Snowed Under

Book 6: Maggie McDonald Mystery

by Mary Feliz

Genres: Amateur Sleuth; Cozy Mystery; Female Sleuths

Synopsis

When professional organizer Maggie McDonald finds a body in a snowdrift outside her friend's ski cabin, she must plow through the clues to find a cold-blooded killer . . . Lake Tahoe in February is beautiful, but Maggie can't see a thing as she drives through a blinding blizzard with her friend Tess Olmos and their dogs, golden retriever Belle and German shepherd Mozart.Maggie has offered her professional decluttering skills to help Tess tidy up her late husband's cabin in preparation to sell. She also plans to get in some skiing when her husband Max and their boys join them later in the week. What she doesn't plan on is finding a boot in a snowdrift attached to a corpse. The frozen stiff turns out to be Tess's neighbor, Dev Bailey, who disappeared two months ago. His widow Leslie expresses grief, but Maggie can't help but wonder if it's a snow job. As more suspects start to pile up, things go downhill fast, and Maggie must keep her cool to solve the murder before the killer takes a powder . . . “A skillful amateur detective with an impressive to-do list.” — Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW, Address to Die For

Release date: June 9, 2020

Publisher: Lyrical Press

Print pages: 227

Sample

Chapter 1

Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.

—Buddha

Lived in Nepal between 6th and 4th centuries BCE

Wednesday, February 17, Late evening

The scene was like every description of a near-death experience I’d ever heard.

I drove through the darkness toward a white light on California’s Interstate 80, east over the Donner Pass toward Lake Tahoe.

Banks of plowed snow towered above the freeway, obliterating what would have been gorgeous mountain vistas if there had been any visibility. What the newscasters had calmly predicted as “winter storm conditions” howled around us, buffeting the car and overpowering my headlights, defroster, and windshield wipers.

For miles, I’d searched for a rest area where I could unclench my hands from the steering wheel, clear ice from the windshield, and take care of more basic human needs. But snow obscured the exit signs and wind erased tire tracks as soon as they formed. My golden retriever, Belle, huffed warm wet breath in my ear. Her pal Mozart panted beside her. My friend Tess Olmos dozed in the passenger seat.

I didn’t dare pull over, in case what I took for a safe shoulder turned into a thousand-foot descent into oblivion. In weather like this, we’d plummet to the ground and wouldn’t be found until spring.

“Turn here,” Tess said.

“Where?” My view out the front windscreen was no different than it had been for the last three hours—remarkably similar to the static on midcentury televisions.

“Here. Stop. The exit.”

I pulled the car slowly to the right, squinting to distinguish something—anything—that would tell me we’d reached the turnoff for Highway 89 in Truckee, the gateway to North Lake Tahoe’s world-class ski resorts. The swirling whiteness took on a salmon-colored tinge as I drove beneath sodium vapor lights marking the main road that led toward Tess’s family ski cabin.

“Turn. Right. Right. Right. No, not so much.”

The rhythmic thump of my tire chains slowed as I crept forward. “Do you want to drive, Tess? You know these roads.”

“You’re doing great. Besides, the shoulders aren’t plowed. If we pull into a parking lot we’re apt to get stuck.” I wasn’t convinced. Tess’s voice sounded strained, as though she spoke through clenched teeth. “It’s only a few more miles.”

“Which should take a mere two or three hours at this rate.” My fingers ached from tightly gripping the wheel. What would normally have been a four-hour drive from Orchard View and the San Francisco Bay Area had taken nearly twice that long thanks to the heavy rain turned blizzard that had blown through hours earlier than anyone expected.

We weren’t stupid, Tess and I. We’d been watching the weather report for days and left early to beat the weather. The storm had other plans.

My eyes burned, my knotted shoulders felt like hardened concrete, and my nerves frayed. I took a deep breath and tried to relax. The good news was there was little traffic. The bad news was that there were no tire tracks to follow. Snow plows worked overtime to keep the main arteries open, but secondary roads hadn’t seen removal equipment for hours. It was only Tess’s familiarity with the route that kept my tires on the pavement instead of spinning off the road. I inched from one reflective snow stake to the next.

“Okay, there on the left,” Tess said. “Leave the car in front of the garage for tonight.”

