Chapter 1
Such a beautiful day for such a tragic scene.
Dr. Maureen Fitzgerald, spending her first year of residency in rural medicine, stood with her mentor on the redwood deck of a beige doublewide mobile home with unmoving mint-green faux shutters. The home sat tucked back on a tiny patch of flat land halfway up Snowball Hollow and all the way at the end of the road.
Snowball Holler, she reminded herself. She still got weird looks from the locals if she pronounced certain words the way they were spelled.
The bright September sunshine lit up a mountainside full of vivid fall colors. Bloody maple trees, golden oaks, bright yellow tulip poplars. The deep green of rhododendron and mountain laurel in the understory made the whole hill look like Paul Bunyan’s flower garden.
She loved the
