The Alpine Legacy Read Online Free PDF

the community. Maybe if you explained your side of it, how you have to deal with advertisers and sources, she'd ease off. Remember, Crystal's never been in the commercial newspaper business. You're articulate, Emma. You might be able to get through to her.”
    Paula was making sense. “Well… Maybe it's worth a try.” I doodled on a piece of scrap paper and tried tothink through Paula's suggestion. “What's the worst that could happen?”
    “More virulent attacks?” Paula said, and laughed. “No, really, it can't hurt. Do you want me to speak to her?”
    “You mean to set up a meeting?” I hesitated. Crystal Bird struck me as an unreasonable, perhaps unbalanced, person. “Do you think she'd bend?”
    “I'm not sure,” Paula answered slowly. “I honestly don't know her that well. I met her years ago when I did a piece of glass for the bank lobby in Portland. Crystal wrote an article about it in their newsletter. Since she moved up here, I've seen her maybe a half-dozen times. Crystal contacted me after she bought that cabin down the highway at Baring. She thought a stained-glass window would add class. Calla lilies, that's what she had in mind. But she didn't want to pay more than three hundred dollars, which was absurd. That type of window would be at least a grand.”
    “So where does she get her money?” I asked, still undecided about meeting my nemesis.
    “I gather the bank gave her a decent package when they let her go,” Paula replied. “Plus, her parents passed away within a year of each other. She and her sister sold the family home by the middle school on Tyee Street. I doubt that it went for more than seventy grand, but the old folks might have had some savings. Lester Bird used to own the Venison Inn before he sold it to one of the Iversons.”
    I hadn't known that Crystal had a sister. “Does she live around here?” I asked after admitting my ignorance.
    “Yes,” Paula replied. “She's April Eriks. Her husband, Mel, works for Blue Sky Dairy.”
    I was vaguely acquainted with Del and Luana Eriks, and their daughter, Tiffany. They seemed like decentpeople. Del and Mel were brothers, according to Vida. “Okay.” I sighed. “See if Crystal would deign to meet with me. I suppose it's worth a try.”
    Vida was alone in the newsroom when I told her about Paula's suggestion. Since it came from another friend of mine, she pooh-poohed it.
    “You'll get into a shouting match, mark my words.” Vida tapped a pencil on her desk. “I remember Crystal as a little girl. Even then she was ill-tempered, and she gave poor April a terrible time of it.”
    “You never told me about April and the Eriks connection,” I chided.
    “Yes, I did,” Vida declared. “Back in the spring, when Crystal moved here. You probably weren't paying attention.”
    That might have been the case. Vida dispenses so much information about so many people that I can't keep track unless I take notes. “I ought to meet her,” I said doggedly. “It can't possibly make things worse.”
    Vida harrumphed. “You think not? Go ahead, confront her. I think it's not only a waste of time, but a bad idea.”
    I usually heed Vida's words. But I didn't on this occasion, and later I would bitterly regret it.
    Paula called late Thursday afternoon to say that Crystal had agreed to see me Friday evening around seven-thirty. I didn't mention the meeting to Vida, and drove home in a bit of a funk. It wasn't my habit to keep too many secrets from Vida, but now I was holding two things back from her: the meeting itself, and my consultation with Marisa Foxx.
    Snow had been falling for most of the afternoon. It was slow going as the Jag climbed the hill that led to my log house on Fir Street. Only Front and Alpine Way hadbeen plowed again. By the first week of December, it's taxing work to keep the streets clear and sanded. The snow-removal crew is made up of the Peabody brothers, who are strong of body, but slow of mind.
    My spirits lifted a