Ice Maiden E-Book

Mayer Dale

• Herausgeber: Valley Publishing Ltd.
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Gabby Mulder was loving her winter in Aspen, Colorado, until a dangerous event with a ghost nearly killed her. Not that she was a believer but, given the circumstances, she had to be open to such a possibility. When one of her roommates is brutally murdered in their shared apartment, rumors circulate of a serial killer returning, which just adds to Gabby’s pain. Confused and grieving, Gabby is forced to move to a new residence, while the police investigate the death, the crime scene at the apartment, and her.

Detective Damon Fletcher considered Gabby a flighty troublemaker after an incident at the bookstore where she worked and then later on the slopes. But when one of her roommates is murdered, his interest in her grows to a whole new level.

When another of Gabby’s roommates is killed, Gabby is caught in the middle, as suspicious gazes turn her way. What had she gotten mixed up in? Even worse how are these deaths connected to several cold cases? The danger escalates as events, ghostly and otherwise, strike closer to both Gabby and all those who she holds dear.

Leseprobe

Ice Maiden

A Psychic Visions NovelBook #18

Dale Mayer

Books in This Series:

Tuesday’s Child

Hide ’n Go Seek

Maddy’s Floor

Garden of Sorrow

Knock Knock…

Rare Find

Eyes to the Soul

Now You See Her

Shattered

Into the Abyss

Seeds of Malice

Eye of the Falcon

Itsy-Bitsy Spider

Unmasked

Deep Beneath

From the Ashes

Stroke of Death

Ice Maiden

Snap, Crackle…

What If…

Talking Bones

String of Tears

Inked Forever

Psychic Visions Books 1–3

Psychic Visions Books 4–6

Psychic Visions Books 7–9

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

About This Book

Complimentary Download

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

About Snap, Crackle…

Sneak Peek from Snap, Crackle…

About Simon Says…

Author’s Note

Complimentary Download

About the Author

Copyright Page

About This Book

Gabby Mulder was loving her winter in Aspen, Colorado, until a dangerous event with a ghost nearly killed her. Not that she was a believer but, given the circumstances, she had to be open to such a possibility. When one of her roommates is brutally murdered in their shared apartment, rumors circulate of a serial killer returning, which just adds to Gabby’s pain. Confused and grieving, Gabby is forced to move to a new residence, while the police investigate the death, the crime scene at the apartment, and her.

Detective Damon Fletcher considered Gabby a flighty troublemaker after an incident at the bookstore where she worked and then later on the slopes. But when one of her roommates is murdered, his interest in her grows to a whole new level.

When another of Gabby’s roommates is killed, Gabby is caught in the middle, as suspicious gazes turn her way. What had she gotten mixed up in? Even worse how are these deaths connected to several cold cases? The danger escalates as events, ghostly and otherwise, strike closer to both Gabby and all those who she holds dear.

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Prologue

Thirty-year-old Gabby Mulder called out to her friends and roommates, “Go!”

They all dove down the ski slope, racing to the bottom of the hill, on the last run of the day. The sun was high; the snow shone brightly on a wonderful Aspen day. Gabby was tired after a long but eventful day of snowboarding, looking forward to hitting the hot tub. The others had wanted to do one more run, and she’d been willing to go along, knowing she could take it easy afterward. Snowboarding was such a great way to combat stress.

Something she had in spades.

Especially after yesterday.

She worked as a clerk at a local Aspen bookstore—a job she’d quickly fallen in love with, even though she’d been in the resort town only for the winter and planned to leave when ski season was over. She and her best friend, Wendy, had been planning a winter here since forever. Now the end of March was near, and she couldn’t bear to think about leaving. She loved it here, … the town, the atmosphere, her job. Even her boss, although sometimes morose and cranky, most of the time was great.

He had been looking for a gimmick to bring in more customers. As a lark she had picked up a pack of tarot cards she’d found on the counter and offered free readings. It was all fun and games, until several people confirmed that her readings had been right on. Then somebody else had returned, upset at the horrible message she’d been given because it all happened, just as described. The woman was now a widow and felt Gabby could have done something to save her husband’s life.

That was followed by a visit from one of Aspen’s finest, and Detective Damon Fletcher had definitely not understood nor had he been impressed. In fact, it’s almost as if he thought Gabby had something to do with the man’s death, to somehow make her prophecy come true. She wasn’t sure if the detective thought she was a scam artist or a murderer. Neither helped her sleep last night.

His parting words, “Don’t leave town,” had been a sobering reality check. It wasn’t like she could anyway, as she had no car.

Her boss had been furious with her, saying, “Gabby, these readings are supposed to be fun and positive. Nothing else. You don’t believe that stuff, do you?”

She just looked at him mutely.

“Stop them now,” he ordered. “Our business depends on the goodwill of the community. A bad reputation and ugly rumors will finish us. No more. I mean it. Your job is on the line over this.”

She immediately nodded because she needed the job. The cost of living in Aspen was brutal. Gabby shared an apartment with four other women, none of whom could afford to move. Only about seven thousand people lived here year-round, but the influx of tourists during ski season brought in tons more people, both to sightsee and to serve the rich.

Her roommates knew about the tarot readings. Gabby had done several for them in the last few weeks. She had even done readings for them during breakfast this morning and hadn’t thought anything of it. When they’d asked her to pull a card for herself, that had been fine too. Until she pulled the one card that made them all gasp.

The Death card.

She laughed and said, “Whatever,” then tucked it back in the box, as they’d all looked on with worried expressions. She smiled and said, “Come on. The Death card doesn’t mean literal death, as in I die. It could just mean the death of a relationship or a job even.” Although she hoped it wasn’t the latter.