I looked out at a blank canvas. “I’d be happy to do that if I could see the garage.”

“It’s right there.” Tess pointed into the nothingness. “Wait.” She scrambled in her purse, pulled out a garage door opener, and pointed it past me. I heard a muffled grinding and thought I detected a slight lessening of the whitewashed darkness. “Rats. The door is caked with ice and snow. It can’t clear the doorframe.” She pushed the button on the clicker again. The grinding stopped.

“We can’t just leave the car in the road. What if a snowplow comes along?” My voice broke from exhaustion and I struggled to keep from taking out my frustration on my best friend.

“Inch forward,” she said, as though I had a choice in the matter. “We’ll park at the end of the road. It’s not strictly legal, but we’ll move it as soon as we can. There’s a turnaround circle. You should see the lights over the mail center and bear boxes.”

“Bear boxes?”

“Bear-proof dumpsters. Here. Stop.”

I couldn’t distinguish any landmarks in the static whiteness.

“The rest of the hill has some drainage issues. It gets icy all the way to the bottom. The lights are out, but you’re good here. Pull to the right as far as you can. There are drifts of plowed snow between the road and the rocks.”

“Comforting,” I said, not meaning it. I pressed gently on the brake. The car slewed to the right as though it had heard and obeyed Tess’s instructions.

“Good enough. We’ll take the dogs and leave everything else. I’ll give you a toothbrush and something to sleep in. It’s going to be hard enough to trudge back uphill to the house in this wind without loading ourselves up with stuff.” She grabbed two leashes and handed me one. I stashed a bottle of wine in my jacket.

“Mozart knows where the house is,” Tess said, rubbing the ears of her German shepherd, a bomb-sniffing special forces marine reassigned to life as a devoted family pet. She hugged the dog and whispered in his ear. “I’m not sure whether I’m leashing you so I don’t lose you or so you don’t leave me behind. We’ll need your help to find our way back to the house.” Mozart wagged his tail.

Belle woofed politely to remind me she was waiting. Then she woofed again in either impatience or encouragement. Or both. I clipped the leash to her collar.

“Ready?” Tess asked.

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not if you want heat, a hot toddy, and a bathroom.”

I straightened my shoulders, zipped my parka, and pulled my knitted pink hat down over my ears. Snow or ice pellets pricked my cheeks like needles.

If Tess said anything more, her words were lost in the howling wind. The frigid air stuck the insides of my nostrils together and made it difficult to breathe. If I thought Belle could hear me, I’d have ordered her to heel. I hoped she wasn’t so eager to follow Mozart that she’d pull me too quickly over treacherous ground. The only good thing I could say for the storm was that the thick snow might cushion a fall. A broken limb was the last thing any of us needed.

If the day had gone according to plan, we’d already be several hours into our project for the week, clearing out generations of clutter in the Olmos family’s ski cabin, preparing it for a quick sale that would help finance a career change for Tess and college tuition for her son Teddy.

With my initial timetable long abandoned and a complete inability to spot a single landmark in the storm, I heaped my trust on Mozart and Tess, ducked my head, and put one foot in front of the other. Two steps forward, one ungainly wobble, and a slip back down the hill. Wash, rinse, repeat.

When we reached our destination, we banged on the door though we knew no one was home to hear us or welcome us into long-sought warmth and comfort. We pounded to break up ice that had frozen in the jambs and sealed it shut. In the end, it took the weight of both of us to free it. Overbalanced, we nearly landed in a squirmy pile on the entryway floor.

My teeth chattered. I was frozen clear through to my bones. “How far is it between here and the car?”

“Hundred yards, give or take.”

“Uphill. Seemed like miles.” An unpleasant whiny tone tinged my words.

“Food, fire, a little booze. We’ll both feel better.”

I trudged down the chilly hall, desperately seeking a perch that wasn’t vibrating and shuddering like snow-chain covered tires on rutted pavement.

“That’s the garage,” said Tess from the staircase. “Reverse floor plan. Kitchen and living room are up here.”

* * * *

Upstairs, we shed our coats. I plunked down the wine bottle I’d smuggled under my jacket. Tess swatted at my arm. “Thank goodness you didn’t fall on that and slice yourself open. There’s no way we’d get back on the road tonight to get you stitched up.”

