Deadly Night, Silent Night

by Margaret Daley

  “If you want to talk more, I’m here. It’s good to let go of the past. We all have things that we hold onto, thinking we should have done them differently.”

  “How about you?”

  “My issues revolve around my father, too, but for different reasons. All my boyhood, I looked up to him. He was my hero. That’s why I wanted to be a police officer, just like him.”

  “And you have been. You’ve helped a lot of people get closure or to feel safe.”

  “But when my dad was killed in the line of duty, I saw what happened to a cop’s family. My mother fell apart, and I became the man of the family at the age of twelve.”

  Was that why he’d never married? For months after his father’s death, she’d only seen him at school. He’d withdrawn from her and even Clint.

  She moved closer, taking his other hand and looking up into his eyes. “I know what you went through. Not then but now. When I lost my parents in the small plane crash, it rocked my world like an earthquake had suddenly shook everything around me.”

  “Yep. That about describes it.” He tugged her even nearer until there was no space between them. He caged her against the door and delved his fingers into her hair. “You aren’t the only one who’s leery because of the past.”

  His nearness disrupted her thoughts. It was hard to focus on anything but the fact his mouth was inches from hers. She anticipated his kiss—wanted it. Her heartbeat pounded through her body. She was sure he could feel it.

  She swallowed hard and tried to think about what he’d said last. She should reply, but…

  His mouth swooped down and laid claim to hers. As his arms closed around her, she embraced him, pouring all her newfound feelings regarding Alex into their kiss. She hungered for it. Didn’t want it to end.

  But the ding of the elevator echoed vaguely in her mind.

  Alex pulled away and faced the end of the hallway, putting himself in front of her. “Are you expecting anyone?”

  “No, but it could be the security guard.”

  Rebecca peeked around Alex as the doors opened and an older man, dressed in the gray uniform of the store’s security team, exited.

  Warmth suffused her face as though she and Alex were teenagers caught kissing by a parent. “Good evening, Robert. Did you have a nice Thanksgiving dinner?”

  “Yes, ma’am. It’s a good thing I do a lot of walking on this job. I need to after what I ate.”

  “I can understand that. Alex brought me Thanksgiving dinner tonight since I was going to work. Is everything quiet downstairs?”

  “Yes. I can’t believe you got the store ready to open after what happened yesterday.”

  “I didn’t do it alone. People,” she pointed to Alex, “like him helped me today.”

  Robert checked the doors. “You should have asked me. I’d have been here.”

  “No, I needed you alert and rested tonight. But thanks.” She gave her employee a smile, then made her way toward her office and didn’t breathe properly until she was inside. “That was close. I’m glad Robert isn’t one of the employees who likes to gossip.”

  “You have a right to a life, Rebecca.”

  “I know. But I run a big company. It’s hard to avoid the public eye, especially with what’s going on right now.”

  “Let’s finish dinner. Then you need to go home and get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day for both of us.”

  “Don’t you usually take the Thanksgiving weekend off?” Rebecca sat in the chair she’d vacated.

  “Yes, but not this one. I’ll be looking into your current and past employees as well as anybody who’s been upset with Outdoor Sports and Recreation. I talked with the head of Human Resources earlier about seeing her tomorrow. I’ll concentrate on people living here, but I’m not ruling out ones who’ve worked in your other stores.”

  “I’ll work on it, too. Then we can compare notes.”

  “I think that’ll be good. You’ll come at it from a different perspective.”

  “It may take me longer. I’ll still have to deal with problems that arise during the day.”

  “I’m going to think positive.” Alex lifted his drink. “There will be no problems tomorrow.”

  Rebecca clicked her water glass against his. “I second that.” After she took a long sip, she ate what little she had left.

  Although the food was delicious, she couldn’t rid her mind of the sensations Alex’s kiss produced in her. She wondered what would have happened if Robert had picked another time to do his rounds. This wasn’t a good time to get sidetracked with the new feelings that were developing for Alex. Or were they there the whole time just waiting for him to make a move?

  ***

  Chapter Six

  Sunday evening, snow pelted his windshield as Alex drove toward Rebecca’s house. He had a list of possible saboteurs he’d compiled while working with HR and doing some digging into a few employees and disgruntled customers. Nothing turned up on the security cameras, except a fleeting glimpse of a medium-built person bundled into a heavy coat and hat outside at the back of the store right before the electricity went down. He hadn’t been able to discern whether the individual was a man or woman.

  From what testimony the police had gathered from witnesses at the Iditarod promotion, whoever was responsible for the rats had known where to stand to avoid being caught on film. No one in the crowd knew where the warning about a bomb had come from. Even a few employees thought there had been a bomb planted and had spread the word.

  At the closed gate into Rebecca’s property, Alex texted her that he had arrived. Not half a minute later, he was admitted, and soon he pulled up in front of her house.

  With Susie beside her, Rebecca stood in the entrance, the porch light illuminating her beautiful features. In less than a week, he’d kissed her twice. Their friendship had altered, and he didn’t know if that was a good idea. He couldn’t keep Rebecca at a distance like he did other women he’d dated. She knew him well, and there was too much past between them for that to work.

