Snowfall On Haven Point

She took Eliza’s nearly empty water glass to refill from the fruit-infused supply. She picked out a slice of crumb-topped pie for Eliza and a fork and carried them to her, then returned to the table for herself, studying the other desserts as she tried to decide which indulgence would be most worth the calories.

“You can’t lose with Barbara’s stacked chocolate cake.”

She turned at the voice. “Louise! I didn’t know you were coming. I should have thought to ask when I was at your house earlier, and then we could have ridden together.”

Now her neighbor mustered a weak smile. “To be honest, I didn’t know whether I would be able to make it until the last minute.”

Louise hadn’t been to many of the social gatherings for the Helping Hands and the women who participated in the group, at least not in the six months Andie had lived in Haven Point. Andie assumed her life was too chaotic for now, with her daughter’s death and the stress and turmoil of her grandson moving in.

“I’m very glad you did. How is Christopher feeling?”

Louise released a heavy sigh. “Right now he’s home sulking. I wouldn’t let him go hang out with his friends. I told him, if he’s too sick for school, he’s too sick for friends. That’s what my mother always said to me and what I, in turn, always said to Christopher’s mother. He doesn’t agree. We had a huge fight. Slamming doors, swearing, telling me how much he hates it here and hates me most of all. That’s why I’m late.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, giving Louise an impulsive hug. “That must be so difficult for you.”

“I’m fine, really. It’s all part of the joy of raising a teenager, right?”

Andie could remember plenty of times when she strongly disagreed with the strict rules at her grandparents’ house, but she never would have dared slam doors or talk back. She didn’t advocate her grandfather’s way of handling things, but there had to be a difference between harsh discipline and making sure a child understood there were lovingly considered consequences for misbehavior.

She didn’t feel it was her right to give advice to Louise about how to deal with her grandchild, though.

“I need to tell you, your shortbread was a huge hit next door,” she said to change the subject. “Sheriff Bailey loved it.”

Some of the tightness eased from Louise’s features. “Oh, I’m so glad.”

“Oh, you’ve been to see Marshall?” Megan Hamilton turned from picking out a piece of powder-dusted lemon cake. “I heard about his accident. How is he?”

She pictured the sheriff as she had found him earlier that day, rumpled and sleepy and gorgeous. Those dratted butterflies sashayed through her stomach again and she scowled. When would she stop having this ridiculous reaction to him?

“Oh no. Are things that bad?” Megan asked, obviously misinterpreting Andie’s expression.

“No. At least I don’t think so. He’s in pain, but he’s doing his best not to show it. Mostly, he’s frustrated and annoyed at the inconvenience of having a broken leg, I think.”

“That sounds like Marshall,” Megan said.

“I don’t really know him, so I don’t have a baseline to compare to. Wyn just asked me to keep an eye on him, since I live so close. I’ve stopped in a few times since he came home from the hospital and he seems to be feeling better each time.”

“Good. I can’t believe someone would just hit him with their car and leave him lying in the snow like that. Who knows how long he would have been there if he hadn’t had a cell phone on him?”

An involuntary shiver rippled down her spine, picturing him broken and bleeding in the cold and snow and wind that could be brutal coming off the lake.

“Knowing Marshall, he probably would have patched himself up, dragged himself to the nearest busy road and hitchhiked to the hospital,” McKenzie said with a laugh.

Considering the man had a compound fracture, that would have been quite a Herculean feat, though she wouldn’t put it past him. Something told her when Marshall put his mind to something, he didn’t let too many things stand in his way.

“Marsh is a few years older than me, but he was kind of a legend at HPHS,” Megan said, confirming Andie’s suspicion. “He played the entire last ten minutes of a state championship football game without telling the coach his shoulder had been dislocated by a bad hit.”

“I remember that,” Louise said. “Charlene was livid!”

“Marshall was always the strong silent brother,” Megan said. “Funny how different they were. Elliot always had his head in a book and didn’t have time for most of us, while Wyatt was a big flirt who could talk his way into anything.”