Unconvinced, they all headed to the slopes. And now, here Gabby was at the end of the day, happy that the dire card hadn’t proven to be a bad omen.

With a pleased smile at the beautiful sunny view of white-capped mountains around her, Gabby rode the mountain, leaned into the next corner, loving the power and the sense of control she had, as her board bit into the icy surface.

Just then a hard push sent her careening diagonally across the mountain. She cried out as her body instinctively bent and twisted to stay upright, her arms flaring, even as she tried to see who’d pushed her. She struggled to brake. She was a good snowboarder, not racer material, but she’d have said better than average at least. Until now. Nothing she did brought her board back under her control. Or her speed. She dug in the edge of her board, her body almost scraping along the snow, but it wasn’t working. An out-of-bounds marker flashed in warning up ahead.

Panic hit her, as the wind slashed her cheeks, and icy-cold tears stung her eyes. Still, her out-of-control board propelled her forward, as if guided by unseen hands.

She hurtled toward the cliff’s edge, screaming at the top of her lungs in terror. Her friends hollered and waved at her, telling her to get back.

In desperation, she threw herself to the ground to try to stop. Her displaced goggles allowed snow and ice to burn her exposed skin and eyes, as she hurtled downward into a snowball of board and limbs that never seemed to stop spinning.

Splat.

She slammed into a small upward jut of the cliff, sending a cloud of snow falling on top of her. Gasping for air and terrified to move, she couldn’t even see for the instant whiteout. When her world finally stopped moving, she peeked through her lashes. The snow no longer fell, and she could see the ski hill stretch high above her to the right, as she laid on her back. That emboldened her to test out her limbs. She moved her fingers and toes, and no pain ripped through her. She sighed softly in relief, rolling her head slowly to the left to test her neck as well as to see how close to the edge she was.

It. Was. Right. There.

The cliff dropped away at her cheek. Her bent left knee was suspended over the edge into nothingness.

Oh, hell, no. Too terrified to move—in case her small perch gave way—her heart slamming against her ribs, she froze in place. Not much more than a tiny jut of rock kept her from falling to her death below. Her mind couldn’t wrap around it. What the hell just happened?

Then she remembered the tarot card. Death.

No way was this about the Death card. Couldn’t be.

A voice whispered in her head, Death comes to us all. Sometimes earlier than we want. Sometimes by another hand. You live this time.

Shocked, she cried out, “Who are you? What do you want?”

The same voice chuckled, a sound of triumph and joy. You can call me Death. And what do I want? That’s easy. I want you.

And, with that, the voice disappeared.

Terrified, and still in shock at how close she came to flying off a cliff, she lay pinned against the mountainside, afraid to move.

Calls behind her had her raising her hand to let those racing toward her know she was okay. But was she really? She didn’t dare check further, too paralyzed with cold and fear.

Minutes later, Wendy, her face red and puffy from exertion, finally neared Gabby. Wendy stood a safe distance back and above her best friend, calling out, “Oh, my God. Are you okay? What happened to you? Ski patrol is on their way. Don’t move.”

Gabby had no plans to move … ever. In fact, the longer she lay here, the more rigid and panicked she became at the thought.

“What happened? Did I hear you yelling at someone earlier?” Wendy asked hesitantly.

Gabby rolled her head to look at her best friend in confusion. “I don’t know,” she said. “I thought somebody just spoke to me.” She couldn’t very well tell Wendy about the message. She wouldn’t believe her. No one would.

“It’s all right,” Wendy said. “Take it easy. You probably just hit your head.”

In truth, Gabby felt fine, which she shouldn’t have because that was a hell of a tumble. She could have—should have, in fact—broken several bones. Even her board was still attached to her bindings, her feet locked into place.

Just then the ski patrol arrived. Thank God. The first man unclipped his skis and carefully made his way down to her. At her side, he stopped and stared. “You.”

She bolstered her courage to smile at the detective—also ski patrol, it seemed—who only yesterday had told her not to leave town, while they investigated her and the tarot card mess. “Uh, hi. Sorry about all this.”

He snorted. “What the hell was that all about? I saw you start down the mountain. Then you went nuts. That was incredibly irresponsible. You’re lucky to be alive.”

She shuddered, shrank as small as she could, and said, “I don’t know what happened.” She could almost see a sneer forming on his face. “It wasn’t me,” she rushed to add. “I was pushed.”

His gaze sharpened. He studied her, as she lay here, not daring to even breathe deeply, in case that shifted her balance somehow. “Who pushed you?”

“You won’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

She looked up at him and whispered, “A ghost.”

*

“A ghost?” Damon muttered for the umpteenth time, as he paced outside the curtained-off room in the ER area, where everybody, including him, insisted that Gabby be checked over. Although it was just good common sense, it was taking way too long. Finally he cleared his throat and said, “So?”

Just then the white curtain was thrust back in front of him. Gabby sat on the side of the bed, fully dressed and looking completely fine. The doctor, however, stared at her, clearly puzzled. Damon looked from the doctor to the patient and back again, then said, “Well?”

“She’s fine,” he said, shaking his head. “Not only is she fine but she’s better than fine.”

“How can she be better than fine?” Damon asked in confusion.

“For somebody who took a great tumble, like you all say she did,” the doctor said, “it’s amazing that no damage was done.”

“So you’re just saying that she’s lucky?”

“Maybe lucky,” the doc said slowly.

