Snowmen In Paradise (Book 2 Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries) (20 page)

“Why didn’t you?”
Dylan’s look of disappointment was clear.

“I don’t know
. Josh is Dennis’s best friend. On the surface, it looked like Josh might have killed Travis. I was afraid if I told you, you’d feel obligated to arrest him. I should have given you more credit.”

“I wouldn’t have arrested him without cause,” Dylan reminded her.

“I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kept this from you. It won’t happen again. Forgive me?”

“We’ll see.”

“So what now?” Tj asked.

“We know who stab
bed Travis, and who drugged him,” Kyle said while Dylan and Tj sat looking at each other. “I guess we just need to figure out who actually killed him.”

Tj awoke on Friday morning to snow flurries in the air. The local weather report predicted the high for the day would be a blustery twenty-eight degrees. She pulled on an old wool robe over the long johns she’d worn to bed. Slipping her feet into knee-high slippers, she stumbled into the bathroom attached to her bedroom and turned on the small space heater. Splashing cold water on her face in an attempt to wake up, she went downstairs and into a thankfully toasty warm kitchen.

Tj wasn’t certain what time Ben got up in the morning, but nine times o
ut of ten he had the coffee made, breakfast started, and the room warm from the crackling fire before anyone else in the house had emerged from the bedrooms upstairs. She opened the door and let Echo out for his early morning romp. After filling the cat dishes with fresh food and water, she poured herself a cup of hot coffee before snagging one of the freshly baked cinnamon rolls Ben had left cooling on the counter.

“What time are
we leaving for the carnival?” Ashley appeared before Tj could take her first bite of the hot roll dripping with melted frosting.

“I told Jenna I’d help out at the sled
-dog races, since they canceled the downhill events scheduled for today, and they start at nine, so I guess we should leave here by eight.” Tj glanced at the clock, which read 6:24.

“Ice fishing is at ten,” Ben reminded her.

“I know. I figure I’ll help Jenna with the sled dogs and then use the snowmobile to cut a direct path to Miller’s Pond. I should be there in time to help you get set up.”

“How about us?”
Gracie asked. “Can we snowmobile with you?”

“Sorry
, sweetie, not this time. Papa is going to bring you in the truck. Where is he, anyway?”

“Right here
.” Mike walked in through the kitchen door, with Echo on his heels. Both man and dog were covered in freshly fallen snow. “I wanted to check with Julie to make sure everything was set for today’s activities.”

“But we don’t want to go in the truck,” Gracie argued
. “We want to go with you on the snowmobile.”

“Yeah,” Ashley joined in
. “How come Tj gets to go on the snowmobile and we can’t?”

“Because,” Mike kissed each of the girls on the top of the head before taking off his hat and gloves, “we
’re going to the carnival in style.”

“Style?” Ashley asked.

“The resort is offering sleigh rides during the carnival this year, so I decided to hook Buck and Jelly up a little early and take my two best girls into town.” Buck and Jelly were two of the horses that lived year round in the Maggie’s Hideaway stable.

“We’re goin
g to the carnival in the sleigh?” Both girls screamed with excitement.

“I told Rosalie we’d pick her up at seven
forty-five, so I need you to finish your breakfast and get dressed.”

The
girls jumped out of their chairs and ran across the kitchen to hug Mike, who was pouring a cup of coffee. It warmed Tj’s heart, the way her dad had embraced her sisters and accepted them into his life. At first Tj had thought it might be strange for him to be put in the position of raising his ex-wife’s children by another man. But, in the end, he’d never shown even the tiniest hesitation in making them part of the family.

“We’ll go
only
after you finish breakfast and are dressed in warm clothes, including your snowsuits, boots, hats, and gloves,” Mike warned the girls.

“Breakfast is ready
.” Ben set a platter with eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast in the center of the table, next to the mostly empty platter of cinnamon rolls. “I’ve already eaten, so I’m going to head upstairs. Doc and Bookman are going to pick me up in half an hour. We still need to get the ice-fishing house placed over the hole we cut yesterday.”

