Joy to the Wolves

by Terry Spear

  “He would have given it to you, had he been alive, and it would never have gone to Brooke, I suspect,” Josh said. “Maybe he was afraid that when he showed up at the auction, they might be on to him and search him for it. So he hid it in one of the boxes to retrieve when he met up with you before Brooke took possession of them.”

  “I’m thinking the same thing now. I searched his whole place, along with other members of the FBI, but we couldn’t find it. We thought Daisy Gulliver had found it and destroyed it. Apparently not.”

  “Why would she be behind all this?” Josh asked.

  “I suspect something on the thumb drive incriminates her. I’m boarding the plane now. I’ll see you soon. At the shop?”

  “Yes. Adam Holmes is here also, another wolf, and police detective. The DEA special agent running the cocaine investigation, Ethan Masterson, also a wolf, will probably join us. And my mate, who has been affected by all this.”

  “If I had known… I never intended for her to be involved in any of this.”

  “She tried calling you.”

  “I’ve been undercover. Be there soon.”

  * * *

  Brooke was relieved that Mr. Lee was one of the good guys. She was a little surprised he was on the case when his brother had been murdered though.

  “Are you all right?” Josh asked her, taking hold of her shoulders and rubbing them in a compassionate way.

  “Yeah, and I’m hoping this will be resolved soon.”

  “Hell, me too.”

  “I reached Ethan,” Adam said. “He’s on his way.”

  “Good. He needs to be here for this,” Josh said, “since he was involved in the cocaine bust.”

  “I called the local FBI, and they said they’ve talked to Mr. Lee,” Adam said.

  “That’s good. That was going to be my next step,” Josh said.

  “Should we look for the safe?” Lucas asked Brad.

  “Why don’t you do that,” Brooke said. “I would have thought the FBI would take Mr. Lee off the case because this is personal with him.”

  “True, just like it is for me though,” Josh said.

  “And me,” Adam said. “These people can’t do this to one of our kind without some payback.”

  “I, for one, am glad you guys are on my side.” Normally, Brooke would be busy doing something with the merchandise in the shop, but knowing the person behind all this was most likely close by and still after the thumb drive they hadn’t secured meant she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She fixed everyone cups of coffee in the meantime.

  Ethan showed up about a half hour later and wanted to see the boxes.

  Smiling, Brooke shook her head.

  “Hey, the more eyes on this, the better,” Ethan said, smiling just as broadly. “Since no one’s found the thumb drive.” He looked over all the items but didn’t find anything either.

  “I was thinking of making everyone lunch once Mr. Lee gets here.” She realized she needed to learn his first name.

  “That works for me,” Josh said, the others all agreeing.

  When Mr. Lee did arrive, Josh got the door for him. Ethan snapped his fingers as soon as he saw him and said, “FBI. Special Agent Ben Lee. I remember a case you were on when I’d just joined the DEA. Hell, why didn’t I remember that?”

  Mr. Lee smiled. “You have a good memory. Can I see the boxes?”

  Brooke sighed.

  Mr. Lee began to sort through the stuff in the boxes. “I want to take down the woman who killed my brother.”

  “You said she was Mr. Gulliver’s daughter. Ethan discovered she was in Paris at the time. But he had another daughter—” Brooke said.

  “His stepdaughter, but she was adopted by him so she has his last name. Her biological father’s name was Fern,” Mr. Lee said. “She looked like she’d seen a ghost when she saw me at the auction. I knew she had my brother killed, but I was trying to find the evidence to put her away.”

  “That’s the woman one of the perps we’ve taken into custody said hired them to get the thumb drive. Daisy Fern,” Josh said.

  “That’s her,” Mr. Lee said.

  “So you were working undercover, assuming your twin’s identity while you were at the auction,” Brooke said.

  “I wouldn’t have done so if my brother had shown up, but I just knew something was wrong, and considering the information he was going to hand over to me, my concerns were valid. My brother wanted in the worst way to help me take Gulliver down for his criminal activities once he learned about them. Because Gulliver was targeting Ms. Ivy Cerise, I told him I’d handle it. But my brother was stubborn. They must have realized what he was up to and killed him.”

  “But who killed Gulliver?” Brooke asked.

  “Possibly a man by the name of Ackerson,” Mr. Lee said. “I suspect he killed my brother too. But Daisy Gulliver is the one behind all this.”

  “I still can’t believe you knew a shipment of cocaine was in those boxes and you didn’t alert us,” Josh said, sounding furious.

  She didn’t blame Josh. They could have all been murdered over it.

  “I warned Ms. Cerise that her great-aunt had been dealing with unsavory types in case she had any contact from these men. When Ivy died, my brother warned me that Gulliver had the shipment diverted from the antique shop to a different location. Gulliver was afraid whoever took over Cerise’s Antique and Gift Shop could be a problem. We intercepted the shipment before it reached a warehouse. Apparently, they hadn’t diverted all of the shipment and some of it ended up at the shop. We hadn’t known about that.

