"Where?"

  "Out back."

  "Well, that would be enough time for Rex to wake up and walk out. So, you never found him?"

  "Nope."

  "Did you go looking for him?"

  "Nope." She quirked a brow. "Would you have?"

  "Hell no, I would have let him freeze his stupid gonads off." Jade knew she'd see this thing through. Do everything she could to protect Petra. Protect their future together.

  "Well, perhaps he'll turn up later."

  "Yeah, hopefully."

  "Jade—" she reprimanded without much enthusiasm.

  "I just mean so that you won't have to be tried for murder. He attacked you. I just can't work up any sympathy for him."

  "Me either."

  All the Strenuous Things to Come

  18

  Petra made them fried baloney sandwiches, and Jade helped by standing behind her, with her arms around her waist, hugging her the whole time. "Sorry I'm being such a sucker fish."

  "Suck away, my love."

  While Petra tried to cut the sandwiches in half, Jade clamped her mouth on Petra's neck, and made her squeal. "Don't drop the knife."

  Petra dropped it, laughing. She swiveled and pressed her lips to Jade's. They stood there in the kitchen, kissing for long minutes before separating. But not too far, they still had their arms around each other. "If we keep this up," Petra said, "the mayo will curdle."

  "Curdle away," Jade said, kissing her again with much determination.

  Petra started giggling.

  Waving the small piece of paper, Jade asked, "Why can't I go upstairs?"

  Petra recognized the note she had left earlier in the day when she was afraid Jade would come to the cabin before she got back from her ultimately pointless visit to the police station to report the body, which then disappeared. "Okay…let's go back to the living room…we need to talk."

  Jade pulled a mock frown. "You're breaking up with me, aren't you?"

  Petra smacked her on the arm and grabbed the plate with the sandwiches, and Jade carried the drinks.

  "Let's eat, we need to keep up our strength…" Petra said, on her way into the other room. Then added with a slight lifting of an eyebrow, "…for all the strenuous things still to come."

  "You mean, we're not done?" Jade joked.

  "We've only just begun."

  "Careful, you'll have to pay Karen Carpenter royalties."

  They settled back on the mattress in front of the fire. "Okay," Petra said, picking up her sandwich. "Tell me everything about your journey here."

  "Oh, where do I start?"

  "Well, just start at the beginning. Tell me the whole story."

  "Okay." Jade swallowed her bite of food. "It was a dark and stormy night…"

  Petra chuckled. "Skip the melodrama, Melville."

  "Okay…well, when you didn't appear at the airport—" She lowered her voice, and added with generous amounts of pout, "—left me there to fend for myself…"

  Petra leaned forward and kissed her. "I'm so sorry, baby…"

  "I'm just yanking your chain. It's not like you had a way to get there…you already explained that." Jade had another bite. "So, I took a cab…"

  Jade continued her story, relating that she discovered she was at the wrong cabin and had to trudge through the snowy woods.

  "You poor thing…no wonder you looked like you'd been pulled behind a sled."

  "I felt like I'd been pulled behind a sled."

  Petra embraced her. "But all is well now. We're together and everything is going to be beautiful."

  Jade really wanted to believe that. Her experience, however, had been otherwise. She'd cling to these moments and hope for the best.

  Rolling to her back on the mattress in front of the fire, Petra stared at the crossbeams on the ceiling. "It was just so strange to go back up there and find him gone. I mean, how does anyone explain something like that?"

  "Your anticipation in seeing me made you hallucinate?" Jade stretched out on her side next to Petra, propping her head on one hand.

  Petra smacked her on the arm, and Jade let her head fall comically to the mattress.

  Petra laughed, adding, "The thing that keeps niggling at me, though, is that when I got back with the mechanic, Rex's car was gone, and then I found him unconscious upstairs."

  "Maybe he…"

  "Yes?"

  "I got nothin'." She shrugged.

  Petra grinned. "See? The only thing of I can think of is that his car was stolen while he was unconscious upstairs."

