Ice Cold Murder Read online

  Ice

  Cold

  Murder

  A Cozy Baked Murder

  by

  Kate Bell

  Copyright © 2016 by Kate Bell. All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

  Other books by Kate Bell

  Apple Pie A La Murder,

  A Cozy Baked Murder, Book 1

  Trick or Treat and Murder,

  A Cozy Baked Murder, Book 2

  Turkey Trot Terror

  A Cozy Baked Murder, Book 3

  Candy Cane Killer

  A Cozy Baked Murder, Book 4

  ICE COLD MURDER

  It had never felt so good to be home. I had enjoyed spending Christmas with my mother in my hometown of Goose Bay Alabama, but my daughter Jennifer and I had come too close to becoming murder victims. Now that a new year was here, I made up my mind that it was going to be a good one. I had a new love in my life and I was working on a new career, even if I hadn’t pinned down the details of what it was going to be, yet.

  The sun was shining down on Alec and I as we ran through my neighborhood. In spite of the early morning cold, I could tell it was going to be a warm day. Warm for January in Maine, at least.

  I took a swig from my water bottle and we crossed the street and headed for my house. The closer we got to the marathon we planned to run in May, the less prepared I felt. I still had an extra five pounds I needed to lose after spending Christmas with my mother. Darn those fresh buttermilk biscuits slathered in butter and homemade strawberry jam. But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, and now I was paying the price.

  “I have the best idea ever,” Alec said, as we finished our run and headed inside my house.

  “Do tell,” I said and took a seat on the bench located along a wall inside my mud porch. I grabbed my everyday shoes from under the bench and began untying my running shoes. After a few weeks of treadmill running, I had paid extra for a pair of shoes that would help keep me on my feet on icy and snowy roads and sidewalks. I had missed running outside.

  “Let’s make snow cream,” he said. “I haven’t made it in years.”

  “Snow cream? Thaddeus used to make that. But it’s sunny out and the weather channel said there wouldn’t be any new snow for a couple of days,” I pointed out.

  He shrugged. “So? It snowed last night.”

  He was right. It had snowed the previous evening, but we hadn’t thought ahead to put a bowl out to catch clean snow. “We missed the snow,” I said. “We can watch and put a bowl out when it’s ready to snow again.”

  “Why?” he asked. He had his right foot on the bench, tying his shoe.

  “Because we want clean snow? If we’re going to eat it, right?” I wasn’t sure why he wasn’t making the connection.

  He chuckled. “We’ll get clean snow. We’re going to drive out to the woods and find some fresh virgin snow. We’ll fill up a bucket and make a big bowl of snow cream.”

  “Uh, wait a minute,” I said. “You’re going to get snow off the ground? And eat it?” He had to be out of his mind. Who did that? I wanted my snow to be guaranteed clean, without any critters having made tracks or worse, through it.

  “That’s right, smarty pants. Right off the ground. It tastes better that way. Back to nature and all.”

  “Says you. What if Yogi Bear, you know, did his business in it?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Surely he had thought of this, right?

  He laughed and put his foot back on the floor. “I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to tell if Yogi has been anywhere near the snow we’re going to get. I promise you, we’ll get clean snow. I’ve been doing this all my life and I know what I’m doing.”

  I sighed. “Well, I guess if you know what you’re doing. But let’s get some breakfast first. I’m starving.”

  I wasn’t at all sure if he knew what he was talking about. Everyone I knew that went to the trouble of making snow cream simply left a large bowl or bucket outside when it was snowing and collected what they needed. Sure, I’d heard of people going out to the woods to get snow, but I figured all those people must be doomsday preppers or whatever it was they were calling themselves these days.

  I quickly scrambled up some eggs and Alec made toast and coffee. Nothing fancy, but it was warm and filling. There was something about the smell of coffee on a winter morning that made me happy. It also made me feel warm and cozy and I wondered if it was too early in the morning for a nap. I had flannel sheets on my bed and the long run had worn me out. A nap sounded good.

  “Hey,” Jennifer said sleepily as she wandered into the kitchen and stretched. She wore flannel pajamas and white fluffy bunny slippers.

  “Good morning, Jennifer,” Alec said.

  Ever since our almost-got-murdered scare last month, she had been nicer to Alec. I didn’t raise any fool. She knew Alec had a gun and that he knew how to use it. That sort of thing could come in handy in an emergency, and it had when a crazed murderer had taken both of us hostage.

  “There are more scrambled eggs in the skillet, but you’ll have to make your own toast,” I said.

  “And guess what we’re doing?” Alec asked her, sounding like a kid on Christmas morning.

  “What?” she asked, stumbling to the coffee maker and pouring herself a cup.

  “We’re going out to the woods to collect some snow and make snow cream,” he said happily.

  She turned and looked at him, with an arched brow. “Why are you going out to the woods?”

  “He likes his snow wild caught. It has a different bouquet than domesticated snow,” I supplied.

  “Yeah, I bet it has a different bouquet. Eau de deer pee,” she said.

