by Terry Spear
“Sure, we can do that. Then we’ll be closer if they dump their trash,” Nicole said, though she really didn’t believe they would. “Did you want to do a wolf run tomorrow night when the ski resort is closed down, if the weather isn’t too bad?”
“I sure do. We might have company, if you don’t mind my brother and sisters going with us. We haven’t taken a run as family together in a few months.”
She smiled. “That would be great.”
The guy she’d seen speaking with Blake before, Darien Silver, the pack leader, came into the restaurant with a woman, and they both smiled and stopped at Nicole and Blake’s table. The woman said, “I’m Lelandi Silver, and this is my mate, Darien.”
Nicole realized Lelandi was the co-pack leader. She shook Lelandi’s hand and Darien’s. She thought they weren’t going to acknowledge her, but maybe they assumed she was considering staying in Silver Town for good and they needed to semiwelcome her. No humans were sitting nearby, so the wolves didn’t have to be careful about mentioning being mated wolves or pack leaders.
“Nicole Grayson, nice to meet you both.”
“You’re welcome anytime. We can always use good people in town.”
“Thanks.”
Then Darien and Lelandi went off to sit at another table.
“Do they come here often?” Nicole asked, because she wondered if they had made a special trip to see her or if they happened to be coming here and saw them.
“Usually they eat at the Silver Town Tavern, since only wolves can eat there, and Sam’s had the tavern there forever. I’m sure you had something to do with them coming here.”
She smiled. “I’m not used to being with a pack. I guess everyone’s really close-knit.”
“We haven’t been here long either. Before that, it had just been our family. So we’re learning how it is to be with a pack too.” Then Blake got a call from Roxie and leaned in closer to Nicole so she could hear what was going on in case it had something to do with her suspects.
“Hey, Landon was going home to help Kayla with dinner, but I was still monitoring the security videos and we’ve got trouble,” Roxie said.
Blake glanced at the cousins still eating by the fire.
“There’s been a four-car pileup in the parking lot.”
“Great. All right. I’ll go out there and see what I can do.”
“I’ve called the sheriff, though he said they have had so many accidents in town due to the whiteout that they probably wouldn’t get here anytime soon. Landon’s out there already.”
“It’s a privately owned parking lot too,” Blake said.
“Well, that didn’t seem to matter. The sheriff said they would have been up here, but they’re filling up the clinic and sending some of the injured people to the hospital in Green Valley, so apparently it’s really a mess due to the snowstorm.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll check it out.”
“Landon might not need your help, but he wanted me to make you aware of the accident. He’s texting me the license plate numbers because two of the vehicles that were hit were parked. Two were trying to leave the lot,” Roxie said. “Um, since Darien and Lelandi are eating at the restaurant, you might want to give them a heads-up.”
“All right.”
“Will Nicole be okay at the lodge while you’re gone?” Roxie said.
“Yeah, her suspects aren’t going to pull anything in front of anyone inside the lodge. Talk to you in a bit.” Blake ended the call. “Did you hear everything?”
“Yeah. A four-car pileup occurred in the parking lot. What a mess. I was worried the snow might cause some accidents,” Nicole said.
“I’m going out to check on it. Will you be okay by yourself?”
“Yeah, sure. I promise I won’t eat the rest of your hamburger.”
* * *
Smiling, Blake leaned down and kissed Nicole’s forehead. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”
She smiled back at him, her expression saying he was probably pushing his luck. But hey, he was playing his role to the max as long as he could. He went over to Darien and Lelandi’s table to tell them about the accident, and Darien said he’d join them in a moment.
Blake nodded, then pulled on his ski jacket, hat, and gloves and left the lodge. They’d had fender benders before when cars slipped on ice or bumped into each other because of low visibility during snowstorms, so Blake knew how to handle it.
Outside, the wind was bitterly cold and tempers were flaring.
“If you hadn’t been in such a damn hurry, you wouldn’t have plowed into me, making me hit the two other cars.” The one speaking was the owner of the bank. Mason didn’t ski so he must have had dinner up here. He looked as growly as any wolf Blake had ever seen.
The guy driving the pickup truck said, “Hey, dude, you pulled in front of me.”
“You were driving too fast for conditions.”
Landon was taking down everyone’s license plate numbers, including the plates of the two vehicles that had been smashed while just parked in the lot. Hell. Blake recognized the one car as Nicole’s.
He got on his phone and said, “Hey, it’s me, honey. Your car was wrecked. From the extent of the damage, I’d say it was totaled.”
“You’re kidding. I’m on my way,” Nicole said.
“Okay, we’ll get it straightened out.”
“Roxie just made an announcement about the other license plate. No one staying at the lodge has registered that license number. The owner must be eating here and not staying at the lodge. I’ll be out in a minute. I’m going to leave our hamburgers in the kitchen so they can be kept warm for us. Don’t worry about paying for the meal,” Nicole said.
Blake chuckled. “Don’t tell me you’re getting the bill.”
“The tip, anyway.”
