Ring In the Year with Murder--An Otter Lake Mystery

by Auralee Wallace

  Candace lifted her head from my shoulder. “What places were you looking at?”

  “Um, all of them. I love the Wilsons’ place, but you guys bought that before it even made it to market. Then there was the Daleys’. And the Arthurs’. Their place would have been perfect for me, but you’ve already made an offer.”

  “You know I’m just doing my job.”

  I could feel her wanting to make eye contact, but I resisted the pull. I didn’t want to say anything to ruin what was actually kind of a nice moment. I mean, I couldn’t be sure that Candace would remember any of it after tonight, but que sera sera. Just then I remembered I should be using this bonding opportunity to find out what was really going on. “Candace … I heard something about someone sending you threatening notes?”

  She sighed. “I told you everyone hates me. But it was just one note.”

  “Are you worried? Was it serious?”

  “I don’t know. I doubt it.” She shook her head. “People don’t like change. At least that’s what Grady thinks.” She rubbed her forehead then said, “So you really want that place? The Arthurs’ place, I mean.”

  “I’m living on an island with my mother and the twins. You can’t imagine how much I want that place.”

  She straightened up. “Well, maybe I can get MRG to back off.”

  “What?”

  “Seriously.”

  “Oh,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think Gerald and Nanette would like that.”

  “Well, the property is worth what the property’s worth,” she said. “Yes, we could take you down in a bidding war, but we never start at that price. You would still have to come up with the money, but I promise I won’t bid against you. I don’t think they want to sell to us anyway. They hate me too.” She laughed a little. “I think they’d accept a fair offer.”

  “Why would you do that? I haven’t always been … great to you.”

  “Erica, I’m sitting in the snow, crying on New Year’s Eve.” She took another drink. “Forget about Grady. I don’t exactly like who I have become. It’s not easy being the bad guy all the time.”

  “You’re not the bad guy. You’re—”

  “Truth is, I’ve been thinking about leaving MRG. I want to do more to help people. I’m not cut out for this kind of work. Bryson can have it. He’s been landing most of the sales lately anyway. He should get the credit.”

  I wasn’t exactly surprised. Candace had done well for herself in that she was good with people. And people did like her. But she obviously had a tough time with the more cutthroat aspects of the job. “I get it, but I don’t think you should make any decisions tonight. I—”

  “Hang on,” she said. “Someone keeps texting me.” She rolled into the snow to take her phone out from her pocket. When she looked at the screen, her face went still.

  “Everything okay?”

  “It’s Grady.”

  “Oh.” I was dying to know what the text said, but Candace and I had just made major inroads … and it was none of my business.

  “I guess someone told him I was outside,” she said, eyes glassy. “He wants me to meet him at the boathouse, so we can talk.”

  “The boathouse?” I asked, looking down to the small structure seemingly hovering over the ice. Sure, it looked pretty—someone had hung a lighted wreath on the half-opened door and lined the eaves with more twinkly lights—but it was original to the estate. It would be both cold and rickety in there. A small, dark corner of my mind was trying to bring up the rumor the twins had told me about Candace wanting to do their breakup in public, and the boathouse definitely wasn’t public, but Candace certainly didn’t look scared. More resigned. “Why down there?”

  “I guess there’s not much privacy inside.”

  “Why don’t you guys just leave the party early, so you can talk about … whatever it might be that you need to talk about?”

  “Erica,” Candace said, looking away quickly, I think maybe to hide another tear. “I meant it when I said I would like for us to be friends, but this is one area we can’t talk about, okay?”

  “Oh, yeah, of course. I understand.”

  She picked up the champagne bottle and took an extra long sip before passing it to me. “Okay, I’m done.” I reached out to accept the bottle, but she snatched it back quickly. “Maybe I’ll just hang on to it for a little bit longer.” She then tried to push herself to her feet, but I’d say her balance had left her about half a bottle ago.