  I giggled. Like mother, like daughter.

  Alec sighed. “You two are not very adventurous. You need to step out of your comfort zones. I assure you, other people make snow cream this way and live to tell the tale.”

  “Yes, people who live in tents and don’t have access to electricity,” I said.

  Alec gave me the stink eye and I smiled big at him. We finished up our breakfast and got ready to leave.

  “You sure you don’t want to come along, Jennifer?” Alec asked as we headed out the door.

  “Nope. I’m good. Thanks,” she said, slumping over her cup of coffee at the kitchen table, phone in hand. Jennifer had never been a morning person.

  Alec’s black SUV had belonged to the police department and when he retired on December 31 it had gone back. He was on foot until he could find a car he liked. I let him drive my car since he was sure he knew exactly where to get clean snow. We left town behind us and after fifteen minutes of driving out into nowhere, I was starting to get worried. Just where was this clean snow?

  “Hey, where are we going?” I asked him. “We’ve been driving a long time.”

  He smiled. “You’re such a worry wart,” he said and pulled off the road. “We’ll walk into the woods a little ways and there will be miles and miles of clean snow.”

  “Okay, if you’re sure about that,” I mumbled and got out of the car, pulling my coat closer. A little wind had kicked up and I wondered if I was wrong about it being a warm day or if the weather was just somehow colder out in the wild.

  Alec reached into the backseat of my car and pulled out the two white buckets and two small shovels we had brought. The buckets had held ice cream and were two and half gallons each and I wondered if we needed t
hat much snow. It seemed like overkill.

  “Come on,” he said, taking my gloved hand.

  The snow along the side of the road had been plowed and the area was smooth, but as we got closer to the edge of the woods I realized I’d made a mistake in not putting boots on. My feet were already wet and cold and we hadn’t even walked through deep snow yet.

  “I’m not wearing appropriate shoes for this,” I said.

  “I know, but it will only take us a few minutes. I promise,” he said. “We’ll turn the heater on high on the way back.”

  We walked into the woods and the snow was surprisingly still light and fluffy. I looked at it, wondering how many animals had tread through it, but I didn’t see any obvious signs. Maybe Alec did know what he was talking about.

  “How much further?” I asked, as my breath left my mouth in puffs of white clouds.

  “Just over here, I think,” he said. “We want to try and scoop up the top layer, as much as possible, otherwise it will be filled with hard ice.”

  “Okay,” I said. “What about over there?” I saw a mound of snow and it looked pristine. I was sure no animal had gone anywhere near it.

  “That looks good. You start over there and I’ll start right over here,” he said indicating a smaller mound on his left.

  “Are we going to fill up both buckets?” I asked, heading to the larger mound I had spotted.

  “Yeah, mound them up, too. Some of it will melt on the way home. We can put the buckets in the trunk so it’ll stay colder.”

  I stopped in front of the mound and examined it, walking slowly around it. I bent over and stuck my finger in it, and it looked clean beneath the surface. I stood up straight and appraised it. It looked as clean as could be and I decided it would pass muster.

  Using my small shovel, I scooped up a layer of snow and put it in the bucket. I scooped a second time and hit something solid. That’s odd. I tried another spot and scooped some off the top and put it in the bucket, and then tried again in another spot and hit something hard again. I tried a few more spots and kept hitting something solid after the first scoop. I glanced over at Alec who seemed to be scooping away at the light, fluffy snow, and getting his bucket filled nicely. Huh. This might be harder than I thought.

  --2--

  I scooped up some more snow and put it in my bucket, and then went for another scoop and hit something solid again. Figuring the mound must be a fallen tree covered in snow, I moved over to the other end and tried again. The first scoop of snow came easily, but the second hit the solid thing.

  I leaned over and peered at the mound and saw something pink. What is that? I scraped the snow away from the pink area and realized it was fabric of some kind. I couldn’t imagine what pink fabric would be doing on a fallen tree trunk, so I scraped some more. The pink led to something blue and I realized it looked like a knit scarf. I scraped some more and when I saw blue tinged lips, I screamed for all I was worth and stumbled backward until I fell on my backside. I screamed some more and scrambled to right myself and get on my feet.

  “What?” I heard Alec call.

  “Oh, oh, oh,” I said, dancing around in a circle once I got up. “Alec!”

  Alec was at my side before I could finish saying his name. “What is it? What’s going on?”

  I pointed at the mound. “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” I said, trying not to look at it, but not able to keep from doing so.

  Alec stepped in closer, and then kneeled and brushed some snow away. “Wow.”

  Without another word he took his cell phone from his pocket and dialed. “George, this is Alec Blanchard. Allie and I are out in the woods and we found a body,” he said. He gave George the particulars on how to find us and pressed end.

  “This is horrible,” I said, feeling near the verge of tears. “It’s a woman, isn’t it?” That much I had seen.

  He nodded, squatting next to the body again. He took his phone out and took some pictures. Then he carefully wiped snow away from the area I had seen the lips. “Do you recognize her?” he asked me after a couple of minutes.

