Fire and Ice

by Susan Page Davis

  “Thanks.” Her voice cracked a little. “The state police have arrested one man, and more may be charged. I’ll call you again tomorrow and give you all the details.”

  While Rick pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot, Robyn inquired about Patrick’s health and signed off. She blew out a long breath, thankful he hadn’t pressed her too closely about her own dogs. She didn’t want to have to say it aloud yet, or to think the unthinkable—that Tumble might be lost forever.

  “I’m so thankful we found most of them,” she said to Rick. “I know you were praying the whole time.”

  “I was. I still am.” He got out and opened her door. Slowly they walked toward her car. It had been a long day, and she felt like a wrung-out dishrag. Even so, she hated to end her time with him. “Thanks so much for being there. For everything.”

  “I’ll have them home in a couple of hours.” She noticed fine lines at the corners of his eyes and realized he was tired, too.

  “Take your time.” She gazed toward his truck. The dogs stayed quiet in their cages. She wanted to go take one last look at each of them, but that wasn’t necessary. Rick would take the best possible care of them until they returned to their own spots at Holland Kennel.

  “I don’t want to keep them caged any longer than I have to,” he said. “And it’s cold. Even though we put blankets over the cages, I don’t want to leave them in the truck long. I’ll take them out at Far North and feed them and give them some water. And I’ll look them all over in good light for wounds or any other problems.”

  “Astro’s the only one we know of with an injury,” she noted, “but if you see any serious problems and feel any of them need overnight care, call me.”

  Rick nodded. “I think Astro did that on the chain. Scraped his leg. Poor guy was pretty wound up, and very excited to see you. I don’t think they hurt him intentionally.”

  “Ha. But they would have put them in a situation where they had to fight for their lives.” Robyn scowled and shook her head.

  “The police have no proof of that yet,” Rick said.

  “Well, the troopers did find a list of phone numbers for people who are known to be involved in dog fighting. Trooper Glade said so.”

  “Yes. And it’s likely Keeler was delivering the dogs in his truck to someone connected with that. But they’ll need more evidence before they can press charges. Meanwhile, they can charge Keeler with accepting stolen merchandise—”

  “Merchandise!” Robyn snorted. “These dogs aren’t merchandise. And I still don’t understand why they don’t charge him with theft.”

  “Patience,” Rick said. “They’re searching his house tonight. If they find a snow machine and trailer there … well, who knows what will come of this. But it may have been someone else who stole the dogs and took them to Keeler. He might be just a middle man.”

  “He’s not as ignorant as he claims.”

  “Agreed.” Rick smiled down at her. “Hey, you’re shivering. Get that car warmed up and go pick up your mom. I’ll bring the dogs to your house later.”

  “Thanks, Rick. I don’t know how I would have made it through today without you.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek, feeling very bold. The look in his soft brown eyes melted her heart.

  “I’m glad I could help.” He waved and headed for the pickup.

  Robyn paid special attention to the recovered dogs the next day. All of them seemed healthy, and already Astro’s wound looked better. Rick had treated it with an antibiotic salve that tasted bad enough to keep the dog from worrying at it.

  Her mother didn’t have to work, and they’d both stayed up late, settling the dogs into their kennels after Rick brought them home.

  Robyn went into the barn after feeding them all breakfast and opened her training notebook. As she looked over her notations on which dogs had been exercised that week, she realized she was woefully behind on her training program, both for Patrick’s dogs and her own team. The stolen dogs should have a light workout, she decided, except for Astro. After that, she’d take out a bigger team for a serious training run.

  She took down the harnesses, checking her notes to be sure she got the correct size for each dog. Instead of having a set for each animal, she used color-coded harnesses in four sizes and kept a list in her notebook of which size fit each dog. Along with the four harnesses, she set out a short towline, four tuglines that clipped to a ring at the back of each harness, and four short necklines that connected each dog’s collar to the towline.

