Snowmen In Paradise (Book 2 Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries) (15 page)

Tj excused herself to order another round of beer after Dylan left. Kyle and Jenna had jumped back into a conversation regarding a musical, and the last thing she wanted to do was get involved in another project.

The bar was crowded
, causing Tj to have to worm her way toward the back of the line. It seemed everyone was out celebrating the kick off to the carnival. While Tj knew most of the people in the room in one way or another, most of them were engrossed in their own conversations, so she settled on watching the basketball game on TV while she waited for the pitcher of microbrew she’d ordered.

“
Hey, Tj,” Julie Sorenson, the activity director at Maggie’s Hideaway, greeted her. “Great concert. I thought you said the kids couldn’t carry a tune on their back, but they were fantastic. I especially loved the medley of old time rock-and-roll songs, and the ballad that tall blonde with the haunted eyes sang gave me chills.” Julie’s sky-blue eyes sparkled and her long blond ringlets bounced up and down as she spoke with enough animation to light up the room.

“Apparently I was wrong
. A week with Kyle and they’re ready to tour.”

“Kyle
’s here?” Tj suspected Julie, along with most of the single women in Serenity, had a thing for the most eligible bachelor to arrive in the area in a very long time.

“A g
roup of us commandeered the table in the back. We’re having another round before we head out. You’re welcome to join us, if you’d like.”

Julie hesitated
, much too polite to crash the party. She was the perfect activities director: überefficient, organized, energetic, and super friendly to boot. It was no secret that her infectious gaiety was responsible for as many return visitors to the resort as the world-class skiing and crystal blue lake. Kyle had indicated on more than one occasion that he wasn’t looking for a relationship at this point in his life, but Tj would bet a month’s pay that, at the very least, the two could be great friends.

“We’d love to have you
,” Tj encouraged. “Besides, I could use some help carrying all of this back to the table.”

“Well
, okay, if you need help.” Julie picked up the pitcher of beer while Tj carried her seltzer, as well as a stack of fresh glasses.

“How’d things go
at the resort after I left?” Not only was the annual winter carnival a fund- raiser for the town but it inadvertently served as one for the resort; both the lodging facilities as well as the Lakeside Bar and Grill were booked to capacity for the entire five days.

As they walked back to the table, Julie said,
“Logan forgot to order the rum for the complimentary punch we serve every year, but your dad figured out a way to substitute whisky and still have it taste the same. And the plow drivers had a hard time figuring out what to do with all the snow until your grandfather suggested they pile it up down by the marina to create a kids’ sledding hill. It’s been a huge success, and they’re even talking about expanding the offerings to include rails for the boarders.”

“What did we work out with the double
-booked cabin?” Maggie’s Hideaway offered three lodging options: fully functioning cabins complete with kitchens, bedrooms, private hot tubs, and large decks for entertaining; cozy rooms with private baths in the lodge; and, during the warmer summer months, camping along the lakeshore.

“We moved the visiting professor over to the lodge
, and the substitute teacher in room 4A agreed to double up with the friend she’s traveling with. We comped their visit and offered all three vouchers for a free stay over the summer. The professor wanted to trade his summer comp for a slip in the marina, which your dad agreed to.”

“And they
’re all happy with that?”

“Delighted.”

“I’ll be with the team at Angel Mountain all day tomorrow. Are we all set for the ice fishing?”

While the town sponsored the
winter carnival, individual properties hosted the various competitions. This year, Maggie’s Hideaway was responsible for the ice-fishing competition, the snowmobile races, and the family-friendly ice-hockey game.

“The huts have all been moved to the cove and the judges are all lined up
. We have ten teams of two this year, and all of the participants except for the newlyweds have participated before.”

Tj paused to smile at the petite fairy
who’d made a career out of fluttering around and keeping everything organized. “You know, you’re awesome.”

Julie shrugged
. “I know.”

Tj laughed as they passed through
the formal dining area to reach the table where the rest of the others were waiting. “Hey, everyone, look who I found at the bar.” Everyone scooted closer together, creating a spot conveniently next to Kyle.

“Julie, we were just talking about you,” Jenna
said.

“You were?”

“I was telling Kyle about the cocktail waiter snowshoe race you organized for the Silly but
Awesome competition.”

E
very year, Maggie’s Hideaway sponsored a fun event for those visitors who wanted to participate but weren’t into serious competition. Julie had dubbed the event the Silly but
Awesome competition, and even had T-shirts for all participants, as well as a trophy for the overall winner. This year, Julie had organized a triathlon of sorts, including a snowshoe race in which each contestant had to carry a tray filled with drinks while walking as quickly as they could wearing the oversized shoes, a paintball-type event using colored snowballs and Nerf guns, and an ice-hockey-type event in which teams were given five chances to make a goal from midcourt with only a man dressed as a giant brown bear as the goalie.

“It sounds fun.”
Kyle smiled. “How do I sign up?”

“I’ll add your name to the list,” Julie
promised.

Ben came in
, with Doc and Bookman trailing behind him. “Congratulations,” he said, hugging Tj. “Your group was fantastic.” 

“Thanks
, Grandpa.” Tj hugged each of the men in turn. “So what are you rabble-rousers up to?”

“Bingo at the senior center
, after we meet Helen and Bonnie for a cold one. They should be here any time now.”

“
I thought Mom and Bonnie were watching the girls,” Jenna said.

“They were
, but Mike and Rosalie decided to head back to the resort after the concert, so they volunteered to take them.”

“The table next to us is free
. We can push them together if you want to join us,” Tj offered.

