Mushing is Murder Read online

  6

  “Bill,” she breathed when she saw his face. She was ashamed at the rush of relief she felt that it wasn’t her father. The feeling only lasted for a moment as Malcolm knelt down next to him and took off one of his gloves, touching his fingers to the unmoving man’s cheek.

  “He’s cold,” he said. “I don’t think he’s breathing.”

  Angie felt her stomach drop. “Can you find a pulse?”

  Malcolm felt for it, then shook his head. “I don’t think we made it on time,” he said softly.

  She moved forward to kneel beside him. Bill’s eyes were open, and one of them was bloodshot. She reached out, then hesitated, not sure what she should do. Her eyes flicked to his hood, where she saw a drop of blood. Carefully, she pushed it back, revealing a bloody wound on his temple.

  “He must have fallen off and hit a rock or something,” she said. She felt numb, and not from the cold. She didn’t know what to do in a situation like this. They both had their cell phones, but there wasn’t any service this far out. They would have to leave him to go back to a house and call the police. And that still left the question of where her father and Dave were. Had something happened to them too? Were they still on the trails, unaware that one of their friends had been in a horrible accident?

  She was suddenly reminded of the accident that had taken her sister’s life, and the horror that had risen up in her when she realized she had spent hours living her own life, unaware that her younger sister was gone. It hadn’t even felt real when she got the call. She hadn’t wanted to believe that life could be so unfair. A phone call at the wrong time, a moment of distraction on an icy road, a tree in the wrong place, and everything had changed for all of them.

  She shook the memories away. “You should stay here with him. I can take the snowmobile to Dave and Cheryl’s house and use their phone to call the police.”

  “Will you be able to get in? No one was there when I checked.”

  “I used to do odd jobs for them when I was a kid,” she said. “I’m hoping they still keep their spare key in the same place. They probably do, nothing else seems to have changed in this town while I was gone.”

  He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment on that. Instead, he just nodded. “Go,” he said. “And hurry.”

  She pushed the snowmobile Malcolm had lent her to its limit as she followed the trails back toward David and Cheryl’s house, slowing only as she rounded corners so as not to risk running headlong into a sled team if someone else was out on the trails.

  She eased up a bit as the house came into view, and was turning the snowmobile toward the back porch when something caught her eye.

  A man was standing by the tall pole barn, unhooking a team of dogs from his sled.

  She hesitated, then changed direction, coming to a halt just feet away from Dave and his team. He was looking at her with a frown on his face, positioning himself so he was between her and his dogs. Belatedly, she realized he had no way to recognize her with all of the outdoor gear and the helmet she was wearing. She took the helmet off and cut the engine.

  “Angie,” he said. “What are you —”

  “Bill’s dead,” she said, cutting him off. She winced as soon as the words were out of her mouth, realizing how blunt she had been. The adrenaline that was still pounding through her made it hard to think clearly. “I need a phone. We need to call the police.”

  Dave’s eyes widened as she spoke. “Wait, slow down. What happened to Bill? Why are you even out here? I thought your dad said you were working today.”

  “It’s a long story,” she said. “But to keep it short, someone found Bill’s team running loose with an empty sled and came around the diner looking for help, since he couldn’t find anyone at my house or your house. We took his snowmobiles out to look for Bill and found him on one of the trails. It looks like he hit his head on something.”

  “There’s a phone in the barn, to the right of the door. Just let me finish getting the dogs unhooked, and I’ll join you.” He shook his head. “Bill… I can’t believe it. With what happened to your dad, and me running face first into a branch, I thought that was our bad luck for the day.” He touched the beginnings of a bruise over his eye.

  Angie took a step toward the door that led into the pole barn then paused, turning back around. “Wait, what happened to my dad?”

  “One of his lines broke and a dog of his took off. None of us could figure out what happened. He took the other dogs home and went out to look for the missing one.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief, not glad that the dog had been lost, but glad that her father hadn’t been injured or worse. After seeing what had happened to Bill, her imagination had run wild with Dave’s words.

  She hurried the rest of the way to the pole barn and pulled open the door, not even pausing to look around as she reached for the phone. She dialed the emergency number and explained what had happened, agreeing to stay on the property and be ready to lead the emergency workers to the body.

  By the time the dispatcher told her someone was on the way, Dave had joined her. He didn’t say much, just stood there wringing his hands, his pale face full of concern. She didn’t blame him. He, and her father, though he didn’t yet know it, had just lost a friend.

  It took longer than she had expected for the paramedics to arrive and for her to lead them back to where she had left Malcolm and Bill. Malcolm was still there, standing next to the body, shifting from foot to foot out of cold.

  Angie watched as the men loaded Bill up after the pair of police officers that had followed them took photos of the scene. As they began the journey back to the house, all she could think of was her father and how he would respond when he learned what had happened. He had known Bill for longer than she had been alive. What would his friend’s death do to him?

  7

  By the time she was done answering the questions for the police and had returned the snowmobile to Malcolm and retrieved her car, it was well into the afternoon. She called the diner to make sure everything was under control there, then decided to just go home.