  With the snow picking up, he jogged to her, the sight of her warming his heart as it had always done. Why hadn’t he made a move on her before she’d started dating Cade? Even some years after his father’s death, he’d still been dealing with it and the added responsibility he had at home, but if he had approached her about dating, maybe things would have been different.

  As he greeted her with a quick kiss on her cheek, he stuffed those thoughts away to examine another time when he wasn’t so intent on finding out who had a grudge against her company.

  Inside the foyer, Alex shed his coat, hat, and gloves then greeted the German shepherd. “From the look on your face, something’s wrong. Is it the downturn in sales for the store for the past three days?” When he’d been there, few customers had been in the store.

  “Dismal is a better word, but then I can’t blame people for being leery of coming to the store after what happened last week. If I didn’t own it, I wouldn’t.”

  “How about your other seven stores?”

  “They’re doing as well as expected, thankfully, and online sales are steady, but the one in Anchorage usually outsells all of them put together. About all I can do is increase security and offer great sales to tempt the customers to shop there again, but I’m not going to do that until I feel they’ll be safe.”

  “And they won’t be until we catch the saboteur. Whoever it is knows your Anchorage store well. I did find out earlier the police in Fairbanks caught the robber who hit your OSR there. I told them I would let you know.”

  She grinned. “I’ll take any good news right now. C’mon. Let’s go into the kitchen. I made some sandwiches and put on a pot of coffee.”

  Susie went ahead of Alex and Rebecca and settled on her bed nearby. There had been a couple of times when Rebecca couldn’t help with a search and rescue attempt when Alex had used her German shepherd and teamed up with Clint and his SAR dog.

  Rebecca poured coffee in two
mugs then brought them to the table where papers were scattered next to a laptop. “As you can see, I’ve been working on my list. I came home a little early today to finish. I didn’t think there would be many names on it, but when I went back ten years like you said, there were more than I wished.”

  Alex sat in the chair next to her. “I’ve learned in my job, you can’t please everyone no matter what good intentions you have. All you can do is the best you know how. From talking to your employees these past few days as well as your customers, you’re doing that. Friday, I spoke to a man and his wife who were shopping for the holidays, and all he said were positive comments about his treatment at Outdoor Sports and Recreation. And he’d been in the store when the stink bomb went off. On top of everything, you have the best prices in town.”

  “I can always count on you to cheer me up. How can you be so positive with the job you have?”

  Alex shuffled through his papers until he found his list then put it on top. “You must bring that out in me, but I’ve learned over the years that negativity only makes a bad situation worse. It’s tough being a police officer, but that’s the one thing my father used to tell me, and he was right. Besides, my mother looks on the negative side enough for me and the whole family.”

  “Our childhoods sure have shaped us.” Rebecca placed her list beside his. “I put the people in order of who I think has the most motivation to ruin the company, I really didn’t find any customers to add though. These are all past employees with grudges against the store.”

  Alex pointed to the second name on his sheet—Tom Baker. “Why didn’t you put his name on yours? You fired him, and your company pressed charges against him for embezzling from the company.”

  “That was eight years ago. He served his time and has been out for four years.”

  “People can hold grudges for a long time.”

  “Tom has diabetes. He never took good care of himself, and in prison, he had to have part of one leg removed in the course of his time there. Gangrene spread in his foot, and by the time he reported to the infirmary, he had to have it removed from the knee down. After his release from prison, he lost the second leg.” Rebecca remembered seeing Tom when he left the hospital after that surgery. She’d thought about saying something to him, but she hadn’t because she hadn’t wanted to bring up the past. He had enough to deal with. “Tom’s confined to a wheelchair. I can’t see him doing this. He doesn’t have any children and his wife is dead.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “I paid for the second surgery. He had no money. His wife came to see me and begged for help. I couldn’t turn her away. I had a cousin who died from juvenile diabetes. The disease can ravish a body.”

  “But the wife has since died?”

  “Yes, I saw that in the paper about eighteen months ago.”

  She amazed him—keeping up with past employees who had stolen from the company. “Okay, how about the first guy I have on the list?”

  “Why did you put Neil Sanders’ assistant on the list?” She tapped his third name.

  “Paula Harris is knee deep into debt. She received a foreclosure on her house a few weeks ago, and she would have the access and know how to hack into your system. I vetted everyone in the Tech Support Department.”

  “I didn’t know that she’s going to lose her home. She’s been working for us for several years, and Neil is thinking of promoting her. True, those factors could lead a person to desperate measures, but not Paula. You and I looked at the possible people in a different light. The guy at the top of my list is Matt Pinkston.”

  “Why? He’s at the bottom of mine, and he’s only there because he was recently fired.”