“Sounds good,” Ben answered just as Helen and Bonnie walked through the front door.

“So bingo at the senior center,” Tj commented after waving the moms over. “Aren’t you a little young to be attending events there?” she asked Helen.

“Much, much too young, but the boys assured us they could sneak us in.”

Tj laughed. Helen and Ben had been friends for years, and now that Bookman had decided to live permanently in Serenity rather than just vacationing in the area, she was around even more often. What she’d never really stopped to consider until that moment was the difference in their ages. Ben was the oldest of the group at sixty-eight, but even Bookman, the youngest at fifty-six, was eight years older than Helen, and Doc, at sixty-two, was ten years older than Bonnie.

Of course
, Bookman was rich and good-looking, with a childlike quality that would never age. He wasn’t loud and goofy like Doc, but in his own quiet way he held onto possibilities that others of a similar age were too jaded to still believe in. Tj supposed it was his willingness to open his mind to those possibilities that made him such a good writer.

“
How goes the investigation?” Bookman asked.

Tj filled him in on the latest developments
, including Josh’s disappearance after receiving a phone call from Travis on Sunday evening. “We all know that Josh could never have killed anyone, but I have to admit it has us worried that he left in a rage after talking to Travis and hasn’t been heard from since. You hear about people who would never otherwise hurt anyone suddenly killing someone in a fit of rage.”

“I wouldn’t worry
.” Bookman placed his hand on Tj’s shoulder in a gesture of comfort. “You said Josh took off on Sunday evening, but Travis wasn’t killed until Monday night. If Josh was going to kill Travis in a fit of rage, he would have done so immediately. I really doubt the two are related.”

“Good point.”

“I talked to the coroner,” Doc added. “It appears Travis was smothered quite a while after he passed out from a drug cocktail: at least an hour. In my opinion, that negates the theory that Chelsea smothered Travis after Sarah left, but Boggs isn’t budging on his idea that she’s the guilty party.”

“I don’t suppose Boggs would let you look at the body?” Doc had helped Tj out
when Zachary Collins was murdered, and she knew he was much more skilled than the local coroner, in spite of the fact that he’d been retired for quite a few years.

“I already did
,” Doc confirmed. “Bruising under the arms and on one leg suggest that Travis was alive when he was moved to his room. Based on the TOD and the timeline relating to the events in the locker room, it’s my opinion that Travis was drugged and then stabbed, and then he passed out, was moved to his room, and later was smothered.”

“Chelsea wouldn’t have had access to his room,” Tj pointed out. “I can’t believe Boggs is still holding her.”

“I spoke to Boggs, who insists that Chelsea could have taken Travis’s key when he was passed out and returned later to finish the job.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Tj insisted.

“I have to agree,” Doc concurred. “Still, the scenario is not impossible. I think Boggs will let her go after he has time to think about it.”

“This whole thing
is so frustrating,” Tj vented. “What we need is another viable suspect. If we can’t prove Chelsea didn’t do it, we need to prove that someone else did. I have a busy week, but I’m going to talk to a few people to see what I can dig up. There seems to be a lot going on here, and it only makes sense that everything is related in one way or another. We just need to figure out how.”

“Or not,” Bookman commented. “I wrote a story once where there were a lot of events that seemed to go together but ended up not being linked at all.”

“Terrific,” Tj groaned.

The park at the edge of town was lit up like a Christmas tree when hundreds of residents and visitors gathered for the annual snowman judging. There were five categories: most lifelike, funniest, scariest, most original, and best overall. Entrants had been creating the round masterpieces all day, with the final judging to take place at five o’clock.

Tj bought hot chocolate for her sisters and a hot spiced wine for herself
. The atmosphere was charged with an excited energy as they waited for the results to be read.

“How come they don’t ha
ve those fire pits over here?” Gracie wondered as they walked toward their snowman. Metal trash cans with roaring fires had been placed strategically between larger fires built in pits.

“
’Cause the snowmen would melt,” big sister Ashley pointed out.

“But it’s cold,” Gracie whined
. Her long brown ringlets were covered by a bright red cap that matched her down jacket.

“As soon as the judging is over
, we’ll go inside where it’s warmer. I think the spaghetti feed is supposed to start in a half hour or so.”

“Here we are.”
Ashley stopped at a large group of snow figures. There were eight in all, five people descending in size, a dog, and two cats.

“We made the whole family
.” Gracie’s huge brown eyes danced with excitement.

The first snowman in the group was tall and thin and wore one of her grand
father’s old hats. The next was slightly shorter and just a tad stouter and wore her dad’s forest-green scarf. The third was actually a snowwoman and wore the knit cap Tj had just bought at few weeks earlier. Next to the Tj figure was a slightly shorter snow girl with a pair of glasses, followed by a much shorter figure wearing Gracie’s bunny mittens. Positioned in front of the snow people was a snow dog, made to resemble Echo, a pudgy cat she assumed was Cuervo, and a smaller cat she’d bet was supposed to be Gracie’s cat, Crissy.

“Wow
! How’d you get all of this done in one afternoon? Grandpa must have had a lot of energy today.”

Gracie laughed
. “Grandpa didn’t help us at all.”

“Yeah, he just sat over there on that bench with Doc and Bookman and
made suggestions,” Ashley added.

“Then how did you
manage to do all this?” Tj was fairly certain one eight- and one five-year-old couldn’t accomplish such a feat on their own.

“Uncle Kyle helped us,” Gracie
admitted.

“
That was nice of him.”

“
Is Uncle Kyle our real uncle?”