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

  “Oh please,” Freddie muttered angrily. “It’s Mrs. Applebaum’s. She won’t care if I borrow it. I lent her husband my backhoe to … do whatever it is that people actually do with backhoes.”

  Freddie had bought a backhoe a couple of years ago to dig out his own pool. He’d abandoned the project once the dirty lake water seeped up into the hole—and he realized he needed permits. More trouble than it was worth. He decided to keep the machine as a recreational backhoe, though, because he couldn’t return it for full price.

  Sean shot me a bemused look.

  “It’s a long story.”

  He picked up another coat from the floor. “Freddie is a really interesting person, isn’t he?”

  “Yes. Yes, he is.”

  “Let’s go,” Freddie said, his fur-covered shoulder brushing past me.

  “Should I come along?” Sean asked with feigned lightness.

  “As long as you don’t slow us down,” Freddie said.

  “Great,” I said, smiling at Sean before hurrying after Freddie. Once I made it to his back, I hissed into his ear, “You know, you need to be a little bit nicer to Sean.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if you’re not careful, you’re going to end up dying alone.”

  “Oh thank God,” Freddie muttered. “And here I was worried I was going to die with you.”

  The Morning After

  “That was not very nice.”

  Freddie patted Stanley’s belly. “Hey, you’re the one who doesn’t want to be BFFs forever.”

  “It’s just BFFs! The last F is the forever!” I sighed. “And I think you’re just nervous around Sean, and it makes you snarky.”

  “Oh really? Well, I think you’re—” He cut himself off with a disgusted scoff. “I don’t have the energy to go into all of the things that you are.” He looked down at the coat he was wearing. “I’d better get this dry-cleaned. Do you dry-clean furs?”

  “No idea.”

  “Besides, who are we kidding? We’re both going to die alone.”

  “Alone, but probably together.” Huh, a wave of déjà vu washed over me.

  Freddie sighed. “You were right all along, New Year’s is depressing.”

  “I never said it was depressing! I love New Y—”

  “Are you sure you never said that, Erica? Like really, really sure?”

  I frowned. New strange images flashed through my mind. One of them … blinding? “What … happened next?”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  “Would somebody please get this girl a tissue?” Freddie put his hand over his eyes and shook his head.

  Turned out we didn’t have to go all the way outside. We ran into Chloe in the kitchen. She hadn’t had any luck finding the glass either. Now she was sitting on a stool, weeping.

  Freddie accepted a tissue from another server and passed it to Chloe. She blew her nose, which made him roll his eyes.

  I leaned over to whisper to Sean, “Just so you know, Freddie’s not always so…” Hmm, what was the word I was looking for? Unsympathetic? Rude? Impatient? “It’s just…” What was I doing? They couldn’t start a relationship based on a lie. “Never mind.”

  Sean smiled. His nose wrinkled when he smiled. It was adorable. I was really hoping Freddie wouldn’t mess this up for us.

  I took a step toward Chloe and put my hand on hers. “Can you tell us what happened?”

  “Am I in trouble?”

  “No, we just want to help.”

  “I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong,” Chloe said, turning her puffy eyes to mine.

  I gave her a small smile. “I believe you.”

  I thought I heard Freddie scoff again, but I didn’t think Chloe had heard it over her catching breath.

  “I mean, this guy came up to me and asked if I would mind giving this drink he was holding to someone.” Her hands flopped into her lap. “I asked who, and he pointed at Candace. She and Sheriff Forrester had just finished talking to you.” She met my eye. “And they were headed down that hallway off the foyer.”

  I strained my memory to see if I could remember anything that might help, but I’d been so wrapped up in my own stuff. An alien could have landed, and I wouldn’t have noticed. “What did this man look like?”

  “He was really, really tall and good-looking for an older guy.” She shrugged. “You know, kind of like Sherriff Forrester. Dark hair. Light eyes. Bigger maybe.”

  “What kind of drink was it?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “It was like fluorescent green and smelled fruity.”

