On Thin Icing (29 page)

Despite the storm and Tony’s murder the weekend had been a success. I flipped off the lights and bid good-bye to the cozy kitchen.

It was time to go home.

Chapter Thirty-four

Most of the board members had dispersed. A couple sat by the fireplace, but otherwise the dining room was empty.

When I walked past the bar, I noticed Mercury and Whitney going over an invoice. I ducked my head in. “Just wanted to say thanks and good-bye.”

Mercury motioned for me to come in. “We were just talking about you. Your ears must be burning.”

“Me?” I walked to the bar.

“Yeah, I was telling Whitney that we have you to thank for catching Gavin.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” I shook my head. “Thomas and the Professor were already on to him.”

“Yes, but they told me he might have already been on the road if you hadn’t stalled him.”

“I doubt he would have gotten far.” I pointed behind them to the snowy scene outside.

“True.” Mercury glanced out the window. “But he knew the back roads around here better than anyone. There’s a lot of forest to disappear into.”

“Good point.”

Whitney held up a paper invoice. “I have you to thank, too.”

“What for?”

“This.” She pointed to the invoice. “It’s the exact price we first discussed. Hopefully, that means I’ll get to keep my job.”

“Lance would never have fired you,” I said.

“He might have when he saw how much Tony was going to charge us.”

“But that wasn’t your fault.”

She gulped. “It kind of was. I was telling Mercury that I lied. I did lose the order. I tried to blame Tony. When he found out, he jacked the price up. I should have told Lance right away.”

“Losing an order isn’t grounds for having Tony charge you double.”

“More than double,” Mercury said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe that he and Gavin were stealing from us and our customers this whole time.”

“What are you going to do now?” I asked.

She sighed. “Start over, I guess. My husband isn’t going to believe everything that happened, but if there’s a silver lining, it’s that the resort is probably in much better shape financially than we thought.”

I paused for a moment and then looked at Whitney. “Before I go, I have a question that’s been bothering me.”

“What?”

“Why didn’t you tell Thomas and the Professor about Tony? You were the one drinking wine with him the night that he was killed, right?”

She turned as red as the pizza sauce. “Yeah. I apologized to Mercury for that. I told her I would pay for the wine.”

Mercury placed her hand over Whitney’s and said gently, “And I told you not to worry about it. The fault was all Tony’s, not yours.”

Whitney smiled up at her. “I don’t know why I didn’t tell the police. I was so scared. Tony threatened to tell Lance. He said Lance would fire me for sure. I needed this job. My uncle worked hard to get it for me and I didn’t want to let him down.”

“But the police would have understood.”

“I know.” She hung her head. “I guess I just caved to the pressure. Tony told me to meet him in the kitchen after everyone left. He was already half drunk when I arrived. I thought maybe I could convince him that I didn’t have that kind of money and that I was too new to OSF to know how to expense extra fees. He wouldn’t listen. He just kept drinking more wine, and laughing about drinking the expensive stuff. He said not to worry, that he would fake an invoice and Lance would never know.”

“So that’s how he did it,” I said. “He created fake invoices.”

Mercury nodded. “Yep. I found a stack of them in the back of the cash register. I can’t believe how much money he stashed. The Professor is going to work with me to make sure we return the money to our customers. At least the ones we can. It will be hard to track down people he overcharged in cash, but the customers that he invoiced will get their money back.”

I spotted Carlos putting our bags in the back of his rental car. “I’m glad that the Professor is going to help you,” I said. “I see my ride out there. I better go.”

“Thanks again for everything,” Mercury said. “You’re welcome here anytime. Come back this summer and stay as my guest.”

“I’d love to.” I gave them both a hug and headed for the car.

Before I got to the front door, I ran smack into Dean Barnes. He had two suitcases in his hands.

“Sorry,” I said, taking a step back.

“The fault is mine.” He set the suitcases on the floor. “I’ve come to find Whitney. I’m her ride home.”

“She’s in the bar.” I pointed to my left.

“Excellent.” He smiled and extended his hand. “It’s been a pleasure. I’ll be frequenting Torte. You have a fan in me for sure.”

“Thanks.” I returned his handshake. “We’re open every day. Come by anytime.” I started to walk past him, but stopped in mid-stride. I had to know why he’d been shooting in the woods. “Can I ask you one thing, before I go?”

“Of course.”

“Why were you shooting in the woods?”

“For practice. I told you this.”

“I know, but it’s kind of weird, don’t you think, to shoot at night?”

He shook his head and chuckled. “Oh, it’s becoming clear to me. Did you think I had something to do with the murder? Is that why you were so skittish when I saw you?”

I nodded.

“I assure you, the only thing I enjoy shooting is fowl, and an occasional fox.”

“At night?”

“Shooting is my way of letting off steam. I don’t do well when I’m cooped up for long stretches of time. I needed the fresh air and the sound of my gun.”

“Got it.”

“A murderer, me?” He laughed. “I thank you for considering me a suspect. It makes me feel quite young, actually.” He gave me a half salute and walked to the bar.

I continued toward the car. All of my questions seemed silly. I should have trusted my initial instinct that there was no way Whitney or the elderly Dean could have killed Tony. I guess murder messed with my head, too.

Speaking of messing with my head. Carlos stood with his legs crossed and his back against the car. He looked like an ad for a skiing magazine with his posture and his puffy jacket. I had a feeling he was going to mess with my head.

Thomas and the Professor were busy with the investigation as Carlos and I drove past. Thomas held up his hand in a wave. His face looked wistful. I thought about asking Carlos to stop, but I didn’t. I caught Thomas’s eye in the side mirror. He smiled, gave me a final wave, and returned to the crime scene. I knew that we had more to say to each other, but for now it would have to wait.