  “He was let go because of sexual harassment. While that doesn’t necessarily translate into being a saboteur, he’d been suspected of taking inventory before things hit the fan. He was one of our stockers. I witnessed his departure and his tirade when he stormed out of the warehouse. Since then Heather Adams, the cashier he harassed, has been receiving notes from a ‘secret admirer’ and yesterday while I was up at the front of the store, I asked her how everything was going. I really appreciated her finding the jammer. Heather mentioned she was still dealing with Matt. She’s thinking about getting a restraining order against him. Maybe you could talk to her and encourage her to follow through with that. I don’t have a good feeling about the man.”

  Alex sipped his coffee. “No problem. I’ll make it a point to see her this week. Let’s go through the rest of the names. I’ll take notes and follow up with a combined slate of suspects.”

  “First, I need to let Susie out back, and I could use some fresh air. The past few weeks I haven’t been able to exercise or get outside much.”

  “I’ll come with you, not that I’m worried with Susie protecting you. I don’t want to pass up enjoying nature even though it’s snowing.”

  “I love snow. That’s probably why Alaska is so special to me. Of course, I haven’t lived anywhere else but here.”

  “Me neither. I’m a diehard Alaskan.” Alex headed for the foyer and retrieved his coat, hat, and gloves. Maybe the brisk wind and cold snow would rejuvenate his brain cells after the past few days of running down leads and investigating anyone he thought might have a reason to harm the company.”

  “We’re supposed to get four or five inches of new snow before this is over tomorrow. Maybe you should take my notes and go home now.”

  “I’ve been in worse, and I have all the equipment I need to traverse a snow-blanketed terrain if I get stuck somewhere.” Alex opened the kitchen door and let Susie go first then Rebecca. While the German shepherd bounded down the stairs and into the yard, Alex hung back with Rebecca on the deck.

  She gripped the railing and leaned into it. “On second thought, I don’t think I have the energy to slosh through the half a foot of snow we’ve had recently, but watching it fall in the glow of the security lights is calming to me.”

  “My favorite is the peace and quiet.”

  Susie barked.

  Rebecca jerked straight up, looked toward her German shepherd, and chuckled. “That squirrel loves to tease Susie while sitting safely on a branch above her.”

  “Have you been able to relax any?”

  “Not much in the past week. I do better here than other places. Susie sleeps in my bedroom with me, and I actually can get some rest then.”

  Alex placed his gloved hand over hers on the railing. “I can stay if that would make you feel better.” Then quickly he added. “According to you once, the couch in your den is a mini bed and is probably as comfortable as mine at home.”

  “I hate to ask that of you and besides whoever is doing this is trying to ruin the company, not me. I very likely didn’t have anything to do with what made this person go after OSR. With that in mind, I’m going to delve next into people my father angered. I love my dad, but he was never one to mince words. He was one of the bluntest persons I’ve ever known.”

  “I won’t argue with you on that. I’ve said people can hold grudges for years, but usually you’ll know about them.”

  “Two feuding families like the Hatfields and the McCoys?”

  “Yes.” Alex took another deep breath of the chilled air and continued, “Let’s go tackle those names.”

  When Rebecca called for Susie, the dog hurried toward the deck. As Alex opened the back door for them, the sound of the phone ringing filled the quiet.

  Rebecca skirted around him and rushed to answer her landline. “Hello.”

  Whoever spoke to her was conveying bad news because her expression immediately evolved into a deep frown, her eyebrows slashing downward, her hold on the phone tightening.

  “Okay. I’ll be there.” Rebecca hung up and faced him. “The alarm at the store is going off.”

  ***

  Chapter Seven

  While Alex made his way to the patrol officer who responded to the alarm and was now talking with the security guard, Rebecca sat in his SUV, arms
crossed over her chest staring at the bullet holes that riddled the storefront’s main display window. Alex hadn’t wanted her to get out of the car in case the person was still around somewhere.

  The snow had increased in velocity and volume. If there had been any foot or tire prints, they were covered over in the time it took for the police to arrive. She’d called Clint and George who were on their way to the store.

  Alex trudged back to her and sat behind the steering wheel, a grim expression on his face. “Other than looking for the bullets used and the footage on the security camera, there’s little to go by. The guard was in the second floor office, monitoring the TV feeds and saw what happened. Someone, dressed all in white, rode a snowmobile up to the window and shot at it. As Robert hurried downstairs, he called the police. He heard at least five shots, and there’s evidence of five holes in the pane. All he could tell us about the snowmobile was that it was black and silver. The tape might give us more, but this happened all within a few minutes. By the time Robert reached the front, it was quiet. Once he realized no one had gotten inside, he called you. Then the patrol officer arrived soon after that.”

  “There are two guards on duty at night. Where’s the other one?”

  “He was checking the upper floors when Robert radioed him to come to the first floor. Once the police arrived, he went back upstairs to look at the security monitors in case the shooting was a distraction for something worse. I talked to him, and so far he hasn’t discovered anything else.”

  “Clint and George are coming. I’ll need to stay tonight. The store opens at nine tomorrow morning. We need to do something about the window in the meantime.”

  A small smile graced his mouth. “I figured you’d say that. I’ll stay, too.”

  The idea he wanted to help her underscored she wasn’t alone in this fight against an unknown opponent. “You don’t have to. Clint will be here,” she said to give him an out.