You Had Me at Wolf

by Terry Spear

  “And they knew we wouldn’t find mates in Denver either.”

  Kayla came into the office. “Nate, are you ready to start checking the floors for these guys’ scents?”

  “I sure am.” Nate left the office with Kayla.

  Smiling, Peter shook his head. “We’ll talk soon, I’m sure.”

  “No word back on the DNA evidence?” Blake asked.

  “Not yet. We’re trying to get it rushed through, but it could take a week or longer.”

  “Thanks for everything you’re doing, Peter,” Nicole said.

  “You’re welcome. And thanks for becoming my newest deputies.” Peter said goodbye and left.

  * * *

  Later, Nate and Kayla returned to the office and gave Nicole and Blake an update on their progress. She was glad he was keeping her in the loop. He’d brought Landon with him too.

  “I was thinking you, Blake, Landon, and I can help arrest these guys for the theft. We found the three rooms where they’re staying,” Nate said. “Since we’re all deputized, I figured we could arrest them. I called Peter for backup because there are three rooms of three people each. He’s bringing his two deputies, CJ and Trevor.”

  “We’ve had alerts within the last hour that three stolen credit cards were used in reserving the rooms, meals, ski lift tickets, and ski rentals,” Landon said.

  “I can’t believe these guys were involved in so much more criminal activity. With the number of deputies we have, that gives us two deputies per room, plus the sheriff,” Nicole said.

  “As sheriff, Peter’s coordinating the searches and arrests. I needed to see if you all were fine with this,” Nate said. “We’ll arrest them at the same time so none of them get away.”

  “One of the rooms is near your suspects though,” Kayla warned.

  “Then someone other than Blake and me has to go there,” Nicole said as they all looked over the rooms’ schematic. “We can take this room on the other side of the lodge.” She pointed out the room farthest away from her suspects’ room. “Nate, you can take this one.”

  “That’s the one where all the partying went down. They have the Do Not Disturb sign on the door,” Roxie said.

  “That sign is going missing.” Nicole smiled at her.

  “Maybe Peter and his deputies can take the room near your suspects’ room since they’re not staying at the lodge,” Blake said. “Roxie can be monitoring our pseudocide suspects to ensure they’re on the slopes, eating, or otherwise occupied. It would be best if they don’t see any law enforcement activity around the lodge.”

  “I can do that,” Roxie said.

  “I can run interference somehow if one or more of them suddenly comes in about that time and looks like they’re going to their room,” Kayla said.

  Peter showed up with his deputies and took charge. “Here are the search warrants for each of the rooms.” He passed them out. “All right, what do we have, intel-wise?”

  Blake liked that Peter didn’t just start giving orders but was making sure he knew all the facts before they did this.

  Peter looked over the rooms’ schematics and considered all the evidence they had on the young men, and Kayla showed him the video of the guys carrying the boxes of beer and snacks into one of the rooms. Since their suspects had used either stolen IDs or fake IDs, no one knew their real names. They’d get it all sorted out at the jailhouse later.

  “We thought you or your deputies could take the guys into custody who are in the room nearest our pseudocide suspects,” Blake said.

  “Yeah, good idea,” Peter said. “Since this is a felony, they should get jail time.”

  “I’ve been keeping track of the men. They all went out to the ski slopes. Their rooms are clear, if you want to see if you can find any evidence,” Roxie said. “And the other guys? Rhys and his brother and cousin? They’re out on the slopes too.”

  “Roxie and I are monitoring the security videos, and we have all your contact information, so we can text you if anyone is headed back to the rooms,” Kayla said.

  “Is everyone armed?” Peter asked, “Just in case we have trouble with any of these guys.”

  “Yeah, Nate and I carry concealed weapons. We have permits for them,” Nicole said.

  Blake agreed. “Same with Landon and me.”

  “We do too,” Roxie said, motioning to Kayla. “But that’s just for our personal protection.”

  Peter looked over the bills that the guys had racked up for food and services. “This constitutes a class 6 felony, between $2,000 and $5,000 worth of merchandise stolen. Okay, if everyone’s ready, let’s do this.”

  Blake smiled at Nicole as they left the office and went to the stairs that led up to her room. “You gave your brother the room where they had the party.”

  “Yes, I gave him the job. I figured he needed to take credit for finding what remains of the stolen merchandise, if anything.”

  “He was glad, but he was waiting for you to say which room you wanted.”

  “We’ve always been close. But I’ve solved over seventy cases. This will be my brother’s first.”

  They made their way to the third floor on the other side of the lodge. Blake was thinking how they’d have three more rooms available, since they already had proof the cards used to reserve the rooms had been stolen and the lodge would be out the money.

  Nicole reached over and took Blake’s hand and squeezed, smiling at him. “Are you ready for this?”

  “I sure am. Working with you is a pleasure.” He smelled her nervousness. He could understand how she felt. He’d had to check out rooms before, even called the police a couple of times in Vermont when he found guests involved in illegal activities after the maid had gone in to clean the room. Actually, investigating a crime scene and arresting someone was new for him. He sure didn’t want to screw this up, not when it was his first deputy-sheriff assignment and Nicole could witness it.

