Murder Fir Christmas by Joyce Lavene, Jim Lavene Read Free Book Online

holder between them.
    “Nervous?” he asked. “Don’t worry. You’ll get your snow legs under you after a while. You must’ve driven here in the snow before. You never forget how to do it.”
    “It wasn’t something I was happy about then, and I’m not looking forward to it now,” she replied. “But you’re right—I’ll get used to it.”
    He pulled the truck to a stop in front of the old ice house. “They say they used this to store ice before it was available everywhere, including your freezer. Now they only use it for hunting sometimes when someone needs to store a kill. Do you want me to come in with you?”
    “No. I’m fine. I’m glad you could bring me up here. I hope they can come get these bodies later today.” She took the key from him and opened the door, conscious of him watching her. It was only the aftermath of a horrific day yesterday and sleeping in the truck last night. Everything felt so new and strange. The rest of it could’ve waited a day or two until she got a chance to acclimate.
    A single bulb hung down from a wire in the ceiling. The switch to turn it on was beside the door. She was glad there was a light even though it wasn’t very strong and moved as she walked by it.
    There were two long, wood tables that each looked a hundred years old. The rickety legs barely supported the six-foot flat surfaces. Only one table had something on it. She guessed it was both bodies stacked together. The medical examiner really was going to have a field day with this.
    But when she pulled back the tarp, there was only one body—Ray Hoy. She put the tarp back on him and took a step back to examine the rest of the room. Her mind was telling her that Harvey had to be in here, but she couldn’t see him. It didn’t make any sense for anyone to put him on the floor or under the other table. She took out her cell phone and switched it to flashlight mode to add some strength to the dim overhead light.
    The room was only about eight by ten. There were only the two tables. The walls were bare except for some string and wires. There was no sign of Harvey.
    The door opened, and she put her head up, startled, knocking the top of it on the bottom of the table.
    “Something wrong in here?” Matthew asked. “I was getting worried. Having trouble getting the keys from Harvey?”
    “No. He’s not here. Someone must have moved him.”
     

Chapter Six
     
    He followed the same routine she did searching the small building. He crawled across the dirty floor, which she hadn’t been willing to do, but the result was the same.
    “Where did he go?” he asked.
    “I have no idea.” Bonnie shivered. The ice house was colder than it was outside. “Let’s get back in the truck and call Chief Rogers. Maybe someone came for the body.”
    But Chief Rogers knew nothing about it. “Was the lock still on the door?”
    “I opened it with the key you gave us,” she told him. “It hadn’t been cut or forced.”
    “Ray Hoy is still in there,” Matthew said as they used the phone in speaker mode. “But no sign of Harvey—not even the blanket I put around him.”
    “That doesn’t make any sense,” Chief Rogers said. “I just spoke to Judd Streeter. He says the roads are too bad to come until tomorrow. I know he didn’t come for him.”
    “Who else has access to the key?” Bonnie asked.
    “Just me, usually,” the chief responded. “No one else uses it anymore. I gave you the only copy of it, as far as I know.”
    Matthew shrugged but remained silent as he stared at the ice house through his window.
    “I’ll send John out there,” Chief Rogers said. “Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
    “Do you want us to wait until he gets here?” Bonnie wasn’t sure what was going on but didn’t want anything happening to Ray’s body too.
    “I’d appreciate that. I don’t want to have to look for two corpses. Thanks.”
    She put her phone in her pocket when the chief finished. “I guess