Chapter 9

As the two snowmobiles pulled into the clearing around the house, John slowed down and took a good look at it. They hadn’t really had a chance to see it last night or earlier that day, and he was impressed. From the front, the log cabin was a chalet, with a vast expanse of glass along the wall where the Great Room soared up to the high peaked roof. A fair-sized wing ran down one side at an angle, and he recognized that this was the two-story area the bedrooms were in. From the back, he saw that the house was built into a hill, with a sizeable basement and garage area. Also, around back was a substantial garage with a loft and a swimming pool, now drained. All along the backside, several multilevel balconies ran down to a large deck around the pool and out to the detached garage. While no expert on high-end housing, John knew that this ‘cabin’ was in the multi-million-dollar range, let alone whatever the surrounding property was worth.

Around front Anita could see the girls playing in the snow. They had started building a snowman but had stopped to throw snowballs at Tony as he ran a garden tractor-snowblower up and down the driveway. They had found some too large snowsuits and were laughing and giggling as they pelted Tony. Anita chuckled as she saw his weapons were sufficient for the assault. He swerved the tractor and got them both full in the face with the rooster tail from the snowblower. She waved at the girls who waved back and ran back to their snowman.

Malcolm pulled the cargo sled up to the edge of the deck nearest the back door of the kitchen and turned off the motor. By the time the foursome had the luggage out of the sled, Reeves was standing in the doorway, holding it open and pulling on a parka. The five of them brought in the bags, then Reeves said he would take care of them. Anita pointed out which bags were whose, and Reeves scooped them up and began to take them upstairs. When John said he would take care of them, Reeves simply smiled and shook his head, telling the guest to go into the kitchen for some coffee.

John went into the kitchen to find Phoebe pouring coffee as the others stripped off parkas and snowsuits. Malcolm spoke up, “Get that rig off John. Phoebe can hang it up. Why don’t you call your insurance agent?”

John stripped off his parka and snow pants and handed them to the ever-surly Phoebe. “What, are the phones back?”

“No, not yet,” replied Malcolm. “Phones and electricity are still out, I’m afraid. We keep a few cellulars around for emergencies, though. The towers have backup power supplies. Here, use this one,” he said reaching out and picking a small flip phone off the counter.

From memory, John dialed his agent, needing two tries when he forgot the area code. Finally, he got through to the secretary who said the man was out but gave him the proper procedure to follow. Malcolm reminded him to get the fax number and slid a kitchen note pad and pen over. Finished, John hit the POWER button and turned off the handset. He gave it back to Malcolm.

“Thanks. I need to get it towed out and have an estimate sent to the agency before they can declare it a lost cause. You know anybody who can pull it out of there?”

“Sure, no problem. Here, let me handle that.”

“Anita, would you like some more coffee?” asked Caroline.

“No, that’s all right,” said Anita.

“Really, are you sure?” asked Caroline.

“Hmm, what?” asked Anita confusedly. Then she remembered the plan Caroline had outlined for her that morning. “Oh, yeah, actually I would like some more coffee. Thanks.” She stood up from her chair and leaned back against the counter.

Caroline smiled to herself and went into action. Both women were out of their snowsuits now, Caroline in a snug zippered jumpsuit and Anita in a button front outfit. Caroline had slipped off her socks and had put on some heels, but Anita still wore her bulky wool socks. Both women had thermal tee shirts showing at the collar. Now Caroline reached across the counter and picked up a half empty pot of coffee behind the one everybody had been drinking from. She carried the older and now tepid brew towards Anita, only to stumble at the last moment. The coffee sloshed out of the pot all over Anita’s legs.