Then they ended the call. Landon was acting as deputy sheriff and taking witnesses’ statements. Several of the people who saw the accident had luckily stayed to give their eyewitness accounts. When Nicole joined them, so did a man and woman Blake didn’t recognize—the owners of the second parked car. Humans.
“I can’t believe this,” the man said, frowning at his car. It was the perfect way to ruin a good outing.
“He’s the one at fault. If he hadn’t hit my truck, slamming it into your cars, none of this would have occurred,” Mason said.
“We’ve got enough witness statements proving it was as Mason said it happened. We even have a couple of videos to corroborate it,” Landon said.
Blake was glad the wolf had been exonerated on video.
Nicole and the other couple shared insurance company information with the other drivers.
“I’m so sorry, Nicole,” Blake said, putting his arm around her shoulders.
“You couldn’t help it. Had the guys who caused the accident by hitting Mason’s truck been drinking?” Nicole asked.
“Yeah. And they were trying to get out ahead of everyone else. In these conditions, visibility is just too low. Drivers have to slow down. It’s just a good thing no one was injured,” Blake said.
Two tow trucks finally pulled up. Blake helped Nicole get everything from her car. Then he asked the other couple if they were driving through town or had planned to stay the night.
“We were driving through, but we heard the restaurant was really good up here, so we came here to have dinner. But the weather became so bad, we planned to get a room tonight if we could,” the man said. “Not to mention that we don’t have a vehicle to leave in now anyway.”
“I’m Brandon Wolff, and that’s my brother, Landon. We own the lodge and we’ll make sure you have a room, free of charge.” Brandon shook his hand.
The man smiled. “You’re the owners. Thanks. We’ll sure spread the word about your place.”
“We appreciate it. A garage in Silver Town can loan you
a car.”
Some of the witnesses came over to help the couple move things out of their car so they could have it towed. Mason’s truck and the other guys’ truck were drivable, so once Landon had everyone’s statements, he released them.
Then Blake and Landon helped Nicole carry her belongings from her car into the lodge.
“What if you don’t have a spare room for the stranded couple?” she whispered to Blake.
“I may have found a Good Samaritan who will give up her room and stay with me at the house, since the cousins just lock themselves in their room and don’t go anywhere at night, so you said.”
She frowned at him. “Assuming stuff like that could get you into trouble, you know.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure we have a couple of rooms left, unless more people decided to stay because of the storm.”
Landon smiled at his brother. “You better hope so.”
* * *
No way was Nicole giving up her room for the night and moving to Blake’s house when she was on a job that required her to stay at the lodge. She intended to check on the men at intervals throughout the night like she’d done last night, though her partner was supposed to have assisted her. Yet she couldn’t help feel sorry for the couple who needed a room.
She was going to go up to her room to drop off all her stuff, but instead, she followed the couple to the registration desk to see if they had a room for the night or not. “Yes, we have a room for you,” Landon said, checking on the monitor. He took their information down and handed them a card. “Free night on us.”
“Thanks so much,” both the man and woman said. They looked relieved and thrilled to hear the news.
Nicole thought the world of the Wolff family for helping people out.
Four of the people who had carried the couple’s bags and other items in from their smashed car hauled them up to their room.
“Let’s drop off my belongings in the room, and we can finish our meal,” Nicole said, relieved she still had a room. She had thought of just camping out in the lodge office if she’d had to.
She and Blake and Landon dropped off her things, and then they returned to the lobby.
“You can borrow my truck if you need it,” Landon told her.
“Or my Jeep,” Blake said.
“Thanks. I’ll call my insurance company tonight to get a loaner car. Do you want to finish our hamburgers?”
“Yeah, but knowing our staff, they’ll have made fresh ones for us,” Blake said.
“But I told them to warm them.” She noticed the cousins were still sitting by the fire and no longer eating, so she wondered what they’d done with their trash. They were drinking beers now.
“Did you want me to take Rosco home?” Landon asked. “Roxie and I are headed that way.”
“No, that’s okay. He’ll keep me company when I head home, and he loves being around the guests.”
“Okay, good show,” Landon said.
“See you soon,” Roxie said.
When Nicole and Blake returned to the restaurant, fresh hamburgers had been prepared for them, courtesy of Roxie calling ahead.
“Wow, I could really get used to the royal treatment,” Nicole said.
“We have to have some perks for owning the place. Are you sure you’re okay about your car?”
“No. I’ll cry into my pillow tonight.”
Looking concerned, Blake frowned.
She sighed. “All that matters is no one was injured, but yeah, I’m perturbed about it. That one driver wrecked four vehicles just because he was being an idiot.”
“I agree with you there.”
Nicole pulled out her phone and called Roxie. “Did you see what the cousins did with their trash?”
“Left with it. I think they took it up to their room. Then they came back for beers.”
“Okay. I think we need to have some maid service, but we should probably wait until the cousins are out on the ski slopes tomorrow.”
“Sounds good to me. Though I guess I can’t volunteer to do it. Kayla could,” Roxie said.