  “Appletini, maybe?” I asked, looking at Freddie.

  He stroked the end of his chin. “Mrs. Watson.” His eyes narrowed. “I should have known the dragon was involved.”

  I shot him a warning look before turning back to Chloe.

  She pointed at me, tissue clutched in her hand. “He also asked me to give Candace a message.”

  I went still. “What kind of message?”

  She sniffed. “He said to tell her Happy New Year from a friend.”

  Whoa. I folded my arms over my chest and took a step back.

  “Here’s the thing though,” Sean said, jumping in. “Chloe wasn’t able to give her the message.”

  “What?”

  Chloe shrugged. “I mean, I caught Candace in the hallway, and she took the drink, but she was in the middle of some sort of thing with Sherriff Forrester. I didn’t want to interrupt. They were in that room with all the plants like a second later.”

  Sean and I exchanged a look.

  “So I went back to find the man to tell him that I couldn’t deliver the message, but…”

  “But?”

  She gave another shaky shrug. “He had disappeared. That’s when I started to worry that maybe I shouldn’t have taken that drink to Candace. I mean, I’ve heard about roofies and stuff. But at the time I didn’t think about anything like that. I mean, she was with Sherriff Forrester.”

  I squeezed her hand. “I get it.”

  “Was there something in that drink? Does this have something to do with Freddie’s dog being sick?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. That was kind of partially true. “But I think you might have to make a statement to the police.” If we could find the freaking sheriff, that is! Where the heck was Grady?

  Chloe started to cry anew.

  “Oh for the love of…” Freddie whirled away.

  “Hey!” I hissed, hurrying over to him. He was hovering angrily over a cheese platter. “You be nice. She just made a mistake.”

  “She’s a crying menace,” Freddie hissed. He popped a spicy-looking cube into his mouth. “First she’s mean to Tyler then—”

  “Mean to Tyler?” Chloe called out. “When was I mean to Tyler?”

  Freddie pushed past me. “Oh, so you’re going to sit there and tell me that you didn’t say you were out of his league and his tux…” Freddie closed his eyes. “His tux was cheap.”

  “Oh my God. I was so kidding!” she shouted. “I was just surprised to see him dressed in a tux. I actually thought he looked pretty good.”

  “Oh, pretty good,” Freddie said, folding his arms over his chest. “But not good enough to be in your league.”

  “No! I would never say…” Chloe’s cheeks flushed. “Oh no. That wasn’t supposed to get back to him.” She closed her eyes. “I didn’t want to hurt Tyler’s feelings. I didn’t mean that I was out of his league. I just meant that he’s a year younger, and I’ve just always seen him as … younger.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. “Does that make any sense?”

  “It does.” It’s funny how a year can make such a difference in high school. “I get it. And for the record you don’t have to apologize for not returning someone’s feelings. Right, Freddie?”

  We warred eyes for a bit.

  Finally Freddie said, “Right, Erica.” Then added, “But you remember this moment when you have your own child.”

  Just then a
nother server with his hair slicked back into a man-bun came up. “Hey guys, I don’t mean to interrupt…”

  “Josh,” Sean said. “What’s up?”

  “Well, it’s not like I was purposely eavesdropping, but…”

  “Don’t worry,” I muttered. “I do it all the time. Do you know something about this?”

  “I think I might have seen the guy you were talking about.”

  Freddie and I cocked our heads to the side like dogs hearing the same whistle. We were definitely spending too much time together.

  Man-bun pointed to the foyer. “I spotted someone walking around the front porch through one of the windows. I thought it was kind of weird. I mean, he wasn’t smoking or anything.”

  “Why do you think it was the same guy?” Freddie asked.

  “Because he was a really big, good-looking dude,” Josh said with a slow nod. “And I don’t know how exactly to describe it, but it kind of seemed like he was skulking.”

  That didn’t sound good. The porch wrapped all the way around the house, meaning he could get to Matthew’s room … and Candace. “When was this?”

