Vanessa Gray Bartal - Lacy Steele 07 - Icy Grip of Murder (5 page)

It wasn’t until the next morning
that Lacy realized she had drifted off to sleep before she could say another
word.

Sometime in the night, someone
tapped Lacy’s shoulder and shook her awake. She opened her eyes with a start
and found Jason hovering a half inch from her face. Before she could say
anything, he put his finger to his lips and pointed to Michael. She glanced to
her left and saw Michael sleeping peacefully. Jason used her head turn to get
closer to her ear and whisper.

“I’m so hungry. Where’s your
chocolate?”

She looked back at him to make sure
he was awake and not dreaming. Or maybe she was dreaming. Jason didn’t like
sweets. When he did occasionally indulge in a piece of chocolate, it was always
milk. “It’s dark chocolate,” she whispered. He usually said that dark chocolate
was too hardcore for him.

He nodded eagerly.

Her hand eased to the bedside
table, opened the drawer, and pulled out her emergency stash of chocolate. He
kissed her, gathered the chocolate to his chest, eased off the bed, and went
into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Lacy stared at the bathroom
door in confusion a few seconds before sleep claimed her again.

In the morning, she sat
up,
sure it had been a dream. When she opened the drawer,
her chocolate was there, but only what was left of it. She had started with an
unopened bag of thirty-two pieces. Now there were six. Looking around the room
for an explanation did nothing to help her. Jason and Michael were both gone,
and so were the keys to her rental car.

“Have I been mugged?” she asked.
While she waited for them to return, she showered, dried her hair, and put on
her makeup. She had just emerged from the bathroom when the door opened. Jason
and Michael burst in holding packages. Rather, Jason burst and Michael
meandered behind him.

“Um,” Lacy said, staring at Jason
in surprise. He wore a buffalo-check plaid shirt, dark denim, and new
steel-toed boots. Underneath his shirt peeked what looked like a pair of long
underwear. He also wore a new coat, but that wasn’t the most eye-catching part
of his new ensemble. On top of his head was a fleece-lined flannel hat.
With earflaps.
The earflaps were up, but not tied. They
flapped every time he moved or spoke.

“We brought breakfast,” he
announced triumphantly. “Michael knew this bakery. You’re going to love their
doughnuts. And they have
kringle
. I bought
two—apple and cherry. You love cherry, right?” It was all said without a
breath.

“Are you okay?” Lacy said at last.

“Yes. Why?”

“Well, first of all, you look like
a lumberjack.”

“There’s only one store in town,
and this is what they sell. I had to change there because I spilled coffee on
my other clothes. But this stuff is warm, really warm. In fact, I’m sweating.
Is anyone else sweating? I can’t feel my toes.”

“You’re talking really fast,” Lacy
said.

“I had some coffee,” Jason said.

“He had four cups of coffee. And
five doughnuts,” Michael said.

“I wanted to get the best ones.
Lacy’s doughnut picky,” Jason explained.

“You haven’t eaten a doughnut since
you became a cop,” Lacy said.

“I’m on vacation,” he said. “Did I
mention the
kringle
? It’s a regional specialty.” He
opened one of the boxes he was holding to reveal a round-shaped pastry with
white frosting. A quarter of it was missing. “I was hungry.”

“You had five doughnuts and a
quarter of a
kringle
?” Lacy said.

“I think I finally discovered why
sugar is so good,” Jason said. “I brought you some coffee, but I drank it. I
can get more at the hotel’s front desk. Or I could go back to the bakery and
get more.” His head swiveled toward the door. Lacy noted that his leg wouldn’t
stop bouncing and one of his fingers was twitching.

“No, that’s okay. I’ll get some
coffee later.”

“Okay. I probably shouldn’t have
anymore today anyway. My heart’s beating really fast.” He picked up her hand
and pressed it to his heart.

“Yes, it is.” She raised her hand
to touch the stubble on his cheeks. “Are you going to shave today, or are you
going full-on Grizzly Adams?”

“I’m going to shave. I was waiting
to shower until you got up so I didn’t wake you. Can I use your razor and
stuff?” he asked.

“It’s the ‘and stuff’ that worries
me,” Michael interjected.

“Help yourself,” Lacy said. She
watched him set down the boxes and go into the bathroom. Her gaze shot
questioningly to Michael.