She pulled crackers and cheese from fridge and cupboard while I searched for mugs.

“I’ll make you Patrick’s grandmother’s recipe,” Tess said, pulling honey and bourbon from a cabinet. “Lemon, honey, and a bit of ginger. Cures colds, warms a chill, and is good for what ails you, even if nothing ails you.”

I fed the dogs and filled their water dish, then arrayed snacks on a plate.

“Can you turn up the thermostat?” Tess asked, pointing toward a living room wall, speaking around cracker crumbs, and brushing more from her fleece sweater. “I called ahead to take some of the chill off, but I don’t think it’s crested sixty degrees.”

“You called ahead?”

“One of those fancy-pants tech gadgets that talks to my cell phone. Comes in handy when you’re managing a second home and want to keep the pipes from freezing.”

I took Tess at her word though I’d never owned a second home. I nudged the thermostat up and then scurried to the fireplace and phoned Max and the boys to tell them we’d arrived safely. They didn’t answer, and the connection seemed iffy, so I texted the message, sparing them the scary details of our trip.

I knelt to open the flue and light an already-laid fire. As meager flames struggled to gain strength against the cold, I gathered our damp coats, hats, and mittens and draped them over the hearth-side drying rack.

Torn between planting my backside against the fire screen and being swallowed by a voluminous sectional, I chose the couch. On three sides it surrounded an enormous square coffee table under which both dogs had already retreated. The homey sound of a boiling kettle sang out. Tess joined me soon afterwards with a tray of steaming mugs and the snacks.

“I don’t want to move from this spot,” I told her, grasping a mug in both hands and letting the steam waft over my face and warm my nose.

“I hear you. Our guests often crash here after a day of skiing. Sometimes I wonder why we bothered with bedrooms at all. But—”

“No. Just no. Tell me there’s no but. But can’t be good. I don’t want to know.”

“But in weather like this, chances are the electricity will go out. We’ll need to stoke the fire through the night to keep the pipes from freezing.”

“Sleep here and throw a log on the fire every few hours? That’s doable.”

“First we need to bring wood up from the garage, let it warm by the fire, and set our phones to wake us. If the alarm goes off and the power’s still on, we’ll just roll over and go back to our dreams.”

I sank into the sofa cushions. “Toddies first, right?”

The room went dark as if Tess’s warning of an outage had made it so. We sat in the eerie glow of the fire, listening to the gusts outside. In the absence of refrigerator, furnace, and other modern noises, the wind noise grew more threatening.

The night ahead loomed long, cold, and dark.

Chapter 2

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

—Confucius, Chinese philosopher. 551-479 BCE

Thursday, February 18, Morning

I awoke to the sounds of the microwave beeping, the refrigerator motor firing up, and the feel of warm dog breath on my face.

“G’morning to you, too,” I told Belle, pushing her head away and struggling to extricate myself from the deep cushions. I cursed my recent absence from my Pilates class at the Mountain View YMCA. Stronger core muscles would have helped.

I tossed a log on the fire and noted that Tess, at some point, had escaped the sofa, presumably to find a real bed. I let her sleep and then began the multi-stage process of outfitting myself, layer by layer, for the weather outside.

I leashed up the dogs, left the front door off the latch, and stepped gingerly off the front stoop, gripping the railing until I could determine the slip factor of the ground underfoot. My first steps, in the shade of the house, were promising. There were two conditions I feared more than any others—a thin layer of melted water over ice, and a dusting of powder disguising slick terrain. So far, so good. I squinted into the sun reflecting off the fresh snow and patted my pockets for the sunglasses I’d left behind. Next time I ventured outdoors, I’d remember to bring them.

The air was still cold, but much warmer than it had been the night before, and the wind had died overnight. I unhooked the dogs’ leashes and followed them as they bounded over the drifts like puppies with a new toy. We retraced our steps downhill to the car, where I brushed nearly a foot of snow from the roof and windshield. I stopped and leaned against the hood, watching the dogs and resting, out of breath after what amounted to light exercise. My body struggled to adapt to the altitude and the fact that it took me five or six breaths to take in the same amount of oxygen I could capture in four inhalations at home, closer to sea level.

