by Terry Spear
“Do you want me to take them over and put them in your safe at the house?”
“Yes. Just don’t drop them.”
He laughed. “That would be a good way to ruin a day.”
She gave him the safe combination, security code, and the keys to her house.
“I’ll be right back.” He made sure the vases had enough packing peanuts to protect them, sealed the boxes, and then carried them to the back door.
* * *
She opened it for him, and he walked through to the courtyard. She had some more customers who picked up several items and wanted to pay for their purchases. She was trying not to feel excited about the prospect of selling the vases for all that money, but she couldn’t help it. She was thinking of all the renovations she could do to the shop, the kitchen, bathroom, other rooms. The attic. And the house too. She couldn’t imagine having that much money or what to do with it.
Knowing the vases would be in the safe, particularly after the brutish intruders had broken so much of her glassware and porcelain, she felt relieved.
She assisted some of her customers and then found the regular bells her great-aunt had put up over the door when it wasn’t the Christmas season and went to hang them up. Brooke wanted to hear the tinkling sound of the bells when people were coming and going, and she hated when she only heard the squeak of the door alerting her that customers had arrived. She needed to oil that door.
She was hanging the bells when the food came, and she paid for it. A couple of her customers came to the checkout counter, and Brooke said, “I’ll be right back.” She carried the Chinese takeout into the kitchen, then returned and waited on them.
Josh returned. “I smell the food. I was going to pay for it.”
“You planned that perfectly,” she teased him. “Why don’t you eat, and once I’m done here, I’ll join you.”
After her customers left, she joined Josh in the kitchen, where he was sitting at the table enjoying his Hunan chicken.
Then he got a call. “Yeah? Roger Thornton? Thank you.” He ended the call. “That was the name of the man who owns the black pickup truck that was parked in front of your place, Brooke.”
“Is that the man who rented the reindeer from you and was upset about paying more?”
“No. I still wonder if it doesn’t have to do with him. I need to speak to the owner of the truck though.”
“Are you going to do it while the shop is open?”
“Yeah. His business is only about five miles from here. Will you be okay if I go check it out?”
“Yeah. You won’t be that far away.”
“I won’t be long, and I’ll see what he has to say. How’s your beef and broccoli?”
“Great. How’s your Hunan chicken?”
“Perfect.”
She thought Josh was going to eat and run, but he waited while she finished eating.
“I’ll stay and assist customers until you finish eating.”
She smiled. “Thanks. Open your fortune cookie and see what your fortune says.”
He cracked open his fortune cookie and flattened the strip of paper. “‘A golden egg of opportunity falls into your lap this month.’”
“That sounds like a good fortune.” She finally finished her meal and opened her fortune cookie. “Mine says, ‘In the end, all things will be known.’ I was hoping it would be as vast a fortune as yours.”
He laughed. “I get the golden egg.”
“Then I’m going to have to stick with you.” The door jingled. “That’s my cue. Back to work.”
“I’m heading out.”
“Good luck getting the truth out of the guy.”
“I sure hope it’s going to be that simple,” Josh said.
“What will you do then?”
“It depends on the answers I get. If this is related to the man who rented the reindeer, I’ll talk to him. I might not press charges, but we’ll see.”
“Be safe.”
“You too, Brooke.” He gave her a kiss, then headed back out.
She went to greet her customers with a cheery smile and a welcome.
“Are the reindeer here today?” one of the ladies with two kids in tow asked.
* * *
Josh had already sent the information to Adam about the black pickup truck and the owner. Adam was on his way to the guy’s house. After checking to see if Roger Thornton had a son who might have stolen the reindeer, since Josh still thought it could be a teen prank, he discovered Roger had one sixteen-year-old son named Lucas. Josh drove to Roger’s place of business. The company was owned by the man who had hired the reindeer for the Christmas party. Coincidence? Josh didn’t believe in coincidences.
He parked at the brick-and-glass building and got out, then walked inside and said to the receptionist, “I’m here to see Roger Thornton.”
“Do you have an appointment, Mister…?”
“Detective Wilding.” Josh pulled out his badge, showed it to her, and then tucked it away.
“What’s this about?” she asked, her hand on the phone.
“This is between Mr. Thornton and me.”
She pushed a button and said into the phone, “A Detective Wilding is here to see you, sir.” She glanced up at Josh. “He wouldn’t say what it was about, sir… Right away.” She hung up the phone and motioned to the door near her. “Go right on in.”
“Thank you.” Josh opened the door, stepped inside, and shut the door behind him. He noted the man behind the desk—fortyish, temples slightly graying, dark sandy hair, glasses, and soft gray eyes—as he rose to greet Josh from behind his mahogany desk, the leather chair swiveling slightly.
Josh expected hostility or genuine disbelief, which would mean he truly had nothing to do with it. One other scenario came to mind—the suspect would be surprised, yet a hint of recognition would appear—just as he realized who the guilty party really was.
Mr. Thornton offered his hand, and Josh shook it. Then he motioned to one of the leather chairs while remaining behind his desk as if the furniture shielded him from an arrest. “What can I do for you, Detective Wilding?”
