Joy to the Wolves

by Terry Spear

  “Will do.”

  Another smoke detector started beeping. He smiled.

  “I think that’s in the hallway outside the bedrooms on the second floor.”

  “I’ll get it. Got more batteries?”

  “I stocked up on them the last time I had to change out one of the batteries. They’re in the third drawer in that chest on the right.”

  Maverick grabbed a battery and the footstool and headed up the stairs.

  “You sure are handy to have around.”

  “Thanks. I’m glad to have a sister-in-law. By the way, will the two of you be getting married?”

  “Yeah. I haven’t talked to Josh about it, but I think it would be nice to have a wedding with the pack. I’ve been trying to decide if I should keep Cerise as the name for the shop or change it to Wilding.”

  “It’s been here for how many years?”

  “Seventy-five.”

  “An icon then. I have a question. When Ivy mated your great-uncle, she didn’t give up her surname, right?”

  “Yeah. So I’ll probably keep the name the same in honor of my great-aunt and great-uncle. My great-aunt was a feminist early on. Cerise means a bright or deep red color. We’re red wolves and she wanted to keep the name. My great-uncle didn’t have any problem with it.” Brooke moved to the counter to see if maybe her aunt had a safe hidden near the cash register.

  “It sounds like a good idea. I think Josh would agree.”

  She looked in the drawers for anything important and found an RFID card that would open a security lock. “I found something,” she called out to Maverick.

  He came down the stairs and looked it over. “Hmm, maybe she had a safe that this unlocks? It would have to be something newer. Not something that’s been around for years. What about that shelf? It looks really new.” He took the card and ran it over the shelf next to the checkout counter. The bottom of the shelf opened to reveal two handguns and several rounds of ammunition.

  “Ohmigod, that’s not what I was expecting. If I had known she had these guns here, I could have pulled one out to stop those men and not used a frying pan,” Brooke said.

  Maverick chuckled and checked both guns. “Locked and loaded. Do you know how to use them?”

  “My parents made sure I knew how to use a gun. I guess my great-aunt did too.”

  “Good. Do you want to leave these here?”

  “Yeah.” She slipped the security card back in the drawer. “We’ll have to let Josh know about it too. I’m thinking the safe my great-aunt was talking about is probably in the house. Do you want to go to the house for a while, and we can look for the safe over there? We don’t need to split up to watch the shop, just make sure Lucas and I are protected if we’re not in the same place.”

  “We can all stay at the house.”

  “I’m so glad I have you and Josh in my life. He said we’d spend Christmas together.”

  “If you want to be alone—”

  “No way. He invited me to share Christmas with the two of you. Now that I’m with him, we’re still doing Christmas with you.” She started to head for the house when she got a knock on the front door. “It’s probably the mail carrier.”

  She could see her favorite mail carrier outlined in the beveled-glass door. When she opened it, he smiled and had her sign for a couple of boxes. “No reindeer here today, I take it.”

  “No, just one of the owners of the reindeer farm. Thanks. Hope your holidays are great.”

  “Same to you.” Then he hurried off to his truck to deliver a million more packages, she was certain. When she looked at the address for the two boxes, she realized they were from Phoenix, and she gasped.

  Maverick looked at them. “These are the ones the robbers were after?”

  “Yeah. Five boxes are coming from Gulliver’s estate. These are the first two. I began to wonder if they were coming at all—if Mr. Lee hadn’t really sent them.”

  “I’d wondered about that too. Let’s get them inside and begin going through them.” Before Maverick could help her move them into the shop, a souped-up Camaro tore up to the door, and a ski-masked guy jumped out, waving a gun at them.

  “Where are they from?” the masked man called out.

  In the worst way, Brooke wanted to lie, but not when the guy was waving a gun at her and Maverick. “Phoenix.”

  “Load them in the car.”

  Brooke recognized the man’s scent as that of the man who had been in her attic shooting at her. No way did she want to hand over the boxes, but Maverick told her, “It’s not worth it.”

