Silent Night

by Colleen Coble

  Kade still frowned. “What about calling Naomi? You need a partner.”

  “I’m her partner and I’ve got Zorro,” Lauri said. “He’s not as well trained in search-and-rescue as Samson, but we’ll be a team. Please, I want to do this.”

  Kade took a deep breath, then released a slow exhale. “Okay. The two of you are perfectly competent.” Kade pressed his lips together, then kissed Bree. “Okay. I’ll take care of Dave. Call me the minute you hear something.”

  Lauri stood on tiptoe and brushed her lips across his cheek. “Thanks, big brother.” She called her dog over to her. “Got an extra search vest? I didn’t bring his with me.”

  “Sure do.” Bree rummaged in the closet and pulled out a bright orange vest.

  Lauri slipped it on, and Zorro nearly preened. “Let’s go.” She yanked on her coat and rushed through the door.

  Kade still looked worried, so Bree hugged him. “You wanted her to grow up, Kade. I’m proud of her. She went on the hunt for a good cause. I know sometimes it seems she’s all about what she wants, but this time she just wanted to help. Something has changed her.”

  “I know you’re right.” He hugged her, then released her. “Be careful out there. The temperature has come up some, and you might get buried by snow sliding off tree branches.”

  “We’ll be fine. We have Samson.” Her dog whined at the mention of his name, then went to the door and stood waiting. She smiled and put her hand on the doorknob. “My prince is calling.”

  “Here, I thought I was your only prince.”

  “No, you’re the king.” She blew him a kiss, then joined Lauri, who was tying her boots, on the porch.

  The sun shone today, glinting on the snow and ice. Bree sat in a cold chair and laced her snow boots. “What drove you to do this, Lauri?”

  Lauri tucked her long brown hair into her knit cap, then tugged the fabric over her ears. “Just what I said. I’ve watched you and Kade, you know. It might look like I chaffed against the restrictions—and I did—but I still noticed what you did and said. The more I’ve seen, the more I’ve wanted to be a person like you, Bree. One who cares about other people and puts others first.”

  Bree straightened. “I think there’s more to it than that. Though it’s very flattering, something special must have triggered you to get involved in this mystery.”

  Lauri pulled on bright-blue gloves. “I was home at Thanksgiving, and we were sitting around the fireplace playing Scrabble. It seemed such a mundane thing to be doing. I mean, come on, Scrabble is an old person’s game. It’s been around forever. You plopped the word OTHERS onto the board. In that moment, I realized my entire life was about me. I never thought of others at all. It was always what I wanted. Because my parents died, I thought I was entitled to get whatever else I needed. I’d been searching for love and acceptance in all the wrong places when all the time it was right here.”

  Bree studied Lauri’s face and saw her eyes mist. “Oh, honey, we love you so much. Kade would walk on hot coals for you.”

  “I know he would.” Lauri’s voice was choked. “I’ve put you both through a lot, and I’m sorry. Truly.” She wiped her wet face with a finger. “I need to apologize to Kade too.”

  “I could see he was touched that you were trying to help that girl.” Bree rose when Lauri did and grasped her shoulders. “But don’t you dare put yourself in jeopardy like that again. That guy might have hurt you. Or worse.”

  Lauri sobered. “I know it was stupid. I need to be smart—like you.”

  Bree shook her head and smiled. “I’m stupid myself on occasion.” She turned toward the Jeep. “Let’s find that cabin.”

  Seven

  M-18 headed on east, and Bree made a sharp turn onto Pakkala Road, which would take them into a heavily forested area. In the spring, motor homes and SUVs pulling campers plied the road on their way to experience some of the last wilderness left in the Midwest. Today the road was practically empty, as most campers didn’t want to enter the Snow King’s paradise.

  Some would laugh at her for describing snow country as paradise, but then they likely had never smelled the cold freshness of pollution-free air or watched a white blanket of snow cloak everything in clean, pristine beauty. Bree couldn’t imagine a better place on earth. A sparkling winter day like this offered a glimpse of perfection.