Damon gritted his teeth, as he waited for the aged doctor to finally cough up whatever bothered him. Dr. Mitchie McGonigi had been in practice for what must be at least fifty years, it seemed—making him, counting all the years in training, close to eighty years old—and the man didn’t seem to be slowing down or inclined to retire. But he had a wealth of experience he wasn’t reticent about putting to use, and today was no different.

Apparently something nagged him about this case, as he continued to study Gabby, and the doc would tell Damon what that was whenever he was good and ready, not a moment before.

Finally the old man released a heavy sigh and said, “She should be bruised. She should be in shock. She should have signs, physical signs, that she went through what she went through.”

“And she doesn’t,” Damon said. “So what does that mean?”

“I don’t know what it means,” he said in frustration. “My brain isn’t quite the same as it used to be, but I think I’ve seen this before.”

“Seen what?” Damon asked in frustration. “So she got lucky and walked away unscathed. We’ve seen that time and time again with many people—from car accidents to any other kind of an injury. This is no different. She’s just lucky.”

What else could it be? He glared at Gabby, who still sat here. As soon as she saw him, she immediately wiped the smile off her face. He upped the wattage of his glare. He wanted her to know that she wouldn’t get away from here without talking to him.

“Well, she’s certainly fine to go home,” the doctor said. He turned back to Gabby and said, “Now, if you get any delayed symptoms, please let me know.”

“Thank you,” she said with a bright smile. “I’ll be sure to call if anything changes.” She hopped off the bed and tried to brush past the detective.

He shook his head and said, “Oh no, you don’t.”

“I have nothing more to say. I told you that I don’t know what happened.”

“No, I disagree,” he said. “So instead of taking responsibility for going out-of-bounds and almost killing yourself,” he said, “you immediately tried to mock the rest of us by saying a ghost made you do it.”

She appeared slightly tongue-tied, as if not knowing what to say, and he liked that. He hated to think that she was getting off being smug and difficult, when she should be thanking everybody around her for saving her. They all were put into dangerous positions themselves, trying to get her off the mountain.

But the doctor turned to her and said, “Did you say, ghost?”

She flashed a grim smile. “Well, maybe,” she said, but, even to her, her tone sounded lame.

The doc nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, that’s what I remember.”

“That’s what you remember?” Damon asked. “What are you talking about, Doc?”

“It was the other case.”

“What other case?” he snapped, striving for patience but wanting to pull out his hair.

“The one I thought of earlier,” he said in a pensive tone. “It was fifty-plus years ago. … No, maybe even longer. It’s hard to remember the exact dates. I’ll look up the details. But a series of odd murders remind me of something similar, but, like I said, I can’t remember all the details.”

“You do that,” Damon said. He watched as the doctor moved toward his office. Then he returned his attention to Gabby. “Again? Really? A ghost?”

“Look. I wasn’t trying to be irresponsible. It was the last run of the day,” she said in an earnest tone. “I don’t know what happened, but I was pushed.”

“Nobody was behind you,” he said.

“It felt like I was being pushed,” she corrected. “I didn’t see anybody either.”

“And, if you didn’t see anybody,” he said, “how do you explain what happened?”

“I don’t know how to explain it,” she said, her jaw shoving forward and her gaze snapping at him. “I don’t have an explanation. I told you that.”

“Well, at least that’s honest,” he muttered. “Something really weird is going on with you right now,” he said. “I haven’t decided if you’re just a charlatan or a busybody or one of those no-good crystal readers who’s looking to cause chaos wherever you go.”

She stared at him, her eyes dark and deep. “I’m none of those,” she said. “I’m just somebody spending a winter here in Colorado. I told you before that my boss asked me to do something to bring more business into the store. So, on impulse, I picked up that pack of tarot cards. That’s it.”

“Then you go snowboarding today,” he said, “and, on the very last run of the day, you headed straight across the mountain, even the uphill part, so that you could end up hanging on that peak.”

“Well, … wait.” She stopped, looked at him, and said, “What do you mean, across the mountain?”

“Did you not see the direction you were going?”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t understand. Why would I go there?” She frowned.

“I don’t know,” he said, his own voice going quiet. “But if ever a hill to catch everybody’s attention on, it’s that one.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“How long have you been in town?”

“Since the first of October,” she said.

“Oh, so then you haven’t heard the rumors?”

“No,” she said, raising her hands in frustration. “Rumors about what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He was tempted to believe her, but he’d been gullible before, and his years on the force had made him anything but stupid at this point in his life. “Look,” he said. “That particular peak? One of the reasons it is considered so dangerous is because we’ve already had a suspicious death there.”

“When?” she asked. “Who?”

“It was a long time ago,” he said evasively, not wanting to give her anything more salacious to help her work her con or whatever it was she was pulling.

“Okay,” she said, “so, if I keep digging, I’ll find it?”

“Probably,” he said, “I don’t know.” And, with that, he added, “I don’t want you going back up the mountain and pulling another stunt like that.”

“As I said, I didn’t pull this stunt,” she shot back, and he could see the anger building in her eyes. “I have no problem with not repeating it.”

He frowned. “Look. We have a lot of good people working ski patrol up there,” he said. “It’s very traumatizing when somebody ends up dead.”

“Yeah. Same could also be said about the person who ended up dead,” she said, her gaze wide, yet holding a hint of sarcasm.

“I don’t think that’s as much of an issue as it is for the people who are left behind,” he said. “But these ski patrol people spend a lot of time and energy trying to keep idiots safe, and, when the idiots won’t comply and end up dying, despite the best efforts of the rescuers, well, it’s hard on them.”

“You know something? I can actually see that,” she said in a quiet voice. “However, I wasn’t planning on being stupid or difficult or dying.”