  She wanted to scream, she was so angry. But she didn’t want to be shot or be the reason for the robber to shoot Maverick. She and Maverick loaded the boxes in the car, and after the man jumped into the back seat of the car and the driver tore off, she took pictures of the car and its license tag.

  Maverick was on his phone to Brad at the same time, giving him a description of the vehicle. “Brad’s jumping in his car and going after them.”

  “It could be too dangerous,” Brooke said, calling Josh right away to tell him what had happened.

  “He’s not going to try to apprehend them, just tail them until the police can catch—” Maverick’s phone rang, and he answered it. “On our way.” He ended the call. “The car stopped and dumped the boxes of stuff on the sidewalk and tore off.”

  “So they got the thumb drive.”

  “Or they didn’t.”

  They locked up the shop and hurried through the courtyard to the house. Excited, Lucas wanted to go with them. “I can help. Let me help.”

  “We’re picking up what they dumped. Some of the stuff could be valuable,” Brooke said, even if it wasn’t the thumb drive. They climbed into Maverick’s truck and headed down the street to where Brad was pulled over, putting stuff back into one of the boxes.

  They were soon helping gather all the stuff together into the two boxes. Brooke called Josh back. “We’ve got the stuff. They dumped it on the side of the road. No thumb drive.”

  “I’ve called an APB out on the vehicle, though they don’t have the stolen goods now. Unless they got the drive. If one of the men is Ackerson, at least we’ll have him in custody, if we can catch him.”

  “Thanks. We’re headed back to the house.”

  At the house, Brad and Maverick moved the boxes into the dining room and set them on the table.

  They emptied the stuff out on the table, glad nothing breakable had been in the boxes. “Old keys,” she said. “Silverware. Some tintype photos. Lace. Nothing extremely valuable. And no thumb drives that I can find. Nothing they could be hidden in.”

  Maverick shook his head. “Some old books, more old lace, vintage pictures.”

  “You never know about pictures. They could be unimportant or pictures of someone famous. Books could be first editions, signed by an author, rare copies. The same with the tintypes.” She looked over all the items and shook her head. “I hope the thumb drive wasn’t in either of these boxes.”

  “If it was, they’ll leave you alone.” Lucas pushed around the items on the table.

  “Do you get your money out of this stuff?” Maverick picked up a picture and looked at the back of it.

  “Yes. Always. But not always right away. Sometimes it can take years. In the meantime, I move things around so I don’t have the same merchandise sitting in the shop all the time. Though this was all free, so it will be all profit,” Brooke said.

  “Now the question is, did they get the thumb drive or not?” Maverick said.

  “How did they know the boxes were delivered right then?” Brooke asked.

  “They could be watching the store to see if any deliveries are made,” Brad said.

  “Yeah. Maybe Sarah has them on video, sitting in her shop watching the place.”

  “I’m headed over to the
bakery to ask her if she’d let me see the video, and I’ll take pictures of the patrons.” Brad headed out of the store.

  “It would have been so easy if we’d found a bloodied knife or a gun in one of these boxes.”

  Maverick pointed to the butter knives with the rest of the set of silverware.

  “A little longer and sharper than that.” Brooke called Josh and told him the news.

  “Make sure you stay with the guys.” Josh sounded worried, and she suspected he wanted to stop what he was doing and head straight home.

  “I am. Brad went to the bakery across the street to see if anyone’s been watching the shop from there and they’ve been caught on video.”

  “Good idea. We’re going in to interrogate the first of the attempted robbers now. I’ll let you know how it goes. And keep Maverick close. I’ll return as soon as I can.”

  “He’s right here with me. Good luck.” Then she called Brad. “Do you see anyone who looks suspicious at the bakery?”

  “I’m taking some selfies with all the delicious foods the bakery has.”

  She assumed he was taking picture of the customers, pretending to take selfies.

  Brad finally returned to the house and said, “Sarah was too busy with customers to ask about the security video. I figure Josh can drop by and check on it.” He showed some pictures of the patrons at the bakery shop to Brooke.

