Murder Fir Christmas

by Joyce Lavene

  “I don’t plan.” Rufus grinned. “I’m leaving that to you. I don’t even get paid to do my job.”

  Bonnie excused herself and found an empty desk where she could call D.W. Vance and find out about the doe. His phone went right to an answering machine again. She left a message then started thinking about going home for the rest of the day. There wasn’t much else she could do, and she still felt like someone had hit her in the head and left her lying on a cold stone floor—which they had.

  Stella and the others were going for lunch at the cafe. They asked Bonnie if she wanted to go with them. She turned them down and left town hall.

  Matthew was waiting by the Hummer when she got outside. “So is everything resolved?”

  “No. Everything is a mess still. No answers. Just a lot of questions.”

  “I think I found your little wolf’s mama and sister. After you ditched me this morning, I had some time to look around where we’d left off by the lake. I found their den. I thought you might want to know—and I’m charging you for the time.”

  “I didn’t ditch you. We don’t always need to work together.”

  “Whatever.”

  The weather was beautiful with a clear, sunny sky and mild temperatures forecast for the next few days. It was as good a time as any for her to reintroduce the wolf pup into the wild. If she waited too long, he would never reintegrate with his family.

  “I’ll take him there this afternoon. Thanks for checking it out.”

  “You should let me take him. I don’t think he’ll stay up there anyway—he belongs to you. But if it is going to work to give him back to his family, he needs someone to do it that he doesn’t care about. That sounds like me.”

  “I’m surprised you’re offering,” she said. “Why even bother trying if you don’t think he’ll stay?”

  “Because sometimes I’m wrong.” He smiled. “And you could use the afternoon off. But only if I can drive the Hummer.”

  Bonnie checked the rules, and as long as Matthew was her contractor, he could drive the Hummer. They drove back to the valley, and she gave him the keys. Her head hurt, and her stomach didn’t feel so good either. She spoke briefly to her mother and went to bed.

  She couldn’t believe when she woke up again that it was six-thirty p.m. It was dark outside, and her mother was making supper in the kitchen. She’d lost a whole day thanks to whoever had attacked her.

  But her headache was gone, and she was hungry. She just had to let it go and move on. When they finally caught whoever killed Harvey, she’d give him a thump on the head.

  Bonnie shuffled into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee.

  “There you are. I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up,” Rose said. “I have some stew with rosemary in it, just the way you like it.”

  “Thanks, Mom. Did Matthew come back after he dropped off the wolf?”

  “He did. He left the keys and said he’d taken care of it. I guess you had to put the little wolf back with his family. Too bad. I enjoyed having him around.”

  “And that’s why you kept letting him out of his kennel?”

  “I never let him out. I thought you did it.”

  “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. He’s gone.” Bonnie smiled and sipped her coffee.

  They ate stew and cornbread for supper. Bonnie went out afterward for an evening Christmas tree sale. Her father had installed lights in the field to see the trees and the wrapping machine. It was fun going out in the dark, walking through the trees with the crunch of snow under her boots.

  After the six-foot blue spruce was mounted on the roof of the customer’s car, she turned off the lights and stared at the moon glinting off the snow. The temperature had dropped, and the wind whistled down from the mountains. Her breath turned to frost, and her fingertips were cold. But it was a beautiful night. The stars were so clear that she could pick out all the constellations she knew, most of them what her father had taught her.

  She’d missed this in the heart of Alabama. That cold clarity that came in the winter brought long thoughts of where she’d go and what she would do. It was much different than the wet heat and mosquitos.

  The little shaman appeared on her way back to the house, riding the big stag. The moonlight didn’t pass through him as she supposed it would a ghost. Thinking about Eric Gamlyn had made her wonder if Dustu was a ghost too.

  “You survived,” he exclaimed. “Congratulations. You were fortunate this time, but you did not heed my warning.”

  “I’m not sleeping,” she said as much to him as to herself. “I can’t be dreaming.”

  “Did you think you were?”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “I want you to do all the things you were sent here to do, Unega Awinita. Nothing more. I am certain you will do well.”

  Not understanding what he was talking about, she watched him ride away between the trees again, but there was something left behind in the moonlight—the little wolf.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “Oh no. No. This isn’t going to happen. How did you find your way back here anyway?”

  He didn’t move, just sat and watched her.

  “Go home. Your mother and sister are looking for you. You can’t live here.”

  He still didn’t move. Bonnie decided she’d just ignore him and he’d leave.

  “Hey.” Matthew came through the snow toward her. “I saw your lights on and thought you might need some help.”

  “I do but not with the tree. Did you take him to the mountains?” She glanced at the wolf pup.

  “You know I did.” He laughed. “I told you that he doesn’t belong to his family anymore. He belongs to you.”

  “You also told me I could talk to animals and they listened. I told him to leave. He’s still here. It doesn’t make a good case for your suppositions.”

  They started walking toward the house. The wolf followed them. Bonnie tried not to notice him, but it wasn’t easy. He couldn’t just stay out here in the cold by himself. He was too young to take care of himself. That should still have been his mother’s job. But if she took him inside again, he might never leave.

