The Best Laid Plans by Judy Penz Sheluk

Author:Judy Penz Sheluk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Superior Shores Press

Lutano’s office was a windowless cubbyhole at the far end of a dank underground hallway. He shut the door behind us and snapped the deadbolt.

“Privacy,” he said.

“I’m sorry about any confusion,” I told him, “I’m working for—”

“I know exactly what you’re doing.” He eased into his office chair and signaled for me to sit. “Wish you’d checked in with me about this gondola business. Maybe we can help each other.”

I stole a glance at his tiny office. A dozen framed photographs stood on his desk. A lovely woman who I supposed was his wife and a slew of pictures I guessed portrayed their adult children and young grandchildren. Lutano’s only other office decorations were paperback book covers torn from Michael Connelly mystery novels, affixed to the walls with cellophane tape.

As it turned out, Roy Lutano had been hired on at Callingdon Mountain after losing his job as a town constable after a local election swept out the mayor and the rest of the council. I gathered the resort administrator and police shunted him aside during the Donegal Cain investigation. Lutano’s curiosity and pride, along with his love of a good mystery, compelled him to learn what really happened in the gondola. I reflected on my own so-called detective career and decided I both liked him and empathized with him.

“Mind if I ask what you found out so far?” he asked.

“Wish I could tell you. But anything I find goes to my client first.”

“Fair enough. But could you mention me in your report? I’m the new guy here, stuck in a basement office, and I could use some publicity. Like I said, maybe we can help each other.”

“Delighted to,” I said. “What can you tell me?”

“Well, whatever happened up there, the snowboarder probably wasn’t part of it.”

I nodded as if I knew what he was talking about. “The snowboarder never even entered my mind. What convinced you?”

He looked at me as though I were a befuddled toddler. “For one thing, after we pulled him out of Cain’s gondola he rode to the top in another one. So he was mid-air in another gondola, behind Cain’s gondola, the whole time. Unless he turned into some kind of invisible flying ninja acrobat.” Lutano shook his head. “Not likely, even for a hot-dogging freestyler used to all that screwball jumping and spinning and flipping upside down on the slopes.”

“And of course Donegal Cain was alive when you pulled the snowboarder away from him.”

Lutano leaned forward. “We didn’t really have to pull him away, not really. Soon as we told him what was going on, he apologized, took a quick selfie with Cain, and went looking for another gondola. Nice enough guy. Just wanted to get to the Peak and freestyle back down. Hard to tell which one of them was more stoned, though.”

“You mean…”

“Donegal Cain. Eyes so bloodshot they matched his parka.”

“Red parka?”

“Blood red. One of those oversized, overstuffed ones. Paramedics had to cut it off him with shears to get at the knife underneath.

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