Phantoms and Felonies by Lucy Ness

Author:Lucy Ness [Ness, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

By the time I was done at the Road to Tranquility that wasn’t so tranquil, it was still early and I was still bursting with questions.

Was Fabian a better actor that I’d ever imagined? Did he really feel bad that tragedy had struck the Portage Path Players?

Was he telling the truth when he said he hadn’t gone down to the speakeasy after dinner?

And what was he talking about when he said Bob was dishonest?

The questions whirled and swirled through my head like the snowflakes I found dancing in the air when I got outside. I dusted an inch-thick coating of fluffy flakes off my windshield and started up the car, my tires making tracks in the snow that already covered the parking lot.

Snow? No worries. I’m from upstate New York, remember, and if there’s anything we understand just ten miles or so from the southern shore of Lake Erie (aside from communicating with the dead, of course), it’s the pesky white stuff. Still, I found myself clutching the steering wheel a little tighter when I headed back to the club and the flakes fell heavier and faster. I turned on my lights and my windshield wipers and, like so many of the other drivers around me, I slowed to a crawl.

Another thing I learned in New York? Some of us aren’t intimidated by driving in snow; we know to take it slow and easy. Others are scared to death and are pretty much paralyzed behind the wheel whenever it snows. Then there’s the third kind of winter driver, the worst kind. That honor goes to the ones who think that no matter what the road conditions, they’re invincible. Like the jerk who blew past me in his black SUV and cut into my lane—right before he saw a snowplow turning from a cross street.

He jammed on his brakes and, though I doubted it would do any good, I acted on instinct and did the same. My tires caught and I breathed a sigh of relief. If only for a second. The next heartbeat, my car fishtailed. When the back end slipped, the car slewed to the right; but have no fear, I remembered my driver’s ed training and turned into the spin.

Too bad the spin wasn’t done spinning.

At least not until I did a full doughnut there in the middle of the street, then stopped with a jolt that left my head bobbing.

Thank goodness the guy who’d been driving behind me somehow managed to stop an inch from my bumper. And the idiot who’d caused the problem in the first place? He beeped, gave me a jaunty wave, then spun his tires and slip-slided away.

As for me, I followed the advice I’d given Fabian and took a few deep breaths, hoping that would work a little magic and my hands would stop trembling against the steering wheel, but apparently my chakras aren’t any more fond of near-death experiences than I am.

“Make sure you take longer to exhale than to inhale,” I told myself.

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