  “No one who looks suspicious to me. A woman and her kids. An older couple. Two women friends. A single woman.” Brooke halfway expected to see the guy who shot her sitting in there having a piece of pie, though she suspected he wouldn’t get near her place again. Certainly not in broad daylight. “Wait.” She peered closer at the single woman. A blond in a black, fluffy angora sweater, black skinny jeans, and high heels that would kill Brooke’s arches. “She looks…familiar. I can’t place her. She might have just been in my shop recently. You know what? I’ll run over there and take a closer look at her. If I can have someone come with me.”

  “I’ll go,” Brad said.

  Brooke and Brad took off through the courtyard to check out the woman at the bakery. She figured she could start up a conversation with her, asking her if she still needed a particular Santa, or was it a teacup she’d been looking for? If the woman said she was mistaken and hadn’t been in her shop, Brooke would at least have a chance to see her close up.

  As soon as Brooke and Brad entered the bakery, she noticed the woman in the picture Brad had shared with her wasn’t there, but Sarah frantically waved them over.

  Brooke had a bad feeling about this. She already could smell a man’s scent in the bakery—the same man who had shot her in the attic. She quickly looked at the patrons there, but he wasn’t among them.

  “You’ve got to check out my security video,” Sarah said. “This woman was having coffee and pie, and then this guy comes in, and she’s angry, having a fit that he joined her here. It caught my attention, and a couple of my customers’ also. Anyway, I was about to ask them to take it outside, but I grabbed a tray to clean a couple of tables instead, in case they settled down, so I could better make out what they were saying.

  “When I got close, she motioned to your shop and said to the man, ‘No thumb drive after stealing the boxes in front of God and everyone?’ That worried me because you’ve had so much trouble lately. He said, ‘How did you expect me to try to grab the boxes? And no. It wasn’t in the two boxes. Do you know if Lee really put the thumb drive in one of them?’”

  “That’s the man who broke into my place and shot me,” Brooke said, chills running up her spine. “He just stole my boxes of merchandise and dumped them down the street.”

  “He needs to be arrested. I’ve seen the woman in here before. The man, too, but he was with some other guy. I didn’t think much of it because they always got coffee and baked goods. They took their time eating though. One time, I noticed one of the men going into your shop. I was busy after that. The woman said to the man, ‘Your dead partner swore Lee dropped it into one of the boxes, but Pinky didn’t tell me until after they were shipped off,’” Sarah told Brooke and Brad. “I left out the swear words.

  “I never thought they’d be sitting over here watching your place. I’m so sorry. He sounded surly when he said, ‘What do you want me to do about it?’ I moved to the next table and slowly picked up the used pie plates and coffee mugs. ‘Not bungle it like the last time,’ she said. ‘If I go down, you go down.’ He cast her an evil smirk and glanced at me. I hurried to move to a table farther away to clean. The two of them gave me goose bumps. I was going to call you, or your detective, but then they left, and here you are.”

  “Thanks for all your help with this, though I hadn’t meant for you to get involved.”

  “They involved me when they started coming here as part of their clandestine operation.” Sarah glanced back at the door leading into the kitchen. “Don’t tell Mr. Burns, or he’ll try to arrest them himself.”

  Brooke gave her a hug and immediately called Josh with an update.

  Chapter 26

  While at the police bureau, Josh got another call from Brooke. She was excited, telling him what Sarah, the owner of the bakery, had told her and shown her on the security video.

  “They’re gone now, but I recognized the man who shot me by sight and by his scent,” she said. “I thought the woman seemed familiar. I’m sure now it was the woman I saw arguing with Mr. Lee at Gulliver’s auction, though she had to be wearing a wig this time or had dyed her hair and cut it short.”

  “Adam and I are on our way. The Camaro they were driving was stolen and ditched about a half mile down the road. They must have had a getaway car there, just like the night they broke into your shop and shot you.” Josh had already headed for his car, Adam hurrying after him. He was glad she hadn’t confronted the woman and the man. Who knew how that would have gone down?

  “We’re headed back to the house. Brad’s with me,” Brooke said. “Sarah gave me a copy of the security video so you can look at it.”

  “See you soon.”

