Snowed Under by Mary Feliz

Author:Mary Feliz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 2020-06-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer. 1803-1882

Saturday, February 20, Morning

The sound of feet stomping on Elisabeth’s front porch mat made me run back down the stairs to avoid having my snooping discovered. By the time Elisabeth opened the front door carrying a snow-covered “pup-sicle,” I was slipping my feet into my boots. Ryan and Tess were carrying armloads of wood. Tess raised her eyebrows. I nodded, assuming she wanted to know if I’d had time to explore Elisabeth’s vantage points from the upstairs windows.

“Where to, Mrs. Roche?” Ryan asked. “By the fire?”

“Just drop them here, dear,” Elisabeth said. “That way you don’t need to take your boots and coats off. Are you sure you won’t stay for a coffee break? I thawed a frozen blackberry pie by the fire last night. Duke ate some of it, but the rest is fine.”

Behind Elisabeth’s back, Tess vehemently shook her head. Dropping her armload of wood on the floor beside the front door, she said, “That’s so sweet of you, Elisabeth, but we said we’d check on the Baileys today. Maybe see if we can help the kids run off some steam.”

I took Duke from Elisabeth’s arms and wrapped him in a towel I’d plucked from a nearby hook. He growled softly, which I hoped was a doggy sound of contentment rather than an expression of suppressed rage. I returned the wrapped up dog to the safety of Elisabeth’s arms.

“You should have seen him out there with Mozart and Belle,” Elisabeth said, rubbing his ears. “I knew they wouldn’t lose him in a drift, so the little dear had more freedom than usual. He was chasing them as though he thought he was the big dog, jumping up to nip at their ears.”

Tess and Ryan had left our dogs outside, but I’d have to be sure to reward Belle with an extra-large treat for tolerating Duke. She was friendly with most dogs, but small ones tended to make her nervous, as though she feared stepping on or tripping over them.

We said our goodbyes, reminded Elisabeth to phone us if she needed anything, and set off down the long dark driveway to the Bailey’s house. “I didn’t get a chance to look out the windows on this side of the house,” I told Tess and Ryan. “But the back windows look out on the end of the Bailey’s driveway near the front porch. It looked like someone had taken out a vehicle of some kind this morning. A big one.”

Tess furrowed her brows and squinted sideways at the snowy surface of the drive, pockmarked by clumps that had fallen from the overhanging trees. “There are no tracks here. Where could they have gone?”

“The old fire roads?” I suggested. “Breaking trail for cross-country skis?”

Ryan shook his head. “If Dev were home, maybe. But Leslie and Amrita don’t ski cross country.”

“Could someone from the resort have gone to the maintenance sheds and then come down to check on them?” I asked.

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