melting. By tomorrow morning, I’ll bet we can get out of

here.”

“Tomorrow’s a long way off,” Max replied in a grim voice.

“I won’t go to my room tonight. I’ll stay up, and insist that

everybody else does, too. We can take turns

SNOW PLACE TO DIE / 241

sleeping on those sofas in the lobby. Three on guard duty,

three catching some Z’s. The buddy system was a bust.”

“That’s because we’re not used to doing things in pairs,”

Ava pointed out, then turned to the cousins. “I mean, we’re

executives, we’re used to being independent and going our

separate ways.”

“No teamwork, huh?” said Renie. “Every man—sorry, every

person—for him or herself.”

“Well,” Ava said lamely, “we do tend to think mostly in

terms of our own departments. You have to. Otherwise,

you’d get shortchanged on personnel, budget, even floor

space and office equipment.”

“Don’t I know it?” Max muttered, starting back into the

corridor. “As Frank would say, you have to chart your own

course.”

“But he also says we have to row together,” Ava countered,

following Max down the hall. “When you’re at the top, like

Frank is, you can see the big…”

Renie closed the door. “I can’t stand another word of that

crap,” she declared. “They’ve got dead bodies all over the

place, the company may be in ruins, they’re all scared out

of their wits—and they still talk the corporate line. It’s sickening.”

Judith wasn’t really listening to Renie. After taking a couple

of bites of her sandwich, she asked her cousin to make sure

the coast was clear in the corridor.

Renie opened the door again. “They’re gone. So what?”

Judith gave Renie a baleful look. “They didn’t lock the

door. Either Max and Ava don’t think we’re dangerous, or

they know we’re not. Let’s go.”

“Go where?” Renie was looking blank.

“The bathroom, remember?” Judith breezed past her

cousin.

“What bathroom? I thought you—oh, never mind.” Renie

trotted behind Judith as they covered the length of the corridor until they reached Leon’s room.

In the struggle to get Killegrew and Russell out of the

242 / Mary Daheim

room and away from Nadia’s corpse, no one had thought

to lock Leon’s door, either. Judith marched right inside,

though Renie lingered briefly on the threshold.

“How many times do we have to view the body?” Renie

asked.

“Avert your eyes,” Judith called over her shoulder as she

went into the bathroom. “At least they already moved Andrea

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