“I have no idea,” Michael said.
“He’s been like that all morning. I’m not even sure he slept last night. He kept
talking about the miracle of chocolate.”

“Weird,” Lacy said. She sat on her
bed and faced Michael. “So, now seems like a good time to have that talk.”

“I’m not sure there’s ever a good
time to have that talk,” Michael said. “What do you know?”

“I read your file.”

“Ah, yes, the legendary file. I
wasn’t sure it actually existed. Good to know that it does.”

“I would like to hear it in your
words,” Lacy said.

“What more is there to say? The
facts are all true. My parents died when I was five. I had no family. I became
a foster kid.”

“Did you do all the things they
said you did?”

He smiled. “And then some.”

“Why did you come to our town? Why
did you lie to me?”

“You want to know something, Lacy?
Something I’ve never told anyone else before? Growing up felt like a lie. I
never thought of myself as a criminal. I did stuff to have fun or fit in or
whatever reason, but it never felt like me. I was the only red-haired kid in
this blond-haired, blue-eyed town. That was the only thing about me that stood
out, so I made up a story. I told myself I wasn’t from
here,
that
my parents had adopted me from Ireland and that was who I was. My
persona was my escape. When I left here, it seemed like the natural thing to
become that person. And, for the first time, I felt like I was who I was always
meant to be. Michael O’Donnell is much more real to me than Michael Smith.
There are a million of those in the world. My whole life, everyone knew me as
the orphan with sticky fingers. And then I came to your town and I was Michael
O’Donnell—respectable musician and shop owner. It was a chance to start
over, to have a new beginning. And now I’ve been arrested for murder. If, when
this is over, you don’t want me to come back, I’ll understand.” He stared at the
floor, awaiting her answer.

Lacy shifted to sit beside him on
his bed and slung an arm around his shoulders. “Michael, I don’t give up on my
friends, even when they turn out to be lying, thieving, homicidal maniacs.”

He smiled and returned her embrace,
slinging his arm companionably over her shoulders. “You’re an ace judge of
character, kid,” he said, leaning forward to kiss her cheek.

The bathroom door banged open.
Jason stood in the entryway wearing nothing but a towel around his waist and
his new flannel hat. On his face were several dots of blood-streaked toilet
paper. He looked at Lacy and Michael as he walked by them on the way to the
nightstand. Once there, he snatched up the bag of chocolate and returned
silently to the bathroom, closing the door in his wake.

“That’s my man,” Lacy said when he
was gone.

“The first step is admitting it,”
Michael said. That sent them into uncontrollable peals of laughter that worked
to remove any vestiges of tension. Michael leaned forward, clutching his
stomach. Lacy fell back on the bed doing the same. Jason took so long in the
bathroom that Lacy eventually went to check on him.

She found him curled up
asleep,
his head on a towel, a trail of chocolate drool
streaming down his chin.

When he woke, they ate breakfast and
talked more, this time about the case. “Tell us about Jenny,” Lacy commanded.

“Ah, Jenny. You know I have a thing
for crazy chicks. That’s why. No one I’ve ever met has been crazier than Jenny,
or smarter. She came to the home I was living when she was fifteen. She was
interested in starting something, but I wasn’t.
At least not
then.
I was too busy being a kingpin. Eventually she worked her way into
the group, and we became friends.

“I graduated. The group disbanded.
I became more serious about my music, although the cops refused to believe that
I still wasn’t some kind of criminal genius. I let the illusion stand because,
frankly, I liked it. So I was busy working odd jobs, playing guitar, and trying
to form a band, but Jenny and I kept in contact. As it turned out, Jenny picked
up where I left off with the group, only now they were getting into bigger,
more dangerous things. She offered me a few opportunities, but I turned them
down.

“Then, for some reason, things
turned to romance between us. I don’t know how it happened. I went from being
not attracted to her to in love with her, and then everything fell apart.”

“Why do they think you killed her?”
Jason asked.

“Because that’s how it appears. I
agree that all evidence points to me, but I didn’t do it,” Michael said.

“Do you have any proof?” Lacy
asked.

“No, but I know someone who does,”
Michael said.

“Who?”

“Jenny.”