“No,” he said. “I’m half inclined to believe you on that. The trouble is, I can’t decide if you’re just a fool or somebody who just likes trouble, or if you’re just a silly schoolgirl.”

At that, his barb hit home, and, with a visible wince, she clammed up.

He nodded. “Stay away from the mountain for a while, would you? And, if you do ever go back up there,” he said, “be smart about it.” And, with that, he turned and walked out.

Chapter One

Gabby walked through the hospital out the front door. She didn’t know where Wendy was, she’d expected her best friend to be waiting here at the hospital. She pulled out her phone, surprised that it had survived, feeling way better than she apparently had any right to. When she called Wendy, her girlfriend answered right away, asking about her mountain tumble.

“Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Are you okay?”

“Sure. Then I was okay up on the mountain,” she said, “so this doesn’t exactly change anything.”

“Maybe not,” her girlfriend said, “but I was really worried about you.”

Yet you weren’t here. Why is that? “Well, I came to the hospital to placate you guys,” she said, “and the detective is still pissed off at me.”

“Yeah, he sounded like it when he was here,” she said. “As cranky as your boss is, will he think this is another publicity stunt of yours, which just makes his bookstore look bad again? Do you think you’ll lose your job over it?”

She winced at that. “I hope not,” she said. “I came here to snowboard for the winter. Arriving a couple of months before the season, I really got going to find work so I could pay my way. The last thing I want to do is end up in so much trouble that I don’t even have a way to support myself here. Aspen is not exactly a place for the faint of heart.”

“No, it certainly isn’t,” Wendy said. “Are you coming home?”

“Well, I’d like to,” she said. “Would you mind coming to pick me up?”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” she said.

“Fine. I’ll be sitting outside.”

“It’s cold out,” she said. “You should wait inside.”

“I’m good. I’m fine,” she said.

“Good for you,” Wendy retorted. “I can’t get warm since we got home.”

“Yeah, well, I probably should be freezing or in shock or something. Even the doctor seems to think I’m in better shape than I should be.”

“Well, after that fall, you must admit that you are pretty lucky to have walked away from it.”

“I know,” she said quietly. “But I can’t really do anything to change things, now can I?”

“No, of course not,” she said. “It’s just really lucky that you have the opportunity to rethink your life now.” At that, her friend hung up.

Gabby was left staring at her phone. “What are you talking about? Rethinking my life?” she said. “I just wanted a winter to snowboard. Is that really so much to ask for?”

Apparently it was because, ever since Gabby had started work at the bookstore, it seemed like everything had gone off-kilter somehow. She didn’t understand why nothing ever seemed to work out. It was frustrating as heck. As she stood here in the front entrance, leaning against the hospital’s brick wall, she took several long slow deep breaths, not sure if it was just her weird clarity at the moment or if everybody else was in a fog.

She didn’t understand this clarity, but she did feel different somehow. She rotated her neck slowly and stretched her arms high above her head. As she brought her arms back down again, the detective drove by, staring at her. She flushed and gave him a quick little wave of friendship, hoping that he wouldn’t see her as any more of an oddball than she already was in his eyes.

She figured from the glare he sent her way that she’d failed.

She wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but something had set him off too. Then some people thought her odd here in Aspen. She didn’t know why. What was wrong with being a happy-go-lucky person? Despite her circumstances, she had always been like this.

However, something about this place deemed her a little weird to everybody. It wasn’t Aspen itself. It wasn’t the bookstore. Not really. Just sometimes. And now the fact that she had survived that tremendous fall without so much as a scratch would just add fuel to the fire. She didn’t know how to combat that, except to do what she’d always done, which was ignore them.

She really wasn’t insensitive to other people; it’s just that either people really got her or they didn’t. Finding her tribe was something she had hoped to do a long time ago, but instead here it seemed like she’d ended up with a whole group of female misfits, who Gabby felt a lot older than, only to find out they all thought she was younger. She shook her head at that.

“Now I’ll just be even more of an oddity,” she said. “Pretty soon they’ll come into the bookstore just so they can see me. That would be a heck of a deal.” And not something she even wanted to think about. If her boss ever thought that would work, he’d be all over it.

By the time Wendy arrived to pick her up, Gabby was bored and tired of waiting. She jumped into the front seat and let her girlfriend drive her back home again. Once there, the other women, her roommates, were exclaiming, and some were even crying over her.

She just gave them all a smile and said, “I’m fine. Really. I’ll go have a bath and get to bed.”

Immediately they shared commiserating looks, and one of them spoke up. “Yes. Yes, that’s a good idea. You need that.”

Gabby went in to have her bath, but, instead of soaking and relaxing, she found herself full of energy and all keyed up. Instead of that fall wiping her out and shaking her up, it seemed like it had energized her. That worried her more than anything. Once in her small bedroom, the only space that was hers alone, she closed the door, pretending to need to sleep, when really she just wanted to be alone to think things through.

She hadn’t told anybody about the crazy message she’d received while she was on the mountain, and now she wasn’t even sure if she had actually heard it. It was just too far-fetched to believe. At the same time, if she had heard correctly, then somebody had whispered in her ear, in her head, and she needed to figure out how that worked, what that meant.

He’d said that he was Death. But since when did Death speak? So that part made no sense. She frowned, as she lay here in bed, looking on her phone, surfing for anything about the person that Damon had said died up on the mountain. It took a good hour, trying to stay quiet, hoping that her friends would all leave her alone.

Finally she found it. Or at least she had found out about one death on an Aspen mountain. Just a small article about this woman who had been hiding out in Aspen just seven years ago. After her death, the authorities found out she had been accused of murder in another state, although nothing could ever be pinned on her. The article didn’t explain how she died, just that it happened on the local mountain. The gossip about her took the forefront of that piece.