  Jade engaged her writer-mind. "If this was a book I was writing, I might consider that someone else was involved. Like, he left, came back for some reason, like he changed his mind and was going to hurt you for whacking him on the head, and then someone else knocked him out again."

  "At the same location as before?"

  "Well, it is a stretch."

  "It strains the limits of credulity, yes. We would never use that as an explanation in a book, so it doesn't wash now, either."

  "Or he really was dead and someone came in and took him."

  Petra thought this over and then shook her head.

  Jade nodded. "A little far-fetched," she agreed, having a drink of coffee. "Or—" Jade frowned, thinking.

  "What?"

  "He woke up, couldn't find you, because you were running down the road, and then left to go to the hospital, but got mad thinking about it and came back to punish you, but then passed out up there, because of his head injury, then woke up and left again while you were outside chopping wood."

  She thought this over a moment. "Well, considering human nature, that's a relatively rational explanation."

  "And you don't trust it because it's rational?"

  "Well…I guess if the timing was right, I could have already been in the car with that woman who gave me a ride, and he didn't know I was outside the second time, and just drove to the hospital."

  "I bet that's exactly what happened."

  "Okay, so the whole thing seems mysterious, but there's probably a completely plausible explanation. Just like that."

  They sat in silence, both staring into the fire for long moments, their minds churning, fitting pieces together.

  Petra pushed up and crossed to the French doors, gazing outside. "When the weather calms down a bit, we should take a walk by the lake."

  Jade joined her, sliding up behind her, encircling her with warm arms, peering over her shoulder. "Doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon." The snow fell in torrents, adding to the several feet of snow already covering everything. Jade remembered how cold she was trudging through it to get to the cabin.

  Running her tongue over her teeth, Jade wondered if she had baloney-breath, mixed with lady-juices, and wished for her toothbrush, then realized she didn't have it. Nor anything else. Amazing, how easy it was to forget things when you were wrapped around the woman of your dreams. "Hey…something else we both forgot…we need to go get my luggage from under the porch of the other cabin. So I guess we'll be taking that walk anyway."

  "Oh! That's right." Petra pushed herself up, kissing Jade as she passed, and grabbed their coats from the hook, bringing an extra pair of snow boots for Jade.

  Sufficiently bundled, and with a pair of Petra's waterproof gloves, Jade followed her outside, and they started down the incline toward the lake, arm in arm.

  "I'm so happy to finally be here with my girl." Jade's breath made clouds in front of her face.

  Petra squeezed her lover's arm. "Me too, sweetheart." A big grin curved onto her lips.

  "What are you smiling about?"

  "I was just thinking about how when we use endearments, we call someone my girl when she's a woman."

  "Well, you are a girl, too. So, same thing."

  "Not really. That's why when you have a baby, they say It's a girl! not It's a woman!"

  Jade laughed. "Okay, point taken. Does it bother you when I call you my girl, then?"

  "No. I am your girl."

  Cabin D was still unoccupied, so they snatched the bags out from under the back porch and headed back, lugging them with some difficulty through the snow and fallen branches.

  Finally reaching the shed behind the cabin, Petra paused, frowning at the lump there covered in a generous dusting of white. "What is that?" Petra wondered.

  Jade followed her over. "Not yours?"

  Petra shook her head.

  Bending down, Jade swiped snow off it. "A tarp. Is it yours?"

  "I had one upstairs in the camping supplies...what's in it?"

  Jade peeled it back, but whatever it was, it was rolled up several times inside. So Jade yanked on the edge, and the bundle unwound.

  A body fell out.

  Petra's hand went to her mouth with a quick intake of breath. "Oh my god."

  "Fuck me," Jade breathed. She turned to look up at Petra. "Know him?"

  Petra's eyes were wide as the snow landed on her eyelashes. "I was married to him."

  Dead Rex

  19

  Stunned, Jade looked back down at the body, skin frozen to a sick shade of blue. "So I guess…you killed him after all."

