By the time she reached the Cape Rouge, Audrey could feel she'd sweat through her undershirt and had the uncomfortable sensation of feeling fresh sweat freezing on her brow. Even with the snow shoes Duke had directed her to in the shed behind the Grey Gull, it had taken her nearly a half hour to trudge the short quarter of a mile between her apartment and the harbor. "Duke," she yelled as she struggled her way onto the boat, "this better be good. I am frozen solid!"

"Audrey," Duke's head popped up from the cabin below, "so glad you could make it."

"Har-har," Audrey deadpanned, "seriously what's up? You've got an apple tree growing on…?" She stopped short as she nearly tripped over one of the branches of the tree in question. "What in the world?"

The deck of the Cape Rouge was pockmarked with tree branches stretching up through the wood. They rose to her knees creating a treacherous labyrinth between herself and the cabin steps. Her trip was made that much more dangerous by the heavy snow that continued to fall making the deck slick and icy. Duke looked on fondly as Audrey blustered across the deck towards him, poorly covering his amusement at her exertions.

"Alright, which troubled person did you piss off this time?" Audrey asked when she finally reached the safety of the cabin below. She made her way around the trunk of the large fruit tree looking up at its branches that stretched up and through the ceiling.

"I swear I have no idea," Duke said earnestly. "I've barely left the boat all day except to go over to Frank's to pick up some supplies to weather out the…weather," he finished lamely.

Audrey grinned at him, "Alright, well that helps narrow things down actually. Who else was there?"

"Jeez, Audrey. The place was packed. Hours before a big storm, lots of folks picking up provisions," Duke closed his eyes tightly to aid his memory, "Frank obviously. That guy does hate me, but he has for years so I don't think today would be any different. Gladys King. She adores me, so I doubt she's to blame. The Denbrough brothers. I remember because they were arguing but there's nothing new about that. Richard Bachman. Dude's definitely strange, but I don't think I did anything to piss him off. And maybe a handful of others. Crap, Audrey. I can't remember. I wasn't paying much attention, little preoccupied with Snowmagedon, you know?"

"Well at least that gives us someplace to start." Audrey sighed. "See if you can't remember anything else while I give Nathan a call and fill him in." She got out her cell and was pleased to see her service was still working.

After the 4th ring, Nathan picked up with an exasperated, "What is it, Parker?"

"Jeez, sorry to bug you," Audrey answered wondering where this new attitude was coming from, " Just thought you'd like to know that Duke's got an apple tree growing out of the Cape Rouge."

"Pear," corrected Duke.

"What?" Audrey and Nathan responded in unison.

"Pear tree," Duke repeated. "Asian pear to be exact. And they're delicious to boot," he finished taking a bite of one of the fruits.

"Okay, pear tree growing out of his boat," Audrey said into the phone. "Duke spit that out! We don't know what it might do to you." Duke's eyes got wide for a moment while he realized the truth of what she'd said and he turned on his heal to spit the masticated fruit into the sink.

"Okay, this is beginning to make some sense," Nathan replied with a laugh.

"It is?" Audrey asked bewildered.

"Sorry I was curt with you when I picked up, but I've just spent the last 2 hours over at Joe Hanlon's place trying to figure out why his chickens have stopped clucking and started 'mais'ing and I'm driving now to Gladys King's to clear her living room of pigeons. She said she went down for a nap and when she woke the place was filled with them." He laughed again. "Guess it all makes sense now."

"How does any of that make sense?" Audrey asked.

"It's the Days of Christmas song, Parker. Don't you see? Duke's got the pear tree, probably a partridge around there too somewhere I'd guess. Joe's got French hens. 'Mais' is French for corn; girls were just asking for their dinner," he laughed again, "and Gladys has the doves. Someone's bringing the song to life. Pretty innocuous as far as troubles go, that is unless I crash my truck driving around in this blizzard."

"Crap. So that means we've got, what 5 more of these to sort out?"

"More like 9 Parker. It's the 12 Days of Christmas." Nathan answered laughing at her over the phone.

"It is? I could have sworn it was 8." Nathan imagined he could picture Audrey wrinkling her brow in confusion. "Hey Duke!" She yelled to their friend who was still rinsing his mouth out over the sink. "How many days of Christmas are there?"

"Seriously?" Duke asked looking back at her. "Twelve, Audrey. There are 12 days of Christmas."

"Huh," Audrey said to herself. "Well that sucks, even more messes to clean up, I guess."

"You and Duke work on trying to figure out who might be causing this," Nathan continued. "I'll go sort out Mrs. King and swing by to pick you up when I've finished."

"Alright, see you soon." Audrey replied.

"What about my boat?" Duke asked, sensing the partners were wrapping up their conversation without properly addressing his involuntary home remodeling.

"Tell Duke to settle down," Nathan replied having heard Duke through the phone. "I'll send Dwight out to the Rouge as soon as he's available."

"Dwight's on his way," Audrey told Duke as she closed her phone.

"Good. That's good." Duke replied. Then he added, "That's all Nathan said? He didn't have any sarcastic comment to make about any of this?"

"No." Audrey replied. "Why would he?"

"I don't know. It's just, Nathan's been weird lately. Have you noticed? I saw him at Rosemary's the other day and he bought me a coffee when I couldn't find my wallet." Duke finished and looked at her expectantly.

Audrey laughed. "Duke, Nathan's a good guy. He does stuff like that all the time. Besides it Christmastime, you know how he loves this time of year."

"No. I know how he hates this time of year. I mean sure when we were kids he loved it, all kids love Christmas. But since his mom died, he's always hated the holidays. I don't think the Wuornos' even celebrated Christmas after that."

This gave Audrey pause. If Nathan hated Christmas, then what was up with all his good cheer of late? If this was some other sort of trouble, she was going to scream. He certainly hadn't been acting 'troubled'. His merriment seems genuine enough to her, although she couldn't deny it was out of character. Audrey shook her head a bit to clear it and then turned to Duke. "One mystery at a time." She said. "Now concentrate. Who else might have been at Frank's?"