The dogs’ antics had already furrowed the terrain in the turnaround area of the cul-de-sac. In the center of the road, we pushed through knee-high snow with a few areas nearly blown clear by the overnight gale. Everywhere else, nearly four feet of snow softened every surface, making it appear that the bear boxes, mail station, and vegetation had been covered with a thick puffy duvet. I grabbed a bag of groceries from the car and whistled to the dogs. The rest of our luggage could wait until Tess helped me drive the car back to the cabin. I needed her knowledge of the landscape to help keep my wheels on the snow-covered road, away from concealed rocks, and out of hidden gullies. I wondered what other creatures lay just out of sight. Hibernating bears? Tiny voles and mice? Snowshoe rabbits? Mountain lions? I shuddered and glanced over my shoulder. I had that tense feeling between my shoulder blades that meant someone or something was watching me or I’d spent too long yesterday at the wheel.

The last time I’d been to Tess’s cabin had been during a summer heat wave, back before the recent death of her husband, Patrick. It had been the height of the tourist season. Every house was full of guests. Any self-respecting bear would have stayed far away from the noise. But now, I saw only one house other than Tess’s with a plume of smoke escaping its chimney. The nearest house to the left looked long abandoned and in need of care. Icicle spears stretched from the roofline to the ground.

How many neighbors did Tess have in the winter months? Were the rest of the houses owner-occupied, vacant, or rented?

I trudged back up the hill toward coffee. I’d drag Tess out of bed if I had to. We had a long list of chores we needed to finish this week so that we could spend the weekend skiing. My husband Max, our children David and Brian, and Tess’s son Teddy were joining us Friday night. After that, with the contents of the ski cabin discarded, donated, or stored, Tess would bring in painters and repair people to get the house spruced up to sell.

It was her late husband who’d loved the mountains. Tess and Teddy were beach people. Without Patrick, the ski cabin had lost its luster—

Panic derailed my thoughts as my foot found a slick spot in the road. I gasped, fought for balance, and windmilled my arms. Without my noticing, the sun had warmed the neighborhood to just above freezing. Icicles dripped from the eaves of all the houses. Rivulets of water carved their way through the drifts. After I’d regained my balance I shuffled my feet to keep from catching a heel on a patch of ice. I hoped some of the snow would survive the thaw. I’d been so focused on yesterday’s driving conditions that it hadn’t occurred to me to check the forecast regarding weekend ski conditions.

* * * *

Back inside the cabin I stomped snow off my boots and left them near the door. The dogs dashed up the stairs, leaving a trail of melting clumps behind them. I dodged the damp spots in my stocking feet and inhaled the aroma of hot coffee and cinnamon. Either Tess was up or she had the friendliest most hospitable ghost in the world.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” I said to Tess as she poured coffee and pulled fragrant cinnamon buns from the oven.

“Thanks for taking the dogs. Is your car okay?”

“Yup. I don’t think we’ll need to shovel it out at all. Snow’s melting fast.”

Tess wrinkled her nose and peered out the window. “I was afraid of that.”

“Most of the lifts will still be in operation this weekend, right? Even if we don’t get more snow?”

Tess plucked a bun directly from the pan and transferred it to a plate, leaving a trail of icing drops that she cleaned up with her finger. “I think so. I’m not worried about that so much as the possibility of flooding.”

“At this time of year?” I associated flooding with the spring snowmelt rather than a brief winter thaw.

“Maybe.” She took her coffee mug to the window and stared out. “Could you hear the creek when you were out with the dogs?”

“I didn’t think to notice.”

“It’s probably not a problem. When we have a quick thaw and the ground is still too frozen to absorb water, run-off creates flash flooding. The ice on ponds and lakes will be soft but concealed by the new layer of snow. We’ll stick to the trails if we do any hiking. Falling through ice is a nasty but avoidable tragedy.”

“We won’t have time or energy for outdoorsy exercise. Not until after we make a dent in the clutter.”

Tess returned to the table. I’d already demolished my cinnamon roll and was cleaning the icing off my plate. I was tempted to scarf hers if she didn’t eat it soon.

“Do you have a strategy?” Tess asked. “I want to go through the closets and drawers and donate any clothes that Teddy’s outgrown or that are so old-fashioned no one would be caught dead in them. I’m certain some of Patrick’s grandmother’s ski gear is still in the attic. I don’t want to even think about the basement and garage.”

