“He’s my nephew,” Nancy said.
“Heathcliff, come,” Lindsey ordered, and the dog leapt off Charlie, looking quite pleased with himself.
Lindsey reached out and grabbed Charlie’s gloved hand and pulled him to his feet.
“What the heck are you doing out here in weather like this?” Nancy demanded. “Did you drive in this? Are you crazy?”
“I didn’t know what I was in for until I was halfway here,” Charlie said. “Then it was too late to turn around.”
Nancy hustled him into the house, pushing him into the apartment. “You could have been killed in an accident or frozen to death. You idiot!”
“It’s good to see you, too, Naners,” he said with a grin as he unwrapped his scarf and unzipped his coat. “And you might have mentioned that you added a dead bolt to the front door. I couldn’t get in, so I tried to get into my apartment from the porch roof, but the window I usually leave unlatched for those times when I lock myself out was locked.”
“It was you!” Carrie said as she made him a sandwich from the bread and cheese. “You’re the man I saw peering in my window.”
“Charlie, that was twenty minutes ago,” Lindsey interrupted. “Why didn’t you knock on the door earlier?”
Charlie gave her a sheepish look. “Well, when I slid off the roof, I clipped my head on the porch and sort of knocked myself out. The snow woke me up, good thing, or I might have frozen out there.”
“Let me see your head,” Nancy ordered. “Oh, for heaven’s sake.”
She tugged off his hat and pushed back his hair, and sure enough, a knot the size of a chicken egg had formed above his temple.
“I’ll go get some ice,” she said.
Carrie handed him the plate and he looked blissful as he sat by the fire and let the warmth wrap around him. Charlie was a tall, skinny kid with stringy black musician hair, which, without his hat, stood on end, fully charged with static.
“I’m sorry,” Carrie said. “I locked the window. It didn’t occur to me…”
“Of course it didn’t occur to you,” Nancy said, returning with a cloth full of ice that she held to Charlie’s head. “Normal people don’t have to access their apartments from the porch because they’ve locked themselves out-again. As for you,” she said to Charlie, “I was planning to tell you when you came home from your tour next week. Why are you back early anyway?”
Charlie heaved a sigh and stared gloomily at his plate. “The band broke up. Our keyboard player dumped our bass player for our drummer, and the two of them got into a fist fight on stage in Panama City. I’ve been driving for three days in a van full of people who are not speaking to each other. This is why some bands don’t allow girls.”
As if sensing his utter defeat, Heathcliff sidled up to Charlie and licked his face.
Charlie grinned. “So, who’s the new addition?”
“Lindsey’s dog,” Carrie and Nancy said together.
“No, he isn’t,” Lindsey said, feeling a sharp stab of guilt when Heathcliff looked at her. “I’m simply fostering him until I can find him a good home.”
“We call him Heathcliff,” Nancy said.
“Good name,” Charlie said, demolishing his sandwich in three bites.
“Oh, and this is Carrie Rushton,” Nancy said, obviously just remembering that Charlie and Carrie had not been introduced. “Carrie has been staying in your apartment while you’ve been gone.”
“That’s cool,” Charlie said with a shrug. He looked longingly at the tray, so Lindsey slapped together another sandwich for him.
“See? I told you he wouldn’t mind,” Nancy said to Carrie.
“Thanks for letting me stay there,” she said to Charlie.
“Sure, what happened? Did you lose your crib?”
They all stared at him until his meaning finally registered.
“Not exactly,” Carrie said. “My husband was murdered.”
She caught Charlie on an inhale and he started to choke. Lindsey thumped his back a few times and Nancy handed him a glass of milk.
“Wow, not what I expected,” he said.
“For me either,” Carrie agreed.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You can stay in my place. I can bunk with Naners.”
“Oh, I don’t want to be a bother,” Carrie said. “I should probably move back to my own house now anyway.”
“No, really, you can stay in my apartment,” he insisted.
“You’re a good boy,” Nancy said to him. “But I never really could get the man stink out of your place. Carrie will stay with me. That’s final.”
Lindsey turned to Carrie and said, “I hope you didn’t really think you had a say in the matter.”
Carrie gave a small smile and said, “Thank you. Thank you all.”
“Don’t be silly,” Nancy said. “We’re your friends and this is what friends do.”
Lindsey fell asleep in one recliner of Nancy’s while Charlie crashed in the other. She didn’t think she’d actually sleep, but the warmth of the fire soon lulled her into a lethargic state, and the thought of climbing two flights of stairs to her cold apartment above did not appeal. Somehow Heathcliff managed to wedge himself against her in the chair, and she was grateful for his furry warmth.
At some point in the late hours, Nancy draped a heavy comforter on top of her and another on Charlie. She and Carrie took to their beds. When they awoke in the morning, they found that the power was still out, the fire had been turned low so it was just a flicker of blue flame and it was still snowing.
Lindsey brought a portable radio down from her apartment and put fresh batteries in it. She dialed into the local New Haven news station to get the weather. It had been snowing for twenty hours with no sign of stopping. The gale-force winds had diminished, but it was still blustery outside. Along the shoreline, over twenty thousand people were without power.
Knowing that they may not get power back anytime soon, Charlie went up to his apartment and dug out his propane cookstove from his camping gear. They set it on the kitchen counter, opening the window behind it to let out any fumes it gave off.
Charlie then whipped up some coffee and scrambled eggs. Lindsey didn’t know if it was the bone-chilling cold or the fact that a hot meal had seemed impossible, but she was sure these were the best eggs she’d ever eaten.
Feeling better with some food in her belly, she ran up to her apartment to change her clothes and get her cell phone. She had left it charging last night before the power went out. She had enough of a charge to check in with all of her staff today. She called each one, letting them know that they would not be opening the library.
The only one who didn’t answer was Beth. Lindsey tried not to get anxious, but Beth lived alone in a small beach house close to the shore. If the waves had gotten high, she could be in trouble.
She paced Nancy’s living room, debating what to do.
“Well, how about I teach you how to crochet, Carrie?” Nancy offered. “You’re not going to be able to go home for a while, so you may as well keep your mind and your fingers busy.”
“All right,” Carrie said. She looked relieved to have something to do. Lindsey was about to go retrieve her own crochet project when the sound of a motor broke through the quiet morning. They all hurried to the window to see a snowmobile zip across the snow-buried yard.
CHAPTER 16
BRIAR CREEK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
It only took Lindsey a second to recognize the hot pink ski suit. She had been skiing with that snowsuit before,