At the mention of Wynona’s twin brother, Andie felt a twinge of sadness for a man she had never known. When Andie first came to Haven Point, she and Wynona had first bonded over their shared loss. Like Jason, Wyatt Bailey had died helping other people. In Wyatt’s case, he had been hit by an out-of-control car during a snowstorm while coming to the aid of other stranded motorists. Andie’s husband had drowned while trying to help a man who was trying to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge in Portland. When the man had resisted his efforts and tried to jump anyway, Jason had reached to grab him and had lost his balance and tumbled in, as well.

In another layer of commonality, Wynona’s father had also died as the result of injuries sustained on the job, though his injuries hadn’t truly claimed his life until two years after a shoot-out with a robbery suspect. John Bailey had suffered a severe brain injury, however, and spent the last two years of his life in a nursing home.

Marshall had endured those losses, too, she suddenly realized. Like Wynona, he had lost his brother and his father, both in the line of duty. It was a connecting thread between them and she couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to her until now.

Now he joined the ranks of lawmen injured on the job. She didn’t like thinking about it.

“Who do you think ran him down?” Louise asked. “Herm and I think it must have been tourists who didn’t know the area and maybe thought they hit a dog or something. No one from around here would do such a thing, would they?”

“I could think of a few miscreants from Sulfur Hollow who would probably love to get even with a Bailey. They likely wouldn’t even care which one,” Megan said, her expression dark. “Any of the Lairds would top the list.”

“There are all those newcomers in town, too, that we don’t know a thing about,” Linda Fremont put in from her side of the table. “Not to mention all the people in Shelter Springs. It makes my blood run cold.”

Andie didn’t want to think about it. Picturing him injured and alone in a snowy parking lot made her stomach hurt. It was entirely too similar to the dark days before Jason’s body was eventually found downriver from Portland.

“Knowing Marsh Bailey, he won’t rest until he finds who did this to him,” Megan said.

“Whoever did it, our Andie is very sweet to watch over him,” Louise said.

She wanted to tell them Wynona hadn’t given her much choice, but she didn’t want to sound resentful. She wasn’t. She was happy to help, she just wished the man didn’t make her so nervous.

“I haven’t done much, only brought dinner a few times.” She paused, remembering her conversation with him before she left earlier. “I don’t want to speak out of turn,” she said to Louise, “but there’s a chance Marshall might be calling to see if Christopher would be interested in earning a few bucks by shoveling his snow while he’s laid up.”

“That’s out of the question,” Louise said firmly.

Her vehemence took Andie by surprise and for a moment she didn’t know what to say. “All right,” she finally said. “I’ll tell him. I’m sure he won’t have trouble finding someone else.”

“Oh, Christopher will be happy to shovel the walks, I’ll make sure of it, but he certainly won’t let Marshall pay him for it. He’ll do it for free, as a favor to a neighbor,” Louise said firmly.

Megan snorted. “Good luck convincing any teenager to be so magnanimous.”

“He’ll do it if he wants to eat at my table,” Louise said. “Christopher needs to learn that thinking about others is necessary and important to grow up as a decent adult. I’m afraid the boy hasn’t had the greatest examples in this department. I loved my daughter, but she could be very self-absorbed. His father is ten times worse—the man can’t even be bothered to visit his own son!”

“I’m sorry. That must be very painful for Christopher,” Andie said, her voice soft with compassion.

“Being in pain doesn’t give him a free pass in this world,” Louise said. “He still needs to learn how to care for others. From now until spring, I’ll make sure he shovels Sheriff Bailey’s walks when he’s doing ours and he won’t need a dime for it.”

She had a feeling Marshall would insist on paying Christopher anyway, but the two of them could hash it out between them.

CHAPTER SIX (#ulink_b7b60798-a483-5e0b-a88d-3c71184dd8b1)

“BASICALLY WHAT YOU’RE saying is you have absolutely no leads, even though you’ve got the stolen vehicle.”

“I wish to hell I had better news to report.” Ruben Morales looked apologetic and frustrated at the same time. “The state crime lab has gone over and over the thing and they can’t find so much as a stray hair strand. Everything was wiped down, even the mirror buttons and the turn signals. We couldn’t even find the owner’s fingerprints anywhere.”

Marshall mulled the chilling implications of the information. “So we were right. This wasn’t just some joyriding kid, out to make trouble for a stray cop.”