  As she gathered the pile of lines and set them on her plastic toboggan, her mother opened the barn door. “Trooper Glade called, and he’s on his way here. He says he has some new information on that man Keeler.”

  “Okay. I was going to go mushing, but I’ll wait.”

  Her mother nodded. “I figure it must be important or he’d have told me over the phone instead of coming out here.”

  Robyn tidied up her work area in the little barn and went into the house. Mom was puttering about the kitchen. Robyn sat down at her computer and checked her email. Several people had written to her with questions about the Fire & Ice 100 and the shorter races that would be held the same day while they waited for the long-distance mushers to complete the course.

  “Mom, Dennis Cooper wants to know if we can board his team the night before the race. He’s staying at the Grandview, but he needs a place for eighteen dogs, just for one night.”

  Her mom shook her head, her eyes widened. “Two weeks from today. Wow. I can’t believe how fast it’s crept up on us. I guess we have room. You’d know better than I would.”

  Robyn frowned and opened a spreadsheet on the screen. “We’re taking Becky Simon’s team. We’ll be really crowded, but I don’t blame them for wanting their dogs in a locked enclosure. We can shorten the tethers and squeeze in a few more for one night.”

  “Some people will sleep in their trucks and stay near their dogs,” Mom said.

  “Yes, but it’s been brutally cold. Today’s the first day we’ve had above freezing in weeks. If it’s cold that night, people and dogs could get pretty uncomfortable.”

  Mom walked over to the desk and set a cup of hot tea down beside Robyn. “We could bring the puppies in for the night and put Dennis’s team in the puppy yard.”

  “Hey, that’s a thought. I’ll tell Dennis we can take his bunch, but that’s it, okay? If anyone else calls or emails, tell them we’re overflowing. And thanks for the tea.”

  Glade arrived a short time later, and Robyn welcomed him into the living room.

  “We’ve done some more checking on Philip Sterns,” he announced.

  “Could you connect him to the theft of the dogs?” Robyn asked.

  “No, nothing solid. If he’s behind it, he hired someone else to do it. He alibied himself in Anchorage that morning and has credit card slips from buying gas and lunch on his way here.”

  Robyn sank back in her chair and let the air whoosh out of her lungs. “When we heard he had a criminal record, I was sure he was up to no good.”

  Glade took out his notebook and flipped a few pages. “It looks as though he plans to make a fresh start here in Alaska, where few people know about his criminal past. We’ll watch him, but for now we’ve got to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

  “I understand,” Robyn said.

  “What about Keeler?” her mother asked. “Did you get any more information out of him yet?”

  “Some.” Glade leaned forward and tapped the notebook with his pen. “The files at the kennel gave us some names, and some of the names are familiar to us.”

  “Did they tell you who took our dogs to him?” Mom asked.

  He shook his head. “I strongly suspect Keeler was in on the theft. He’d entered the dogs in his ledger as new arrivals, but with a dummy client name and address.”

  “You searched his house, didn’t you?” Robyn asked.

  “Yes, and we found some circumstantial evidence.” Glade turned to her mother. �
��Mrs. Holland, we found two snow machines and a trailer at Keeler’s house, as well as several dog cages. That’s not unusual in itself, and he does run a kennel. But I’d like to show you some pictures of the equipment and see if you recognize it. I knew you had Internet service, so I wonder if we can take a look at some photos I posted on the police page this morning.”

  Robyn took him to the computer, and Glade quickly brought up the Web site and keyed in the necessary coding to access the photos.

  Mom studied the pictures pensively and shook her head. “I can’t be sure. And I didn’t get the license plate number. The color seems right, but I was looking more at the people on the snow machine.”

  “I’ve asked you this before, but was there one person or two?”

  “I think there were two. I’m not a hundred percent sure. I saw them from behind as they drove away. I had the impression of a large person partially blocking my view of a smaller person sitting in front of him. I think it was the colors of their clothing that made me think it, because I couldn’t distinctly see a second person.” She shook her head.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Based on the footprints we found near the snowmobile tracks, I think there were two people here that day, too.” Glade looked at Robyn. “And you haven’t found anything else since I was here Wednesday?”

