet, which gave them a bit of time to talk privately.
“Do you ever tune Jeff’s skis?”
“Not usually, why?”
“I’m just trying to figure out how the tuning works for the team.”
“Donny tunes Jeff’s skis at home. They have a sweet setup in their garage.”
Nora seemed agitated, and Kalin didn’t want to put any more pressure on her. She’d validated what Donny said about tuning Jeff’s skis. No lying yet. She changed the subject. “How are you holding up?”
“I miss Steve. I know we’d broken up, and I was angry with him, but I thought he’d come around. I surprised him. That’s all. Now we’ll never have the chance.”
Kalin empathized when Nora’s eyes filled with tears. She knew from experience how much losing someone she loved hurt. “Have you talked with Ian again?”
“It’s hard. He won’t speak to me. Every time I try, he walks away.”
“Are you sure the baby is his?”
Nora poked at her chili with her spoon but didn’t eat any. “I’m still hoping Steve’s the father.”
“Did Ian ever say anything to you about Steve?”
“We didn’t talk much. It was one stupid fuck. Nothing more.”
Kalin was tempted to tell Nora about Fernie and what Ian had done, but she didn’t have the heart. Instead, she said, “Did you ever talk when you tuned skis together?”
“Not about anything important. Ian talks about skiing. Nothing else seems to matter to him.”
Steam rose from Kalin’s cauliflower soup, and she dipped a buttered slice of bread, soaking it with flavor. Her mouth watered from the aroma before she tasted her food. “He must have talked about Steve a bit.”
“Well, yeah. We only talked while we were tuning skis, and he talked about everyone on the team. He knew every skier’s times, where they ranked, what conditions they skied best in.”
“He didn’t talk about Steve more than the others?”
“Everyone talked about Steve more than the other skiers. He was the best.”
“How do the racers pick which skis they’ll use each day?” Kalin asked.
“That depends on the type of race they’re training for and what the conditions are.”
“Do they make the decision on their own?”
“Sometimes. Each skier is different. Also, Coach Jenkinson didn’t have the same amount of interest in all the racers.”
Kalin noticed Nora hadn’t taken a bite of her chili yet. She was too busy stirring her meal and answering Kalin’s questions. “You don’t like the chili?”
“It’s not that. The smell is making me nauseous.”
“Do you want my bread?” Kalin passed the uneaten slices to Nora. “What about Steve? How did he decide?”
“Jenkinson, Charlie and Steve usually talked about it the night before training. Then I’d be given instructions.” Nora nibbled at the bread.
“How would someone know which skis to tamper with? From what I understand, only one pair was touched.”
“There’s a system. One rack is for skis that are first up. A racer’s other pairs are kept in a second rack. The skiers take their skis from the first one.”
Kalin still didn’t understand how a person could know which skis to tamper with. “Who sets up the rack?”
“Charlie. He’s the only one who knows what all the racers want. The rest of the tuners do what he says.”
Kalin slurped her soup and burnt her tongue. She ignored the burning sensation and thought about Charlie. He kept coming up as a suspect, but she knew little about him. “Did Charlie have anything against Steve?”
Nora snorted. “Not that I know of. If there was something, I can’t imagine what.”
“Ian would have known which skis Steve was going to use.”
“It’s not hard. They’re labeled.” Nora lifted a spoonful of chili as if she were going to eat but put the spoon back down again. “You really think Ian killed Steve?”
“Maybe.”
“He’s a jerk, but killing Steve just to ski?”
Ian and Jeff sauntered through the sliding glass doors into the cafeteria. Jeff glanced Kalin’s way, with a hangdog grin clear on his face, and she couldn’t help but smile back. Despite the fight he’d had with the German skier, she liked him. She liked his brother, Donny, too. For Nora’s sake, she hoped one of them didn’t kill Steve.
Ian hustled toward the buffet table and weaseled his way in front of other skiers. His posture appeared orchestrated to ensure Nora couldn’t catch his eye.
Kalin pointed toward him. “There’s Ian now.”
“See what I mean. He’s avoiding me.”
“Is he friends with Jeff?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You should eat that instead of making circles in it with your spoon.”
Nora filled her spoon and ate but never took her angry eyes off Ian.
* * *
Nora stomped back to the tuning room, thinking about Jeff. She’d dated him for three years. Why had he kissed someone else so soon after she’d first slept with him? She should have forgiven him. Maybe if she had, Donny wouldn’t have ended up paralyzed and Rachel wouldn’t be dead. She thought back to the dreadful night of the accident and to one moment when she could have changed everything.
She’d been standing on the back porch at a house party, and Jeff had cornered her. His face was too close to hers, and his breath smelled sour.
“It was one stupid mistake. That’s all,” Jeff said.
Nora stepped away from him, and the small of her back pressed against the wooden deck railing. “You cheated on me.”
Jeff gripped the railing on either side of her, removing any distance she’d put between them. “I know, but—”
“There’s no but. I told you we’re done.”
Donny cleared his throat. “Hey, Jeff. Can I get a ride home?” Donny looked at Nora with sympathetic eyes. Being the good guy, he was trying to help her out.
“Sure. In a bit.” Jeff stormed through the patio doors and disappeared in a throng of partiers.
For half an hour Nora pretended to socialize. Anything to keep her mind off Jeff. Steve and her adoptive sister, Rachel, were at the front door getting ready
to leave, and she approached them to say bye. She had the feeling Rachel had been crying but couldn’t ask in front of everyone. Rachel’s sandy blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail, making her eyes look tight. Nora gave her a quick hug, and with the height difference, her nose stuck in Rachel’s armpit.
Donny interrupted them. “You seen Jeff? I was going to catch a ride with him.”
“Nope,” Rachel said.
“You guys leaving? Can you drop me at home?” Donny asked.
Steve hesitated.
Donny lightly shoved Steve’s shoulder in a gesture of camaraderie. “Come on. It’s not out of your way.”
“Fine.” Steve opened the front door and stepped outside. Donny followed Rachel off the front porch and into darkness. It was the last time Nora had seen him walking.
Why hadn’t she offered Donny a ride instead of trying to find Jeff? If only…
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
At two fifty-nine, Kalin entered Reed’s outer office. Her nerves bit at her from all sides. Facing her boss and telling him his son was on her suspect list was not part of her job description, but she’d have to go that far. She just didn’t want to. “Is he ready to see me?”
Without pausing her tapping on the keyboard, Gertrude pointed with the top of her beehive hairdo toward Reed’s door. “Go on in. He’s waiting for you.”
Reed sat on one side of the table. He wore ski pants, ski boots and a ski sweater. His cheeks were flushed from recent outdoor activity, and Kalin gathered he’d been checking out the training run. She knew Reed liked to ski fast and liked to be on top of the run conditions.
He pointed toward the chair opposite him. “Sit.”
Kalin wondered if she should give him a paw too but did as he instructed.
“Have you cleaned out Tom’s office yet?”
Kalin had avoided his office since he died. She knew eventually she’d have to face clearing out his desk and file cabinets, but his memory was too fresh. “No.”
“I’d like you to do that. You can stay in your own office or move to his, but we need the space. Did you bring an update with you?”
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