Josh preferred to stand, but he took a seat. “I have surveillance footage of your truck parked in front of Cerise’s Gift and Antique Shop after it was closed.”
At first, Mr. Thornton’s demeanor was apprehensive, but when Josh mentioned the truck, Mr. Thornton frowned, looking puzzled, but then it was as if the light dawned. He clearly knew who the driver was, but he didn’t say.
Mr. Thornton cocked a brow. “And?”
Josh sat against the leather seat back. “We have a good shot of the license plate from a nearby shop’s surveillance video.”
“What’s the crime in that?”
“A reindeer calf was stolen.”
Mr. Thornton’s jaw dropped.
“Your parent company had rented reindeer from the same ranch for your Christmas party. Two days later, someone driving your truck drops the reindeer calf off at the antique shop and places him in the courtyard but doesn’t properly shut the gate.”
“The calf’s alive, isn’t it?”
“Found and cared for and returned to the reindeer ranch, yes.”
Mr. Thornton relaxed a little, either relieved the reindeer hadn’t come to harm or relieved his son, if that was who had used the truck, wasn’t in even more trouble.
“Still, it’s theft and animal endangerment. Not only that, but the security video had been tampered with at the reindeer ranch.”
Again, a hint of worry flickered in the man’s eyes.
“Who was driving the truck that night? You didn’t report it stolen, so we have to assume you, or someone in your family, was driving that night,” Josh said.
“Do I need to call my lawyer?”
“My brother and I own the ranch. We can ma
ke a deal. Yes, the calf was safe, thankfully. The gate wasn’t shut properly, and the calf could have left the courtyard and been hit by a car. Breaking into a security system is also a crime. I don’t mind offering community service for the crimes, but I need some straight answers.”
Mr. Thornton smiled. “You’re fishing. You don’t have any proof of anything. You want my alibi for the night in question?”
“No. I suspect you weren’t driving the truck, but your son was. So I’ll need his alibi. I’ll be in touch.” Josh rose from his seat and handed Mr. Thornton his card. “If you want to talk to me about it, feel free to call at any time.”
Josh walked out of the office and shut the door, then pulled out his pen and notepad as if he had to write down notes of their conversation. Instead, he was listening at the door, the receptionist watching him. He assumed Mr. Thornton would call his son and chew him out about the incident. Josh loved his wolf hearing at times like this.
He noticed a button on the phone on the receptionist’s desk light up, indicating Mr. Thornton was calling someone. “Lucas, did you have anything to do with tampering with the security video at the Wilding Reindeer Ranch and a stolen calf? Don’t lie to me. The police have got surveillance video of the truck… Who else was with you?” Another pause. “Whose stupid-ass idea was it?” The chair squeaked in the office. “You and the others better come up with some airtight alibis ASAP in case the cop comes looking for you. And clean the damn truck.” The receiver slammed down, and the button’s light on the phone went out on the receptionist’s desk.
Josh left the building and immediately called Roy Greycroft, a Portland judge who was a gray wolf and helped the wolves out when they needed it. “Sir, the truck used to transport a stolen reindeer calf is going to be cleaned, and we need a warrant to search the vehicle before that happens and we lose the evidence of the theft.”
“Adam already called me to get a search warrant for the truck. He’s getting the reindeer hair from the interior as we speak,” Judge Greycroft said.
“Good. Thanks.”
“We can’t have them stealing Santa’s future reindeer and not paying for the crime, now can we?”
“You’re right. And there’s a little issue of tampering with our security video out at the ranch. The dad’s playing hardball, but I told him we’d be willing to just make a deal if he’d come clean.”
“If Lucas hadn’t committed a crime before.”
“The boy’s been brought before you already?” Josh asked the judge, damned surprised, though he shouldn’t be. Criminals often committed a lot more crimes than they got caught for.
“Yep. Same stuff—as a hacker. It was a couple of months ago, before he turned sixteen. Nothing like the reindeer theft, though, unless they just didn’t get caught. He had help, too, didn’t he?”
“Yes, sir. Someone was driving the truck, and someone else got out to remove the reindeer.”
“I’d place my bet on Ty Henson, if I were a betting man. He’s Lucas’s best friend. The two of them were involved in the other hacking job. They did community service that time too. The problem is they’re both smart, but they need to direct that to worthwhile causes, not to crime.”
“Thanks, Judge.” Josh still felt that the boys could benefit from community service. Working at the reindeer ranch might give them some sense of caring for the animals, for one thing. For another, he and Maverick could have the teens look at their security video and tell them how they hacked in and maybe how to safeguard against it. After ending the call with the judge, Josh called Adam. “Did you get the evidence you need?”
“Getting it now. Plenty of Jingles’s fur is in the truck. We can smell Jingles, so no trouble identifying it. I need to tell you something else though. When I went to his parents’ home so I could give them the search warrant to search the truck, Lucas answered the door. He is one of us.”
“What?” Josh thought he’d misunderstood what Adam had told him.
“I take it his dad isn’t?” Adam asked.
