From Here to Paternity

top.“
    “How are we going to do this? One at a time all the way down?“
    “Okay. Who goes first?“
    “I do. I want to get this over with.“
    Shelley took a deep breath, turned her skis forward, and started gently drifting away. She picked up speed gradually until, apparently feeling it was too much of a good thing, she sat down suddenly, plowing a bit of a trench before she came to a complete stop. She yelled up to Jane, “Come this far and we’ll go the rest of the way together.“
    Jane set out, cleverly charting a course a little farther left than Shelley had gone so that she wouldn’t run over her. The first few minutes were okay. She started going a little faster, discovered that she could actually breathe at the same time she skied. And a little faster yet. She tried toeing-in to slow herself, but that just made her veer more to the left. Maybe, she thought frantically, it was toe-out. She glanced down at her feet, which was how she made her fatal mistake. When she looked back up a second later, she realized she was headed toward the woods. Specifically, straight for the snowman just on the edge of the woods.
    She tried to sit down, but was leaning too far forward. Crouch ! she told herself frantically, but she was so tense that her knees just wouldn’t get the message.
    With a terrific mental effort, she made her legs go limp and sat down. By that time she was moving so fast that she kept going for another five feet, sending up a spray of snow. The thing that finally stopped her was the snowman. She didn’t so much crash into it, for her speed had diminished considerably, as bump into it firmly. Very firmly.
    The snowman’s head rolled off, sending the crown/ bowl spinning across the snow.
    “Jane! Are you all right?“ Shelley yelled from someplace off to her right.
    “I’m okay,“ Jane said, trying to stand up. Where had her skis gone? she was wondering. If they’d buried themselves in the snow, how would she ever find them? Still shaky from her adventure, she leaned on the snowman, placing her gloved hand where its head had been. But as she did so, the whole front section of the snow crumbled away in a slab.
    And there, inside the snowman where there should have been nothing but more snow, was the body of Bill Smith.

Chapter 12

    It was another hour before Jane and Shelley could get away. The sheriff and his deputy had been summoned, people had been questioned extensively (especially Jane, who had discovered the body), the bunny slope had been cleared of skiers, and finally the earthly remains of Bill Smith had been taken away. By that time Jane and Shelley were frozen clear through. They hadn’t been allowed to do anything but sit impatiently on the bench next to the equipment hut.
    “At the risk of seeming insensitive, I’m starving,“ Shelley admitted when they were finally allowed to leave.
    “Me, too,“ Jane said. “Let’s go get some sandwiches at the lodge and take them to one of our cabins. I wish I knew where Mel was. He should have been there before the sheriff and his crew of bumblers trampled everything. I guess that’s not really fair to say. They seemed to be taking it very seriously this time.“
    “I wonder if the sheriff is going to look more closely into Mrs. Schmidtheiser’s death now.“
    “Surely he’ll have to,“ Jane said. “I didn’t like the way he started asking me more questions when he realized I was the one who had found her, too.“
    “It’s just a weird coincidence, Jane.“
    “You and I know that, but that’s when he asked me how I knew them both before I came here. Not if I knew them, but how I knew them. Shelley, I’m really uneasy about this.“
    The atmosphere at the lodge was subdued. Apparently word that the proprietor of the hotel had died had filtered down through the guests. And though few of them had ever seen him, much less met him, the news clearly dampened everyone’s spirits. There was no sign, of course, of Tenny, Joanna, or Pete.
    “Jane, you order us some sandwiches and chips and maybe some salad,“ Shelley said. “I’m going to give Paul a quick call on the house phone and see where all the kids are and what they’re up to. I don’t like not knowing exactly where they are.“
    “Me, neither. Keep an eye out for Mel, too, would you?“
    Jane ordered plenty of sandwiches, assuming that they might end up feeding children as well as themselves. Even if the sandwiches weren’t consumed right away, they’d have