Get a Clue(75)
“We need to get him out of here,” Cooper said. “You knew that. We need to get through to town.”
“The generator—”
“Forget the generator. I saw the snowmobiles. If we all put in some effort, we can dig out. Two of us can ride until we get reception, or into town to report Edward’s death.”
Dante just looked at him.
“It has to be reported sooner or later,” Cooper said.
“That’s not what I’m hesitating over,” Dante said.
“Then what?”
“The shoveling-out part.”
“How hard can it be?”
Dante shook his head. “Spoken like someone who’s never had to spend hours digging out his car. That snow is some heavy shit, man.”
“Don’t you have a snowblower?”
“Sure. But Patrick was a bonehead and left it under the eaves of the shed, which has unloaded about two tons of snow onto it since the storm began. That should take all day alone to shovel out—if it’s not crushed, that is.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“You think so?” Dante’s smile was grim. “I’ll be happy to prove a cop wrong.”
Cooper sighed. “I don’t know what your beef is with cops, but—”
“Just go eat,” Dante said. “Then we’ll start.”
“We’ll get Patrick to help, too.”
Dante nodded. “Sure. But just so you know, he’s not much better at shoveling than he is at fixing stuff.”
“Great.” Cooper started to walk away, then turned back. “Hey, did you stay up late last night?”
Dante’s expression closed. “Why?”
“I heard something, around midnight. Just wondering if you heard it, too.”
Dante slowly shook his head. “Didn’t hear a thing.” With that, he turned and vanished.
Cooper stood there watching, thinking . . . but I never told you what I heard.
The lack of electricity wasn’t nearly as disconcerting in the light of day—even though that light of day was so muted as to be nearly inconsequential. Cooper passed the foyer and stopped short. A huge mountain of snow stood in front of the open door.
Then the mountain began to move, turning into the outline of a man as he shook the snow off like a great big dog.
Powdery white flakes flew through the foyer, landing on every surface, including Cooper. That wasn’t what sucked the air from Cooper’s lungs, though; the shocking wind whipping through the open door did that.
“Bloody hell.” Patrick looked around at the mess he’d just made. “Lariana will be killing me for this.” Undeterred by the prospect, he stomped his feet, and more snow fell off him. He wore some sort of head-to-toe snowsuit, which still had snow stuck to every inch, his ever-present tool belt rattling as he stomped. “Sticky shit,” he said conversationally in his Scottish brogue.#p#分页标题#e#
Cooper shivered. It had to be close to zero degrees. “Any luck with anything out there?”
Patrick shook his shaggy head regretfully as he shut the door, closing out the unbelievably bitter cold. “The generator is a no-go. The thing needs to be replaced. We actually have one on order but this storm came early. Didn’t expect to be needing it so soon.” With a rather absent smile, he walked past Cooper.
“Patrick?”
Lifting a hand to remove his beanie, which left his red hair standing up on end, the fix-it guy glanced back.
“Did you hear anything odd last night around midnight?”
“Not a thing, mate. But this place is haunted.”
“Haunted?”
“By Edward’s ghost.” He said this utterly without a flicker of emotion one way or the other.
“I’m sorry about Edward, Patrick.”
“Don’t be.”
“He was your uncle.”
“He was a sorry excuse for a man.” Then he turned on his heel and clinked off.
Cooper walked to the doorway and thunked his head on the wall.
“Is that like snapping your heels together three times and saying ‘There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home?’”
Cooper lifted his head. Shelly stood there, watching him with a curious smile. Wearing whitewashed jeans rolled up to the top of her Ugg boots and a forest-green sweater with a small apron over the top of it, she looked like a melodious, euphoric little thing.
“There are whole days where I feel like bashing my head against a wall, too,” she confided, and reached up to give him a little pat on the shoulder. “But not on an empty stomach.”
“You look happy.”
“I like it when there’s guests here.”