Immediately chills went up and down Gabby’s back. Murder? Since when did somebody come to Aspen to get away from murder charges?

She always thought of this as a resort town, a place where everybody came for fun and a holiday. Maybe that’s what a murderer had done? Maybe that’s how she enjoyed life and was coming here to get away? Gabby couldn’t find any of the details on who this woman supposedly murdered, only that she had died in a bad fall up on the mountain. And with one puzzle solved in her world—yet more murders happening here than she liked to know about—Gabby closed her eyes and somehow fell asleep.

*

Damon walked into the office several hours later, after checking out a stuck vehicle and some party revelers who were a little too drunk to make their way home safely. Damon was tired and fed up. He didn’t even know why he was here. He should have gone straight home. But something about that Gabby woman had him keyed up.

“What are you doing here?” asked his partner, Jake Perkins.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I should be home, sleeping.”

“Especially after boarding all day on ski patrol duty. And I hear you had quite an incident on your watch.”

“Bad news always travels fast, doesn’t it?” he muttered, shaking his head. “If you can believe it, she was that same idiot passing off the tarot card readings as being real.”

“Oh, her,” Jake said, then laughed hysterically. “That’s funny.”

“I don’t think it’s very funny,” he said. “Matter of fact, it feels very unfunny.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jake said. “For the rest of us, that whole tarot deal is bad news. But it’s not ugly news.”

“I get it,” he said. “She’s probably just fleecing a few bucks off some people. But more than that, she’s setting off a raging panic with those readings.”

“Sure, I suppose,” he said. “But it sounds like the mountain tried to teach her a lesson today. And you and I both know how ugly that mountain can get when she’s in a pissy mood,” he said. “The last thing we need is any more deaths.”

“I know. We were all hoping to get through a winter without any for once. Hasn’t happened yet.”

“Nope, it sure hasn’t. But we keep trying.”

“True enough,” he said. “It’s hard though. Out of nowhere, she just went flying, so badly I thought for sure she was a goner. When she took that last drop down, I couldn’t believe it when I came up over the rise to see her, sitting up, tucked against the mountain, petrified at where she landed. Any other person would have gone over the cliff.”

“True enough,” his partner said. “Obviously it was one hell of a lucky fall.”

“I know, and then she had the nerve to blame it on a ghost.”

Jake looked at him and sniggered again.

“It’s not funny,” Damon snapped. “When I asked her what the hell happened, she said she was pushed.”

“Pushed?” Jake stared at his partner in surprise.

“I know,” he said. “And I did see her out snowboarding, not that I knew who it was immediately, but I didn’t see anybody around her at the time, when suddenly she was careening off the mountain.”

“No, you’re right,” he said quietly. “That’s really strange.”

“It is, and I just don’t know what the hell is going on.”

“Well, you already thought she was two bricks short of a load after the tarot card stunt, right?”

At that, Damon rolled his eyes. “Can you believe it?” he said. “Like we haven’t got real crimes here to worry about.”

“Well, apparently not,” Jake said with another snigger.

Damon glared at his friend and said, “What? Am I supposed to put that ghost remark in the report?”

“Why not?” he replied. “It’s what she said.”

“True.” He thought about it, then shrugged. “Well, I can put it in italics at least. They can laugh all they want, but it’s the truth.”

“Exactly. Besides, we must be truthful. And, hey, maybe she’s setting up an insanity defense.”

“It’s not like she’s ripping people off though by almost falling to her death from the mountain,” Damon said, suddenly feeling the need to defend her. “And we only had the one anonymous complaint on her readings.”

“But what were they complaining about then?”

“Well, the woman lost her husband,” he said. “So she’s obviously acting out of grief. But she feels like Gabby should have known that what she said in the reading was the truth and should have done something to protect the woman’s husband.”

“Really?” Jake stared at him. “How does somebody protect somebody else from death? If she could bottle some of that, she’ll be a trillionaire in a heartbeat, right?”

“It just didn’t bear thinking about. And that’s assuming Gabby’s even correct in any of these premonitions, which, so far, we haven’t seen any actual proof of.”

“So what do tarot card readings have to do with her flying down the mountain? Or being pushed?”

“Well, that’s the part that doesn’t make much sense,” Damon said. “Because, if she was pushed, you would think that somebody would have seen something.”

“Did you get a chance to interview anybody at the scene?” Jake asked.

“No, I was bringing her down off the precipice, then to the ER. I do know a few people who were out there, but I’m not sure I know anybody there at that time.”

“We still have to follow up, work our due diligence,” Jake said.

“You mean, head off any complaints about us not doing a thorough job, even though it’s all for the loony bin?” A note of humor was in Damon’s voice because even he could see just how ludicrous it was. But the fact of the matter was that Gabby remained convinced that somebody had pushed her. Damon frowned and then nodded. “Even if she hadn’t said that and even if I didn’t know she was part of that tarot card mess,” he said, “you know we would have done everything we could to reassure her that she hadn’t been pushed.”

“And, if she were,” he said, “you know it’s a crime, so we need to follow it up anyway.”

“Right,” Damon said. “So I’ll have a talk with the mountain safety officers and see if they have any idea of who all were around there at the time of her fall.”

“You said her friends were there too, right?”

“Yes, one for sure was at her side when I arrived. I can question her and ask what she saw,” Damon said.

“I’d question everybody, just to make sure our backs are covered,” he said.

With that, Damon nodded. “You know what? For now, I think I’ll head home.”

“I think you should. I doubt you got any sleep, did you?”

“What’s sleep?” he said, “Especially these days.”

“Grief won’t last forever,” Jake said.

“I’m not sure about that,” Damon replied. “It feels like a life sentence.”

“Man, it’s been two years. It’s time to cut loose.”

“Yeah, but I’m not ready,” he said instantly.

“You only keep saying that because it’s a reflex,” he said.

At that, Damon stopped, thought about it, and then shrugged. “You know what? That may be true,” he said. “Or maybe it’s still the way I feel.”

With that, he walked out and headed home. Two years and four days. Couldn’t forget the four days. Everybody thought he was overcome with grief. Nobody knew the hell he’d endured for the four years of his marriage and how relieved he was that she was gone. Not relieved enough to have had a hand in her accident because that just wasn’t his way. But every time he brought up divorce or any attempt to get out of the situation that was choking him, she’d tried to commit suicide.

Damon knew that the psychologist had said it was an attention-grabbing action, but Damon couldn’t just sit there and let her go down the tubes because of his need to be free. He’d been caught in a nightmare that he’d found no way out of. And the two years since had been even worse. Survivor’s guilt? Or PTSD? Or just plain not letting go of the trauma of those years? It took time to get back to normal. And he felt he would get there. Eventually.

Damon knew Jake was probably right in the sense that Damon should get back into the dating game and have some sort of normal life, but he just didn’t want to. Not yet. Absolutely nothing inside him said he should either. Maybe the truth was that he was too damn scared.

After all, he’d hooked up with somebody he thought was the most brilliant person in the world, and she ended up being so emotionally unstable that he’d been living a nightmare the entire time with her. He just didn’t want to repeat something like that. And every time he met somebody like Gabby, it reminded him of how many people in the world were just a little off, and he didn’t even know Gabby well. It wasn’t that he was trying to judge her, but dealing with her so far made it easy to do so.

Chapter Two

Gabby woke the next morning, feeling rested and well. She bounced out of bed, got dressed, then raced out and put on the coffeepot. After her day off—she rolled her eyes—she was supposed to go to work today. Her roommates, minus Tessa, looked up at her in surprise. Gabby turned and said, “Oh, I didn’t realize you guys were up already.”

“Yeah, we didn’t get any sleep,” Wendy groused. “I had nightmares all night.”

“Nightmares about what?” Gabby asked in commiseration, as she sat down beside her friend.

“You,” Wendy said, “going over that cliff. I may never snowboard or ski again.”

“I’m sorry,” Gabby said with remorse. “That must have been terrifying to watch.”

Liz and Betty nodded.

“You don’t even know the half of it,” Wendy replied. “I think all I did was scream because my throat is so raw today.”

And, in truth, her friend’s voice did sound gravelly. “Hey,” Gabby said, “I’m really sorry. I don’t even know what happened, but I feel really good today.”

“How can you possibly feel good?” she said. “I don’t know how you could have slept either.”

“Stress, exhaustion, I don’t know,” she said, showing her palms, “but I feel good, and, for that, I’m grateful. I do have to go to work today.”

“You’re going to work?” Liz asked in horror. “You need to stay home and recuperate.”

“Yeah, not happening. I have expenses to pay. Remember? So I have a job. And I need to keep it.”

They watched mutely as she poured coffee into a thermos, checked her watch, and said, “Of course I overslept.”

“How about food?” Wendy asked.

“I’m okay,” she said. “I’ll grab something at work.”

“Remember the money thing?” Wendy asked. “You weren’t going to buy lunch out anymore.”

“I know,” she said, “but I’m late.”

“We have some muffins here that Tessa made. Grab a couple,” Wendy urged. “At least take that much.”

Gabby looked around and saw them, then snagged two without even wrapping them. “Thanks,” she said, as she headed out the door and walked down the street to work.

When she got around the corner, she raced toward the bookstore, reveling in the crisp cold air. There was something to be said about living in a place like this. She thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The five of them together had done decently as roommates, and it was nice that Wendy had shared some of Tessa’s muffins.

They often did that. Somebody would cook a batch of something, and everybody would share it together. But other times it didn’t work out quite that way. But none of them liked wasting food, so, when someone had too much to eat themselves, they usually passed it around to the others. It worked out well.

And it saved all of them a few dollars along the way, which was good because Gabby made what seemed like pennies off her job. As she walked into the bookstore, her boss looked at her and then pointed at his watch. She checked, smiled, and said, “Look at that? I’m right on time.”

He checked his watch, frowned, and said, “Oh, I thought it was a few minutes later than this.”

“Nope, I’m on time,” she said, giving him a bright, cheerful smile. “How was it yesterday?”

“It was fine,” he said. “I did ask if you could work yesterday too.”

“And I probably should have,” she said, “since my trip up the mountain yesterday turned out quite differently than what I had intended.”

“Huh. I heard somebody had a near miss,” he said.

She glanced at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. “There are always a lot of near misses,” she said and got right to work. A couple hours later, when she grabbed yet another cup of coffee, her boss looked at her and cleared his throat before speaking.

“Did you come up with anything else to bring in some business?”

She looked around and saw four or five people already in the store. “Today seems pretty good, business-wise.”

“Sure, but tomorrow won’t be,” he said, in that perpetually glum tone of his.

“Maybe it will be,” she said. She was the eternal optimist, and he was the eternal pessimist. But somehow, most of the time, they got along very well. She had to admit she had messed up a time or two, and he hadn’t really appreciated that, but what could he do when it was all a learning experience for her? She’d thought about other marketing ideas to bring in more customers but wasn’t sure that he’d be up for any of her ideas after the last one.

He had a tendency to claw onto the negative and to hang onto it way too long. She was the opposite. She liked to keep trying new things, until she found something that worked. While she sat here at the front counter, she polished off the first muffin and then ate the second.

He looked at her and asked, “Did you not eat this morning?”

“No,” she said. “I brought these two muffins, but I’m still hungry. I’ll get lunch from across the street, maybe grab a sandwich.”

“I brought a bunch of sandwiches,” he said. “You can have one of those.”

She looked at him in surprise. He wasn’t well-known for his generosity. She beamed and said, “Thank you. I could really use it.”

He motioned toward the small fridge he kept in the office. “Go ahead and grab one. I think I brought like four today. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Hey, it’s perfect for me,” she said with a bright smile. She raced into the office, as no customers were at the cash register, then snagged the top sandwich, and came back out. Even before she got back to the cash register, she’d taken several bites.

“You must be really hungry.”

“I am,” she said. “Must have been the day on the mountain.”

“Maybe,” he said. “It’s been a long time since I skied.”

“Go back to it,” she said, in that encouraging voice.

He shook his head. “No, people die on the mountain.”

At that, she stopped, froze for a long moment, and then nodded slowly. “That’s very true,” she said. “They do.” She frowned because it seemed like her voice suddenly got thick, almost tense, and she didn’t know why. She turned and looked at him and asked, “Did anybody you know die on the mountain?”

“Why would you think that?”

“I just thought it would be a horribly personal thing to have happened.”

“Well, it would be,” he said. “It’s bad enough to lose anybody you care about, but, on a mountain like this, even worse.”

“Why a mountain like this?”

“It’s very unforgiving,” he said, staring at her in surprise.

“I just never looked at it that way,” she said.

“That’s because you don’t live here,” he said with a nod.

She found that almost insulting. “Well, I do live here,” she said. “I just haven’t been here for very long.”

“I meant, you’re a newcomer,” he said, by way of explanation.

“Well, everybody is a newcomer,” she said, in that matter-of-fact tone of voice, “until they’ve been here long enough.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Meaning, you aren’t an old-timer because you don’t know all the old stories or some of the old happenings.”

“Like what?”

“Well, we had a serial killer at one point in time,” he said, “and he murdered young women on the mountain.”

“Really?”

“He was a ski instructor at the time, and he’d pick his victims from his students.”

“Wasn’t that like setting himself up to get caught? It seems a little too obvious.”

“Well, it still took a long time for him to get caught, if that’s the case,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t know much about it, but it took them over a decade to actually find him. I think it was because he was poisoning his victims. Once the cops figured that out, then further autopsies and drug panels helped solve those cases. They did get him in the end though. He died in jail a few years back.”

“Wow,” she said. “That’s terrible.”

“Yes, it was,” he said. “I lived here during that decade, and it was a terrible time.”

“Is that why you don’t go skiing now?”

“That’s one of the reasons. But it really doesn’t matter. It’s not like I’ll be taking any ski lessons, and it’s not like some serial killer will target me,” he said with a shrug.

She wasn’t so sure about that. A lot of women—young women—went after old men, if they had assets. And Aspen was full of very wealthy people. On second thought, her boss, Jerry, wasn’t exactly a wealthy old man. “I don’t think you have enough money for somebody to murder you,” she said cheerfully.

He snorted. “If that is one of the prerequisites, then, no, I definitely don’t.”

She grinned at him. “Besides, isn’t it time you got a girlfriend?”

“What is the correlation between our last conversation and this one?” he asked in exasperation.

Blithely she shook her head and said, “No clue. But, hey, it’s what came to mind.”

“And it seems like whatever comes to your mind,” he snapped, “comes flying out of your mouth, without any regard for the conversation at hand.”

“I’ve always been this way,” she said, trying not to dim her enthusiasm.

“Well, you’re even worse today,” he said, groaning. “I’ll head back to my office and get some work done.”

“Okay,” she said, “I’ll be right here.”

As a customer came toward her to check-out, Gabby turned with a smile. “Hi,” she said. “Let me help you with those.” As she reached for the items to ring them up, she started in on a conversation, asking if the woman had found what she was looking for, if she needed anything else, and was she looking for any other books. By the time the woman had left, her boss was back out again, a glare on his face.

“Now what?” she said, raising her hands.

“Don’t be so chatty,” the boss growled. “That poor woman was trying to get away from you, and you were talking so much.”

She looked at him, feeling hurt. “That’s not true,” she said. “It’s not even fair to say something like that.”

He groaned. “Not everybody is a social butterfly,” he snapped. “So just keep it under control.”

After that, she tried hard to keep her natural enthusiasm down, but it seemed even harder today. Instead of being shell-shocked and lifeless from her nearly catastrophic event up on the mountain, it seemed like she’d been energized by it instead. She frowned at the thought. Just then, one of the customers came up and said, “Hi, I was looking for a book on the history of Aspen.”

“Sure,” she said with a bright smile. “Let me show you where those are.” She walked her around to the section where the local books were and pointed out two that discussed local history. The woman picked up one and bought it. Later in the day Gabby remembered she’d wanted to look at the same thing herself. When a lull in the bookstore’s traffic came, she headed back to the two books she had pointed out to the woman. Gabby wanted one for herself but winced when she saw the price of them.

Of course, as was so very typical of the bookstore, these were thirty dollar books. She needed to find something less expensive to match her measly income. She flipped through the first book and didn’t find anything too interesting, and then, as she picked up the second one, her boss came by and said, “If you’re looking for a good book on the history of Aspen, there’s another one, only it’s about the dark history.”