  “When Gulliver died, my brother told me he was afraid Daisy knew the feds were going to take her stepdad down. She was afraid she’d lose any inheritance if he went to prison and lost his estate over it. But I couldn’t prove it. My brother told me he wanted to sell you the statues because your family had been so good to ours. And that there were five boxes of items you could sell for a goodly sum. I went to meet him at the auction, and everyone thought I was my brother. Daisy was shocked to see me. Everyone else was upset I had gotten to the auction late. Because I was involved in selling and giving the items to you, the culprits must have wrongly believed I—pretending to be my brother—had shipped the incriminating information to you. I would never have done that.”

  “Maybe the thumb drive is not in one of the boxes but in one of the wolf statues,” Brooke said.

  They all headed out to the courtyard and began searching the three statues for hidden compartments.

  “Here!” Ethan said, opening a little compartment in the wolf leaning up against a light pole. “Well, no, nothing, but it is a secret hiding place.”

  Brooke looked over the wolf couple sitting on a park bench. “Ohmigod, this one has a hidden compartment underneath the bench. And…there’s nothing in there either.”

  “This one has a hiding spot too,” Josh said as he and Adam searched the wolf drinking out of the fountain sculpture. “It looks like they were made to conceal a house key. But no thumb drive is hidden here at the base of the wolf’s paw.”

  They were all disappointed.

  Trying to cheer everyone up, Brooke announced, “Let’s have lunch at the house.”

  “Then I need to get with the local FBI agents and talk to them about what’s going on. The DEA too,” Mr. Lee said to Ethan.

  “I’ll drive you over, and we can meet with some folks,” Ethan said.

  “I’m going to hang out with you and Brooke, unless I get called in on a case,” Adam said.

  They all headed over to Brooke’s house. She made introductions for Brad and Lucas and Maverick and Mr. Lee.

  Lucas looked like he was about to burst with news. “I found it! A hidden safe behind a panel in the bookshelf.”

  For a second, Brooke thought he meant the thumb drive.

  Everyone join
ed him in the living room, and Brooke shook her head. “I would never have figured that out.”

  “I was pulling out books and tapping on the wooden panels until I found one that sounded different.”

  “You’re a genius,” Brooke said.

  “What’s the combination?” Lucas tried to guess the combination as he twisted the knob.

  “Now that I don’t know. Use your wolf’s sense of hearing.” What Brooke really wanted to do was send everyone on their way and enjoy the rest of the day and night with Josh before the shop opened tomorrow. “There’s a shelf by the checkout counter that has a secret compartment that conceals guns,” she told Josh.

  “Your great-aunt put that in?” he asked.

  “She had to have. Anyway, the card that opens it is in the drawer of the checkout counter.”

  “That sounds good if you have any trouble while you’re at the counter,” Josh said.

  “Right, since the police confiscated my frying pan.”

  Josh smiled at her.

  Brooke went into the kitchen to make sandwiches for everyone. “Do corned beef sandwiches sound good to everyone?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Josh said.

  Everyone agreed.

  “I’ll help you make lunch,” Josh said.

  “I’m going to crack open the safe.” Lucas put his ear next to the combination dial and began spinning it. That was one thing about their exceptional hearing. They could even crack safes.

  Brooke was getting ready to spread mayonnaise on the bread when Josh pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

  She kissed him back. “Hmm, after lunch, I was thinking we don’t need anyone to be here, since you’re my protection.”

  He smiled. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  “I got it!” Lucas opened the safe.

  They all went to see what was inside the safe.

  Inside, they found diamonds and gold jewelry. It was a small safe, so nothing big was inside it, but it looked like the items could be worth some money. And she found Ivy’s inventory lists.

  “Wow,” Lucas said.

  “Nice find,” Josh said.

  “Did you write down the combination?” Brooke asked.

  Lucas gave her the number and she made a note of it. Then Lucas closed the safe back up, and they finished making the sandwiches and sat down to eat.

  When they were about finished, Adam got a call. “Hell, I’ll be right in.”

  Everyone was waiting to hear what it was all about.

  Adam smiled. “Who wants to interrogate Ackerson? He was just arrested after speeding near here, driving yet another stolen car, and the police officer recognized the police sketch we have of him.”

  “The guy at the bakery who was talking to Daisy and who shot me in the attic,” Brooke said.

  “Yep. He’s the one.” Adam smiled at Josh. “This couldn’t have been better timing. Let’s go see what he has to say.”

  “It’s about damn time,” Josh said, and Brooke hoped they could end this guy’s crime spree and convict him for shooting her and for the other crimes he was involved in. And maybe, if they got lucky, he’d squeal on Daisy.

  Chapter 27

  Brad, Lucas, and Maverick stayed with Brooke at the house while Josh, Adam, Ethan, and Mr. Lee went to the station to question Ackerman. Josh was hoping they’d finally get somewhere with the case, but he was glad Ackerman was now in custody.

  Mr. Lee and Ethan watched the proceedings through the one-way mirror.