  “How are you feeling?” Matthew asked. “You were asleep when I got back.”

  “I’m better, thanks. And thank you for trying to take the wolf home. I think you may be wrong about that too. I think I need to take him to his den and tell him to stay there. That might work.”

  “Like I said, I’m not always right.” He shrugged. “Are you going to the Christmas Eve festivities?”

  “Probably. I haven’t been in a long time, but I suppose I will since Mom is so involved with it.”

  “But you’re not looking forward to it,” he guessed. “It’ll be fun. And I’d be happy to escort you and your mother.”

  “I don’t know—”

  “Or if you’re not comfortable with that, then Peter, Thomas, and I could go with you and your mother. That way it will be less personal. We’d just be any other group.”

  Rose had already mentioned something similar, even though Eric would be back for the holiday. It wasn’t like they needed men to go with them. But Rose liked the Brown Elk family and enjoyed little Peter’s company.

  “That’s fine,” she finally said after weighing all the options. She still wasn’t sure that she’d go at all. Her encounter with Lindsey Blake had taught her that she was still raw about the subject, even though so much time had passed.

  Her phone rang. It was Chief Rogers. “Sorry it’s so late, Bonnie, but we just found Vince Stookey floating in the lake.”

  “What?” Matthew asked after she’d thanked the chief and said she’d be there as soon as possible.

  “Now there are no real suspects,” she said. “This case just keeps getting weirder. Maybe the FBI or Wildlife needs to come in and sort this out.”

  He convinced her to let him go with her, even though she assured him that she was driving. Bonnie had to leave her mom a note since Rose was
already asleep when she looked in on her.

  The little wolf sat on the front porch illuminated by a shaft of moonlight. She could only describe the look on his face as sad. It was ridiculous. He didn’t feel sad because she was leaving. They’d worried too much about the wolf getting attached to her and not enough about her getting attached to the wolf.

  On the way up the mountain, Bonnie told Matthew about seeing Dustu again. “I wish people would speak plainly. The only thing I understand when he talks is that he expects me to do something, but he doesn’t make it clear what he expects.”

  “Thomas is involved with the tribal council. He told them about your encounter with Dustu. They weren’t as excited as we were about it. He thinks they’d be just as happy not to see him again. It seems he’s something of a troublemaker. Maybe you should be careful about doing anything he suggests.”

  “Great. I suppose he gave them my name too.” She sighed. “I was hoping to attend their next meeting since the Wildlife Agency works with them. Now it won’t be my reputation as an agent that goes with me—it will be my conversations with the shaman.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he advised. “They’ll probably forget about it. Can you put off a meeting with them for a year or so?”

  She laughed as she tried to find a space by the lake to park. The parking lot was full of police cars and fire brigade vehicles. “I probably can’t wait that long, but maybe something else will happen that takes their mind off of it.”

  “You know, you should smile more often. You look really sad most of the time. You’re not old enough to be so sad. Not to mention that you’ve never been married.” He grinned.

  Chief Rogers knocked on the window. He stepped back as Bonnie opened the door. “I was wondering if you two were going to get out or if there was something going on in here that we all should share in.”

  “Just discussing the case, sir,” she said. “Why is the fire brigade here? Was something on fire before you found Vince?”

  “Nope. They like to show up for all emergencies. Chief Griffin wants them to get as much experience as they can since they’re only volunteers.”

  Not that Bonnie minded Stella being there with her fire brigade crew of about ten people. She was just surprised.

  “Lucky for us, Judd was still here in town. He’s with the body now. Believe me, Sweet Pepper is never this crazy. I can’t believe this is going on so close to the holiday. I don’t know what’s gotten into people.”

  “I’d say it was greed, Chief,” Bonnie said. “A pretty, red rock like that is bound to bring out the worst in people.”

  “Well at least you know for sure that Vince wasn’t the killer,” Matthew said. “Who is left?”

  They walked together to the spot where Vince had been fished out of the lake. Judd Streeter confirmed that Vince was dead. “I don’t see signs of any other trauma. I’ll know more when I do the autopsy. Right now my preliminary conclusion is that he died of drowning.”

  “Thanks, Judd.” Chief Rogers stared at Vince’s face. It looked even more ghastly in the moonlight. “He might’ve drowned, but I guarantee he didn’t push himself in.”

  “This feels like someone tying up loose ends,” Bonnie said. “Harvey was killed because he couldn’t keep his good fortune about finding that ruby to himself. I understand how men like Ray Hoy and Vince got involved in wanting to take it from him. But they didn’t mastermind this, and now the real killer has gotten rid of his partners.”

  “And how are we supposed to smoke him out?” John Trump joined them, though he was dressed in a fire brigade bunker coat and boots.

  “Good question,” Chief Rogers agreed. “We have to think of something. I don’t want this on my desk over the holidays. I’m going home for supper now, ladies and gents. Don’t call until morning.”

  The fire brigade was packing up, and a truck had pulled up to take Vince’s body to the morgue. Police officers directed traffic as dozens of cars and pickups left at the same time.