  Petra's eyes got even wider as she stared at Jade, thinking. "Maybe, but I certainly didn't roll him up in a tarp and carry him out here!"

  Jade thought it over. "That means his car was moved by someone. And that someone also did this."

  "Who?"

  "I don't know. But I know you didn't carry him out here. You're pretty strong, but not that strong."

  "So obviously, someone else is…" Petra peered around fearfully. "Involved."

  "Well he didn't stagger out here and roll himself up in a tarp to die."

  "When did this mysterious other person have time to clean up the blood and then carry him out here?"

  Jade thought about it. "While you were chopping wood?"

  "That's the only time I wasn't right there by the stairs…but…it would take someone strong to do that."

  "So, our perp is a man."

  "Or, assuming no sexism, a very strong woman."

  "How many very strong women do you know who would have a motive to do this?"

  "Every woman Rex ever dated or married, had motive, I'm guessing, but—"

  "How many of them were this strong?"

  She sighed, her breath clouding around her head. "He liked small, feminine women. So…none, really."

  "What about someone from his work?"

  "Well, maybe if he…met some woman at a renovation, and had an affair, it could be an irate husband."

  "So why dump him right here, near your cabin?"

  "Someone trying to frame me for his murder?"

  "Do you have anyone who hates you that much?"

  "The only one I can think of is lying right there." Petra forced herself to look at the bluish, almost plasticine visage of Rex.

  Jade stood up, pulling her coat tighter around herself, as Petra rubbed her gloved hands together to create warmth in her numb fingers. "Now we have to find a way to call the police."

  Jade turned. "No, we can't…then you'll have to explain that you hit him in the head, but didn't kill him, even though his body is behind your shed."

  Petra sighed, her fog of breath whispered away in the breeze. "True…so…what do we do now?"

  Jade looked down at dead Rex. "For now, we just roll him back up, go inside and get warm, and think this through."

  Grimacing, the two pushed dead Rex back onto the edge of tarp and rolled him back up. Petra said, "We need to shovel some snow on it."

  "Don't worry about it, the way it's coming down, it will be covered soon enough."

  The two grabbed Jade's luggage and headed toward the back steps.

  Once inside, Jade started a new fire in the hearth as Petra went to the kitchen to make fresh coffee, still off-balance by the strange series of events. Her ex-husband, dead in a tarp. Her lack of sorrow told her all she needed to know about her feelings toward the man. She felt only slightly guilty that she didn't care he was dead.

  Shaking off the dark thoughts, she stirred in cream for the coffees and in a moment, she handed Jade a fresh cup. "I put Italian Sweet Cream in both of them. Hope that's okay."

  Jade picked up her mug and inhaled the steam and scent. "Smells yummy. Okay," Jade began, "who would hate Rex enough to want to kill him, or hate you enough to frame you for his murder?"

  "Other than some jealous husband, I don't know. But that is one of the oldest motives in the world."

  "And in fiction."

  "True."

  Petra sighed and took a sip of coffee, staring into the fire.

  "Petra, did you ever tell him you…preferred women?"

  "No. But of course, that's what set him off earlier. He'd read an erotic scene I wrote."

  "Could it have something to do with that?"

  "I just don't know."

  "So, maybe it was just someone else he had knocked around or mistreated in some way. If they wanted him dead, they'd probably want to avoid going to jail for it. So they'd frame you."

  "He was married before he married me. Had a family with that woman, too."

  "So could it be her?"

  She shook her head. "I don't think so. My understanding is that she remarried. A rich guy. So she's not suffering from losing Rex."

  "Did he leave anyone else to suffer, though?"

  Petra thought about it. "I just…don't know about all the women he dated."

  "Well, obviously, this is a case of us not having enough information to figure it out."

  "What are we going to do after the storm passes? We can't just keep him out there and not tell the police. And don't forget, there's a killer out there somewhere."