  “Hey,” she said, “you’ll do fine.”

  He guessed she could smell his anxiousness too.

  With the master key card against the security panel, Blake knocked, called out, “Housekeeping!” unlocked the door, then opened it.

  Nicole smiled at him.

  He smiled back and shrugged. “If someone was in there, I figure they’re less likely going for a weapon if they think it’s just maid service.”

  No one had answered, and it appeared the room was empty.

  He set a copy of the search warrant on the desktop, then began looking for evidence relating to the crimes they already knew the men had committed.

  As soon as they began searching through drawers, Nicole found a couple of passports hidden under some socks. “Looks like more stolen IDs, unless these are their real IDs. The names are different from the credit cards.”

  “Betcha they’re not theirs either.” In the fridge, Blake found some of the stolen beer. The guy who had put it in the fridge had been one of the men who had broken into the wine cellar. “Here’s some of the beer.”

  “I found one of the boxes with packages of chips and one of the cases the beer was in. You’d think these guys would have gotten rid of the boxes at least,” Nicole said.

  “How much do you want to bet they didn’t think we’d be onto them.” Blake checked through the rest of the drawers while Nicole went through their clothes.

  “I’m sure of it.”

  Blake got a text from Roxie, and he hurried to check it.

  “Don’t tell me… Trouble is headed our way,” Nicole said.

  Roxie: Two of the suspects have returned to the lodge. I’m watching to see where they’re headed.

  “Yeah, two of them are in the lobby.”

  Nicole was taking pictures of where they’d found the evidence: closet, drawer, fridge.

  Peter texted Blake: We’ve got receipts for everything th
ey’ve charged, including the rooms, ski equipment rentals, locker rentals, lift tickets, and meals. We have a number of empty beer bottles and packages of chips that the lodge sells in the restaurant in the room.

  Blake texted him what they’d found but warned him two of the men were in the lobby: We need to confiscate the evidence, but we might be making an arrest first.

  Roxie: They’re headed up the elevator. Kayla ran to check it out and said they’re headed for the room on your floor.

  Blake texted Peter: We have two headed our way.

  Nicole had gloves on and was placing all the evidence in the box in the closet. Blake hurried to help her, wanting to make the room look like it did when they first arrived so the suspects wouldn’t turn tail and run. “We’ve got two coming to the room.”

  Peter: Arrest them first. I’ll send CJ to intercept the third guy rooming with those two so he’s not alerted and warns the rest of them.

  Blake: Okay.

  “We’re arresting them, Nicole,” Blake said, his voice low. Now he felt the heat was on.

  The way the lodge rooms were laid out, the door opened to where the closet was on one side of the entryway and the bathroom on the opposite side, both along the hallway walls. The bathroom wall provided privacy for the first queen-size bed, and that was where he and Nicole would have to hide until the men were fully inside.

  “Over there,” he said.

  Once they were in place, he and Nicole were hidden from the mirrors on the sliding closet doors and the one over the chest of drawers—luckily. When they had gone over the designs for the rooms, he never thought he’d be hiding with his mate in a guests’ room, waiting to arrest the guests.

  “Are you ready?” Blake whispered, both of them leaning against the outer bathroom wall so the men could come far enough inside without seeing them. He was glad there would be only two of them, or the third one might have run off before they could grab him and then warn the others.

  “I sure am.”

  Roxie texted: The other guy staying in the room just entered the lobby.

  Blake texted Roxie: Okay. Tell CJ. We’re going silent.

  The men’s footfalls headed for the room, and Blake and Nicole tensed, but then they clomped on past in ski boots. Blake and Nicole glanced at each other. Then they heard two more pairs of ski boots headed their way. This had to be them.

  The key card activated the green light, and the door opened. “I wish we could stay for a few more days,” the one man said.

  “We can’t chance it. The owners of the credit cards are going to realize they’re missing, and once our purchases are declined, we’re going to be in trouble.”

  Nicole was recording the conversation, and Blake smiled at her. He wouldn’t have thought to do that. The one guy clomped farther into the room and the other guy joined him, shutting the door behind him.

  “We still have the lift tickets for tomorrow. We could have at least skied in the morning first thing.”

  “Janus stole the cards, and he’s calling the shots.”

  Blake came around the wall and said, “Deputy Sheriff Wolff. You’re under—”

  The one guy tried to make a break for the door, but Blake ran and tackled him, slamming him against the door. Nicole got the other guy and forced him down face-first on the bed. “Deputy Sheriff Grayson,” she said.

  Blake read them their rights as he tied the man’s hands behind his back with a plastic tie and forced him to sit on the bed while Nicole finished tying the other guy’s hands behind his back.

  “What are you charging us with?” the attempted escape artist asked.

  “If you hadn’t interrupted me and tried to flee, I would have told you. For stolen merchandise and IDs to begin with,” Blake said.

  Blake got a call and checked it. CJ. “I’ve got the other roommate for the room you’re in,” CJ said, “just down the hall.”

