Snow Escape

by Roberta Goodman

Set against the backdrop of a historic snowstorm, Snow Escape is the story of one woman’s innocent foray into the world of online dating turned deadly.

Allegra Maxwell is a 30-year old, single school teacher looking for love. Having chosen to use the Internet to meet the opposite sex, she encounters an articulate, prospective beau on the night the biggest blizzard in history is blanketing the Big Apple. Their pleasant conversation soon turns sinister when she discovers that "Charles" has been stalking her for weeks and claims he lives in her building. With threats of destroying her little by little are made, Allegra must stay one step ahead of the mind games. Turning to neighbors for help, tragic consequences ensue.

When her sanity is questioned, because the online evidence her stalker exists disappears, Allegra must prove he does exist and she isn’t losing her mind. When a power outage thrusts her into darkness, will she be able to overcome the helplessness she feels? Placed in a situation that’s spiraling totally out of her control, while trapped in her apartment building with no escape, will she survive until the authorities can reach her?

ISBN 978-61386-101-1 Mystery / Thriller ALSO AVAILABLE IN RTF AND HTML FORMATS

CHAPTER 1

As the snow continued to fall, blanketing the city, Allegra felt helpless trapped in her apartment. She watched the limited amount of activity below from her window. Occasionally, a snow plow would go by, or she’d see a brave soul who had ventured out to walk their dog. Other than that, she imagined most people were in the same position she was in. With the anticipation of upwards of two to three feet of snow predicted it seemed this weather event was the only thing being televised at the moment. Everyone reporting on it was saying the same thing; stay indoors and off the roads. She had been smart enough to go grocery shopping two days before, so her refrigerator was stocked, even if she had to remain in her home for several days.

*** She had gone to work earlier that morning, having awoken to overcast skies. By the time she arrived at school, the snow was falling lightly and had barely covered the playground equipment in the school yard. Her fourth grade students were especially rambunctious. They wondered aloud why they had been made to attend class with the arrival of what was already being touted as the snowstorm of the century.

She knew she had her hands full trying to calm them down. Their excitement spilled onto every subject she attempted to teach. By lunchtime she was exhausted and praying there would be an announcement that school would be letting out early. Her sentiments were shared by several other colleagues she encountered in the teacher’s lounge. It seemed no one else’s students could concentrate on anything, but the blizzard that had started to rage outside. By one o’clock, a full two hours before the official end of the school day, Principal Davidson had come over the loudspeaker to announce that everyone was to pack up for the day. School was closing early. When her last student had vacated the building, Allegra gathered her things and headed out to her car. The wind had picked up significantly and she knew the drive home wasn’t going to be a pleasant one.

Brushing off the three, or so inches that had accumulated onto her windshield, she climbed into her car and started to make the trek home. Navigating through the streets of Brooklyn was treacherous enough without snow.

With the near zero visibility, a trip that usually took her ten minutes turned into forty-five. She had seen four accidents between the ride from school and her apartment building. When she got home, she was grateful to have made it there in one piece. The whole way home she thought to herself, people obviously don’t know how to drive in snow. Since she had grown up in upstate New York and had spent many winters having to endure driving through it, she was an old pro.

After she parked, Allegra picked up her tote bag with the papers she needed to grade, put up the hood on her jacket, and exited her car. The harsh winds were whipping up the newly fallen snow and the force with which the snow was falling had increased.