  "A killer who wants you to get blamed."

  "Maybe just a woman who had been pushed past her breaking point."

  Jade had a sip of coffee and looked over at her. "Did he ever force himself on you?"

  "Toward the end of the marriage, yes."

  Jade leaned into her, one arm going round the other woman's shoulders. "That makes ME want to kill him, right there."

  For fear she would dredge up old memories that belonged in the past, Petra stroked Jade's hair and changed the subject. "So, let's assume it was an ex-girlfriend. How did she manage to drag his body down the stairs afterward?" Petra realized as she spoke, that she no longer felt any sympathy for dead Rex.

  "Maybe she had help."

  "Could be. But people who plan murders don't usually go looking for an accomplice."

  "Unless the accomplice had something to gain. Or was protecting the killer after the fact."

  Interesting, Petra mused. "I guess that's possible." Petra squinted at the fire. "Hold on. I do recall a visit from a girl a short time after Rex and I got married. Millicent…she came to the house and was yelling at him. He sort of ran interference and got rid of her. All he would say was that she was the daughter of a woman he dated, and she accused him of breaking her mother's heart. I think the last name was…Massey…No, D'Massey."

  "So…" Jade was still turning the information over in her mind, unable to stop the habituated need to solve a plot line. "Could that girl get his body out of the attic and to the shed?"

  Petra shook her head. "I just don't think so. She was pretty frail-looking. Only about sixteen, I think."

  "Well, if your car worked, we could go to her house and see what we can find out…"

  "Even if we had the car, the roads are impassable."

  "About that," Jade said, getting up and taking their cups to the kitchen for a refill. "Is there any neighbor who might have a working vehicle who could take us back to that mechanic?"

  "I don't think so…not near enough that we wouldn't freeze walking there…and besides, a mechanic shop would be closed in this weather. They probably can't get out here either, unless they have one of those snow plows."

  Stirring creamer into the cups, Jade said, "When is the weather supposed to clear?" She handed Petra a fresh cup of coffee, and sat down next to her on the sofa, taking her hand, warmed from the mug she had carried.

  "What the weather report said was a couple more days."

  "So until then, I guess we just hang out here and wait." Jade cast a sidelong glance at Petra. "We'll just have to think of something to do to pass the time…"

  Petra smiled as she turned to look at Jade.

  Jade said with mock sincerity. "Scrabble?"

  Stranded, Not Yet Helpless

  20

  Jade was still awake, thinking about the intimacies they had shared a few hours ago. Her heart and head was full to bursting with the replay…Petra on her knees, her arms propped on the back of the sofa, Jade behind her, tasting her, teasing her and then soon pushing the UR3 inside her…hearing Petra's cries of pleasure. Jade thought her heart would explode with the raw sexuality of it.

  Now, hours later, an arm and leg draped over her slumbering lover, sleep eluded Jade; she wanted to feel Petra next to her, not wanting to miss a single waking moment of being with the love of her life.

  She lifted her eyes from Petra's gently susurrating chest, to look out the French doors. Still snowing. Still trapped. But if she was going to be trapped anywhere with anyone, she'd certainly want it to be here in this rustic cabin with the woman of her dreams.

  She turned over and stared at the ceiling, but immediately felt the tactile void from breaking contact, and rolled back to her side to look at Petra. Her face serene in the glow of the fireplace. She looks like an angel…Jade lifted a hand and tenderly stroked Petra's brow, pulling a lock of hair away from a fragile eyelid. She could see her eye moving underneath. REM sleep. She hoped she was dreaming about the two of them.

  Nature called, and Jade reluctantly pushed herself up, kissing Petra's brow tenderly, and headed for the bathroom.

  When she emerged, she wandered to the back doors, looking out. Very little to be seen. But as if the universe had heard her thoughts, a light clicked on. Motion-sensor. A plump, white-tailed deer, pawing at the snow, unfettered by the cold. Beautiful.

 

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