managed, however, to get to her bridge club meetings around
the hill and occasionally, to the church itself for a bingo
session. Judith considered her mother a fraud.
“It’s snowing at home?” Judith inquired. “I don’t usually
drive in the snow.”
“It doesn’t bother Carl,” Arlene declared. “But of course
we’re midwesterners and know how to handle it. Now tell
me, Judith, how do I get into your computer program for
future reservations? I’ve been doing them all by hand.”
“The computer!” Judith felt giddy. “That’s all?”
“All?” Arlene sounded irked. “I can’t get into the cancellation program, either, and there have been several of those,
what with this bad weather and people being so timid about
getting around in it. Honestly, you’d think that just because
the planes have been grounded and some of the roads are
closed and the metro buses have been taken off their runs…”
Judith and Renie exchanged startled looks. “How much
snow is there, Arlene?” Judith interrupted.
“Mm…Two feet? Your statue of St. Francis in the backyard
is completely covered. The poor birds have nowhere to land.”
“Oh, my. That’s quite a lot of snow for us in town,”
238 / Mary Daheim
Judith said. “Okay, let me tell you how to get into those
programs…” She jiggled a bit in the chair, fighting off nature’s
urges. When she had finished her instructions, most of which
required questions from Arlene, Judith asked if Joe was home.
“Poor Joe.” Arlene’s voice dropped a notch. “Poor man.
Poor soul. He’s fine,” she added on a far more chipper note.
Accustomed to her friend and neighbor’s peculiar contradictions, Judith grimaced only slightly. “Is he home? Can I
talk to him?”
“No. Yes. I must run, Judith. I’ve got a million things to
do, since Carl and I are leaving next week for…”
“Wait! Do you mean he’s home but I can’t talk to him or
he’s not home and I can…That is, I can’t…”
“He’s at work,” Arlene broke in. “He’s been at work since
the snow started Saturday during the night. He got called in
late Friday on a very big case. Then he got stuck downtown.
It’s really terrible here, Judith. We’re completely marooned.”
“But…you said…” Realizing it was pointless to argue, Judith sighed. “Okay, Arlene. Thanks for all your help. We
may be able to get out of here by tomorrow. It’s melting
fairly fast.”
“Not here,” Arlene said. “The wind changed last night,
coming from the south. We got another four inches, with
more coming tonight. Take care, and say hello to Serena.”
Arlene rang off.
Judith stared at Renie. “The phone works. Who shall we
call?”
“The bathroom?” Renie said with a quirky little smile.
“I forgot about that,” Judith admitted. “I can wait. Let’s
start with the police.”
“Which police? As I recall,” Renie said dryly, “that was
our first obstacle.”
“My police,” Judith responded, punching in digits. “At least
Joe will be able to tell us who we should contact.”
SNOW PLACE TO DIE / 239
“Oh, God!” Renie cried. “Are you going to tell him about
our body count?”
“I have to,” Judith said, then held up a hand as someone
answered at the other end. “Joe Flynn, please…He’s not?
But I thought…Oh…Oh, I see. All right. Yes, please have
him call me at this number. This is his wife.” Judith replaced
the receiver. “Joe didn’t get stuck downtown,” she said to
Renie. “He and Woody are out in that snazzy neighborhood
between downtown and the lake. That’s where their victim
was found.”
Renie recognized the neighborhood. “They’ve got tons of
little hills and short, narrow streets,” she said. “It’s not as
steep as Heraldsgate Hill, but it’d be really difficult navigating
in the snow.”
“At least Joe’s in a classy part of town,” said Judith, and
then she laughed, a rueful sound. “I guess he’s stuck with a
stiff, too.” Suddenly, she jumped out of her chair. “The
bathroom! We’ve got to get to the bathroom!”
“So you mentioned,” Renie smirked. “How about using
that wastebasket?”
Judith stared at Renie. “I don’t mean that,” she responded,
going to the door. “Help!” she screamed. “Help! Help!”
“What in the…?” But Renie was at her side, pounding on
the heavy pine panels.
The cousins were almost hoarse by the time Margo and
Gene came to the rescue. “We thought the yelling came from
outside,” Margo said. “What’s wrong?”
“Outside?” Judith blinked at Margo. “No, it was us.”
Their captors didn’t argue when Judith and Renie asked
to be locked up in their own room. They needed access to a
bathroom and also wouldn’t mind if someone brought them
a couple of sandwiches. After escorting the cousins upstairs,
Margo and Gene promised to deliver food.
“You didn’t tell them the phone worked,” Renie said after
the cousins were alone. “How come?”
“Because,” Judith explained, scurrying into the bath- 240 / Mary Daheim
room, “I wanted to stall for time. Obviously, the OTIOSE
gang was in the dining room when the phone rang and they
didn’t hear the kitchen extension.”
“So what good does it do us?” asked Renie. “Now we’re
shut up in here.”
“With a much simpler lock,” Judith called out over the
flushing of the toilet. “The only problem is, we don’t have
access to a phone on this floor. I forgot about that.”
“Crazy,” Renie muttered. “What did you mean when you
said ‘bathroom’?”
Judith was washing her hands. “What? I can’t hear you.”
“Never mind.” Renie collapsed onto the bed and lit a cigarette. “I’m sure I’ll find out.”
Judith entered the bedroom. “I’m glad Mother is okay. It
sounds as if I’ll lose some money with the cancellations, but
I can’t do anything about that. And, as usual, Arlene is
coping very well.”
“It’s a good thing this is a three-day weekend,” Renie
pointed out. “Bill doesn’t have to teach and nobody has to
work. Maybe by Tuesday, things will get back to normal.”
A knock sounded at the door. Ava and Max had arrived
with chicken salad sandwiches, chips, and the carrot and
celery sticks Judith had cut up early Friday morning. Only
two days had passed since then, but to Judith, it felt like
much more.
The cousins thanked Max and Ava, who both seemed extremely subdued. “How’s everyone doing?” Judith asked, her
usual compassion surfacing.
“Lousy,” Max retorted. “Honest to God, we have this sense
of impending doom.”
“But Max,” Ava said, giving his sleeve a little tug, “it is
melting. By tomorrow morning, I’ll bet we can get out of
here.”
“Tomorrow’s a long way off,” Max replied in a grim voice.
“I won’t go to my room tonight. I’ll stay up, and insist that
everybody else does, too. We can take turns
SNOW PLACE TO DIE / 241
sleeping on those sofas in the lobby. Three on guard duty,
three catching some Z’s. The buddy system was a bust.”
“That’s because we’re not used to doing things in pairs,”
Ava pointed out, then turned to the cousins. “I mean, we’re