P. Parrish - Heart of Ice

“It’s a ring,” Flowers said.

Louis squatted next to the chief. The gold ring was dusty, but he could see a red stone and what looked like embossing.

“I guess I should just leave it and go call in some techs,” Flowers said. “They’ll have to come over from St. Ignace.”

Louis knew that once something was removed or disturbed it was impossible to restore the scene to its pristine condition. But Lily’s fall onto the bones had already compromised the crime scene.

“Take the ring with you now,” Louis said. “Get it to a lab or someplace so you can get started on an ID. That’s always the first step. Then get some of your guys out here to secure the place and make sure no one gets in.”

Flowers looked him square in the eye, and Louis waited for some defensive comeback. But the chief let out a long breath and began swinging the flashlight slowly over the floor again. Louis realized he was looking for something to put the ring in.

Louis was about to offer to go upstairs and ask the EMT for a plastic bag when Flowers pulled something from his back pocket.

It was a small rolled-up Baggie. Flowers emptied what looked like three aspirin from the Baggie and swallowed them dry. Then he turned the Baggie inside out and used his pen to push the ring inside.

Louis followed Flowers up the stairs and out of the lodge.

Chuck had Lily wrapped in a blanket, and she was sitting in the back of the ambulance. She was licking a lollipop.

“You okay?” Louis asked her.

“It hurts,” she said.

“I think it’s a sprain,” Chuck said. “But we need to get her to the clinic to be x-rayed to be sure.”

Louis looked at his watch. “When’s the last ferry?”

“At five o’clock,” Flowers said.

“You’re staying in Mackinaw City?” Flowers asked.

“Yeah, the Best Western.”

Louis let out a hard breath. Their luggage was at the hotel, they were stuck here, and he still had to call Kyla.

“Look,” Flowers said, “I’m going to have to call the state in on this, and the investigator is going to want to talk to you. Why don’t you stay here on the island tonight?”

Louis hesitated.

“I’m going to need your little girl’s prints for elimination,” Flowers said.

Louis glanced back at Lily. She was hurt and scared, but he could also see the disappointment in her face that their trip was ruined. And that she had caused it.

“My cousin works at the Grand Hotel,” Flowers said. “I can call and get you a room. It will be on the department’s dime.”

When Louis had planned this trip he had called the Grand Hotel, hoping the October rates might be more affordable than in peak season, but there had been no room for less than three hundred a night. A stay in the best hotel on the island might be just what Lily needed.

“Okay, I’ll take you up on that,” Louis said.

“Great,” Flowers said. “You go get your little girl taken care of, and I’ll send an officer over to Mackinaw City to get your things. I’ll send someone back for your bikes.”

“Thank you,” Louis said.

Flowers pocketed the Baggie and headed off to retrieve his bike. Louis watched him pedal off as he made his way back to the ambulance.

“Did he give us a ticket?” Lily asked.

“What?”

“Did the policeman give us a ticket for transgressing?”

“Trespassing,” Louis said. He smiled. “He let us off the hook.”

She looked down at the splint on her arm, then wiped her nose with her good hand.

“How you doing?” Louis asked softly.

“Okay, I guess,” she whispered, but didn’t look up.

Chuck came over. “We should get her to the medical center, sir.”

Lily looked at Chuck. “I’ve never been in an ambulance before. Can I work the siren?”

Chuck smiled. “We don’t use the siren here. It scares the horses.”

Lily considered this, then nodded gravely.

Chuck started to close the ambulance door, then paused. “Would you like to ride in the back with your daughter, sir?”

Louis met Lily’s gaze. He wondered if she had felt the same strange tug that he had when she heard “your daughter.” But he couldn’t read a thing in those somber gray eyes.

The last time he had laid eyes on the Grand Hotel was when he was nine and on the trip up here with the other foster kids. He could remember looking up at the huge white hotel on the hill and thinking that it was called the “grand hotel” because it must have cost a grand to stay there.

He didn’t know much about hotels then. His only exposure had come that very same weekend, when his foster father Phillip Lawrence checked them all into the Wonderland Motel back in Mackinaw City. That place had two hard double beds and a cot, a bathroom that smelled like Clorox, and a black-and-white TV that picked up only a Canadian station showing hockey games.

But this place. .

Louis leaned forward to get a better view as their horse-drawn carriage approached the covered portico. It was as big as he remembered: a sprawling white wedding cake of a place, with soaring pillars, a veranda with bright yellow awnings, and a cupola topped with a huge American flag snapping against the cobalt sky.

He glanced over at Lily. Her face was somber but he could see something in her eyes that made him relax a little.

“Are we staying here?” she whispered.

“Yes. Is that okay?”

“I don’t have any pajamas,” she said, looking up at Louis.

“The police are sending someone over to our hotel to pick up our stuff,” Louis said. “They’ll bring it here.”

“What about Lucy?”

Louis remembered the stuffed rabbit she had carefully positioned on her pillow before they left for the ferry. “They’ll bring Lucy, too,” he said.

The carriage stopped, and Lily’s eyes locked on the man in the red livery coat, white britches, and black stovepipe hat.

“Welcome to the Grand Hotel, miss,” he said, holding out his hand.

She glanced at Louis, and he gave her a nod. She let the man help her from the carriage and walked ahead of Louis up the stairs. She slowed as they entered the lobby. Even Louis had to stare. Green walls with white wainscoting, burnished antiques, and gilt-framed paintings. Pink and green upholstered wing chairs and tufted sofas dotted the flowered carpeting, and every corner glinted with mirrors and chandeliers.

At the front desk, Louis checked in and told the clerk their luggage would be coming later.

Lily was quiet on the elevator ride, and when he unlocked the door he let her go in first. He watched her as she went to the center of the room, turning slowly as she took in the pink flowered wallpaper, green carpet, and two white canopy beds.

“This is like for a princess,” she whispered.

“Well, I don’t know about princesses but President Bush stayed here once,” Louis said.

“Who?”

“Never mind.”

Lily went to the window and looked out at the lake and came back to perch gingerly on the edge of the bed. She stroked the comforter.

“How’s your arm?” Louis asked.

She gave a small shrug. The doctor had given him some liquid acetaminophen and a mild sedative. But he wasn’t sure if he should give her either-or both. Then he remembered they hadn’t eaten since breakfast, which was more than seven hours ago.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

“Kind of.”

“Me, too. Let’s go see if we can find something to eat.”

She was picking at the mud on her pants. “I’m all dirty,” she said.

“Me, too. No one will notice,” Louis said.

The clerk at the front desk had told Louis that because it was the last weekend before the hotel closed for the winter and the pantries were being cleared, there would be a bounty of good food and wines at reduced prices. Louis said that all they needed was a couple of sandwiches for now.