Not an all-out blizzard, just a lousy three inches, which in other years would have caused the governor to deploy the National Guard. Instead, the local weather people delivered the news with grim restraint and the island silently groaned and steeled itself. As it turned out, I actually liked what the little storm did for the existing snow cover—glossing over the gritty surface and painting everything with a neat whitewash. My only worry was getting from my car to the back door without sliding on the frictionless surface, made more treacherous by my leather-soled cowboy boots, an equipment choice in desperate need of re-thinking. I made it to the door unscathed and waved to Sam that everything was fine. He’d insisted on escorting me to my place, but I wouldn’t let him come into my lair only to turn everything upside down in search of possible threats. My security system was state-of-the-art back when it was installed, but I knew there wasn’t a system that couldn’t be breached by someone who knew what they were doing.
