What Happens in the Alps... Read Online Free

pressed the bell and Paolina buzzed her in.
    A light dusting of snow had fallen while she had been with the accountant. After shaking her jacket off, she hung it on a hook by the door and headed for the room marked
Reception
, the only properly decorated, furnished and finished room in the school at the moment. The heating in the reception area was full on and the place was boiling hot. This was no doubt because Paolina, oblivious to the weather outside, appeared to be wearing little more than a lacy top and a short summery skirt that day. Annie walked in and set her bag down on the front desk.
    She had discovered a few weeks back that Paolina’s hobby was scavenging local junk shops for old clothing that she then transformed into outfits for herself. So far, Annie had seen her in everything from a nineteenth-century ballgown to an ancient fireman’s uniform. She was a very pretty girl, in her mid-twenties, with long dark hair, and she somehow managed to carry off all but the most outrageous outfits. Today’s blouse was charming, although the moths had clearly had a go at it and either Paolina or her mum had embroidered colourful Alpine flowers over the worst of the holes.
    â€˜Ciao, Paolina, how’s it going?’
    â€˜Ciao, Annie. Everything’s fine. There was a phone call from a Signor Lagrange who wants to speak to you. He’ll be here in half an hour.’
    At first, the preponderance of French names everywhere had come as a surprise to Annie. Santorso was in Italy, but its roots were French, going back to the time of the Kingdom of Savoy, and many of the locals still spoke a French-based patois. Annie didn’t recognise the man’s name and she wondered what he might want.
    She changed from her lovely warm, fur-lined boots into indoor shoes and returned to her office to check her messages. There was a short text from Karen telling her she was just arriving in Geneva, and an email from her mother, asking if she was coming home for Christmas. Annie glanced at the calendar and sat back in thought. Christmas was less than a month away and she knew she had to make a decision. On the one hand she knew she should make the effort to go and see her mum, but on the other there was the fear that something terrible might happen here while she was away. Still, the longer she waited to make a decision, the more expensive the flights would become.
    She stared out of the window. The school occupied the first floor of a fairly modern building and she had chosen the location because of the large, free car park right outside. It was still snowing, but not very hard, but with the overcast sky it looked, and was, cold out there. Trees, pavements and flower beds were dusted with white, while the roads were a mucky brown mess of salt, grit and ice. As she watched, the unmistakable noise of the snowplough scraping along the tarmac reminded her she needed to get the antifreeze level checked in her car. Although they were only at just over a thousand metres here in Santorso, she knew it could get very, very cold.
    She had only had that one cup of coffee for breakfast, and she realised she was hungry and thirsty. A glance at the clock on the wall told her she just about had time for something before the arrival of this Signor Lagrange.
    The bar was directly opposite the school, right alongside its sister establishment, the pizzeria. Crossing the slushy road without soaking her feet wasn’t easy, but Annie managed. At the bar she ordered a cappuccino and picked up a croissant filled with apricot jam. As she consumed her belated breakfast, she chatted to Signora Toniolo who owned and ran the place together with her husband, Beppe. Although Annie had only been in Santorso for a few months, she knew them both very well by now and liked them a lot.
    She glanced around the room. Although it was the ground floor of a modern block, the walls had been lined with rough logs to give an Alpine chalet effect, and huge cow