Death of a Dapper Snowman Read Online Free PDF Page A

I should have come to the party at your dad’s house when you got here.” He stifled a yawn, which made me notice the dark circles under his handsome brown eyes.
    “You have a new baby. I’m sure you’ve got your hands full.”
    “You have no idea,” he said ominously, but didn’t explain further.
    “Hey, how did you know I was at the vet clinic? That was some good detective work.”
    “You think?” He frowned and kept looking straight ahead. We reached the town’s police station, and he pulled into a reserved parking spot. He turned off the engine and put his forehead in his hands like he had a terrible headache.
    “Tony?” I reached over and put a hand on his shoulder.
    He rubbed his face and glanced back at my hand, but didn’t shrug it off.
    “I’m not much of a detective, I’m afraid. Some citizens reported Mr. Michaels missing a couple days ago. It was the waitresses from the diner, concerned he hadn’t made an appearance in a while.”
    “And you didn’t do anything about it?”
    “We took the report, then I sent someone out with a locksmith to check the property. There were no signs of forced entry at his house, but no sign of Mr. Michaels, either. I figured he would turn up eventually, but not like this.”
    “He was there the whole time.”
    Tony groaned. “Hidden in plain sight. In that damn snowman.”
    I squeezed his shoulder. “You couldn’t have known.”
    “But you knew, Stormy. You’re a better detective than me. Hell, you’re better than your father, but don’t tell him I said that. We’d both be the laughing stock of the whole town if they knew you were the one who cracked the Donut Heaven case. And you were only eighteen.”
    “Seventeen.”
    He groaned, then opened his door and got out of the car. My hand hovered in the air for a moment, where his shoulder had been.
    “C’mon, kiddo,” he said. “Let’s get your statement.”
    “Can we hook ourselves up to the lie detectors and ask each other a bunch of embarrassing questions?”
    I looked up at his face and watched his expression change to amusement. I was glad to see I could still put a smile on Tony’s face, even if it was just a small one.

Chapter 6
 
    The police station hadn’t changed much since the days I used to come in after school and help type reports. The computers were new, but everything else, from the heavy wood desks to the swirling dark carpet, was exactly as I remembered.
    What did surprise me was how few people were inside the station. I counted only four people, including myself and the white-haired woman knitting a scarf at the reception desk.
    I figured everyone was out gathering evidence at the crime scene.
    Tony led me into the interrogation room, and started to take my statement, but changed his mind and called in his rookie to do it for job experience.
    He said, “You don’t mind a substitute, do you, Stormy? I’ll let you and my rookie get better acquainted.”
    I gazed up into his familiar face and lied. “Sure, that’s fine.”
    He left me in the room, and within a few minutes I was joined by another police officer.
    Like Tony, she was in uniform. To my surprise, though, she looked older than him—maybe fifty. Her sandy brown hair was flecked with white and styled in the same pixie cut as mine.
    “You’re the rookie?” I asked.
    “Were you expecting someone younger?” she replied.
    I was pretty sure that question didn’t have a right answer, so I said, “I like your hair.”
    I meant the compliment, too. Her white-flecked brown hair did look cute, cut in what seemed to be the exact same short style as mine. I expected her to point out the similarities between our hair, but she was all business as she solemnly took a seat across from me.
    The fifty-year-old rookie dove right into the first question. “What led you to believe Mr. Michaels’ body was inside the snowman?”
    “Mainly it was his frozen head sticking out of the top.”
    She gave me a dirty look.
    “Sorry,