  She parked the Jeep and got the dogs out. “Hang on to Zorro.”

  Lauri nodded and yanked on her struggling dog’s collar. “He wants to play in the snow.”

  “Little Piney Lake is that way.” Bree gestured to their west. “You said it was on the north side of the lake. We’ll have to hike in about two miles, then head toward the lake. I think we’re just north of the lake if we head west.”

  Lauri’s warm breath fogged the winter air. “Two miles? We can’t get any closer?”

  Bree shook her head. “I only have one sidecar for the snowmobile, so our only option is to hike in. It’s not a bad walk, though. The ground is mostly level. Follow me.”

  She held a downed barbed-wire fence out of the way for Lauri, then the two of them trudged through the forest. The cold air burned Bree’s lungs, so she knew Lauri had to be uncomfortable, but the young woman made no complaints. She pushed on with a grim and determined expression.

  Half an hour later Bree paused. “We’re close enough to let the dogs try to find the scent.” She held the paper sack under Samson’s nose. He plunged his nose into the jacket, then raised his muzzle and barked.

  “Search, Samson,” Bree said. Her dog raced off into the clearing.

  Lauri unclipped Zorro’s leash, and he ran after Samson. Both dogs ran back and forth, their muzzles in the air. They worked in a Z pattern, scenting the air until they could catch a hint of the one scent they sought—skin rafts drifting in the air. Samson’s tail stiffened, and he turned and raced in the direction of the frozen lake.

  “He’s caught it!” Bree ran after her dog.

  Lauri followed Zorro. The forest engulfed them again, and the rustling of the wind through the snow-covered trees, the muffled sounds of small animals, and the whispering scent of wet snow all comforted Bree with a sense of place and time. In spite of their familiarity, Bree knew the welcome was just a facade. The North Woods was never safe.

  As Garrick Harper had found out.

  The dogs leaped over snow-covered logs and darted around small bushes and stands of pine. The tree canopy dimmed the sun here, and Bree squinted to see through the shadows. Was that a cabin ahead? She pointed and Lauri nodded. The dogs reached the cabin and stood barking at the door.

  Bree stopped at the front of the structure and peered inside. The windows were too dirty and the light was too dim to make out much more than the shadowy outlines of some rough furniture. Samson barked and ran in circles around her. “She’s here somewhere. He’s too excited.”

  She tried the door. Locked. Samson lunged at her and grabbed her coat sleeve in his teeth, then pulled her toward the corner of the house. “He wants me to go with him. Let’s see if there’s a back door. Search, Samson. Show me.”

  Her dog barked and raced to the back of the cabin where he leaped against the door. This door was locked as well. They would have to break in, something she hated to do. What if Garrick hadn’t owned this place?

  Samson flung himself against the door again. “Easy, boy. We’ll get in there.” She dropped her backpack from her shoulder and dug out the satellite phone, but there wasn’t a good signal here. Too many trees. She’d have to find a clearing to call Mason and ask for permission to break the door.

  “Bree?” Lauri’s voice sounded panicked. She came around the corner of the building. “I think someone’s in there. I heard something.”

  The owner? Bree pressed her ear against the door. Sure enough, there was a muffled thump from inside. “It might be an animal.” She rapped on the door. “H
ello? Anyone in there?”

  At the sound of her voice, a frenzied pounding began as though a chair was being thumped on the floor. Samson began another volley of frenzied barking. He leaped at the window and smashed through the glass. His tail was wagging as he disappeared through the opening.

  “I’m going in.” Leaving her backpack where it lay on the back porch, Bree rushed to the window. “Give me a leg up. I’ll unlock the door when I get inside.”

  She fitted her boot into Lauri’s cupped hands, then went headfirst through the window. A rough cabinet was under the window, so she grasped the edge of the wood and pulled herself all the way through until she crouched on top of the cabinet.

