DEAD COLD

Chapter 3    The mountain hotel

Then 1 saw the Mountain Hotel. 1 walked into the hotel and looked over to the bar. There was a fire; it was warm and comfortable. It looked nice, 1 thought.

Janine Anderson's friends, Teresa Douglas and Jeff Mason, were in Room 203. They were about twenty-two, twenty-three years old. They looked young, lost.

'It's terrible,' said Teresa. Her face was wet. She cried softly. Jeff sat down next to her on the bed and put his hand on her shoulder. I looked around at the room. It was Jeff's room. From the window you could see a very high mountain, the one they called Snowpeak. There were clothes everywhere, ski boots under the window.

'We can't believe she's dead, ma'am. It's terrible,' said Jeff.

When he spoke 1 could hear that he came from Texas. He was a tall, blond young man, good-looking.

'I understand,' 1 said. 'I'll try to be quick, but 1 have to ask some questions.'

'Sure,' said Jeff.

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