Snow Place to Die : A Bed-and-breakfast Mystery

enrollment card—the whole lot.” Still clutching the wallet

and the towel, Judith leaned against the counter.

“I guess,” Renie said in a subdued voice, “Barry’s not

missing anymore.”

Judith gave a single nod. “Are you going to call the cops

or shall I?”

“Why call the cops?” Renie objected, puffing frantically at

her cigarette. “We need an undertaker. Barry must have

gotten caught in the middle of a snowstorm and froze to

death.”

“We need a cop because he was a missing person,” Judith

persisted. “Besides,” she began, then made a face, “we need

a cop, because that’s what you do when you find a body.”

Renie winced. “I wonder if we should tell the rest of them

about Barry first. I mean, he belonged to them, not us.”

“We found him.” Judith chewed her lower lip. “Let’s call

and then you can tell them about Barry.”

“Me?” Renie placed a hand on her semiexposed chest and

gulped. “I didn’t find him. You did.”

“You fell and knocked down that big snow pack,” Judith

countered.

“I didn’t go crawling around inside the cave.”

“This is your big project.” Judith was beginning to get annoyed. “Where’s all that bravado you were showing off an

hour ago?”

“I don’t know,” Renie replied, gazing around the kitchen.

“Where is it?”

“Oooh…We’ll do it together. As usual.” She marched over

to the phone. “I’ll even call the cops.” She punched in 911.

A quavery voice answered on a crackling line. Judith

40 / Mary Daheim

could barely understand the woman—she guessed it was a

woman—at the other end. “I’m calling from Mountain Goat

Lodge,” Judith said, speaking more loudly and precisely than

usual. “We’ve found a corpse.”

“You want a Coors?” the voice said, sounding slightly

stronger. “This isn’t a tavern, it’s the county sheriff’s emergency line. Please hang up at once.”

The line went dead. “She thinks I’m a nut. Now what?”

“What?” Renie, who hadn’t heard the other half of the

conversation, looked bewildered.

“Never mind.” Irked, Judith redialed. The same voice

answered. “This isn’t a joke,” Judith shouted. “We have a

dead body at Mountain Goat Lodge.”

There was a long pause. Judith figured the woman in the

sheriff’s office was trying to figure out if this was a genuine

call. “Mountain Goat?” the woman finally said. “That’s not

our jurisdiction. Try the next county to the east.” She hung

up again.

“What is the next county to the east?” Judith demanded

of Renie.