  Bonnie glanced out her window as she waited to leave, admiring the moonlight on the water. “I guess I’m going to ask for help tomorrow morning. I think this might be more than Sweet Pepper can handle.”

  “You might as well sleep on it tonight,” Matthew suggested. “Maybe Dustu will come and give you some clues.”

  “Even if he did, he’d say it so cryptically that I wouldn’t know what he was talking about. But I don’t think a protector of the woods and wildlife will have any idea how to solve this.”

  She dropped Matthew off at his house before swinging across the street into her driveway. She sat in the Hummer for a few minutes, looking at the moon and thinking about how life could quickly change from the way it usually was to something completely different.

  It had happened for her with Davis as she’d joyfully shared her news about their child. She’d known before she stopped speaking that this wasn’t what he wanted.

  It had to be the same for Harvey as he looked into the eyes of the man who was willing to kill him for the ruby he’d been so excited about.

  There were no doubt millions of such events every day that turned a person’s life from happiness to sorrow or despair to hope. The problem was you just never knew when one of those moments was upon you.

  Bonnie finally got out of the vehicle and went up the stairs to the door. The little wolf was sitting silently on the porch, not moving, just staring at her. How could she let him sleep outside by himself? She’d let him in for one more night and then take him up into the mountains to leave him with his family.

  “Okay. Come on.” She opened the front door. “Get inside. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”

  He ran in as she had the door open and jumped on her bed.

  “No. You can’t sleep there. Let’s go back to the laundry room. You don’t have to sleep in the kennel, but you can’t sleep in here.”

  Bonnie led him back to the laundry room. He sat in the middle of the floor, looking at her.

  “Goodnight. Get some sleep. We have a big day coming up.” She didn’t dare look at his face.

  She didn’t have any problem sleeping. Her head hit the pillow, and she didn’t wake up until morning. It was cloudy outside, with heavy clouds hanging on the mountains as though they were impaled there. But it was bright enough to see the wolf pup sleeping at the foot of the bed. Bonnie sighed, got up, and got ready to face the day.

  “What are you doing?” her mother asked as Bonnie opened the kitchen door and the wolf pup ran outside. “I thought Matthew took him home yesterday?”

  “He did, and the wolf came back last night. I couldn’t leave him outside all night. He’s not big enough to take care of himself against predators. I guess I’m putting him outside before he has an accident in here.”

  Rose smiled as she checked the waffle maker. “I knew you loved that little guy. I’m glad he’s back.”

  “I’m taking him back up there again today—unless he wants to run away on his own right now. Wolves can’t live with people. They’re wild animals.”

  “And here I thought you knew all about wild animals. Wolves live with people sometimes. I saw a man on TV with one. And those magicians have tigers. It just all depends on the animal and the person. My cousin Fred had a pet raccoon for years until he was run over by a snowmobile.”

  Bonnie smiled as she got coffee for both of them. “The raccoon or Cousin Fred?”

  “Sit down and eat your waffles,” Rose said with a laugh. “I’m on my way to the church to get things ready for the live nativity. Nate Oswald is letting us use his chickens for it. I think live animals are very important to the whole thing. They used people but plastic animals last year. It just wasn’t the same.”

  They ate their waffles together while Bonnie listened to her mother talk about how wonderful the Christmas Eve festivities were going to be. Rose was excited about the float she was riding on—the same one as Santa.

  When they were done, they cleared the table, and Rose opened the do
or. “He didn’t run away,” she announced proudly. “I’m glad we still have some chicken left.”

  She fed the wolf and agreed to let Bonnie drop her off at the church since it was so cold that morning. They went out to the Hummer, and the wolf jumped inside as soon as the door was open. He settled down in the back, like he’d been doing it all his life. Rose laughed and raved about how smart he was.

  Bonnie dropped her mother off at the church. She watched her hurry inside with dozens of other volunteers who made the Christmas Eve event special. As she was sitting there, Bonnie noticed something the investigators hadn’t taken out of the Hummer when they were looking for clues.

  It was only a medallion of some kind that Harvey had kept in there—probably a Saint Christopher medal—probably for luck. It hadn’t helped him much, but as she stared at it, she thought about how far out of the way someone had taken Harvey’s body to leave it in the Hummer by the lake. The ice house where it had been stolen was across town.

  Why not just dump the body anywhere once it had been searched for the ruby? Why take him to the Hummer and leave him?

  With the question came a moment of enlightenment. Whoever had taken Harvey’s body cared about him. That person wanted him to be found so he could have a decent funeral. That person wasn’t only interested in the ruby. He or she was also interested in Harvey.

  She wasn’t sure about the person who moved Harvey being the same person who’d killed him, but she knew where to start looking for the person who’d brought him back to the Hummer.

  Mrs. Shelton.

  Bonnie knew she needed to escort the wolf pup back into the mountains, but talking to Harvey’s wife was more important. She started to back up out of the church parking lot when a hand opened the passenger door and Matthew jumped into the Hummer with her.

  “What’s up?” he asked. “Planning to ditch me again?”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  “I didn’t ditch you,” she sputtered. “I can’t take you everywhere with me.”

  “Why not? No one would’ve hit you on the head yesterday if I’d been there.”