  “Nothing. I bought some extra locks in Anchorage yesterday though. We’ll be extra vigilant between now and the Fire & Ice.”

  “That’s the race your business sponsors?”

  “Yes. It’s two weeks from tomorrow.”

  “Well, I hope everything goes well for you.” Glade stood and zipped his jacket. “I’ll call you if we get any solid information in this case.”

  “The cages we used to bring the dogs home are out back,” Robyn said.

  “I can take them now, if you’d like.”

  Mom grabbed a jacket and followed them out the back door.

  Robyn led them to the five stacked cages.

  “Some of those were on the trailer the day the dogs were stolen.”

  Robyn looked at her mom. “Exactly like this?”

  Her mother frowned. “I think so. Gray with red trim. Yes, I think they were just like these.”

  Glade ran a hand over the top of one cage. “These are probably sold in a lot of places.”

  “Yeah, it’s a common brand,” Robyn said. “Probably a lot of kennels use them.”

  “Well, it’s a little something to add to the file we’re building.”

  When he had left, Robyn returned to the dog lot and stood outside the fence, looking in at the male dogs. Wocket, Max, and the rest whined and wriggled, eager to join her for a run in the snow. She prayed in silence, thanking God for returning the lost dogs to her. Their financial situation hadn’t changed in the long run, though the cash from the dogs Sterns had bought would help some. In two weeks they’d know how much profit they realized from the race. But she felt at peace. God would take care of her and Mom, and Grandpa, too. In her mind, having the five powerful dogs back in her care was proof of God’s love. Even though she feared she would never see Tumble again, God knew where he was. If it was part of God’s plan for her and the business, Tumble, too, would come home.

  She hurried to the shed and got the toboggan with the harnesses. In just a few minutes, her team of four was hitched to the new sled. She unclipped the snub line, grasped the handlebar, and called, “Hike!”

  Late that afternoon, when the sun dipped low toward the mountains, Rick drove from his humble office in downtown Wasilla to the Hollands’ house. Cheryl directed him around to the back. He stopped at the edge of the dog lot and smiled.

  Robyn and Darby were playing with several yearlings in the puppy enclosure.

  “Hello, ladies.”

  “Hi, Dr. Baker,” Darby said. “Look at what Bobble can do.” She touched the puppy’s head to focus his attention then moved her hand in a circular motion. The puppy flopped on his side and rolled over.

  Rick laughed. “That’s terrific. How long did it take you to teach him that?”

  “This is only my third session working on it with him.” Darby took a treat from her pocket and tossed it to Bobble, who caught it neatly in his mouth.

  Behind him, the back door to the house opened. “Darby, your mom just drove in,” Cheryl called.

  “Thanks, Mrs. H.” Darby made a face at Robyn. “Gotta go. I’ll see you at the meeting tomorrow.”

  “Okay. Thanks for helping.” Robyn opened the gate just wide enough for her and Darby to squeeze through without taking any pups with them.

  “Thanks for my mushing lesson,” Darby called over her shoulder as she ran around the corner of the house.

  “She’s a good helper.” Robyn bent over the gate and put two padlocks in place. Her loose dark hair spilled out of her hood and hid her features from him until she straightened. “She’s going to be a great musher, too. I expect her to win the Iditarod or the Yukon Quest someday.”

  “I hope I’m there to see it. Are you busy?” Rick asked. “Is it time to feed this motley crew?”

  She smiled. “Not yet. In about an hour.”

  “Take a ride with me?”

  “A sled ride?”

  Rick chuckled and reached to brush back a strand of her hair. “No, I meant in my truck. If we hurry, we can get up on the ridge behind my house and see the sunset.”

  “Sure. Just let me tell Mom.” Her flicker of a smile left him with an impression of shyness as she jogged to the back door.