  Samson was barking in the living room. Bree hopped down and ran to the door. She struggled with the rusty lock and finally got the door open. “Follow me!” Zorro raced past her feet. Her heart burned in her chest as she wheeled and ran after him.

  She burst through the doorway into the living room. Her gaze swept the room and took in the rounded log walls, the smeared windows, the battered floors. There was a chair in one corner with a leg missing and a sofa with its back facing her. A wooden table held only a small key that wouldn’t fit the door. A stepladder perched in another corner.

  “Hello?”

  Samson barked at a grungy brown sofa, and his ruff stood at attention. He tried to get his head under the couch but didn’t succeed. Zorro joined him, and both dogs were clearly excited.

  She glanced around. What was it she’d heard earlier? “Hello? Anyone in here?”

  Something under her boots thumped and a voice called out. She and Lauri stared at one another, then Lauri shoved the sofa out of the way to reveal a door in the floorboards. A shiny padlock kept the door in place.

  “The key!” Bree grabbed the small key from the table and fitted it into the lock. When it sprang open, she removed it and yanked on the door.

  Lauri had her flashlight out, and she shined it into the darkness yawning in the hole below. The yellow glow illuminated the face of a young blond woman. Bree recognized her immediately. “Frannie?”

  The young woman burst into tears. “Get me out of here, please get me out of here, Lauri!”

  There were no stairs to the basement area. Bree looked around for a rope or something to help haul Frannie out.

  “The ladder.” Lauri bolted to get it.

  She lowered it into the dark hole, and Frannie scrambled up it, then fell sobbing at their feet. Lauri sprang to her side and put her arm around Frannie.

  Shivering, Frannie clasped herself and rocked back and forth. “I thought I was going to die in there.”

  “You’re Frannie Hastings.” Bree uncapped a bottle of water and offered it to the young woman.

  Frannie took several gulps. “Thanks. I—I didn’t think anyone would ever find me.”

  “How’d you get locked in there?” Bree asked.

  “Garrick.” Frannie shuddered. “I—I found out what he was doing.”

  “He locked you in there?” Lauri sounded outraged.

  Frannie nodded. “I shouldn’t have told him I was going to tell the Department of Natural Resources. I was just so shocked—you know? And I love wolves.”

  “Wolves?” Bree touched Frannie’s head and found it cool. “You’re not feverish.” She helped her to a chair. “Can you tell us what happened?”

  Frannie’s hand trembled as she lowered the bottle from her mouth. “I thought he was going to tell me he was selling drugs or something. I could have lived with that. But he was bringing in people to kill wolves! I couldn’t abide that. We’ve just gotten them repopulated up here.”

  Lauri’s eyes were wide. “That’s how he was making the money to stay in school?”

  Frannie nodded. “It’s disgusting. I started to cry and told him I was going to turn him in.”

  Kade would be upset when he heard this too. Bree put her hand on Frannie’s shoulder. “He left you food and water? You seem in pretty good shape.”

  Frannie’s tears came again. “When he didn’t come back, I started conserving the food and water he’d left. I drank the last of the water this morning.” She swigged the bottle of water again. “If I’d died, it would have ruined everything. I get to meet my birth mom for Christmas this year.”

  “You’re adopted?” Lauri’s voice trembled.

  Frannie nodded. “I talked to my birth mom on the phone a few days before Garrick and I came here. I have a half brother I’ve never met too. They would have thought I ran away because I didn’t want to meet them or something.” Her voice broke and she stood. “Did someone call the cops? We have to get out of here before Garrick comes back.”

  “Garrick’s dead, honey.” Bree squeezed the young woman’s shoulder. “Let’s get you checked out and call your parents. Both sets.” Only then did she see the trail of blood on the floorboards and the way her dog wasn’t putting weight on his front left leg. “Samson’s been hurt!”

  After dropping Davy off with Naomi, Kade had joined his wife and sister in the waiting room. The squeak of the nurses’ shoes in the halls mingled with the murmur of low-pitched voices in the Rock Harbor General Hospital as he entered the waiting room holding two cups of coffee. They sat in a row of chairs along the west wall with their dogs at their feet, still in their search vests. The scent of antiseptic was strong.