  “Let me help you,” I said, grabbing her arm. “Do you want me to walk you down there?”

  “No.” She flopped a hand at me. “I’m fine, and I would kind of prefer it if Grady didn’t see you. Then again, you have been in our relationship the whole time.” She laughed before glancing up at my face. “Oh, you don’t have to look so horrified. I knew what I was getting into. It’s not like you can live in this town and not know about Grady and Erica. I still decided to date him.”

  “Candace, I—”

  “Nope. Do not apologize. I’ve already left my self-respect back there,” she said, spinning too quickly to point at where we had picnicked in the snow. I had to steady her, so she didn’t end up doing a face-plant. “But I stand by what I said about you and Grady not belonging together.”

  I frowned. We were doing so well. Still not the right time to plead my case though.

  “And can I tell you one other thing?”

  I smiled politely.

  “Next guy I date is going to be all about me.” She swirled her finger around her face. “Only me.”

  I nodded.

  She brushed herself off and took a deep breath as she looked down the path toward the boathouse. “Wish me luck.”

  “Luck,” I said halfheartedly, not knowing at all exactly what kind of luck I was wishing her.

  As Candace shuffled her way down the path, I felt Freddie rush up behind me. “What are you doing? You didn’t talk Candace into seeing the futileness of it all, did you?”

  I backslapped him lightly on the belly.

  “Hey! Watch the hot chocolate.” He passed me a mug then a blanket he had slung over his shoulder. He even had my boots pinned under his armpit. “So what’s going on? Why is Candace teetering her way dangerously toward the icy water while you watch on?”

  “She’s meeting Grady at the boathouse. He texted her.”

  Freddie looked around. “So where is he?”

  I shrugged. “He hasn’t shown up yet. I’m just making sure Candace gets there okay.”

  “Aw,” Freddie said. “So your heart isn’t two sizes too small.”

  “For the last time, I never wanted Candace to fall into an icy lake!” Hmm, that came out louder than I had intended it on this still winter night. Candace turned and waved at us from the threshold of the boathouse. I waved back. She went inside and closed the door.

  I grabbed Freddie’s elbow to lead him back up the path. “She, uh, doesn’t want Grady to see me.”

  “So, we’re going back inside?”

  “No, we’re hiding.”

  “Excellent,” he said, moving toward a small cluster of trees. “I don’t want to miss this.”

  “I meant we’re hiding because we don’t want to leave the drunk woman alone by the icy lake, but we want to respect her privacy.”

  “Right. Right. By the way, what have you been getting into? You smell like Baby New Year’s spit up on you.”

  I shot him a look before turning my attention back to the boathouse. I then took a sip from the mug Freddie had passed me. “Mmm, this is good. Did you get it from—”

  “I thought I made it clear we would not be discussing Bean.”

  “I wasn’t going to say anything about Sean,” I said, taking another sip. I totally was though.

  A few more minutes passed. No sign of Grady.

  Finally I said, “Do you think we should—”

  “Hey, guys! I found my shoes!”

  Both Freddie and I jumped, sending hot chocolate splashing ever
ywhere.

  “Rhonda? Where the hell did you come from?” For a brief moment, I almost enjoyed the warmth of the hot chocolate on my hands. Might as well, they’d be icy cold in minutes.

  “Sorry.” She chuckled. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” She snickered some more. “Okay. Okay. Actually I did. You two were just huddled there looking all suspicious, I couldn’t help myself.”

  “Hilarious,” Freddie said, voice completely devoid of humor.

  “Where’s Candace?” she asked. “I thought we were supposed to be babysitting her.”

  “We still are. She’s in the boathouse waiting for Grady. He texted her saying to meet him there.”

  “They need to talk,” Freddie said.

  Rhonda nodded knowingly back at him before she looked at me. “I get it. You’re waiting to pounce.” She curled her hands into claws and thrust them at me.