“You fish in a house?”
Gracie asked.

“It’s really a small hut with a bench to sit on and a hole in the floor
that you position over the hole you cut in the ice. It helps to keep you warm.”

“Can I see it?”
Gracie asked.

“Tj can bring you out onto the ice
on the snowmobile when she gets there.”

“We can’t go until we find Crissy,” Gracie stated.

“Crissy is missing?” Tj asked. 

“No one has seen her
since yesterday,” Ashley responded.

“She’s been
acting funny,” Gracie added.

“Funny how?”
Tj wondered.

“She’s been walking around and meowing
, and she wouldn’t eat her dinner last night. I took her in my room when I went to bed, but she was gone when I woke up.”

Tj had been m
eaning to take Crissy to Rosalie for a checkup ever since they’d adopted her, but she seemed to have gained weight and looked to be healthy, and she’d been so busy, she hadn’t gotten around to it. Gracie, who’d immediately adopted the cat as her own the minute Tj had brought her home from Zachary’s house, would be crushed if something happened to her new friend. It had only been six months since her mom’s death. The last thing she needed was to lose something she loved.

“You girls finish your breakfast and then get dressed
. I’ll look for her,” Tj promised. “She probably just found a comfy place to hide and is sleeping in.”

“I don’t blame her for looking for another place to sleep
. Gracie kicks in her sleep,” Ashley commented.

“Do not.”

“Do so.”

“
It doesn’t matter,” Tj intervened. “You each have your own room and your own bed now, and I’m sure Crissy loves sleeping with Gracie. She probably snuck out for a snack when I went in to check on you guys last night and then couldn’t get back in after I closed the door. I’m sure she’s fine. Now hurry up and finish your breakfasts. We wouldn’t want to keep Buck and Jelly waiting.”

Jenna waved to Tj as she maneuvered her way through the throngs of people gathered to watch the sled-dog races. While many of the participants owned their own teams, Dennis had borrowed one from Maddie Crawford, an eccentric old woman who lived outside of town with the twenty-six dogs she bred and raced. Dennis and Maddie first became friends when he was just ten years old. He’d been out ice fishing when he saw one of her dogs that was chasing a rabbit fall through the ice. Dennis had rescued the pup at great risk to his own safety, and Maddie had been trying to pay him back for his heroic deed ever since. Dennis wouldn’t take money as a reward, but he’d always wanted to learn how to manage a team, so Maddie had taken him under her wing, and Dennis had placed in the top three during each of the past five winter carnivals.

“You’re late,” Jenna commented.

“I was looking for Crissy.”

“Something happened to Crissy?”

“I hope not. She didn’t come down for breakfast this morning, and Gracie said she didn’t sleep with her last night. She’s slept with Gracie every night since we brought her home.”

“I hope she’s okay,” Jenna worried.

“Me too. Gracie will be heartbroken if something happens to that cat. Ashley remembers seeing her yesterday, and Gracie said she didn’t eat her dinner last night. She took her to bed with her, but she was gone when she woke up this morning.”

“Maybe you should have Rosalie take a look at her
when you track her down,” Jenna suggested.

“I’ve been meaning to do that
. She probably needs her shots, but I’ve been so busy, I haven’t gotten around to asking.”

“I wouldn’t worry
. Cats are independent souls. I’m sure she’ll turn up,” Jenna assured her. “Oh, look, they’re getting ready to start.”

“Is the dog on the left
new?” Tj asked.

Jenna nodded. “
Koda retired. That’s Sitka, with Juno. They’ve only been working together for a month, but Dennis is very excited about his chances this year.”

Tj crossed the first two fingers on each of her hands
. “Here’s hoping.”

“W
hat happened to Maddie’s arm?” Tj asked. The woman, who usually won the competition every year, had entered her own team as usual, but she had a cast on her arm.

“Dennis sa
id she had a fall.”

“And she’s
going to run her dogs anyway?” Tj asked.