  “I don’t know, I looked really fast,” I said. I took a couple of steps closer, but I didn’t really want to look.

  Alec began silently taking more pictures with his phone from different angles. Then he stepped back and took some of the surrounding area. When he was done, he brushed more snow from her face and neck. She was wearing a pink coat with a baby blue scarf. I could see that much from where I stood. He took more pictures of her.

  I took a couple of steps closer to her and leaned over. “Oh my gosh, I do know who that is.”

  “Who?” Alec asked, looking up at me.

  “Iris Rose,” I said.

  “A stripper?” he asked, looking at me quizzically.

  “No, she’s a second grade teacher at Belmont Elementary. She’s kind of blue, but I’m pretty sure that’s her. She was Jennifer’s second grade teacher. It was her first year of teaching. Jennifer just loved her.” I was suddenly sad.

  Alec shook his head. “That’s a shame.”

  “I wonder what happened to her? Can you tell?” I asked, taking another step forward. Iris’s pale blue eyes stared sightlessly up at the mid-morning sky. I shivered and looked away.

  “No, I don’t want to uncover any more of her without the police getting here and taking a look,” he said and then chuckled. “It sounds kind of nice saying the police, and not meaning myself.”

  “I guess it would,” I said. “I think retiring was a smart move.”

  “I do too,” he said and stood up. “There’s not much else we can do besides wait. The fresh snow that fell last night covered any footprints there might have been. I don’t remember there being any tire tracks in the area where we parked.”

  As we stood there, dark clouds gathered overhead and blocked out the sun. I looked up. “Do you think it’s going to snow?”

  “Could be,” he said, looking up at the sky.

  It was getting colder and I wanted to go home. It seemed like it was taking George and company a long time to get here and I just wanted to distance myself from Iris’s body.

  “Do you think she was murdered?” I asked him after a few minutes.

  He looked at me. “Allie, did you think she walked out here and committed suicide by laying down and freezing to death?”

  I sighed loudly. “No, Alec, I guess not.” Smarty pants.

  “Oh, did you want to put your snow in the trunk of the car?” he asked, eyeing the bucket I still held in my hand. I somehow had managed to keep hold of it when I hit the ground.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “We are not making snow cream, do you understand me?” I dropped the bucket where I stood.

  He just laughed at me.

  ***

  “Wow, you know who that looks like?” George Feeney asked Alec.

  “Iris Rose?” Alec answered.

  George nodded. “That’s right. She was a real nice lady.”

  “All my kids had her and loved her,” Yancey Tucker said, shaking his head.

  Yancey, George, and three other police officers had shown up after twenty minutes and the coroner was on his way. It was only the fifth of January and the year wasn’t starting off as bright as I had anticipated.

  The police took more pictures of the body and the area, and then began scraping snow away. Iris was good and frozen. I felt heartsick and tried to remember if she had any children. I hoped that if she did, they were grown. Not that it would change the fact they would grieve, but somehow in my mind, it made it easier if they were grown.

  Alec bent down and touched her jacket. “That Jacket’s really not ideal for being out here in the woods. It’s not very heavy and it isn’t zipped.”

  I peered over his shoulder. “But she has a scarf and knit cap. Maybe that makes up for it.”

  “Maybe. But if I were going to be out in the woods in the snow, I’d wear something heavier. Especially since the past four or five days have been windy and snowing, and frigidl
y cold,” he said, and kept removing the snow around her body. “And, she has no gloves on.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. She isn’t dressed for cold weather,” I agreed. As we stood there, snow began to fall.

  “We’d better get this done,” George said.

  George and Yancey worked to remove the remaining snow from her body and I saw she was wearing jeans. Those wouldn’t be very warm either unless she was wearing thermals underneath.

  “She’s a tiny thing, too. You’d think she’d get cold easily,” Yancey said.

  “Can you tell how she died?” I asked. I couldn’t see any blood from where I stood.

  “Nothing obvious,” Alec said. “We might not know cause of death until the medical examiner does his job.”

  I nodded. I was stumped on who would do such a thing to Iris. I had never heard a negative thing said about her.

  “She’s laying very straight, with her hands folded over her stomach,” Alec noted.

  “Almost like she was laying in a coffin,” George said.

  “Exactly,” Alec said and kneeled down beside her. “And there’s something in her hand.”

  “What?” George asked.

  Alec stuck his finger near Iris’s thumb and index finger and worked it under her hand. “I don’t know. Her hands are too frozen to move.”

  The chief of police, Sam Bailey, showed up and the guys got him caught up with what they knew so far. Alec hadn’t really gotten along with Sam when he worked for him, but he always acted as if it didn’t bother him. I was pretty sure that was just an act.

  Sam sighed. “Alec, what do you say you help us out with this investigation?”

  Alec jerked his head up to look at him. “Sure,” he said, nodding. It surprised me that Sam would ask, but Alec was his usual cool self about it.

  Alec was working on getting his PI license but was nowhere near done with the requirements. He must have been as shocked as I was to hear Sam ask for his help.