  “Not very long ago. Five, ten minutes maybe?”

  Freddie and I exchanged another look.

  “We’d better go.”

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  “I don’t like this,” I said, stamping my feet in the spot I had made in the snow. “We’re wasting time, and I can’t feel my toes again.”

  “Nobody said surveillance was easy.”

  About fifteen minutes later, Freddie and I were huddled behind some bushes just near the tree line watching the door to Matthew’s room. Occasionally Rhonda’s silhouette moved past the curtains. We had already walked the entire porch and checked on Candace. We didn’t find anyone or anything suspicious and Candace was fine, so we opted for a stakeout. As per usual, we didn’t really have a plan, but Freddie felt it was our best lead. We were hoping to spot a big, handsome man skulking around outside.

  “Maybe we should split up,” I suggested. “You can stay out here while I go back to looking for Grady.”

  “Tyler and his friends are on it,” Freddie said. “Cool your loins.”

  “My loins are cool. Freezing actually. Every part of my body is freezing.” I stamped my feet again. “And it’s not like Grady to just disappear.” This standing outside doing nothing was giving my imagination free rein again. It’s amazing how many awful scenarios you can dream up when you’re worried about someone you care about. And that worry was growing with every passing second.

  “No way you’re leaving me out here with all these creepy lights,” Freddie muttered, looking suspiciously at a twinkling reindeer decoration. “I might get attacked by elves. Besides, for all we know Grady could be the big, handsome man skulking around outside.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.” I blew some air onto my thinly gloved hands.

  “The description did sound a lot like Grady.”

  “It wasn’t Grady. Chloe knows what Grady looks like.” I shoved my hands back into my pockets. “And Grady was with Candace when the mystery man asked Chloe to give Candace the drink.”

  “But man-bun Josh doesn’t know what Grady looks like. And doesn’t it seem weird that there are two big handsome men with dark hair and blue eyes hanging over Candace?” Freddie suddenly chuckled. “Maybe it’s Grady’s evil twin.”

  I huffed a laugh, but I wasn’t feeling very funny. Sure, when we first couldn’t find Grady, it’d seemed likely that he was just in another part of the party and we weren’t crossing paths, but, again, with every second that ticked by … I didn’t know what I’d do if something happened to Grady.

  My mind was spinning with everything that had happened tonight. I had gone from believing I was over Grady, to hoping that I might get my second chance with him, to hearing him say we weren’t meant to be together …

  Now I just wanted him to be safe. I’d give anything for him to be okay.

  I exhaled a rough breath and shook my head.

  No. Everything was fine. It had to be.

  He had to be.

  “What are you thinking?” Freddie asked.

  “Honestly?”

  He didn’t deign to answer.

  I took a deep breath. “I’m freaking out. I feel like any minute we’re going to stumble across Grady … hurt … or worse. Like see that fallen tree over there?” I said, pointing back into the woods.

  Freddie’s brow furrowed as he darted a glance over his shoulder.

  “Doesn’t that look like Grady collapsed on the ground?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Or … or … maybe he did go down to the boathouse to meet Candace and he fell into the lake. Or maybe he fell down some cellar stairs and broke his leg, and he’s been yelling for help, but nobody can hear him. Or maybe—maybe—he confronted Candace’s friend and the friend shot him with a crossbow, pinning him to a wall in a creepy old bedroom—or to the inside of a door!—and, and by the time somebody finally swings that door open, it will be too late! He’ll have bled out!”

  Silence fell over us.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have let out everything I had going on upstairs. “So … what were you thinking?”

  Freddie turned his face to mine. “Same thing.”

  “Really?”

  “No, you psycho! What’s the matter with you?”

  “I told you I’m freaking out!”

  “Well, stop it,” Freddie said, looking back at the estate. “You’re freaking me out, and we need to be smart about this. The mystery man is our best lead to figuring out what’s happening tonight.”

  I wrapped my arms around my waist. “But he’s not the only suspect. We still can’t rule out Bethanny.”

