Then they all sat down to eat breakfast before donning their winter clothes and heading outside with ice and snow scrapers, the snowblower, and snow shovels.
Florence and Frank were using snow brushes to push the heavy snow off Rory’s pickup while Rory was using the snowblower to clear a path on either side of the truck and in front of it where the snowplow couldn’t go.Then he was working on the walkway to the front door and the front porch.Lacy scraped away the snow and ice on the windshield.
Dan, Stryker, Travis, Ricky, and Chase arrived to retrieve the brothers’ bodies.
“What are you going to do with them?”Florence asked.
“How were they killed?”Dan asked.
“Cougar attack,” Rory said.
“Cremation then.If anyone comes looking for them, they’ll be gone.There will be no evidence that cougars killed them,” Dan said.“We don’t want to bury them out here.Their ashes will be dropped into one of the closed silver mines.”
“We’ve got their guns.They’re on the table in the hallway on the second floor.Do you want me to get them for you?”Frank asked.
“I’ll get them.”Rory went inside the house while the other men went out back to dig out the brothers’ bodies.
They would have to patch up all the places where the bullets struck the walls and ceiling.
“What if someone comes looking for them?Friends or family?”Lacy asked.“Timothy never mentioned his twin brother or anyone else in the family.So I don’t know if he has any.Though a friend or two might come looking for him.Even someone at the PI agency they were running.”
“Does anyone know about you dating Timothy?”Dan asked.
“Only my grandfather.I don’t know about anyone he might have told except his brother.”
Rory returned with the guns.“Here they are.We’ll have to get rid of their cars too.”
“We will.”Dan took the guns and put them in his vehicle.
Then he and Rory began helping to dig out the brothers from the snowdrift.
“I want to check on my coffee shop,” Florence said.
Rory shoveled some more snow away from the house.“I’ll take you.Are you going to open it up?”
“I might.Just in case townsfolk want coffee and pastries after being buried at home.”
“I’ll go with you and help out,” Lacy said.
“I’ll ask if Ava wants to join us.She doesn’t have to, but she might feel a little housebound.We might not get much business though.”
“I’ll bring the snowblower and clean off the sidewalk in front of your coffee shop,” Rory said.
“What can I do to help?”Frank asked, sounding a little left out.
“Greet customers if we have any?”
“I can do that.”
Lacy and Florence watched the men carry the bodies to the ambulance that just pulled into the driveway.Once they were loaded into the ambulance, it left.
“Are you all right?”Dan asked them again.
“Yeah, we’re going to the coffee shop and opening it up,” Florence said.
“We’ll drop by and pick up some things from your shop,” Dan said.
Florence smiled.“Thanks.You may give us the only business we’ll have.”