“Don’t they already have all the
evidence she left behind?” Jason asked.

“They only have what she wanted
them to find,” Michael said. “All we have to find is one thing and my name will
be cleared.”

“What is it?” Jason asked.

“It’s less of a thing and more of a
who. The truth is that Jenny is very much not dead.”

“What?” Jason and Lacy said it
together.

“You knew this all along and you
didn’t say anything?” Jason continued.

“I didn’t know all along. It occurred
to me after I left. There were things about Jenny’s death that didn’t make
sense, but at the time I was too grief-stricken and panicked to put it
together. It looked bad for me, and the cops wanted nothing more than my head
on a platter. Don’t ever freeze the police chief’s car in a giant block of ice.
They should teach that in school. It’s not something a man can get over,
apparently. Anyway, after their first round of questioning, I bolted. Enter you
guys. But once everything calmed down, I had a chance to think about things and
put them together.”

“What things?” Lacy asked.

“The evidence. They had these
letters from me to Jenny, begging her to reconsider our breakup. But I never
wrote those letters. We hadn’t even broken up yet, and I was the one who was
pulling away. Things weren’t working out. Then there was a knife. It had my
prints and her blood. I recognized the knife as being hers and I tried to tell
them that my prints were on it because I had used it at her apartment the week
before, but of course they didn’t believe me. A neighbor said she heard us
arguing the night before, and that was true. We had been arguing a lot. Put
together with everything else, it looked bad.”

“What about the body?” Jason asked.

“There was no body, just the blood.
And a lot of it.
But with everything else, along with
my significant history, I was the only suspect in her disappearance. And there
was so much blood that no one thought there was any way she could be alive.”

“But you think otherwise.”

“I do now. When I saw the
scene—the ransacked apartment, the signs of a struggle, the buckets of
blood—I was sure she had been killed. My first reaction was a thirst for
vengeance for whoever murdered her. Then I realized everyone thought
I
murdered her, and my instincts turned
to self-preservation. Now that the boom has finally fallen and my head is clear
again, I realize what happened.
”

“Which is what?” Lacy asked. She
reached for another doughnut and found they were all gone. Jason sat beside her
surreptitiously licking powdered sugar off his fingers, which was such a
surprising sight that she stared. He was more apt to apply hand sanitizer than
lick anything as germy as fingers. She lifted the lids on the
kringle
boxes and found them empty, too.

“A few months before her
disappearance, Jenny started taking phlebotomy classes,” Michael said.

“Oh,” Lacy said. Learning how to
draw blood was a handy skill for someone who might want to one day
have
a lot of blood on hand.

“That should be easy to
substantiate,” Jason said.

“You would think so, but Jenny made
me promise not to tell anyone. I thought she was embarrassed about getting on
the straight and narrow. So I was the only person who knew. And, at the time, I
didn’t think it was an important detail, so I didn’t tell the police. I told
them on the way up here. They laughed it off, but even if they look into it,
what are the chances that they’ll find records from a community college night
class from so many years ago? It’s not like she got a degree. She could have
used a fake name for all I know. And then there are the letters. Some of the
things she put in them—I think they were hints to me about things that
had happened in our past, obscure things that I didn’t realize bothered her.
She must have been storing an arsenal to unleash on me. Also there was the
knife. Jenny gave it to me the week before her disappearance and asked me to
cut open a package.”

“Wait, you said she did all that
months before her disappearance. Do you think she had been planning it for so
long?” Lacy asked.

“No. I think she had been planning
it since we were sixteen. Here’s what I learned about Jenny: no grudge is too
small to hold onto. It took me a long time to realize that she felt rejected
when we were kids. Maybe if things had stayed good between us, this might not
have happened. But when the arguments started and she realized where it was
headed, it brought up all the old hurt and anger. Or maybe it was her intent to
do this all along. Maybe she’s even more psychotic than I gave her credit for.
What I do know is that this was a deliberate attempt to frame me for her
murder. She’s out there somewhere, and the only way to prove my innocence is to
find her.”

“Where do we start?” Jason asked.
Lacy suppressed her smile. For someone who didn’t think they should get
involved, he now sounded very much involved.

“With my old friends. The good news
is that no one ever leaves here, so they should be easy to find. The bad news
is that any one of them could be covering for Jenny. She had ways of making
people do things.”