  “No. I’m just keeping an eye on Candace until Grady gets here. She’s a little drunk, you see.”

  “Aren’t we all,” Rhonda said, nodding again. “But aren’t we also still worried someone’s trying to poison her?”

  “No,” I said, meeting Freddie’s eye. “We agreed that that whole theory was probably just a case of imagination running wild.”

  Freddie let out a huff but didn’t say anything. I took that to mean we were finally on the same page.

  “I see,” Rhonda said, still nodding big. “Just a little New Year’s game of Clue.”

  “Something like that,” I muttered.

  We all looked back to the boathouse.

  I took another sip of hot chocolate. “The water would be frozen at the edge there, right?”

  “Yeah,” Rhonda said. “It should be pretty safe.”

  “Right.”

  Freddie sighed. “Grady sure is taking his sweet time.”

  I nodded.

  “How long do we wait before we go get her?” Rhonda asked.

  “I think we should give it a few more minutes,” I said. “This isn’t exactly our business.”

  “Right. Right.”

  We all set our attention back on the lake.

  Nothing.

  “It’s pretty out here,” Rhonda said, looking up at the stars. She had to throw a hand out to balance herself.

  “So quiet too,” I said, grabbing her elbow to help steady her. “I can’t believe you were able to sneak up on us like that.”

  “That’s why they call me the Snow Ninja.”

  “Nobody calls you that,” Freddie said.

  She laughed. “You’re right. I totally just made that up.”

  I laughed, too, then we sank back into our silent observation of the boathouse—occasionally looking back up to see if Grady was coming.

  “It was pretty good, though,” Rhonda said, “the way I snuck up on you two. I mean, it is a quiet night. You can barely even hear the party. Just the trees cracking with ice and … what is that? A generator?”

  I could hear the faint hum and rattle of a generator too. Somewhere. “Hey, Matthew said he has a surprise planned for later. Maybe it has something to do with that.”

  “Surprise?” Freddie asked. “What kind of surprise?”

  “No idea,” I said, trying to pinpoint the noise. “It almost sounds like it’s coming from the boathouse.”

  We all stopped to listen.

  “Yeah,” Rhonda said slowly. “It does.”

  “Maybe it’s powering a heater?”

  Rhonda and I looked at each other. “Isn’t that dangerous? From the—”

  “Carbon monoxide!”

  All three of us dashed through the snow for the path.

  “We are the worst babysitters ever!”

  The Morning After

  “That was not our finest moment,” I said with a weak cough.

  “Sadly, not our worst though either.”

  “But it’s not like anything bad happened, right? Candace is okay?”

  “Yeah,” Freddie said slowly then, “wait … actually, I think that was just the beginning of Candace’s troubles.”

  I frowned. “Really?”

  “Oh no!” Freddie said with a gasp. “Don’t you remember what happened next? The toast? Oh crap! And then there was the—”

  “Okay, slow down, you’ve lost me. I remember we ran down the hill, and—”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “Candace!” I shouted as I hopped, skipped, and slid down the path.

  “Open the door!” Freddie shouted after me.

  Rhonda, however, wasn’t yelling. She had opted to take a shortcut, and now she was falling and … oh God … somersaulting down the hill.

  “Rhonda!” both Freddie and I shouted.

  Once she hit the bottom, she popped up to her feet. “I’m okay!” She shot us a big thumbs-up. She then trudged toward the boathouse door as we scrambled to catch up.

  “I can’t get it open!” Rhonda yelled back at us. “It’s stuck!” She banged on the wood. “Candace! Open the door!”

  Freddie and I finally made it over. We yanked at the handle with Rhonda. The door wouldn’t budge.

  “Candace?” I yelled again.

  Nothing.

  “Do you think she locked herself in there?”

  Rhonda and Freddie didn’t answer, just shot me worried eyes.

  I banged on the door again with the side of my fist. “Candace! Answer me!”

  I thought I heard a moan.