  She was back a moment later, and he reached for her hand. They walked together in silence to the pickup in the driveway. His own property was only a quarter mile down the road, and he turned in at the gravel drive to his log home. The house was silent as they drove past it, but smoke oozed from the chimney.

  Rick shifted into four-wheel drive, and they bounced up the hill behind the house on the track he’d packed with his snow machine. The shallow snow had compressed enough for him to drive to the top of the ridge without danger of getting stuck.

  When he stopped the truck, he put it in park and left the engine running. The view of the town and the highway couldn’t be beat, and he traced the part of the trail he could see, where the racing teams would compete for the trophy in two weeks. But the distant mountains and snow-covered plains glistening in the late rays of sunlight drew his gaze and dazzled him. As he and Robyn watched without speaking, dusk shrouded the mountainsides in deep purple and gray. Pink, gold, and red reflected off the peaks.

  Robyn sighed. “I could never leave Alaska.” She cast a quick glance his way, and her forehead crinkled, as though she feared she’d said the wrong thing.

  “I love it here, too,” he said. “Especially out in the wild. I was smothering in Anchorage. That’s why I moved out here last year—to be closer to the land but still near enough to civilization that I could earn a living.”

  Her expression cleared and they sat in silence, watching the colors spread and change. As the shadows of night overtook them and the mountain peaks dulled to shades of gray, she stirred. “When the race is over, I hope I’ll be able to get out on the trail more myself.”

  “Maybe we can take another run together soon.” Rick smiled at the memory of their sledding adventure earlier in the week. It had started as a perfect day. Cheryl’s news of the theft had derailed it fast though. He hoped they would be able to spend more days together—carefree days. And soon.

  Robyn smiled up at him. “I’d like that a lot. You’re pretty good at mushing.”

  He pulled in a deep breath and decided now was the time to express the burden on his heart. “Robyn, I’ve been praying for you and your family. I want you to know that I’m confident God has some solutions for you. To your financial situation and your grandpa’s health problems. God knows all about it. He already knows how He’s going to resolve those things.”

  She put her fingertips gently to his cheek. “Thank you.”

  Her gaze flickered away but cam
e back to him. “Do you think I did the wrong thing yesterday? To chase around hunting for the dogs, I mean.”

  “I hadn’t even considered it. That’s not at all what I meant.”

  She nodded, her eyes wide and attentive. “I was afraid afterward that I’d overstepped some boundary.”

  “I don’t think so. We’d all been praying about it. God used your persistence to bring the dogs home. If you hadn’t gone looking for them, perhaps He’d have used another means. Or maybe He’d have let them all slip away and never be found. We don’t know, do we?”

  “No, we don’t. You’re right—the Lord knew all along He would take us to them and let us bring them home. I’ve tried to rest in Him about Tumble and the other unresolved issues. I’m so thankful we got five of them back. And I’m glad you were there, too. When I told Mom about it, she was horrified at what I’d done. She kept saying, ‘If you’d gone there alone, that man might have killed you.’”

  “I doubt that,” Rick said, but the thought sobered him. “Robyn, I love the way you are.”

  Her eyelids flew up, and he chuckled.

  “I love your passion for the dogs, and your confidence in your skill. But I also love the fact that you can be impulsive now and then.”

  She laughed. “Are you sure?”

  “Okay, not too impulsive. But, yeah. Yesterday I was a little frustrated when you wouldn’t give up the search. But I admired you for that, too. You’re really something, and … and I like that something.”

  Her cheeks took on a becoming flush.

  He held her gaze for a long moment. “There’s something I want to tell you.”

  Her eager gaze encouraged him to go on.

  “I’m tired of running back and forth to Anchorage.”

  She frowned and her lips parted. “You … just said you love it out here. You’re not going to move back there, are you?”

  “No. I need to stop working at Far North. It’s not fair to the folks in Wasilla. I want to have a full-service hospital for the animals here and be open every day, with the assurance that pets can stay there if they need recovery time and monitoring.”