“But didn’t you and Patrick remodel just a few years ago? You didn’t clear out stuff then?”

Tess shook her head. “We were focused on speed, so we just boxed up everything and labeled it. Pretty haphazardly.” She scrunched up her face. “We’re going to have to go through everything all over again.”

“Are you selling the place furnished? Do we need to hang onto linens and housewares?”

“Yup. I can take the kitchen. There’s a lot of whittling down I need to do. One set of pots, dishes, and bedding should be fine.”

“The beds all look made. Can the rest of the sheets be donated?”

“I’ll need to check first. Some of the patchwork quilts have sentimental value.”

“Show me a bedroom we won’t use this weekend. I’ll make one pile of stuff I’m pretty sure you won’t want, and another of things you’ll need to approve more carefully. After you’ve given them a once over, I’ll pack them up and we can take a load to your local charity after the snow plow comes through.”

Tess tilted her head and saluted. “So orders the professional organizer.”

“Trust me. It will go faster that way.”

“I’ll start in the basement. Some of the old skis may be museum quality, but most of them are just junk.”

“Four piles,” I told her. “Garbage, recycling, donate, keep.” Tess plugged in her phone, cranked up the sound on a Motown playlist, and we set to work.

We labored steadily for two hours until Tess brought me a second cup of coffee. Cobwebs draped her hair and dark circles ringed her bloodshot eyes. Streaks in the dust on her cheeks told me she’d been crying.

“It’s a tough job,” I said. “All those memories.”

She sneezed, then sipped her coffee as she stared out the window. “I met Patrick in high school,” she said. “Spent weekends up here with his family, and then college weekends skiing with our friends. We were married here. Honeymooned. Vacationed with Teddy as a baby. Every dust bunny is whining sentimentally at me, begging me to save it.”

I thought for a moment before replying. Tess was my friend, but she was also my client. I’m a professional organizer. Clearing out, down-sizing, and reorganizing are my superpowers. I help clients blast through these crisis moments to get the job done.

But Tess and Teddy had lost Patrick eighteen months earlier. They were still fragile. Maybe it was too soon. “Are you sure you’re ready to sell?”

Tess sighed. “I was so sure up until this morning. Teddy and I need the money to make our dreams come true. College and possibly graduate school for Teddy, and a career change for me.”

Since Patrick’s murder, Tess had lost interest in her lucrative job as one of Silicon Valley’s top Realtors. After we uncovered the clues that led us to the creep who’d killed her husband, Tess had declared her intention to enroll in the local community college and pursue a career in law or law enforcement. Her initial plan was to become a criminalist, analyzing forensic evidence from crime scenes, but she was keeping an open mind. She’d approach the future one or two classes at a time and revise her plans as needed and as her interests developed.

I put down my coffee mug and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. “Everyone says to wait a year or two, or even more, before making big decisions. It’s only been eighteen months—you’re still well within that time window.”

She shook her head vehemently, tickling my face with her long velvety black hair. “No, I need to do this.”

“How ’bout this, then. We’ll do what we can for now. Hit the high spots. Get rid of the baby stuff along with everything broken and worn beyond repair. We’ll reevaluate the long-term scheme on Sunday. You’ll know more by then about how you feel and how Teddy’s handling it all, okay?”

She wiped her eyes and sniffed. “I guess.”

“Whether you decide to go ahead with the sale or not, this place could do with a good clear away and cleaning. Nothing we do this week will be wasted, no matter what you ultimately decide.”

“It’s a plan,” Tess said, squaring her shoulders and trying to smile. “But I still would like to finish up this weekend.”

“Did you bring your magic wand?”

Tess gave me a friendly shove. I stood up, brushing my grimy hands on my dusty jeans.

“Are you up for a break?” I asked. “I want to move my car. I could use your knowledge of any hazards that the snow is hiding. You know, attack-trained boulders, car-swallowing sinkholes, that kind of thing.”

Tess stood, leaned forward, and finger-brushed her hair. She gathered its weight into a ponytail and snapped a hair tie around it. “And after that, lunch. I’m always starving in the mountains.”

* * * *

We took the dogs and shovels just i. . .