Page 43 of Snow River

She didn’t have much time to think about the murder of Rita Casey or any of the other recent mysteries.Officer Cromwell hadn’t been seen in town since that first trip.Now she knew what Bear meant about Firelight Ridge getting neglected in the murder-solving department.

But someone hadn’t forgotten.Every so often, Allison Casey would wake her up and deliver a frustrated rant.It never included any helpful details or leads, but when Lila pointed that out, she’d tell Lila to stop passing the buck.

“You’re the one who can go places and talk to people.I can’t.”

“Are you playing the ghost card again?”

“What does that mean?I’m not a ghost.”The dead woman seemed offended by the suggestion.

“What are you, then?Why do you keep coming back?Am I the only one who can see you?Why don’t you go haunt Paulina?You were friends, weren’t you?”

“If I could, don’t you think I would?”She stomped her booted foot on the dream floor.“I see you’re able to ask plenty of questions when it comes to poor me, a murder victim.Why don’t you get out there and make sure no one else gets killed?”

Lila would always wake up with a start and a shudder from those “dreams.”How was she supposed to “make sure no one else gets killed”?

True, in the past she’d gotten very strong signals that something terrible was about to happen.Sometimes they were very clear, but not always.If she knew enough details, she could warn people, but that didn’t happen very often.And she couldn’t summon a premonition at will.They either came or they didn’t.

Nothing was coming.

Except when it came to Paulina.Her instincts had told her something was up with Paulina, and that had turned out to be true.Was Paulina okay?Maybe she’d remember more now that she’d recovered from her fall.

During one of Bear’s rare shifts at The Fang, she asked to borrow his truck to bring Paulina her groceries, which were part of the big Costco delivery that had just arrived.Everyone had a list, with Paulina’s heavy on the cheese and rice.

Before she left, Bear insisted on giving her thorough instructions on how to handle icy patches on the road.He made her practice shifting into four-wheel drive and drilled her on how to handle a fishtail situation.Despite the stress of remembering all his instructions, it was nice to sit next to him in a vehicle and feel his concentrated attention on her.

In fact, it was dizzying.It took her long moments of deep breathing to collect herself enough to drive after Bear went back into the bar.Was her attraction to him getting stronger with every hour that passed?

Paulina was happy to receive her groceries and offered Lila some chamomile tea that she’d grown herself.“I have another type of tea, a little more, shall we say, psychoactive,” she added.“Interested?”

Lila had seen the cannabis plants growing behind the house in the summer; she wasn’t surprised at the offer.Paulina must have all kinds of herbs growing out here in the shelter of the forest.“No thanks.My brain is plenty psychoactive already.”

Paulina set a copper pot on the wood stove to boil.Her hair was pulled into a long braid down her back, and a pair of readers hung from a leather thong around her neck.“I suppose you came all the way out here to check on me.I keep telling Bear that I feel fine.”

“That’s wonderful to hear.”Lila pulled up a seat at her table, which was littered with the makings of a winter wreath—spruce cones, dried elderberry clusters, even a piece of bone.“But I was hoping I could ask you some questions.”

“I still don’t remember why I fell.”Paulina brought two pottery mugs to the table and used her forearm to clear a space for them.“I remember working on a painting, and I remember waking up and seeing your face.The in-between is a blank spot.”

Bear had warned Lila that was the case.“I understand.I’ve heard that happens sometimes after a traumatic event.The mind protects itself by forgetting.”

Paulina scattered dried chamomile blossoms in the bottom of the two mugs.“Traumatic is overstating it.A slight fall.Nothing more.”

“That’s such a huge relief.You really had us worried.”Lila waited until Paulina was done filling the mugs.Best not to surprise someone when they held a kettle of scalding water.“I wanted to talk to you about Gwen Dubrov.”

Paulina’s gray eyes widened, and she turned back to the stove to set the kettle down.

“She was your good friend, wasn’t she?”

“I won’t talk about her,” Paulina said firmly.

“Why not?Is it…because of how she died?”

The older woman shuddered as she lowered herself onto the chair opposite Lila.“I tell myself it’s not a bad way to die, freezing to death in the snow.Maybe I’ll do the same.”

“What was she like?Buster said she was a graduate student studying marmots, but that’s all he could remember.And that she was blond.”

Paulina snorted.“Men.Gwen was so much more than just a blond.She was an idealist.Gentle.She loved nature and anything wild.She loved misfits.”

The word sent a shiver through Lila, since she’d always felt like a misfit herself.All of her friends had, too.Molly because her family was so poor, Charlie because her father was in prison, Ani because of her limp, and Lila because of her intuitive streak.Feeling like outsiders had bonded them together.Had something similar happened with Paulina and her friends?

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