After returning home and bringing their purchases inside, Mike decided to ring the ski resort to remind Steve of his promise to be home for Christmas. He waited until Jeannie was situated in the kitchen to do whatever extra cooking she was going to do for their Christmas dinner. Placing the call, he could not stop the nagging feeling in his gut. The phone rang at least five times before it was answered.

Mike felt a deep sense of relief hearing Steve's voice but tried not to show it. "Well, I expected you'd be spending your last day on the slopes and not in your room. Still, it took you long enough. Am I interrupting something?" he asked cheekily, pretending to be suspicious.

"You dirty dog, you. No, you're not interrupting anything – and I wouldn't tell you if you were. Everything going okay there?" Steve was curious about why Mike was calling.

"Yes, fine. I just wanted to remind you that you promised to be back in time to spend the holidays with us. Jeannie was disappointed you were not there with me to pick her up."

"Tell her I promise to be back tomorrow in time to have dinner with you both", he chuckled. "I hope her bus ride was uneventful. They are saying there is soon to be bad weather around the area here, so I've been wondering how the weather was for her."

"We haven't really talked about that. She is in the kitchen starting her Christmas baking. All we've discussed was her wanting to know why you weren't there to meet her and her need to go shopping."

"Well you know how holidays are, Mike," Steve felt the urge to defend his friend. "There is a ton to do and only so much time to do it. And you know how Jeannie ..."

Just then the phone started crackling and they began having trouble hearing each other. Finally, Mike heard a message saying "All circuits are busy, please try your call later."

He hung up the phone hoping that didn't mean the weather Steve mentioned was going to prevent him from making it back. He knew Jeannie would be very upset if Steve did not make it home in time.

He rambled into the kitchen and told her he got a call through to Steve and that his partner promised he would be here to eat with them. Afraid he would worry his daughter, Mike didn't tell her of the disconnection or the possibility of bad weather. He steered the conversation instead to her trip home, how school was and all she had been doing.

After a while, Jeannie's thoughts returned to the holiday prep. "Mike, shouldn't you be getting the lights and decorations out? And you do have the tree set in the stand right, don't you? Remember the year before last, you had it in there wrong and Steve had the tree come crashing down on him."

"Yes, I remember. Could that boy howl!" Mike laughed at the memory.

"Well, Mike, the tree was too big for the stand," Jeannie scolded. "Poor Steve was lucky he didn't have an eye put out considering the decorations that broke and scratched his forehead."

"Aw, it wasn't that bad, Sweetheart," Mike pleaded in his most innocent voice.

************

Meanwhile, at the Mount Sumner ski resort, the usual quiet had suddenly been replaced by bedlam as a maid entered a room to straighten after one of the guests had left to head back home. The maid let out a scream when she discovered a body wrapped in the covers of the bed she was stripping. Several people came running when they heard the scream, including Steve. When he saw what made the young woman scream, he tried to get the others to back out of the room before they destroyed the possible crime scene.

"Someone call the police and tell them there has been a body found. Everyone needs to leave the room before they touch anything," Steve ordered. "I'm San Francisco PD," he volunteered as he sought to address the surprised looks from other onlookers when he immediately took charge.

He checked the victim's neck for a pulse and felt nothing. The maid was still in a state of shock, when he helped her to her feet and led her from the room, closing the door behind them. He handed her off to one of the workers to get her some hot sweet tea then stayed in front of the room door until the authorities arrived.

Wondering if the police had been contacted, Steve asked the hotel worker, "Have the authorities been called yet?"

"They are on their way. There is a storm brewing but they said they will get here as soon as possible. Had to try four times to make the call. Kept getting a message that all circuits were busy, so I bet the phones will soon be out totally with this weather that is moving into the area," the worker replied observed.

"That's not good." Steve started to think about how he hated to break a promise he made, especially to Jeannie and Mike. Almost an hour later the authorities arrived and were directed to where Steve was waiting for them.

"I'm Inspector Steven Keller," Steve introduced himself when the police unit arrived. He showed them his ID and the older man in charge nodded.

"I'm Captain Jeff Daniels," he replied. "What do we have?" he asked.

"The maid found a body in the room," Steve replied. "I heard her screaming and came at once. I kept everyone out. The man in the bed is definitely dead. I suspect he's been dead for some time."

"Where is the maid?" Daniels asked.

"I had someone take her downstairs and give her some tea," Steve replied. "She was pretty shaken up, as you can imagine."

"Good work," Daniels praised. "Hernandez," he commanded, turning to one of his men, "go and find the maid and interview her. Inspector Keller, I'd like you to come with me." He entered the room and looked around.

For the next few minutes, Steve patiently answered questions about how the room had looked when he first arrived, if he had ever seen the victim around the hotel and if he would recognize any of the people who were milling about outside the room at that time. Steve had not really taken much note of the people outside; he was more concerned with preserving the crime scene. He had seen the victim in the bar, he admitted, although he had never spoken to the man. He agreed to have his prints taken to eliminate any he might have inadvertently left behind. He gave a statement to one of the other officers and he was then thanked, ushered from the room, and reminded not to leave the hotel before he was given permission. Feeling rather disgruntled, Steve went back to his room.

There was no point in trying to phone Mike again. The lines were down and a look outside showed that the snow was coming in horizontally. He shivered, although it was more than warm enough in his room. He had another go at scrubbing the ink off his fingertips, but knew from experience that it would take several washings before his hands were clean again. At a loose end, he went downstairs to the bar.

There was only one topic of conversation and everyone wanted to talk to Steve. He refused to speculate on what might have happened, but he was certain in his own mind that it was murder. He did some subtle questioning himself, and discovered that the victim was called George Midlem.

Any hope of a quiet drink was gone. Steve endured the complaints of the hotel guests who, like him, had intended to leave the following morning and were now forbidden. Police were at each of the exits, preventing anyone from leaving. It was useless trying to explain that he also wanted to be home for Christmas, as nobody was listening. After about an hour of this, Steve gave up and left the bar. Being alone in his room with the TV seemed like a nice alternative. He had hoped to have dinner with a girl he met on the slopes that afternoon, but she was nowhere in sight.

With the police presence, the corridors of the hotel were quiet. Steve had chosen this hotel because most of the guests tended to be young and it was sometimes quite noisy in the evenings as the guests enjoyed the après ski. The atmosphere was totally different tonight.

Several of the lights were out in the corridor where Steve's room was situated. With the storm raging outside, Steve assumed that the hotel was either running on a generator, which would mean only partial lighting, or they were switching off lights to try and minimize the energy usage. He fumbled in his pocket for his key and wondered if it would be worth trying to phone Mike again.

As he inserted his key into the lock, the door opened from the inside. Steve had the impression of someone in the room, but the room was dimly lit by only a table lamp and before he could get a proper look, someone cannoned into him from behind. Before he could fight back, he found himself on the floor, with a hood over his head and his hands bound behind him. He shouted, but the hood absorbed most of the sound. A hand clamped over his mouth.

"Okay, let's get him out of here," one of the assailants said. "We need to find out how much he saw."

Saw? Steve shook his head. Who were these men? What did they think he had seen? He tried to bite the hand that was covering his mouth, but that just earned him a backhanded slap that rattled his teeth. Dazed, he kicked out as he was dragged to his feet and felt his boot connect with someone, who cursed loudly. The next instant, he was punched heavily in the stomach. He doubled over and was allowed to fall to the floor. His feet were bound together and he was lifted up and draped over a shoulder.

Head down, and still gasping for breath, Steve realized that he was being carried away and had no idea who these two men were or what they thought he had seen. Worse yet, they were kidnapping him and it appeared that nobody had noticed!