Carlos and I took the opposite route home—through Medford. Gavin had been right about the storm. Work crews and snowplows lined the two-lane highway. The sound of chain saws and heavy construction equipment made it hard to speak. I gazed out the window at the massive piles of snow.

“Julieta, you are a million miles away,” Carlos said as he steered the car around a giant log.

“Sorry.” I smiled. “I just need some time to think. My head is kind of swimming in this murder and everything that happened this weekend.” What I didn’t tell him was that my head was running on a constant loop about him. Our conversation about Ramiro hadn’t left me feeling any clearer on why he had lied to me. If anything, it made me even more confused. He clearly loved his son, yet had chosen to shut me out of that part of his life. What else could he have lied about?

Carlos took one hand from the wheel and placed it over mine. “It is okay. It is good for you to think,
querida.
”

Trees blurred out the window as Carlos returned his hands to the wheel and sped around a curve. It wasn’t only the trust issue that was bothering me. There was no denying the chemistry between us, but was it enough? Everything about our relationship felt like the surface of the sea. We worked great on smooth water, but did we have enough depth to weather this rough patch?

A police car zoomed past us on the opposite side of the road. I wondered if it was heading to Lake of the Woods. “I can’t believe it was Gavin,” I said, watching its blue and red flashing lights. “The lodge was so important to him. It was his life. It was all he had. Why would he ruin that?”

Carlos was quiet for a moment. When he finally spoke, his voice held a trace of sadness. “He made a mistake.” I knew he wasn’t talking about Gavin.

We drove on in silence. The storm had left its mark on the forest. Snow was heaped as far as I could see. Debris was scattered on the ground and roadway. Uprooted ancient trees had caved to the power of the wind and the weight of the snow. I felt sad for them, and for Gavin. If only he had gone to Mercury. She would have been upset, but she trusted him so much, I’m sure she would have found a way to forgive him. There was no chance of that now. I wondered what would happen to him, and his forest retreat.

Before I knew it, we passed a sign saying it was ten miles to Ashland. Ten more miles and I would be home again. Home! I couldn’t wait to see the staff at Torte and Mom. Mom and I had so much to discuss, like Tony’s murder and Sterling’s first successful outing as a sous chef. Not to mention trying to figure out where she stood with the Professor, and then Carlos.

Carlos was coming home with me. Things were not the same between us, but I owed him a chance. I thought back to the quote that Sterling had shared on the drive to Lake of the Woods. I couldn’t step twice into the same river. Was I doing that with Carlos? Or was there a way we could find a new river together? I didn’t know if there was space for him in the new life that I’d carved out in Ashland, but I was about to find out.

Recipes

Orange Cardamom Rolls

Ingredients:

DOUGH:

1 package quick rise yeast

¼
cup warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

½
cup melted butter

½
cup sour cream

½
cup sugar

½
teaspoon salt

1 egg

2
¼
cups flour

FILLING:

¼
cup butter

½
cup brown sugar

½
orange—juice and grated rind

1 teaspoon cardamom

GLAZE:

½
orange—juice and grated rind

1 cup powdered sugar

Dough:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Dissolve yeast in warm water with the teaspoon of sugar. Let stand 5 minutes.

Combine melted butter, sour cream, sugar, salt, and the egg in a mixing bowl. Gradually stir yeast mixture into butter mixture. After the yeast has been incorporated slowly stir in flour, one cup at a time, until it forms into a soft dough.

Lightly flour a cutting board and knead dough until it is smooth. Add a couple tablespoons of flour as needed if dough is sticking to hands.

Place dough in the mixing bowl, cover with a towel and let rise for one hour or until doubled in size.

Filling:

Combine butter, brown sugar, orange rind, cardamom, and half the juice of the orange with a fork.

Form dough into two equal balls. Roll the first ball into a rectangle about an inch thick. Sprinkle with half of the filling. Roll into a log, beginning with the long side. Repeat with remaining dough. Cut each roll into 12 (1-inch) slices. Place slices in a buttered 13 × 9-inch baking pan. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Glaze:

Whisk powdered sugar, juice from remaining half of orange and grated rind. Drizzle over warm rolls. Sprinkle with cardamom.

Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

Whole chicken (Jules prefers to use organic free-range chicken)

1 yellow onion

6 cloves garlic

4 carrots

4 celery stalks

1 lemon

1 clementine

6 sprigs of fresh rosemary

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

6 sprigs of fresh pineapple sage

Olive oil

Sea salt

Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a roasting pan. Rinse and clean chicken. Be sure to remove everything from the bird’s cavity. Chop onion, carrots, celery and place in the bottom of the pan. Peel garlic and place whole cloves in the bottom of the pan. Poke small holes in the lemon and clementine and stuff in bird’s cavity along with the fresh herbs. Place on top of the vegetables. Massage bird with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 1 to 1
½
hours, or until juices run clear. Remove from the oven, cover with foil, and allow to rest for fifteen minutes before carving.

Braised Green Beans

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh string beans

4 pieces of center-cut bacon

3 cloves garlic

2 to 3 cups chicken stock

Salt

Pepper

Directions:

Rinse and drain beans. Chop bacon and fry in a sauté pan. Add chopped garlic and beans to bacon and fat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add enough chicken stock to cover beans. Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve hot.

Double Chocolate Cookies with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

½
teaspoon salt

²
/
₃
cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 cups flour

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together in an electric mixer. Add vanilla and eggs, beat at medium speed. Sift dry ingredients, blend at low speed until combined. Stir in chocolate chips by hand.

Form dough into one-inch balls and place on cookie sheets, two inches apart. Bake at 400 degrees for ten minutes. Cool and frost with chocolate cream cheese frosting below.

FROSTING: