Frozen Stiff (7 page)

Without even asking Amy if she wanted a cup of coffee, Edna poured her one and set it down on the table. “Have a chair. Talk to John while I go get another chair. I’ll be right back.”

“I don’t know if you have heard what’s happened to your neighbor, Daniel Walker?” As Amy said this she watched John pretty carefully to see how he would react to her question.

He blew up. “Don’t even say that asshole’s name in this house. He is the biggest slime bag I know. Makes like he’s your friend and then stabs you in the back. What happened? Did his Mercedes get stuck in a snowbank?”

“No, he got locked out of his house last night and almost froze to death. He’s in the hospital in intensive care.”

John deflated. He sank down into his chair opposite her and stared at her. “How’d he manage that?”

“Well, it appears he was taking a sauna, went outside to cool off, and didn’t get back into the house.”

“Wow. Did he lock himself out?”

Amy wasn’t sure how much she should tell them. Better to say less. “We’re not sure.”

“Is he going to make it?” John’s voice sounded like he wasn’t sure what answer he wanted.

“It’s looking like he’s going to be all right. Still a little early to tell. Like I said, he’s in the hospital and they’re in the process of warming him up.” Amy shook her head at the memory. “I thought he was dead when I saw him.”

Edna came back in with her chair, then poured her more coffee and put a hand on her shoulder. “Something happen to Dan?”

“He almost frozen to death,” John told her.

“He’s not a very nice man,” Edna remarked.

“I don’t really know him,” Amy said. “What is he like? Obviously, you don’t care for him too much.”

“You got that right. I’d like to wring his thick neck, but that doesn’t mean I’d actually do anything about it. I did some work for him but I sure wouldn’t work for him again. Dan, well, let’s just say, he takes advantage of people.” John seemed oblivious to the fact that he might be a suspect.

Amy took a sip of coffee and then said, “When I was over at the house, looking around I found the purchase agreement. I hadn’t realized that you were thinking about selling the farm.”

John’s shoulders sank.

Edna stood up straight by the stove. “That was all my fault, Amy. I thought I was doing the right thing. I’ve been such a burden to John lately. Can’t keep up my end of things anymore. In this weather I’m stuck out here, can’t even drive. I thought if we sold the place, John could get on with his life, not worry about farming anymore, not worry about me or this place. I could move to Pepin, one of those little apartments. It’d be easier for him.”

“Mom, for once and for all, you’re not a burden. Plus, you’d go crazy in Pepin. You know it.” John sighed. “Yeah, while I was gone this fall, Dan made an offer for the farm and my mom signed it away.”

“You sure there’s nothing you can do to get it back?” Amy asked.

“I’ve got a lawyer checking into it.”

Edna said, “Maybe you could have me declared mentally incompetent and that would null and void the contract.”

John gave a sharp bark of a laugh. “Mom, you’ve not only got all your marbles, you’re still winning the game with them. Don’t think anyone would buy that.”

Edna looked happy. “How nice of you to say.”

Amy wished she could sit for the rest of the afternoon in this cozy kitchen, drinking coffee and shooting the bull with Edna and John, but duty called. “Well, I just wondered if you noticed anything strange last night. Anyone driving down the Walkers’ driveway.”

“I was in bed by nine per usual. What about you, John? You stayed up to watch the news, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, but then I tucked in right after that. I don’t recall seeing anyone over to their place. We can only see the start of the driveway, by the time it drops down close to the house, we don’t see it anymore.”

“Well, if you think of anything, let me know.”

John rubbed his forehead. “So you’re actually thinking someone did this to him? That someone was responsible for what happened to Dan?”

“We’re not sure. Just checking all possibilities.”

“Can’t he tell you himself?”

“He’s not come around yet. Maybe later today we’ll know what went on.” Amy finished her coffee and stood up. “Thanks for the joe.”

“You keep us posted on what’s going on with Mr. Walker,” Edna said. “Maybe he’ll forget he even wants the farm.”

5:30 pm

Claire stood in the hospital room doorway, watching Sherri Walker approach the bed where her husband lay stretched out,
wires pasted to his chest and a tube going into his lower abdomen. As his wife leaned over him, Dan Walker stirred, mouthing something, then faded back into slumber, or something deeper, coma.

Sherri stood still, a hand on his forehead, then turned back and looked at Claire. “Did you see that?”

Claire nodded.

Sherri’s eyes widened and her voice sounded hopeful. “I think he’s coming out of it.”

“Looks like it.” Claire couldn’t help but wonder when he would be in good enough shape to talk. But she knew she was jumping ahead of herself.

She had originally assumed that if anyone had locked Mr. Walker out of his house, it most probably would have been his wife, soon to be ex-wife. Having Danielle come flouncing in and give Sherri the best motive in the world for trying to get him out of the way before the divorce went through certainly enhanced that speculation.

But after Danielle had left for the cafeteria to get herself a cup of coffee, Sherri had talked a bit about what had happened between her and Dan. Not trying to persuade Claire of anything; more, it seemed, to try to figure it out in her own mind.

“Dan just seems to always need something new to focus on. Like the cabin, once it was done, it didn’t interest him much anymore. Putting in the sauna this fall helped. His latest project. I think for a while I was his project, but then I was old hat. He needed someone new. It’s just the way he is. I’m not even sure he can help it.”

Claire thought of Rich, who always seemed so content doing what he had always done—raise pheasants—but doing it well,
improving on it if he could. In the same way, he had never given up on her, staying steady and strong as she sometimes struggled with her life. “Sounds like a hard way to live.”

Sherri had nodded. “It is. I hated it. But, surprisingly, I think it is hard on Dan, too.”

“How so?” Claire had said.

“Well, he’s not getting any younger and he can’t go at everything as strongly as he used to be able to. I think he feels that sometimes and he gets down about it, feels he has to prove himself.”

Now watching Sherri attentively leaning over her husband, trying to urge him back into the world of the living, Claire questioned her original take on the woman. Plus, as Amy had pointed out, why would she have told them about the dead bolt being locked if she was the one who had done it. Otherwise, they might have assumed it was an accident.

“I think he saw me,” Sherri said, “He was trying to say something. Did you see that?”

The woman had such a hopeful look in her eyes that Claire hated to do anything but agree. “Yes, that’s what it looked like.”

“I’m just going to stay here with him. If that’s okay,” Sherri said, reaching out to touch her husband’s cheek.

“I can’t leave you alone with him,” Claire forced herself to say.

Sherri turned, her eyes widened, her mouth stretching tight as she seemed to realize the implications of Claire’s words.

New Year’s Day: 6 pm

C
lyde sat in a lounge chair next to his daughter’s bed, sipped the lukewarm coffee and pretended it was full of flavor. Bonnie was sleeping. She was still recovering from her blood loss and seemed very weak. She drifted in and out of being. Sometimes she would jolt awake and ask for the baby. At the moment, her eyes were closed but he wondered if she was really sleeping or just avoiding being awake.

He couldn’t help remembering what had happened two mornings ago. After his wife left for work, he had hollered down the stairs to wake Bonnie. He was surprised that she wasn’t dressed and sitting at the table, eating some sugary cereal. She was usually up bright and early for school.

When Clyde still didn’t hear her moving about in her room, he went down to make sure she was awake. He knocked on her door, and that’s when he heard the groans. “Bonnie?”

She yelled through the door, “Dad, help me.”

When he pushed the door open, he couldn’t make out what he was seeing. Bonnie looked like she was struggling with something in the bed. She was groaning and crying and pulled at something that was between her legs.

At first he had thought there was a small animal in bed with her, a squirrel that had maybe come in the dryer vent. As he walked closer, he saw the small creature was still attached to his daughter by the umbilical cord. A huge pool of blood had soaked into the mattress.

“Dad,” she sobbed, her face red with exhaustion and smeared blood. “I’m having a baby.”

His heart stopped and he couldn’t figure out how this could be. They hadn’t even known Bonnie was pregnant. She was only seventeen. She didn’t even have a boyfriend. Yes, she had been putting on the pounds lately, but not bad. She had always been a little chunky. How could this be?

