Freezer I'll Shoot (A Vintage Kitchen Mystery) by Victoria Hamilton Read Free Book Online

do, and that was work on the column. Now that she had thought of using the Ice House to talk about ice harvesting and ice cream making in the past, she saw a pattern emerging. Vintage equipment and vintage recipes, with photos to match, would make a continuing column possible. Would she run out of ideas eventually? Gosh, she hoped not.
    The words came fast and furious, and before long she had the article roughed out. It wasn’t bad, not bad at all. It moved from the fascination of the ice cutting procedure, through some background on how the homemaker of the past managed to keep and use the ice. She examined the photos she had taken, flipping through her digital camera and stopping at the green-handled ice pick. She’d thought she’d be able to use that as one of the illustrations for her article, but it was not the most interesting subject in the world, she supposed. The photo of the ice chests was cool, but the best one was ruined by Ruby’s hastily moving out of the frame. And Jaymie thought of herself as camera shy! Ruby beat her at that.
    As twilight snuggled in around the cottage, she moved out to the front porch with Hoppy, clipboard in hand, tea mug beside her, but her thoughts wandered far afield from the article to Zack Christian. Why did he ask her to dinner? Was it intended as a date request? Friendly dinner offer? But she was “going” with Daniel Collins and he knew it. There was no way she and Zack were
quite
friends. Acquaintances, yes; friends, no.
    Her instincts said Zack Christian—relatively new in town, attached now to a police force that was small and prosaic compared to the big-city police force he once was a part of—was just bored and lonely, and that the dinner invitation was a passing impulse. Had he made any friends in the months he had been working for the Queensville force? Officer Bernie Jenkins, a deputy on the same police force, had told Jaymie that the detective was rumored to have been fired from his last post after an incident involving a witness. If that was true, it must have left him angry, and maybe unsure of his future in his chosen career. As much as she liked Bernie—Bernice—gossip was unreliable at best, damaging and hurtful at worst. Until she knew the truth, she would not speculate.
    She watched the shadows lengthen as Hoppy curled up next to her in the Adirondack chair with a sigh, falling into that profound doggie sleep that was the aftermath of contentedness. The line of pines across from her cottage darkened to a deep hunter green as shadows crept into their branches to nestle for the night. Darkness stole over the island and cottage lights came on; the sound of laughter from back patios and front porches waned, quieting as weary folks drifted off to their beds, but Jaymie still sat and thought.
    How peaceful life was on the front porch, she reflected, ruffling Hoppy’s fur. She was not the kind of girl to look for excitement from life. Joy didn’t come at ninety miles per hour. Joy, which had little to do with pleasure, stole through you in moments of hope, feelings of tenderness for the good friends and loving family who surrounded you, and gratitude for life, she firmly believed. Pleasure was transitory; joy was lasting.
    Her grandma Leighton had once said that Jaymie was an old soul in a new body. Maybe that was true. When Joel told her that living with her was like living with an old woman and a toddler all at once, she took umbrage. But he explained that he meant that she was sometimes wise, always patient, and yet at times she viewed the world as if it were all new to her, and took delight in the most unexpected things. It was the nicest thing he ever said to her, and yet for all that, he still preferred the company of Heidi Lockland. Heidi, while a truly sweet person despite cultivating a blond bimbo exterior, held a view of the world that was sometimes gratingly out of sync with reality, perhaps the result of being born wealthy and beautiful.
    Her eyes