Book 4 in the Donna Leigh Mysteries series:
Does it count as saving a life if you just don’t kill someone?

Thump, thump. I wake and stretch lazily. It’s a beautiful morning and Frank and Ellie are furiously wrestling for the privilege of greeting me first. I gather both in my arms – now the struggle is for who can first obtain freedom. In a flash they are off the bed and out the door again. On to their next conquest.

Since retiring I love waking up. No alarm, apart from the French Bully attack, no clocks, and no tripping over slippers in the dark trying not to wake Jon and the dogs.

I am Donna Leigh and these are the early days of retirement from my Omaha ad agency, Marcel. I am luxuriating in the knowledge that there’s nothing pressing on my plate, as opposed to the last 45+ years of being slammed with client work and more recently also being neck deep in the ‘too close for comfort’ murders that seem to be occurring all around me.

The plan is to let my gut take me to the next phase of the journey and for now, my time is my own.

Scene Break

Once again, Jon had awakened early and managed to get himself and the bulldogs out of bed and down the stairs without waking me. God bless the man! But what those two miscreants did after breakfast was another matter, and I knew instinctively that Jon must be on the treadmill hence providing the Frenchies the freedom to employ their special brand of wakeup call.

Sure enough, as is often the case, I found Jon on the treadmill jogging in place while watching Olympic contenders ski down a narrow and icy European course. No, this wasn’t happening during the Olympics – Jon always amazes me as he enjoys watching these racing videos over and over again.

Always an avid (more like obsessive) skier and a huge fan of ski racing, Jon doesn’t just watch the stats, he gets to know the individual skiers – to the extent that you can from observing their actions and comments about them when they’re getting ready at the top, and their own comments when they’ve completed the race and viewed their results. At the top of his list are those with the best times along with the best comportment – how they interact with teammates and competitors is very telling. He has no tolerance for divas or arrogance of any kind. Sportsmanship and professionalism rank just as high as athletic achievement in Jon’s book.

Since his own retirement, Jon’s hobby has turned into something much more compelling, and as with so many things in Jon’s world it all came about through happenstance.

One day Jon was commenting in a ski racing chat room. His comment received a persuasive response that left him stunned. The comment itself was simple enough, and in Jon’s mind made an excellent point, but Jon was thunderstruck to realize that he was communicating directly with his favorite ski racer, the 2014 Olympic Downhill Gold Medalist from Switzerland, Dominique Gisin. It was an unimaginable thrill!

And it didn’t end there. Over time, Dominique and Jon forged a strong friendship compelling him to study the ski racing industry with an even more in-depth zeal.

Scene break

Prior to Jon’s friendship with Dominique, we’d had a limited personal connection to anything Swiss. My paternal grandfather, Frank, had been Swiss. In fact, my maiden name, Leemann, was undoubtedly Swiss based on a genealogical chart that I had uncovered. But that was about it.

To Jon, it seemed as though this might be the time to take a closer look at my Swiss background. He’s known that I’ve developed a burning desire to learn more about my heritage. Sadly, for so many Americans who are third and fourth generation in the states, we yearn for knowledge of our ancestors and their cultural history and are never able to truly satisfy that thirst for immersion in our own origins.

Jon had always been interested in genealogy. And when the DNA test confirmed that I am 33% Swiss – Jon combined his hobbies and began a deep dive for further Swiss connections.