  She already knew that her mother would be waiting for her — Cheryl had arrived shortly before the police left, and had told Angie she had dropped her mother off at home. However, she was surprised by the tight hug and warm tea that were waiting for her.

  “Oh, Angie, you must have had a horrible day,” her mother said, taking a seat across the table from her. “Dave called Cheryl and told her what happened while we were in the car. I’m so sorry you got dragged into something like this.”

  “I wouldn’t have been able to spend the rest of the day at the diner, not without knowing who the lost dogs belonged to. I was terrified that Dad was out there somewhere, hurt and alone.”

  “Oh, Angie.” Her mother reached across the table and took her hand. “I’m so sorry. We should never have asked you to come up here. If you had stayed in California, you would never have had to deal with any of this.”

  “It’s okay, Mom,” she said. “None of us could have known something like this would happen. I’m glad I came back.”

  She gave the older woman a tight smile and patted her hand. She didn’t want either of her parents to feel bad about asking her for help, no matter the fact that she had been daydreaming of California’s beaches every time she stepped outside and saw the snow. What happened to Bill truly wasn’t their fault, and she could have just as easily witnessed a gruesome accident back at her apartment.

  “What we really have to focus on right now is how we’re going to tell Dad.”

  With a stricken look on her face, her mother nodded. “It’s going to break his heart. The two of them were practically brothers.”

  Angie’s nerves only increased as the time passed by, afternoon inching into evening as she and her mother waited for her father to return. I wonder if he’s had any luck, she thought. The dog could be miles away. I’ll help him look tomorrow if he doesn’t find it tonight.

  When she finally spotted his truck, with the dog box in the back, pulling up the driveway, it just made her stomach twist even more violently on itself. The prospect of telling her father that his best friend, a man he had grown up with, gone to school with, shared a hobby with for years, had passed away made her want to run back to California and hide in her apartment more than anything else had.

  She watched through the window as he parked the truck and opened the dog box in the back, lifting a dog — she couldn’t tell which from this distance — into his arms and carrying it toward the house. Once she realized he was going to bring the dog inside, she jumped into action, dragging Petunia’s dog bed out of her bedroom — the husky didn’t use it much anyway, preferring the human bed — and into the living room, setting it up by the fireplace before getting a bowl of water from the kitchen. This had been their setup for injured dogs during her childhood, and she doubted it had changed much in the years since.

  Her mother was there to open the door for her father, stepping back as he carried the wounded dog inside. He grunted his thanks when he saw the dog bed Angie had put in the living room, and lowered the dog down on to it. The dog wasn’t one she recognized. He was mostly black, with tan eyebrows and a splotch of white on his chest and toes. There was a bandage covering most of one of his back legs.

  “How is he doing?” Angie’s mother asked softly.

  “I had to take him to the vet. He managed to get tangled up in a fence out on a farm a few miles away. The vet thinks he’ll be fine once he’s healed up.”

  “Do you have any idea how the line broke? Did he not have a neck line on?”

  “I could have sworn I hooked the neck line up, but he took off as soon as the tug line snapped. I must have forgotten. It looked almost like the tug line was cut. It’s possible that mice chewed through it out in the barn, I suppose.”

  “What’s his name?” Angie asked, gently stroking the dog’s head.

  “This is Oracle,” her father said. “One of Petunia’s pups, actually. Bill and I bred him with one of his dogs a couple months ago. She’s due any day now.” He patted the dog’s head, a proud look in his eyes, then stood up with a grunt and started toward the kitchen.

  Angie and her mother exchanged a look. It was time to tell him.

  Her father vanished into the bedroom after they gave him the news. Angie and her mother decided to leave him alone for a little while, and Angie started making dinner. None of them were hungry, but they still had to eat. It was an unhappy evening, and she couldn’t help but hope that nothing else went wrong. Losing a family friend was bad enough. Surely the worst was over.

  8

  Angie didn’t see her father the next morning before she left for the diner. Maybe that was for the best, since she didn’t know what she could possibly say that would make things better for him. One thing she hadn’t expected, but should have realized, was that Bill’s death was the talk of the town… as was the fact that she had been one of the people who had found him.

  All morning, she spent time trying to deflect questions about Bill’s accident. It got to the point where she asked Betty — who had the morning shift that day — to take over in front while she worked solely in the kitchen. This worked well, until the older woman came into the kitchen with an apologetic look on her face.

  “Someone out front is asking for you specifically,” she said. “His name is Malcolm, and he said he wants to make sure you’re doing all right.”

  “Can you send him back here?” Angie asked.

  She figured it wouldn’t hurt to talk to him. Since he had been there with her yesterday, he wouldn’t pester her for details like everyone else was. He would understand what she was going through. She was touched at the thought that he had come to the diner just to see how she was faring. Even though it had been the last thing on her mind the day before, she wasn’t blind to how attractive he was. He was definitely her type, and if he had gone to high school in town, she knew she would have remembered him. He must have moved there after she left.