“She sounds lovely,” Lacy said.

“She was hot,” Michael explained.
“Hot and crazy is always my downfall.”

“Let’s get started,” Lacy said. The
sooner they found Jenny, they sooner they could all go home.

“Can we stop for lunch first?”
Jason asked.

“We just finished breakfast,” Lacy
said.

“Some of us sooner than others. How
was the
kringle
? I didn’t get any,” Michael said. He
shot Lacy an accusing look.

“I didn’t get any,” she said. They
looked at Jason.

“It was good,” he said sheepishly.

“Do you need us to roll you to the
car, Paul Bunyan?” Michael asked.

“They weren’t that big, and they
had fruit. That’s almost healthy,” Jason said.

“You two have definitely spent too
much time together,” Michael said. “I guess we’ll have to stop for lunch so
Lacy and I have a chance at eating something.”

“Can we go to the diner looking
place we passed this morning? Their sign advertised homemade pie,” Jason said.

“Yes, but just as soon as we’re
done there, we’re leaving the Twilight Zone,” Lacy said.

“Oh, you,” Jason said. He reached
for her, but instead of embracing her, he put his hand in her pocket and pulled
out two Tootsie Rolls.
   

“Okay, seriously, let’s get you out
of this room,” Michael said.

They went to the diner and ordered
lunch. People stared at them, because of Michael’s notoriety or Jason’s hat,
she didn’t know. He hadn’t taken it off since he emerged from the shower that
morning.

“What kind of pie are you going to
order?” Jason asked her.

“I’m full. I think I’ll skip,” Lacy
said.

Michael looked up from the doodle
he had been drawing on his napkin. “What?”

“I’m not in a very pie place right
now,” Lacy said.

“If you don’t try something, you’ll
regret it,” Jason said. “What about peanut butter? I’ll get chocolate, and we
can share.”

“All right, but I can’t eat much.
I’m full,” Lacy said.

“Something tells me it won’t be a
problem,” Michael said.

When the pie arrived, Lacy took a
bite of peanut butter and a bite of chocolate. Jason ate the rest.

“Where do we start today?” Jason
asked after he polished off the last morsel of pie.

“By pumping your stomach?” Michael
suggested.

“What are you talking about? I
don’t even feel full,” Jason said.

“The first thing we need to do is
get out of here. Too many prying eyes,” Michael said.

Lacy felt the same way, as if
everyone in the restaurant was eavesdropping on them.

They walked outside and Michael
began to talk. Lacy wasn’t sure how because the stark cold left her breathless.
“We need to visit some of my old friends. I’m guessing they’ll still be where
they were when I…” A thud and a groan made him pause. He and Lacy turned to see
Jason holding his head after walking into a beam.

“What happened?” Lacy asked.

“It’s like this pole appeared from
nowhere,” Jason said.

“And yet two out of three of us
walked around it,” Michael said.

“Are you okay?” Lacy asked.

“Yes, it didn’t even hurt. I think
the hat absorbed the shock,” Jason said.

“It must be lucky. You should never
take it off,” Michael said. Lacy pinched the back of his arm. He wrenched away
and held out his hand for her keys.

“Maybe I should drive,” Jason said.
“The roads look icy, and I have the most training.”

“I don’t want you behind the wheel
until you’re back to normal,” Michael said. Lacy didn’t say as much, but she
agreed. Jason wasn’t acting like himself.

“What are you talking about? I feel
fine,” Jason said.

“You look good, too,” Michael said.
“Now scurry into the back seat and try not to eat it.”

“Where are we going?” Lacy asked,
taking the shotgun position by default.

“We’re going ice fishing,” Michael
said. Before Lacy could comment on that, her phone rang. She answered with a
suppressed sigh; it was Pearl.

“Hi, Lacy, it’s Pearl. I was
calling to see how you enjoyed my screenplay.”

“I’m in Minnesota, Pearl,” Lacy
said. The statement was greeted by silence. “Michael was arrested, and I flew
here. It was a long, long day yesterday.”

“So, how far along are you?” Pearl
asked.

“I haven’t had a chance to start it
yet,” Lacy said.

More silence. “You did bring it
with you, didn’t you? Because I could fax it, if you didn’t.”

