Candy Cane Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

called out and her sisters hurried over.
    â€œWhy are there so many here?” Michelle asked, bending down to pick them up. “It looks like they all fell out at once.”
    â€œMaybe he slipped,” Hannah theorized.
    â€œOr maybe he got tired of holding his hand over the hole and decided it wasn’t worth it,” Andrea added her take on it. “I don’t think he’d do that, though.”
    â€œWhy not?” Michelle asked her.
    â€œBecause he’s too cheap. Every time he dropped one, he’d be adding up how much it cost him. Mother used to say that Wayne had the first nickel he ever made.”
    â€œI remember that,” Michelle said with a laugh. “She told me Wayne pinched it so hard, the buffalo squealed and ran away.”
    â€œLook at this.” Hannah pointed to another candy cane a foot or so away. “The trail picks up again here and keeps going.”
    The three sisters followed the candy cane trail to a bank of hard-packed snow the plow had left when Dick had cleared the inn’s parking lot after the last snowfall. Behind it and a few feet back was another bank of snow and ice, rising even higher than the first. By the end of a snowy winter there could be several banks lining the perimeter of the lot. When one berm got too high for the snowplow blade to reach and dump, Dick started another snow bank in front of it.
    â€œI see candy canes going all the way up that snow bank,” Michelle said, illuminating them with Hannah’s flashlight. “I wonder why Wayne climbed way up there.”
    â€œThere’s only one way to find out,” Hannah told her.
    â€œNot me.” Andrea pointed down at her high-heeled boots. “That’s hard-packed snow and these boots were expensive. I could break off a heel.”
    â€œI can go with you,” Michelle offered.
    â€œNo way. Mother just bought you those suede boots and they’re going to get ruined.”
    â€œIt’s okay. I really don’t mind.”
    â€œNo, but Mother will. And if Mother minds, I’ll never hear the end of it. Just stay here with Andrea and I’ll take a quick peek.”
    Hannah dug in with her heels and her hands, and started to climb up the bank of snow. It was a good eight feet tall with fairly steep and slick sides, and the ascent wasn’t easy. She slipped a couple of times, but she kept going until she’d pulled herself up on the top. She opened her mouth to make a joke about being King of the Hill, a reference to the children’s game they’d played in the winter every recess in grade school, but then she saw what was on the other side and the joke died a quick death on her lips. There was a figure spread-eagled on the snow at the base of the berm. It was Wayne Bergstrom and he’d obviously been pushed. Making snow angels wasn’t in his repertoire.
    â€œAnything there?”
    Michelle’s voice floated up to her, and Hannah swallowed with difficulty. She took a deep breath, expelled it in a cloud of white, and croaked out one shaky word. “Yes.”
    â€œYou sound really funny,” Andrea commented. “Are you all out of breath?”
    Hannah knew she wasn’t the one who was out of breath. Wayne Bergstrom was, but she couldn’t quite manage to say anything that sarcastic.
    â€œHannah?” Michelle sounded worried. “Are you okay?”
    â€œI’m okay,” Hannah choked out the words and took another deep breath. Andrea was right. The air did smell like Christmas trees. The stars and the moon seemed bigger too, illuminating the figure at the bottom of the far side of the snow bank in an intensely cold blue light. Everyone said you couldn’t see color at night, but Hannah’s mind filled in the colors. He was wearing red velvet and white fur, and there were candy canes scattered all over around him.
    â€œHannah?” Andrea asked again, and Hannah knew she had to say more. She