  “A minority has been in town, what? A couple of hours? And you’re already accusing her of murder?”

  I backhanded him on the arm.

  “So what’s the deal between her and Candace anyway?”

  I told him all that Bethanny had told me, and what Candace said earlier.

  When I was finished, Freddie said, “Whoa. That’s heavy.”

  “I know. Bethanny has some serious issues with her sister, but Candace really does want to make it right.”

  “And I never would have guessed that Candace was a social outcast like us back in the day,” he went on. “But I guess it makes sense. She was always trying just a little bit too hard. Nobody’s that nice all the time. It’s weird.” He sighed then squinted back at the house. “Can you see anything? I think I need a new prescription for my contacts. Maybe we can go into town next—”

  I let out a small shout of frustration.

  “What now?”

  “I can’t just stand here talking about prescriptions while Grady’s missing!”

  “You have the patience of a two-year-old,” Freddie said, keeping his eyes on Matthew’s bedroom door. “For all we know, Grady is just brooding by himself, and—”

  “During the exact time period when somebody is trying to frame him for murder?”

  “I wouldn’t underestimate Grady’s capacity to brood,” Freddie said.

  “Yeah, but what if our mystery man does come back?” I asked, gesturing wildly at nothing. “What are we going to do then? Make a citizen’s arrest?”

  “Um, no. Especially not if he’s as big and muscular as everyone seems to think he is.”

  “Well, then?”

  “We,” he said, drawing the word out into nonexistent syllables, “are going to take his picture.”

  My jaw dropped, but its effect was wasted as Freddie had already gone back to watching the house. “And how exactly are we going to do that? I know for a fact that your smartphone does not take pictures in the dark.” He had been complaining about it just last week.

  Freddie chuckled again in that way that sounded like Erica, Erica, Erica—but, you know, in laugh form. “I’m not going to take the picture with just my smartphone.”

  I frowned. This couldn’t be going anyw
here good. “So what are you going to take it with?”

  “This!”

  Freddie pulled a black metal tube from his pocket.

  I frowned. “And that is what exactly?”

  “The Blinder 3000. It’s a tactical-grade flashlight. It can light up this here entire woods with just the flick of a switch,” Freddie said. “I’d give you a demonstration, but it would totally give away our position. I thought it might come in handy when we were working security.”

  I rubbed my arms. “You bought that off an infomercial, didn’t you?”

  “So what if I did?”

  “No, it’s nothing.”

  “Tell that to all the judgment in your voice,” Freddie muttered. “But you’ll be impressed once our mystery stalker reveals himself. Not only will I get my picture, but I will blind the sucker in the process. If you flick it on and off really fast, I think it can even induce seizures.”

  “Oh, for the love of—” I put my hands over my face. Wow, my nose was cold. “This is so not a good use of our time! For all we know the guy has taken off. Maybe we should call the sheriff’s department. Amos is probably there or … or what’s the name of that other deputy they hired?”

  “Greg?”

  “Yeah, Greg.”

  “Not Greg,” Freddie whined. “He’s zero fun.”

  “This isn’t about fun!”

  Freddie pointed his flashlight at me. I almost put my hands up. “What are we going to do? Report Grady missing? He’s a grown man. At a party. In a fight with his girlfriend. He’s probably drinking in a corner somewhere with high school buddies.”

  I forced Freddie’s shooting hand down. “That’s not Grady, and you know it.”

  “What I know is that we’ve only been out here for fifteen minutes tops, and that stakeouts typically take—Did you hear that?” Freddie hissed, slapping me on the arm.

  I froze. “Hear what?”

  “The sound of the universe proving me right?”

  “Nope.” I shook my head. “Pretty sure I’ve never heard that sound before.”

  “Shush!” Freddie waved a hand in front of my face. “There it is again!”

  I listened as hard as I could which really just meant I froze and moved my eyes side to side. Oh! Crap! I did hear something. It sounded like someone walking slowly through crunchy snow.