“Oh,” she said, “where do you keep that one? I don’t remember seeing it.”

“That’s because I don’t sell it,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Because things like that shouldn’t be perpetuated. It’s gruesome.”

“And yet,” she said, with a slight smile, “you’re telling me about it, so I can go look it up.”

“Yes, but then that’s you.”

Frowning, she didn’t know what to say to that but made a note of the book he was talking about. “Is it something we can order in?”

“Probably,” he said. “Anything like that has a great sell-through rate.”

This just made her itching to again ask why he didn’t carry it here, but she held her tongue because either he was in a weird mood or she was. It didn’t matter. She thought she’d go by the secondhand bookstore when she got off work. Seemed like the wrong thing to do, but she couldn’t afford to pay for brand-new books. By the time the end of the day rolled around, she still wasn’t the least bit tired. She had enough energy to spare that she could easily walk the few blocks over to the other bookstore.

Saying goodbye and leaving Jerry to lock up, Gabby headed out the door and down the street and turned at the corner. She’d been into the secondhand bookstore a couple times, and the woman there knew where she worked. As she walked in, Emily looked up, smiled, and said, “You’ve only got a few minutes. I need to close up on time tonight.”

“Yeah, you usually open and close a half hour later than we do,” she said. “I was looking for a book on the local history,” she said and gave her the title that her boss had mentioned to her.

“Ah, you’re talking about The Dark Past. That’s its actual title.” She walked over to one wall, quickly thumbed through several books that she had there, then nodded and said, “Here we go, one copy.”

“Oh, perfect,” she said. “How much is it?”

“Well, it’s in nearly perfect condition,” she said, “so it should be fifteen dollars.”

At that, Gabby winced.

“But, for you,” she said, “how about ten?”

“That would be great,” she replied, smiling with relief. “I can just about manage that.”

“I’d suggest you get another job, but I know jobs in town are hard to come by.”

“They are if you can’t do restaurant duty,” Gabby said. “I’m just way too klutzy for waitress work.”

At that, Emily laughed and said, “Here you go. Enjoy the book.” She handed it over, after ringing up the sale.

With the purchase tucked inside her oversize purse, Gabby headed home. The snow had picked up, and it was blustery out. But still it was a beautiful day. She just loved Aspen, almost dancing along on her way home.

As she neared her apartment, she thought she heard her name called.

You’re mine, Gabby.

But she didn’t understand what that meant.

Oh, you understood, the voice in her head said. You just don’t want to listen.

Then it disappeared.

*

Damon drove through town, heading toward the apartment that Gabby had listed as her address. He had stopped in at the bookstore at the end of the day but had just missed her. As the owner of the bookstore had said, she’d left already. He took a few minutes to walk the area and then hopped into his vehicle to give her enough time to get home. But, once he arrived at her place, nobody answered.

He waited in his car until she showed up, and, when she did, she looked quite pleased with herself. She ran through the snow, bouncy and fresh looking. He wondered at that. He hopped out and called to her. “Gabby?”

She immediately froze, a frown taking over her features, but she didn’t acknowledge Damon.

“Gabby?” he called out again.

She stopped, turned, and looked at him. He could see that she recognized him, and then she bolstered up a smile for him.

He sighed. “Hey, I’m just checking in to make sure you’re okay from yesterday.”

Immediately the fake smile disappeared, and she beamed at him. “I’m doing great,” she said. “Thank you very much.”

“No aftereffects?” he probed gently.

“No, I feel really great,” she said.

“I figured you’d be home, spending the day recuperating in bed.”

“No, not at all,” she said. “And you’re not the first one to point that out to me. But I feel fine, honest.”

“Well, that’s good,” he said, frowning. “I really expected you to have some residual effects today. You know? Bruises, abrasions, sore muscles, something. That was a hell of a fall.”

“Hey, I got a second opportunity at life. I’m determined to live it.”

“But do you really realize how lucky you were?”

“Yes. I’m trying not to dwell on the accident part,” she said, on a more serious note.

He nodded to himself. At least she understood how close she’d come to losing that life she found so precious. “So,” he said, crossing his arms, hating that he did it defensively, but finding it hard not to. “Yesterday you said that you were pushed.”

“Yes,” she said immediately. “I was. I know it.”

“Did you see who did it?”

“I already told you that I didn’t,” she said. “You just don’t like the other answer I gave you.”

“Not when it doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“Well, I can’t make it make sense for you, can I?” she said. “You’ll have to investigate and make it make sense for me.”

He stared at her in confusion.

“It’s what you do, right?” she said helpfully.

“And how do you figure that?”

“You’re a detective,” she said. “You solve puzzles.” And, with that, she gave him a beaming smile and added, “If that’s all, I’ll go inside and make some dinner.”

“I do have a few questions for some of your roommates. Who was out on the mountain with you when I arrived?”

“That’s Wendy,” Gabby said. She unlocked the main entrance door, pushed it open, and asked, “Do you want to come up and see if she’s there?”

“Well, I knocked a while ago, and nobody answered.”

“Nobody likes to answer anyway,” she said candidly. “Nobody here likes to come down three flights of stairs just to open the door either. Essentially we’re all a lazy lot.”

“So, if somebody is coming over, you don’t open the main entrance door for them?”

“Well, of course, if we know they’re coming,” she said. “But nobody was expecting you, were they?”

A little lost in the conversation, he nodded slowly.

“See? So it’s not like anybody was planning on you coming, so why would they let you in? You could have been anybody, like a serial killer or something.”

“Ah,” he said, “you mean, you don’t open the door to strangers?”

“Isn’t that what I said?”