“I’d say you’ve already had it.” He had to do something. Unfortunately, his wife had already left for work.

“But I won’t stop bleeding,” Bonnie said faintly.

From birthing many calves he knew what to do. He lifted the small form and that was when he realized it wasn’t breathing. As long as the baby was still attached to its mother it would be okay, but they needed help.

He handed the baby to his daughter and then asked, “Who did this to you?”

“Don’t tell Mom.”

He nodded.

She whispered a name and then he went to call an ambulance.

7:00 pm

Meg slumped down into the seat in the movie theater. A handful of kids and their parents were sprinkled around the seats
behind her. She liked to sit close to the front. That way she felt like she was part of the movie, she could fall into it, not know where the film began and she ended.

Curt understood this feeling. But, at the moment for whatever reason, he wasn’t sitting next to her.

She had waited for him for a half an hour at her house and then she left for Red Wing, but not in time to catch the first show. She wasn’t going to call him, track him down. She was pretty sure she knew where he was—with Andy. Curt was a big boy and he could take care of himself. Or not.

But Meg was really mad. How could he do this to her? After all they’d been through. He was like her soul mate, her perfect match, and now he was changing into someone she didn’t even know.

She grabbed a handful of popcorn and started eating it, but even that reminded her of Curt. He called her style of eating popcorn,
pecking.
With her lips she would pluck one popped kernel out of her hand and eat it—like a chicken eating feed. She told him it was just her way of enjoying every single bite.

The trailers started. She loved trailers, those teasers of coming movies. She even liked the ads that showed in front of the movies. The movie she had picked was a new one, just out:
Coraline.
She didn’t know what it was about but she knew it was animated, which Curt loved, obviously, and rather creepy, which they both loved.

Meg sunk deeper into the seat as the movie started. This odd scrawny girl had just moved into an odd scrawny house with a geeky boy living there and his odd scrawny smart cat. So far so good. And the girl’s parents didn’t understand or pay attention
to her. Sometimes Meg felt that way, but not too often. Then the girl, Coraline, started yelling at the geeky boy and Meg really relished that part. Stupid boys!

Suddenly two hands covered her eyes. She let out a small peep.

Curt’s voice whispered in her ear. “I found you.” He climbed over the seat back and slid in next to her.

She gave him a glare. “I wasn’t lost.”

“You mad?”

“I’m watching the movie.”

“It looks good.”

“Sh-sh.”

“Can I have some popcorn?”

She was tempted to tell him to get his own, but decided that would be silly and result in more disruption and so she shoved the box at him, causing a few precious kernels to fall on the floor.

“Thanks,” he said.

It was hard to focus on the movie with Curt sitting next to her. She kept having imaginary conversations with him in her mind: ones in which she told him off, ones in which he begged her forgiveness and promised never to see Andy again, even one in which he told her he had been in a bad car accident and almost lost his life, but had managed to crawl out of the wreckage and come and find her. Most of them ended with the two of them kissing.

At least Curt didn’t try to hold her hand. They always held hands during movies, but he seemed to know not to even try that. When he went to give her the popcorn back, she just pushed it away. She wasn’t really hungry anymore.

In the meantime, Coraline was having a rough time. She had found a secret door in the wall, which led to a parellel world that at first appeared to be perfect, but then the cracks started to show. With the help of the scrawny cat and the geeky guy, she managed to thwart the evil witch-type lady, Belle Dame, and get her real life back, spacey parents and all.

Meg wondered if something similar was happening between her and Curt—she had thought he was perfect and now she was seeing his warts. Maybe what she needed to do was kiss him more often so he wouldn’t be such a frog, but she sure didn’t feel like doing it now.

When the movie ended they didn’t stand up immediately. They sat there as the lights came up.

Curt said, “Cool animation.”

“I didn’t like the tunnel between the two worlds. It looked like an old dryer vent tube,” Meg blurted out, even though she usually had a rule—no comments on the movie until they were safely in the car.

She stood up and started walking out of the theater. Curt followed her. When they got out to the hallway, he tried to swing his arm onto her shoulder, but she shrugged out from under it.