  “What did you two talk about?” Freddie asked. “Was she depressed?”

  “Well … yeah,” I said. “But not that depressed. I mean, she was talking about the future.”

  “Why … won’t … this … door … budge?” Rhonda grunted while really giving the handle a good pull. She then kicked at the snow around the bottom of the frame before looking up. “Oh shoot! There’s a latch!”

  There was too! One of those old-fashioned levers that swings down into a metal envelope at the top of the door.

  Freddie jumped up and smacked it out of place. We swung the door open.

  “Candace!”

  She actually looked quite comfy. She was sitting on a workbench with her coat curled up around her, arms wrapped around the champagne bottle pinned at her chest.

  I ran toward her as Rhonda hustled over the outside planks of the boathouse—around the frozen water where the boat normally sat—to get to the generator on the far side of the room.

  “Candace,” I said again, giving her shoulders a little shake. She moaned some more but didn’t open her eyes. “We need to get her out of here.”

  Freddie threw one of her arms over his shoulders, causing the empty champagne bottle to drop to the wood planks with a heavy thunk. I moved to her other side. We lifted her off the bench and dragged her toward the door.

  Once we got outside, Candace coughed then blinked her eyes open. “Hey, guys. What’s going on? Where’s Grady?”

  Freddie and I exchanged looks.

  “Did we break up?” She laughed and her head rolled back onto her shoulders. “Or did we make up?”

  “Let’s get her to Jessica,” Rhonda said. “I think Dr. Reynolds is here too.”

  “I’ll call 911,” Freddie said, reaching for his phone. “I mean, she wasn’t in there that long, but—”

  Candace swatted it out of his hand.

  “Hey,” he shouted.

  “Nine-one-one?” Candace asked thickly. “Why are you calling 911? I feel great. I just had a few too many drinks with Rhonda and a little too much champagne with Erica. Where is Erica?”

  “I’m right here.”

  Candace’s head whipped around. When she saw me, she snorted. “Hey girl! Where did you come from?”

  I smiled.

  “Steal my boyfriend yet?” She laughed again and turned back to Freddie. “She’s always trying to do that.”

  “I know,” he whispered back conspiratorially.

  I shot him a look over Candace’s head.

  What? he mouthed back.

  “Right,”
I said. “Let’s at least get Dr. Reynolds to check her out. Let him make the call about the hospital.”

  “Hospital?” Candace said. “No hospital. It’s New Year’s!”

  Freddie and I dragged her toward the hill. Rhonda followed behind just in case Candace fell back. Minutes later, we had her in Matthew’s room lying on the bed with Stanley as Jessica checked her over. Rhonda was searching for Dr. Reynolds. We had opted to use the porch to get inside, as opposed to going through the party. I didn’t think Candace wanted the entire town seeing her this way. Who knew if she had actually meant it when she said she wanted to quit—stumbling drunkenly through a party wasn’t exactly great PR.

  And then there were all the other rumors to think about.

  All the other rumors that were suddenly taking on new weight.

  I mean, the door could have locked itself shut when Candace had closed it, but why was a generator going in an empty boathouse?

  And where the hell was Grady?

  “Her vitals are good,” Jessica said, pulling her stethoscope from her ears. “You said she had a lot to drink?”

  “Yeah. She did.”

  “And how long was she in the boathouse?”

  “Not that long. Five? Ten minutes?” I said.

  “Could have been fifteen,” Freddie said. “But fifteen at most.”

  “I think she probably should go to the hospital just in case.”

  Right then Dr. Reynolds came through the door and headed directly over to Candace. He then got to work doing whatever it was that doctors do.

  “Maybe we should wait outside,” I said to Freddie.

  He nodded.

  We headed out into the hallway. A few people had gathered in the conservatory, so we searched for another private room. We ended up in what I was guessing was Matthew’s office.

  “So?” Freddie asked as soon as I shut the door.

  “So what?”

  “So what do you make of all of this?”