How the Finch Stole Christmas! by Donna Andrews

Author:Donna Andrews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter 20

I braced myself for some new complication, then relaxed again when I saw that Meredith was smiling broadly.

“I think Mrs. Frost is ready now,” she called. “But we need to carry her down.”

“As long as he’s been here, you’d think Willimer could be bothered building a ramp,” Randall said. “Duane! Come help me carry the little old lady and her wheelchair.”

Duane seemed to be one of Randall’s larger cousins—not that any of them were small, but Duane was not only tall but uncharacteristically bulky. As they were going inside, another pickup truck arrived. A woman was driving, and from the two lab heads, one yellow and one black, peering out the windshield from the passenger seat, I deduced she was Dagmar with the search-and-rescue dogs.

Dagmar jumped out, immediately followed by the black dog. The yellow lab, whose muzzle was actually more silver than golden, took Dagmar’s place in the driver’s seat and watched with a wistful expression as the younger dog threw herself into the snow and joyfully rolled in it.

“That’s my old girl, Peaches,” Dagmar said, seeing me looking at the yellow lab. She reached out to scratch the dog’s head through the open door. Peaches thumped her tail happily on the seat. “She’s retired now, but she pines if I leave her at home when Piper and I go out.”

“But she doesn’t get to have any of the fun,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, she will.” She smiled. “I always bring along some training materials, so I’ll have something for the dogs to find and be rewarded for if the search comes up empty. She’ll get her share.” She scanned the horizon. “Kind of hope we do come up empty on this one. We already have one dead body too many, and anyone who’s still alive out there under all that snow could be in a very bad way by now.”

I was hoping to stay and watch the search, but just then Meredith emerged from the house carrying two small, battered suitcases. She took them over and put them in the Twinmobile. Then she stepped a few paces away, pulled out her cell phone, and made a call. Randall’s cousin Duane emerged from the house carrying Mrs. Frost, while Randall followed with the wheelchair. I wished Dagmar good luck and went inside to collect Ronnie’s cat carrier.

“Oh, thank you,” Mrs. Frost said, as we helped her get settled in the front passenger seat. “This is very nice. Do you have many children?”

Did the van look that bad?

“Only two,” I said. “Twin ten-year-old boys.”

“Oh, how nice. Twins run in my family, too. I was always hoping that Johnny and Becky would have twins when they got around to having kids, but they never did. Get around to it, that is. And now that I’ve lost them both…” Her voice trailed off and she applied a damp tissue to her nose.

“All buckled up?” Meredith chirped, as she tested my seat belt and Mrs. Frost’s before buckling up her own. “Rather tight quarters in this row,” she said, giving Ronnie’s carrier a shove.

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