  He touched Samson’s head when the dog rose to greet him. “He’s got a bandage. What happened?” He handed the coffee to Bree and Lauri, then sat in the gray upholstered chair next to his wife.

  Bree took a sip. “Thanks, honey.” She snapped her fingers to call the dog. “He cut his muzzle leaping through the window to show us where Frannie was. The vet met us here and put in a few stitches. The worst thing is he broke his leg too. It’s in a splint right now, but he’ll have to have it cast.”

  “He’s always the hero.” Kade leaned over and patted the dog, making sure not to touch his injury. “Frannie’s parents are on their way?”

  Bree’s eyes filled. “I cried with them. I know what it’s like to receive a child back from the dead. They should be here in the next half hour. Her birth mom is coming too. They’ll be able to all meet before Christmas.”

  He well remembered the day they’d found Davy, missing for a year after Bree’s first husband’s plane went down in the North Woods. “How’s Frannie doing? Do we know what happened?”

  “She found out Garrick was helping others poach wolves. He had found a pack. She freaked out and was going to turn him in. He panicked, I think, and threw her in the basement.”

  Poor girl. Kade shuddered at all she’d gone through. “So why lock her in that basement?”

  Lauri straightened. “I think he didn’t know what to do with her. Frannie said he locked her up and told her he had to think about what to do next.”

  His baby sister had actually grown up. Kade wanted to hug her. “So where did you fit into this? I still can’t believe you figured all this out on your own, Lauri.”

  She smiled and glanced at Bree. “I had a good teacher.” Her expression turned solemn. “I thought he’d killed Frannie. I made friends with him and tried to figure out what he’d done with her. I think somehow he figured out I was on to him and planned to throw me in the cellar with her.” She shuddered.

  “And then what?” Kade asked. “He kept her there for two weeks!”

  “I think he was in over his head and was getting ready to flee the country for Canada. He kept taking boxes into his house.”

  “He would have left you both trapped there?” Kade curled his hands into fists.

  Lauri sobered. “I think so, Kade. He hadn’t been back to see her in a week. She was out of food and water when we got there. No one would have been the wiser.”

  Kade’s eyes burned, and he gulped back the lump in his throat. “I couldn’t bear to lose you, Lauri.” He jumped
up and paced the waiting room, ignoring the surprised expressions of a family huddled in another corner. “I thought you were safe.”

  Lauri put her coffee on the table next to her and got up from her chair. She touched Kade’s arm. “I’m beginning to realize that safety is an illusion. One thing I’ve learned from you and Bree is that every day is a gift. What we do with it is our choice. For too many years I’ve been throwing my days away on frivolous things, things I thought would make me happy. But they didn’t. Finding Frannie—that made me more than happy. Satisfied, content, joyous. I had a purpose.”

  Her blue eyes were calm and at peace. Had he ever seen her so contented? If so, it was a long time ago, well before their parents died. Drawing her into his arms, he rested his chin on her head. Lauri wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was growing into a strong woman.

  “I love you, little sis,” he whispered into her hair.

  She let her cheek rest on his chest. “Love you too, big brother.” After a moment, she pulled away. “And Frannie made me realize I was wrong about Zoe. I was thinking about myself and not her. I’m going to let Hilary and Mason tell her the truth.”

  “I’m glad,” he whispered.

  A couple burst through the hospital doors. The pale woman was blond and appeared to barely be holding it together. She wore designer jeans and supple leather boots. The man, tall with salt-and-pepper hair, supported her as they rushed down the hall toward the waiting room.

  The woman’s eyes widened when she saw Bree with Samson by her feet. “Are you Bree Matthews?”

  Bree rose and nodded. “Your daughter is going to be fine. The doctor was just out here. They’ll let you see her shortly. She’s just suffering from exposure and dehydration. They’re giving her fluids.”