“No. It’s my assignment. I have the training for investigative work. I’ll do it.”
“All right, but we wish you’d take Blake with you.”
“Thanks, Roxie, but I’ll be okay. Are you headed home?”
“Already there. We’ll see you in the morning.”
“Okay, see you then.” Nicole just hoped she didn’t get caught breaking into the cousins’ room. She really wanted to do it now, but the cousins had been downstairs so long that they might go up to their rooms at any time. Still…
Once they finished their hamburgers, she asked Blake, “Are you done?”
“Yeah. Do you want to grab a drink and sit by the fire and make out?”
She chuckled. “I want a key to their room.”
“Okay, and you’re going to try to search it in the morning?”
“Tonight. While they’re down here. You watch them, and I’ll run up there and see if I can find any trash. I’ll just do it quickly. I was planning on doing it tomorrow when they went skiing, but at this rate, I’m never going to get anywhere with this.”
“All right. We’ll try it.”
“Just text me if they head toward the elevators. I need to get a key really quick though. You can watch them from the restaurant without being obvious.”
“Just go to the registration desk and ask for the key to the room. I’ll text the girl working the desk that you’re going to come for it. I gave Kayla my master key, so we need to get another made.”
“Thanks.” She leaned over and kissed him briefly on the cheek, then hurried out of the restaurant. Heart hammering, she sure hoped she could get away with this.
She passed by the fireplace, and Rosco smelled her scent and raised his head. She had to pat his bony head, no matter that she was on a mission. Then she got the key at the front desk and took the back stairs up to their room.
When she reached it, she texted Blake: Still good?
Blake: They’re still sitting there drinking their beers.
Nicole: Okay, going in.
She opened the door and heard someone using the bathroom. Her heart nearly beating out of her chest, she quickly closed the door and hurried back down the hall to the stairs, worried the person in the room might have heard her and run to peek outside the room to see who it was.
Nicole: Someone was in the room using the bathroom.
Blake: They only have Rhys’s name on the room. We’ve only seen the cousins together.
Nicole: Okay, well, it appears there are three of them. The scent indicated he was another male. But we haven’t seen any sign of anyone else. Any time that I’ve observed them, no other guy has been with them either.
Blake: It sounds like we’re going to have to do room service tomorrow and learn what’s going on.
Nicole: All right. Is there any way for me to have the other room across the hall from theirs? I thought about doing that initially, but I was afraid I’d run into them all the time. But if there’s another guy staying with them, we need eyes on the room to see if he leaves and what he looks like.
Blake: The security camera should tell us the story if we look back to the day they arrived and then watch it from there. The camera is in the hallway, not really close to the room, but it should show when anyone else went into the room.
She finally reached the restaurant and decided to stay there with Blake and have a drink. They could still see the men, but they weren’t as visible to the cousins this way. “Okay, that sounds like a good idea to me.”
They observed the cousins having a couple more beers, and then they purchased two more and headed for the elevators.
“Okay, maybe that’s why they’re taking food and drinks back to the room,” Nicole said. “Maybe it’s not so much that they
’re destroying DNA evidence, but they’re feeding someone up there. Someone who is on the lam, too, maybe. And that’s why they don’t want housecleaning.”
“Did anyone else who was posting on the Facebook page mention going skiing with these men?”
“I’ll have to look at the comments again. I don’t recall that there was.”
“The person in the room couldn’t be a hostage. Not if he was using the bathroom and could have left the room or called out to you,” Blake said.
“I agree. I sure hope I didn’t spook them. Hopefully, he didn’t know I’d been in the room. I tried to be really quiet.”
“That would be the best-case scenario. Are you ready to look at the security monitors?” Blake asked.
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
They returned to the office and began to review the security videos. “Here’s the video for when they checked in. Rhys was the only one there to check in. But here’s the one for the hallway where their hotel room is located. Two men carried bags in, and then Rhys came in after that with more bags,” Blake said. “So three of them are staying in the room. The one is William, but the other?”
“Another friend?” she asked. “I looked again, but I didn’t see any mention of any of their Facebook friends coming here to stay with them—unless the other person doesn’t have an account or doesn’t actively post. Can we find a video of the parking lot for the time when they must have arrived before they checked in?”
“Yeah, let me pull that one up.” Blake found the video and began examining it. “Here.”
“But we can’t see the car license plate.”
“It’s a blue Jeep Cherokee though. We should be able to get their license plate number and run it through the Division of Motor Vehicles to learn who it’s registered to,” Blake said. “Rhys should have listed his license plate number when he registered at the lodge, but he said he didn’t have a car.”
“Do you want to get bundled up and go out in the blizzard to check?”
“Yeah. Let me grab Rosco and take him out.” Blake put on Rosco’s leash, and they took him outside to relieve himself in the snow.
A lot of cars were still sitting in the parking lot, but they were buried under snow. “I don’t know that we’ll be able to tell which is their car,” Nicole said. “We can’t even see the colors with all the snow.”