“Hell, no. He’s strictly human. Then Lucas is adopted?” Or maybe fostered, Josh thought.
“He must be. Or turned? Which would be bad news if he can’t control his shifting. The other scents in the car are all human. So his friends aren’t like us either. Lucas appeared shocked to smell my scent.”
Josh couldn’t believe it. “How long has he been living in the area?”
“He told me he and his parents moved here only three months ago.”
“And he got into trouble just a month after he’d been here. Unless he’d been up to mischief before that but just hadn’t been caught. He must not have met any of our wolves, or Leidolf and Cassie would have made sure he became part of our wolf community.”
“That’s what I figured,” Adam said. “I asked him if he’d smelled wolf scents when he was tampering with the security video. His eyes widened, and I think he realized our kind work there. I think he would have talked if his dad hadn’t called. I gave Lucas your number, too, since you’re part owner of the reindeer ranch and would probably let him work with the reindeer for community service. I told him we can’t tolerate criminal acts by our kind. That we can’t go to prison.”
“Okay. We need to get him on the right path then. He might even be able to date some of the teen girls in our pack,” Josh said.
“Only if he cleans up his act. The judge said Ty Henson is his best friend,” Adam said.
“He told me that too.”
“Did you want to talk to Ty?” Adam asked.
“I can head on over to his home,” Josh said.
“I was talking to Luke about his whereabouts that night. He said he was seeing Sandy Hicks, his girlfriend, at the park.”
“Right. Maybe she was sitting in the back seat with Jingles.”
“It could be. A female’s scent is in the back seat, though it could be from another time. Then Luke got a call from his dad. It must have been after you talked to him, and the next thing we know, the boy is lawyering up. I gave him my card and told him if he wants to talk to me about anything, not just about the crime but anything, he could call me. I thought he looked like he was dying to know more about us. I would have told him what we do to our kind who won’t toe the line, but his mother came out and told him to go into the house, glowering at me for talking to him. She isn’t one of us either.”
“Maybe something good can come from this.”
“I was thinking of giving him hard labor, once the judge said he and his buddy had already been hacking computers. Hell, the kids were only fifteen at the time.”
Josh laughed.
“Since he’s one of us, that wouldn’t do. The way he’s going, he’ll end up in jail, and we can’t have that. Is Brooke still all right?”
“Yeah, but I’ll give her a call to let her know what’s happening.” Josh was dying to talk to the kid. They needed to convince him of the error of his ways and learn if he was a royal like them, a wolf with roots so far back, he didn’t have any issues with shifting. “Do you have an address for Ty?”
Adam gave the address to him.
“I’m on my way there,” Josh said, glad they were getting somewhere with that case at least.
Chapter 17
As soon as two men walked into her shop, Brooke immediately recognized them from having been here the day Jingles and Cinnamon were in the courtyard. She’d thought the men looked suspicious the first time too. They didn’t look like her usual customers, though she’d had a lot of traffic because of the reindeer calves that she probably wouldn’t have had otherwise. Josh had been outside with the calves, and Adam and Maverick had been having lunch at the house at the time.
The one man had shaggy brown hair, scraggy facial hair, and brown eyes; the other was a blue-eyed blond and wore a beard. Both were dressed in well-worn jeans and open hoodies revealing worn sweatshirts that looked like th
ey’d seen better days. When they’d come that day, they’d said it was to see the reindeer calves everyone was talking about. They’d walked through her entire shop, making her feel they were going to steal something, and had not really been interested in seeing the reindeer. Most of the people who only intended to see the reindeer had gone around through the courtyard gate as a courtesy to those who were interested in buying or at least looking through Brooke’s inventory. She should have asked Josh if the men had gone out to see the reindeer. She’d completely forgotten about it because she’d been swamped with sales.
These guys made her skin crawl. She was placing a price tag on a cast-iron frying pan when the last of her customers left the shop. Alone with these men, she felt even warier. One was lifting things off a shelf, checking prices, and placing the items back on the shelf. He didn’t look like he was truly interested in buying anything. The other sauntered over to her counter, his mouth lifting slightly. The smile didn’t appear genuine in the least.
“Where do you get your stuff from?” the blue-eyed guy asked, leaning against her counter. His unwashed body odor nearly made her gag. It was bad enough that probably any human could smell him, but for a wolf, the scent was really bad.
“All over. Did you need something in particular?” She desperately wanted to call Josh.
The guy gave her a one-shoulder shrug. “Five boxes from an estate sale? A thumb drive, really. You know a Mr. Lee, don’t you?”
Her skin suddenly prickled with unease. Were these guys in cahoots with the others who had broken into her shop?
She was trying to keep her voice steady and pretend she wasn’t worried about why they were here. What had Mr. Lee gotten her involved in?
“I have boxes I haven’t even had time to sort through yet.”
“From Gulliver’s estate,” the blond said as if she were confused.
Mr. Lee had encouraged her to take the boxes. If there was a thumb drive in one of them, what did it have on it that would be worth sending all these goons for, presuming the previous robbers had wanted the same thing?