  A short while later, Josh and Adam arrived at the house. He and Adam went through the boxes Brooke had received from Phoenix, making sure no one, crooks included, had missed a thumb drive. Brooke folded her arms across her waist, head tilted to the side, looking very much like when he’d first met her and was questioning her about Jingles. Josh smiled at her and gave her a hug.

  Then he and Adam reviewed the security video from the bakery. “That’s the guy I saw running away from the shop,” Josh said. “The woman confirmed that one of her henchman saw the murdered Mr. Lee hide the drive in one of the boxes. Since the other Mr. Lee sent them to you, we need to learn what his involvement is in all this. Do you have the business card from him, Brooke?”

  “I kept it with me, planning to call him again when I thought about it.” Brooke handed Josh the card.

  “I’ll use your phone in case he’ll answer a call from you.”

  “Sure.” Brooke handed her phone to Josh, and he called the number.

  “Ms. Cerise,” Mr. Lee said.

  Josh was a little surprised when he got an answer, since Brooke’s calls to Mr. Lee hadn’t reached him.

  “This is her mate, Josh Wilding, a police detective with the local police bureau. She says you’re a wolf and someone she trusts, but I need to know what the hell is going on. You told her that her great-aunt had been involved with someone shady in Colombia. Then Brooke gets a delivery of clay sculptures filled with cocaine.”

  “Cocaine?” Mr. Lee sounded surprised.

  “How did you know about it? Are you the one responsible for it?”

  “A rogue wolf? No. I’m with the FBI, but I had been working undercover on this one. I learned about the cocaine shipment from my brother and diverted it, and we confiscated it.”

  “Well, apparently, not all of it.” Josh was really irr
itated with the FBI over that.

  “Is Brooke all right?”

  “Hell no. Now we’ve got armed men looking for some thumb drive a Mr. Lee hid in one of the boxes you gave her. But we’ve discovered Mr. Lee was murdered before the auction.”

  There was a long pause.

  “The boxes,” Mr. Lee said.

  “Hell yeah, the boxes,” Josh said.

  “The boxes haven’t arrived yet at the shop?” Mr. Lee asked.

  “Two of them finally did, but a man grabbed them and took off with them, then dumped the boxes on the side of the road. We have reason to believe the thumb drive wasn’t in those two boxes. The other three boxes haven’t come yet, but I suspect they’ll be here any day. What about the woman who was berating you at the auction?”

  “Daisy Gulliver. She’s at the root of all this.”

  “So who are you really? Brooke was shot twice already over this business with the thumb drive.”

  “She’s all right, isn’t she?” Mr. Lee sounded shaken up.

  “Luckily. What the hell is going on? Did you even know her family? The cashier wasn’t even the cashier. The sales of the statues never went through.”

  “Listen, I’m on my way to catch a plane out to Portland. I’m in Eugene right now about another case I was wrapping up. It’ll take me about an hour to reach your location. Just for your information, the Mr. Lee who was murdered was my identical twin brother. He was Mr. Gulliver’s assistant, but he began learning about all the illegal stuff Gulliver was involved in. Murder, cocaine smuggling, you name it. I told my brother to quit the job, but he said it was too late. He knew too much. Through spy cameras, he was videotaping what was going on—some of the drug sales, including the cocaine shipment that was supposed to go to the antique store, some of the murders. My brother had the run of the mansion, and no one suspected him of anything.”

  “Yet he was murdered,” Josh reminded him.

  “I guess I should say until the end. I didn’t know he had been murdered. Not until the day of the auction when he didn’t show up. I was worried about him, but no amount of telling him to leave this business to law-enforcement agencies made an impact. Yes, I knew Brooke’s family. My brother had sent her the invitation to come get the boxes of stuff for free and the wolf statues at a huge discount, but only for her. Gulliver was dead, and my brother was leaving the estate to move in with our sister. Though I suspect he would have ended up in the Witness Protection Program once the details of what went on came out. He was supposed to hand over the thumb drive to me at the auction. I had no idea he might have hidden it in one of the boxes. No one knew my brother had an identical twin.”