  Cold blue eyes stared back at them, and like the salesclerk had said at the one jewelry-store robbery, Ackerson had a dark-brown beard and mustache, his hair dark brown. He was wearing blue jeans, heavy black boots, and a dark-gray parka, just as he had in the robberies and in Brooke’s shop.

  Josh recognized Ackerson’s scent from the two armed jewelry-store robberies.

  Josh stood near the wall, a cup of coffee in hand. Adam had a file in his hand and stood near the table, both towering over Ackerson.

  “I didn’t do nothing.” Ackerson leaned back in his chair, his arms folded across his chest.

  “We know you robbed two jewelry stores.” Adam started out with those charges they were filing against Ackerson. “Your cohorts both named you as the guy who set it all up.”

  “Hell, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “In addition to that, you were identified by witnesses at both scenes,” Adam said.

  “Did Daisy hire you for both those jobs? Besides the one where you shot the owner of Cerise’s Antique and Gift Shop twice?” Josh asked.

  Ackerson’s eyes widened. At least that got the reaction Josh was looking for. He was sure Ackerson wanted to deny he’d been shooting at a woman and had been trying to kill a big, angry guard dog instead.

  “She was wounded, twice. You and Pinky both attempted to kill her,” Josh said.

  “We have all the evidence. The casings. The photos of her injuries. The weapons used in the crime,” Adam said.

  Josh didn’t glance at Adam, even though he wanted to see if Adam had made it up or had some news he’d forgotten to tell Josh.

  “No way in hell,” Ackerson said.

  “No? She was trying to hide behind the crates and boxes so you couldn’t shoot her again,” Josh said.

  “It was a big damn dog, and he knocked me down. He was trying to kill me.”

  “There wasn’t any dog in the attic. She doesn’t own one. You shot the owner of the shop, and she gave your description to the police sketch artist.” Adam showed him the sketch.

  “That could be one of any number of men.”

  “What were you looking for in the attic?” Josh asked.

  Ackerson frowned and didn’t say anything.

  “Let me help you out. You were looking for a box from Gulliver’s estate,” Adam said. “You mentioned it when you and Pinky were looking for it. While you were in the shop.”

  Not exactly, but if it helped to move the interrogation along…

  Ackerson remained mum. He must have realized he shouldn’t have said anything about being in Brooke’s attic in the first place.

  “She recognized you as the man who carried in the box the mail carrier delivered earlier in the day. She saw you casing the shop, entering all the off-limits rooms, but you couldn’t get into the attic because it was locked,” Josh said. “She thought you’d been chivalrous when you carried the box for her. Then she discovered you’d trespassed in all the rooms where you shouldn’t have been, and she had another impression of you. A potential thief.

  “When she heard you and Pinky in the shop, destroying her property, she called the police from the attic. You told Pinky you should have checked that room first since the light was on and the door was open. She heard everything you said. She told the police you broke the window with a brass lamp after you couldn’t get the window open.”

  Ackerson tapped his fingers on the table.

  “You grabbed a couple of boxes at the antique shop in a stolen Camaro and ditched the boxes, their contents, and the stolen car, then went to see Daisy Gulliver at the bakery across the street from the antique shop. We have video of you speaking with the woman who hired you,” Adam said. “You didn’t find the thumb drive in either of the boxes from the Gulliver estate.”

  Ackerson flinched, then looked down at the table.

  “You didn’t take Pinky to the hospital,” Josh said.

  “He bled out.”

  “Not for a while. You dumped him in an alley. If you’d taken him to a hospital or even called 911 so someone could give him emergency medical care, he could have survived. We found your prints in the abandoned car and his blood. It’s all over for you,” Josh said. “Unless you can give us something on the woman who orchestrated this, and we can press charges against her.”

  “Imm
unity?”

  Josh shook his head. No way would they offer him a deal like that after he’d shot Brooke and fired shots in one of the jewelry stores. The guy was bad news. “Maybe a lesser sentence. But we need the person behind all this. The mastermind.”

  “Hell. She goes by the name of Daisy Fern because Fern was her biological father’s name and most people don’t know that. Randolph Gulliver adopted her, so she’s Daisy Gulliver. A thumb drive’s in one of those boxes shipped to the antique shop.”

  Josh frowned at him. “What’s on the thumb drive?”

  “Something incriminating, she figures. She was ready to shoot me herself when we didn’t get the job done. It wasn’t my fault Pinky was so clumsy he cut himself badly on the broken window.”

  “How do you know her?” Adam asked.

  “I did a lot of work for her rich daddy. If you ask me”—Ackerson leaned into the table, pressing his arms against it—“she killed her daddy for the money and for the power.” He sat back in his chair and stretched his legs out and crossed them at the ankles. “They didn’t get along. She was always saying she wanted to kill him for some reason or another.”

  “Did she? Kill him? Or hire someone to do it?” Josh asked.

  “I’d say she had it in her to kill him, personal vendetta because she wanted to run the business and he wouldn’t let her, but she likes to hire us to do her dirty work.”

  “What about his assistant, Mr. Lee?” Josh hoped they could catch Daisy and put her in jail before she hired any more thugs to go after Brooke and her store, or anyone else.