“I did bring it,” Lacy said,
thankful for whatever impulse had caused her to toss the heavy manuscript in
her bag. Maybe she knew that this was coming. Pearl was like a delusional
terrier. She didn’t let go of a thing until its heart stopped beating. “I’ll
try to work on it if I get a chance, but we’re a little busy here.”

“Okay. I’ll call you tomorrow,”
Pearl said and disconnected.

“We have a tail,” Jason said.

Lacy glanced down to make sure she
wasn’t having another wardrobe malfunction, but everything was as it should be.

“I know,” Michael said. “They
assigned a unit to me after my release yesterday. He’s marked, so they’re not
even trying to hide him. Do they think I’m going to go on a spree?”

“This could be helpful. Maybe when
we figure out what happened to Jenny, they will too,” Lacy said. She turned to
see a marked police cruiser a few paces back.

“Doubtful,” Michael said, his tone
bitter.

“Lacy’s right. Don’t lose him,”
Jason said.

“Look, I know you guys respect the
law and all that, but you didn’t grow up on the wrong side of it. Pardon me if
I don’t share your enthusiastic belief that the police will make everything
better. I’m on my own here,
trust
me.”

“What are we, chopped liver?” Lacy
asked.

“You know what I mean. In this
town, I’ve always been on my own. Not being alone is new, but not bad.
I…appreciate you guys helping.”

Jason stuck his head between them.
“Is it me, or did the mention of food make anyone else hungry?”

“There’s a summer sausage in my
purse,” Lacy said.

“Sweet,” Jason said, lunging for
her bag.

Michael put up his hand and pushed
him back. “No, absolutely not. No one is eating summer sausage in this car.”

“I’m hungry,” Jason said.

“Yes, I gleaned that from the drool
on your chin. Hold it together until we get where we’re going. And you,” he
shot Lacy a look. “Do not enable whatever this is.”

“I can’t stand to see someone
hungry. I know how it feels, and it’s awful. Although I’m still full,” Lacy
said.

“Look, I am a murder suspect and
reformed criminal. I should not be the lone voice of reason in this group,”
Michael said. He glanced at Jason in the mirror. “What happened, man?”

“Why do you keep saying that? I’m
fine. Lacy, tell him I’m fine.”

Lacy turned to survey him. His
earflaps moved imperceptibly with each blink. “You’re pretty.”

He smiled. “You guys are crazy.
There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Yeah, we’re crazy. Keep telling
yourself that. Meanwhile wipe the powdered sugar and whipped cream off your
chin,” Michael said as they pulled to a stop in front of a rustic looking
fishing camp.

“This place looks deserted,” Jason
observed as he swiped the back of his hand over his chin.

“It’s a little early in the season.
Flea is the caretaker.”

“Flea?” Lacy repeated.

“Nickname,” Michael said. “And
there’s something you should know about him.”

“What is it?” Jason asked.

“It’s his feet,” Michael said.

“What could we possibly want to
know about his feet?” Lacy asked, but she reached for Jason’s hand as she waited
for the answer.

“He doesn’t wash them,” Michael
said.

“Ever?” Lacy squeaked. Jason
squeezed her hand. She had a thing about feet, the thing being that she hated
them. It was something she had learned not to tell people because they tended
to use it against her, as if it was funny to put their nasty hooves all over
her person. She had only confessed the truth to Jason after a few months of
dating and during one of those long talk sessions wherein they confessed their
deepest secrets. So far he had kept the secret safe and not used the
information against her.

“Never ever. He believes dirt is
healthy or something
like
that. I don’t get his
rationale, but I wanted you to know because it’s…unusual. There’s a reason that
he works at a secluded fishing camp.”

“So he can keep his feet as dirty
as he wants?” Jason clarified.

“Yes. Except for the feet thing,
he’s a mostly normal guy.”

“Do you want to stay in the car?”
Jason asked Lacy.

“No, I can handle it,” Lacy said,
but she felt queasy at the thought of seeing those feet. “It’s not like I have
to touch them.”

Michael was observing the
conversation, and that made her nervous. He liked to tease her, to get a
reaction out of her. Those were always the kinds of people who used feet
against her. She glanced at his feet. They were huge. If he ever put them on
her…Well, she would cross that bridge when the time came.