City of Ice Read Online Free PDF Page B

frozen pond away from the city’s noise, a young woman was skating to the drone of Christmas Muzak. Aware of a man’s careful scrutiny, she knew that she was being recruited. Roughly twice her age, the man shivered by the edge of the oval and regarded her as he stomped his boots on the hard-packed snow to keep his blood circulating. Equally cold, the skater turned her head from the breeze and hunched her shoulders to keep her collar high. Her name was Julia Murdick. She glided one more time around the ice before returning to his side.
    “Now I understand your walk,” he said, his breath a bright cloud in the snapping cold and under the lights.
    “My walk?” She sound offended. Flattered by his attentions, curious about the nature of his enterprise, Julia believed that she could resist his advances. She was willing to let him try. She wanted to experience mental combat with a pillaging male and, having tested herself, triumph over the intricacies of seduction. Julia recognized her weakness here, the vulnerable points that he exploited, but most of all she was keen to know what he wanted her to do, and why she’d been chosen.
    The man kicked one stinging foot against the other. Over his suit he wore a mauve scarf and a taupe woolen topcoat. A jaunty sable cap decked his head. “That was the second thing I noticed about you, Jul, your springy step, the way you push off with your back foot. You walk as you skate, young lady, and you skate beautifully.”
    “My walk’s dorky. That’s what you’re really trying to tell me. Don’t sweat it, Selwyn. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before.”
    The man’s name was Norris—Selwyn Emerson Norris—and the young woman had not known him long. He had lovely eyes in her estimation and a decent manner and an intriguing air about him. Always impeccably groomed, he was so damned handsome. He had old-fashioned manners, always seemed interested in what she had to say, and loved conversation. She had little more to go on than that and no sound reason to be keeping his company.
    “There’s a name for it, you know,” she said.
    “For what?”
    “My walk.”
    “Really?”
    “But I’m not telling! It’s way too demeaning. Wild horses! My walk is physiological so don’t try changing it. It’s not in your domain. Yikes, I’m stiff. I’m so cold. ” She bobbed at the knees to keep herself in motion.
    Norris placed her boots on the ice as she stooped to untie the laces on her high-top skates. Unable to manage while wearing mittens, Julia pulled them off between her teeth and attacked the knots with fingers numb from the cold. Supporting her weight against him, one hand in his, mitts in her mouth, she kicked a skate loose and tucked her foot into the frigid boot.
    “Sel!” Her shout was muffled. Extracting the mittens from between her teeth, Julia put them on again. “Why’s it so freezing out? This has got to be the coldest Christmastime ever ever ever. ”
    “How does a bowl of hot soup sound to you?”
    “Like the sound of one hand clapping, I guess.” She pried the second skate off and pulled on her boot.
    “Snoop—”
    “You don’t mean here. You can’t mean here. ” Julia abhorred the public chalet where children retreated for poutine and warmth and the familiar comfort of their own racket.
    “I think not.”
    Which had to be considered also—the drive in the Infiniti, the food of fine restaurants—although she did not dwell on such ancillary offerings for long.
    “Let’s run,” she said.
    “You go. I’ll catch up.”
    Hugging herself, Julia Murdick ran, disappearing along the path through the woods. Selwyn Norris next saw her in the parking lot jumping in place by his car. He walked across the hardened snow, and the crunch of his boots was clear and sharp in the night air. He unlocked the doors of the Q45 from a distance. Julia heard the gay electronic blip! of the locks releasing, opened her door, and bounced in. She watched Norris carry her skates