  “Sure thing. How’s that breakfast burger coming along?”

  “The order’s just about ready,” Angie said. “Hold on just a second, and I’ll plate it.”

  It was the last order for the moment, which would give her time to talk to Malcolm as long as no one else came in in the next few minutes. She slid the still sizzling burger onto the toasted bun, then topped it with a fried egg, hash browns, and cheddar cheese. She placed the finished burger onto a plate that already had cottage cheese and fruit salad sides, and put the entire plate on the counter by the door just as it swung open and Betty, followed by Malcolm walked through.

  “Thanks, dear,” Betty said as she took the plate. “I’ll let you know if anyone needs anything. And you, young man, don’t you start pestering her about what happened.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Malcolm said. “I don’t have any intention of bothering her at all.”

  Betty gave him an approving nod, then left with the plate. Angie shook her head.

  “I’ve known her my whole life,” she explained. “She can be a bit over protective.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s nice to have people who care about you,” he said. He looked around the kitchen with interest for a moment before refocusing his attention on her. “I just stopped by to see how you were doing, and to apologize for dragging you out of the diner like that yesterday. Like I said, I was expecting to find your dad.”

  “It’s fine,” Angie said. “Of course, I wish things had turned out better, but I’m not upset that you came here and got my help. How do you know my dad, anyway? I never got a chance to ask you yesterday.”

  “Oh, he’s helping me get into mushing,” Malcolm said. “I know you probably get a lot of people like this up here, but I’ve always dreamed of owning sled dogs, and after my divorce, my ex-wife moved back to Alaska with the kids to be closer to her parents. If I wanted to be able to see my children, I didn’t have much of a choice but to move here. I decided I might as well follow my own dreams while I’m at it. I started attending races and volunteering, and I met your father a couple times and we got to talking. Once we realized we lived about a mile apart on the same road, he decided to take me under his wing. It’s been great, and I’ve learned a lot.”

  Angie blinked. Malcolm had not only been married, he had kids? He didn’t look like he could be more than a couple years older than her at most, not past his mid-thirties. She had turned thirty-one last spring. Was she putting things off too long? She had always vaguely planned to get married and have kids, the whole nine yards, but had always pushed it off toward the future. Malcolm was a living reminder that a lot of people already had families by her age.

  “That sounds like my dad,” she said at last, realizing that she had been silent for just a bit too long. “He loves anything to do with dogs, always has, and has been obsessed with mushing for as long as I’ve been alive, if not longer. He’s always thrilled when new people get into it. Do you have a team yet?”

  He shook his head. “When I moved here, I stayed in an apartment for a while until I found the right house. I already had one dog, who I brought with me — a German shorthaired pointer named Izzy. I didn’t want to get in over my head until I had a place with a proper yard. Dave, my neighbor, sold me two of his retired dogs, and your father was going to help me raise a couple of pups from a litter he and Bill were planning. I won’t be racing the Iditarod any time soon, but I enjoy even just going out on the kick sled with the older dogs.” He frowned. “Though after seeing what happened to Bill… I think I’m going to be taking a short break. I knew that it’s possible to get injured, of course, but it’s different seeing it with my own eyes.”

  “What happened to Bill… it isn’t common,” she said. “Even if you’re careful, even if you do everything right, sometimes bad stuff just… happens.” She fell silent, thinking of her sister.

  “Yeah.”

  Neither of them spoke for a long moment. Angie was saved from the awkwardness when the diner’s phone rang. She gave Malcolm an apologetic look, then hurried to go answer it. She was surprised to hear her mom’s voice on the other line.

  “Angie?”

  “It’s me,” she said. “Is everything all right, Mom?”

  “No, it’s not. Angie… the police just came and took your father away. I don’t know what to do. They said they need to ask him questions about Bill’s death. They said it looks like it was a homicide!”

  9

  Angie lowered the phone from her head and stared at it, as if it was the phone’s fault that she was losing her mind. Because, surely, she was hearing things. It just wasn’t possible that her father had been collected by the police for questioning about his best friend’s death of all things. The police must have made some mistake. There was no way Bill had been murdered. It had just been some horrible accident… right?

  “Are you still there?”

  Her mother’s voice was tinny and faint from the phone’s ear piece. Angie pressed it back to her ear with a frown.

  “I’m here,” she said.

  “What are we going to do? We have to help your father somehow. I’d go down to the police station myself, but I can’t drive, and I don’t want to tell Cheryl what happened. She’s a dear friend, but you know how she blows things out of proportion.”

  “I’ll come pick you up,” Angie said. “I’ll just have to leave the diner early. Theo’s supposed to be here soon anyway, Betty will just have to manage on her own for a little bit. Get ready to go, all right, Mom? The police must have made a mistake. You and I both know there’s no way Dad would want to hurt Bill.”

  She hung up and put the phone back in its cradle only to realize her hands were shaking. Malcolm was staring at her, his eyes wide. He had only heard half of the conversation, but she knew it had been enough for him to guess something about what was going on.