  “We can take them down the service elevator and out the back way if you can bring a cruiser around to pick them up,” Blake said.

  “We have a van waiting for them,” CJ said, “and some other deputized men to watch them.”

  “We’re headed out then,” Blake said. “Come on, you two. Your friend’s waiting for you.”

  “I don’t know what you think we’ve done wrong, but you have the wrong guys,” the attempted escape artist said.

  Blake called Roxie, ignoring the guy. “Hey, can you secure the door?”

  “Doing now.”

  That meant the rest of the guys couldn’t get into the room in case any of the others had a key and tried to drop by.

  “We have rights. We get to make a phone call,” the escape artist said.

  They joined CJ down the hall, and he said, “After you’re processed at the jailhouse.”

  “We didn’t steal anything,” the guy insisted.

  “Beer, snacks, passports, and using stolen credit cards for goods and services,” Nicole said. “You’re looking at felony charges.”

  “That’s just for what we know about. No telling what else you’ve done wrong,” CJ said.

  The men looked miserable. Good. Blake hoped they knew they weren’t going to easily be able to talk themselves out of this.

  CJ loaded them in the van. Three other men were there, all deputized in the pack: the Silver brothers, Jake and Tom, and their cousin Brett.

  “I’m going to return to the lodge to help Peter and Trevor out,” CJ said.

  “We’ll head up to the room where Nate and Landon are,” Blake said, “since we don’t want to be seen around the other room.”

  Roxie called Blake. “It looks like all the rest of them are coming in. Maybe to have dinner.”

  “I think they were planning on skipping out of here.” Blake had also mentioned it to CJ before they parted company. He just hoped Rhys and his party didn’t learn of the arrests so close to their room.

  Chapter 18

  Blake and Nicole finally made their way to the other room and decided to wait in the hallway so they could catch the men outside their room while Landon and Nate planned to remain inside the suspects’ room. He hoped this went as smoothly as the other operation.

  The elevator doors opened down the hall around the bend.

  “Showtime,” Landon said. “We get to hide behind the outer bathroom wall inside the room.”

  “Nicole and I are going to have a special moment nearby in the hallway.”

  Smiling, Landon shook his head. “Come on, Nate. One of these days, that will be us.”

  Nate and Landon moved back inside, and Blake and Nicole leaned against the wall, having their moment, talking to each other softly, running their hands over each other’s arms, nuzzling and being sweet. And listening to the sounds of footfalls headed their way.

  The three men were laughing, the one saying, “I couldn’t believe you took that spill, Janus.”

  “Hopper got in my way.”

  “Hopper is disgruntled about leaving.”

  “I know, but we can’t stay.” Janus used his key card on the door. “We shoulda left yesterday.”

  “We’ve had fun.”

  Janus opened the door and walked inside, the other two men following him. Nicole and Blake hurried after them before they shut the door.

  “What the hell?” Janus said to Blake as he stopped the closing door with his boot. “Did somebody give you our damn room key?”

  “You’re under arrest,” Nate said. “For felonious theft.” They began tying the men’s wrists.

  “I don’t know what you think we’ve done wrong—” Janus said.

  “Enough,” Landon said.

  Janus stared at Landon and then Blake. “I thought you worked behind the desk. Since when do hotel clerks arrest innocent citizens?”

  “Since they’re sworn-in deputy sheriffs with search warrants and evi
dence of crimes committed at the lodge,” Blake said. “We might not have caught up to you if you hadn’t stolen the beer and snacks from the restaurant. Whose dumb idea was that?”

  None of the men admitted to it.

  “We took the others down the service elevator to a van out back,” Blake said, then called Roxie on his phone. “Roxie, can you secure the door?”

  “On it.”

  Then they escorted the men to the service elevator.

  They soon had the men downstairs and packed in the van. Before they could call Peter to see what was going on with the men in the other guest room, he and his deputies were bringing the last of the suspects down.

  Blake was glad to get that resolved before their pseudocide suspects learned of it.

  They gathered the evidence and put it in Peter’s vehicle so that he could take it to the sheriff’s office.

  Afterward, Blake and Nicole had gone to the office to look over last night’s security videos of the dumpsters when Peter called. Blake put it on speaker and motioned for Landon to join him. Kayla was in the office working on promotional videos so she paused to hear what was up.

  “The guys we arrested have done this before. They’re all on probation and are all returning to jail in Missouri,” Peter said. “Everyone did really well.”

  “That’s good to hear,” Blake said, though he suspected the thieves would be right back at it once they were out if they hadn’t learned the last time.

  “I hope they get some real time in the joint this time,” Landon said.

  “Me too,” Kayla said. “We spend a lot of money on this place, and we need to keep rooms rented to pay for all our costs.”

  “I hope you get some restitution,” Nicole said. “It’s a good thing the insurance company I’m working for is still paying for my room.”

  “We can afford your room,” Blake said, smiling at her.

  “And meals?”

  “Those too. Hell, now you’re family.” Blake kissed her.

  “I just wanted to let you know we did good,” Peter said.

  “Thanks,” Landon said, “for all your help.”

  “Just doing my job.”