“Apparently
. You know Maddie. It’ll take more than a broken arm to slow her down. Is Kyle coming out for the race?” Jenna wondered.

“He has
the Silly but Awesome competition this morning. He said he’d meet up with us afterward. Where are your girls?”

“Your dad picked them up in the sleigh
. I took a picture of the four girls all bundled up on the backseat while your dad drove and Rosalie sat next to him. It’s really cute. I’ll forward you a copy.”

“Taking photos is one thing I need to get better about doing,” Tj admitted
. “All my friends who have kids have a phone full of pictures of the little darlings, and I have maybe five.”

“Most parents start off taking photos of their adorable new baby
. There’s this almost manic drive to capture every first: first smile, first step, first tooth. Once they get going, they get into the habit. Remember all the photos you took of Echo when he was a pup?”

Tj did remember
. Her friends were as sick of looking at puppy pictures as she was of looking at photos of babies.

“It looks like they’re getting ready to start,”
Jenna said. “Let’s work our way to the front. I want to get a picture of Dennis crossing the finish line.”

Dennis did well, but he couldn’t beat Maddie Crawford despite her injury. Watching the woman work with her team was something to behold. She knew exactly what to do and when to do it to get the optimum performance from the dogs, who obviously adored the ground she walked on. Tj had heard stories of sled-dog owners who treated their dogs like livestock, but to Maddie they were family.

As planned
, Tj traveled cross-country on the snowmobile in order to get to the ice-fishing competition with enough time to help Ben position his warming hut over the hole he’d already carved in the ice. Dennis and Jenna promised to meet her at the event after Dennis helped Maddie transport the dogs and equipment to her house.

Ben was
dressed like an Eskimo in a blizzard, but Tj knew once the competition began, the layers would start to work their way into a discard pile on the bench of the hut. Working a large fish through a small hole took a lot of muscle and tended to work up quite a sweat if things went well. The rules of the event dictated that the teams could aid each other in retrieving the fish they caught, but no one else could assist in any way. Tj doubted that Ben and Bonnie would win the event. For one thing, Bonnie wouldn’t be joining Ben until halfway through the competition; for another, neither really had the upper-body strength to pull in a large catch even if they managed to snag one. There were prizes for both size and overall number caught, so maybe they could place in the numbers category.

“Did you see Grandpa’s house
?” Gracie trotted up to Tj. “It looks like a real house, only there’s a big hole in the floor.”

“I’ve seen it before,” Tj confirmed
. “I need to go to help Grandpa position his house in just the right place and then I’ll come back and get you girls and take you for a ride out to see it up close.”

“Okay
,” Ashley agreed. “We’ll wait right here with Papa until you get back.”

Ben had cut twin holes in what he believed to be a hot bed of fish activity
. He’d been a fisherman all his life and knew the best places to throw a line, so he was hoping for a bountiful catch. It took the combined effort of Tj, Ben, and Bookman to maneuver the hut out onto the ice. Doc was busy preparing his chowder for the upcoming cook-off. After everything was in place, Tj ferried Ashley, Gracie, Kristi, and Kari out to the hut, giving each a chance to sit on the bench and watch how it was done.

“How’d the
Silly but Awesome hockey go?” Tj asked Kyle when he arrived with Julie on his arm.

“Second place,” he
said, beaming.

“How are the rest of the event
s at the resort coming along?” Tj asked Julie.

“Fantastic
. I have to get back for the snowmobile finals this afternoon, but Kyle offered to buy me lunch, and I had to eat.”

“After all the long hours you’ve been putting in
, you deserve a nice long lunch and more.”

“Your dad said I could take
the first two weeks of March off. I thought I’d go home and visit my family.”

“I enjoyed meeting them last summer
. You should definitely invite them out again,” Tj suggested. The previous summer, Mike had comped a two-week stay for Julie’s entire family. It had given the busy activities director a chance to visit her family without having to take time away from the resort during the busy season, and her family the opportunity to spend two weeks in one of the most beautiful places on the planet.