by Kathi Daley
I was sorting through tree ornaments in a cozy seasonal store when Shredder’s phone rang. He looked at the caller ID, then stepped outside. I picked up a pair of heavy socks with pictures of moose on them that I thought would be a fun gift for Chloe. I’d been honest when I’d told Shredder I wasn’t that in to Christmas after the losses I’d suffered during the season, but I still bought little trinkets for the people in my life.
“You have news?” I asked when Shredder returned.
“I do. First, the father in the accident is going to be all right.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “And…?”
“And Tim traveled to Kotzebue five times in the past three months. All the dates correspond to the days just before his reservations at the inn.”
“So, you think he went to Kotzebue to pick up the thumb drives, came back to Rescue, then drove to the inn to deliver the information?”
“That would be my guess.”
“So Pickard must be in Kotzebue.”
“Perhaps. Kotzebue could also have been a hopping-off point for Tim to rent a boat or aircraft and continue on to Russia.”
Shredder made a good point. The Bering Strait, which divided Alaska from Russia, was only fifty-five miles at its narrowest. If someone wanted to get from one country to the other under the radar, that would be the way to do it. In fact, two islands in the middle of the strait, Big Diomede in Russia and Little Diomede in Alaska, were less than two and a half miles apart from each other.
“Okay. Say Pickard is hiding out in some remote part of Russia. He must travel at times. He did, after all, kill Tim in Rescue.”
“We don’t know that for certain. All we’re sure of is that Tim died of a heroin overdose and he had reason to believe Pickard might want him dead. Based on what I know of Pickard, even if that’s true, he wouldn’t have done it himself. I guess I should have considered that when I headed to Rescue in the first place.”
“So, are you leaving?” I asked as we walked down the festive street that suddenly seemed all wrong for the conversation we were having.
“At some point, but not tonight. I have people checking into some things. My instructions for now are to follow through and see if we can locate the thumb drive. If Tim hid it before he died, it may still be somewhere to be found.” Shredder looked at his watch. “I have some work to do. Let’s head back to the inn.”
Chapter 11
Sunday, December 17
Shredder was gone when I woke up the next morning. There was a cheery fire in the fireplace and a pot of coffee on the small table for two, with a note letting me know he had to look in to a few things and would be back by nine. It was currently eight, so I figured I’d pour myself a cup of coffee, then have a shower while I waited.
When we’d returned to the room the previous evening, Shredder had logged on to his computer and barely said a word from that point forward. I wasn’t certain how long he’d stayed up because he was still working when I fell asleep.
The coffee in the pot was still hot, so I added a dollop of cream and sat down on one of the chairs near the fire. The room really was nice, not like an average hotel room at all. It was large and cheery and nicely decorated. I figured Justine would be up because the puppies would need to be fed, so I called her to check in before I headed for the shower.
“How’s everyone going?” I asked.
“Everyone’s fine. I’m enjoying spending time with your family, although I almost tripped several times trying to make my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night.”
“There are a lot of bodies to watch out for,” I admitted. “Are the pups eating okay?”
“All four of them are little piglets. Judging by the way they’re growing, you might be able to cut back on the number of supplemental feedings in a week or so. You should talk to Kelly about it.”
“I will. It would be easier on my schedule not to have to be available four times a day. Is anything else going on?”
“Harley Medford called your house phone. I told him you were out of town and to try your cell.”
“That’s funny. I didn’t get a message.”
“He might not have wanted to bother you. He said he was going to be back in Rescue by the middle of next week and would see you then.”
I was disappointed I’d missed Harley’s call. I’d found I’d missed him since he’d been gone, which was something I definitely didn’t want to do because I knew he’d be leaving for good after the first of the year. I wasn’t particularly interested in having any man in my life, but if I was looking for male companionship, it certainly wouldn’t be from a high-profile movie star who traveled the world and had a different beautiful woman on his arm with each movie he made.
I finished my coffee and went into the bathroom. I was dressed and ready to get on with the day by the time Shredder got back.
“Oh good, you’re up,” Shredder greeted me as he pulled off his jacket. “I spoke to the desk clerk, who said we could get a look at room ten at ten o’clock. In the meantime, there’s a breakfast buffet downstairs if you’re hungry.”
“Actually, I am. Have you been up long?”
“A couple of hours. We’ll come back to the room and pack after we eat. I figured we’d take a look at room ten, then head south. I’ve been thinking things over. It might be worth our time to stop off at the bar Tim got the matchbook from.”
“That occurred to me as well. It’s right on the highway, so it won’t even be out of our way.” I pulled a sweater over my blouse, then ran a brush through my hair. “I’m ready if you are.”
The buffet was fantastic. There were chafing dishes with bacon, ham, and sausage, as well as three different egg dishes, home fries, toast, muffins, and wonderful-looking cinnamon rolls, and a choice of coffee, tea, hot cocoa, orange juice, and eggnog. I was going to need a long walk after I ate all the food I found myself piling onto my plate.
“I know we have a specific reason for being here, but I have to admit I’m enjoying the town and the inn. I’ll have to come back when I can spend more time.”
“It’s very quaint,” Shredder agreed.
I wasn’t sure if Shredder meant that as a good thing or a bad one, but I supposed it didn’t matter whether he enjoyed small-town life or not. He’d be gone in a few days and I’d probably never see him again.
“Did you find out anything more about Tim’s activities prior to his death?” I asked, getting back on point.
“Based on the information available to me, I think it’s likely Pickard is in Russia. I have people trying to narrow down the location. My plan is to spend today looking for the thumb drive, assuming there is one and Tim hadn’t delivered it before he was killed. I’m hoping to find it, but either way, I leave tomorrow for Kotzebue. I hope to use Tim’s being there as a jumping-off point to tracking down Pickard.”
“Leave? But we haven’t found Tim’s killer yet.”
“My mission was never to find Tim’s killer per se; it was always to track down Pickard. In the beginning, I thought it was possible Pickard might have been the one to kill Tim. Now I don’t think so.”
“But what if he hired someone to kill him?” I argued.
Shredder cut his sausage link into small pieces. “He may very well have, but hired thugs are a dime a dozen. My goal is to find Pickard, and I doubt whoever he may have hired will be any more likely to lead me to him than Tim was.”
I set down my fork and looked directly at Shredder. “I get the fact that you have bigger fish to fry, but if it turns out Pickard is in Russia, you only know that because of Tim. It seems to me you might owe him something.”
“Perhaps. Tim’s photo was the first lead I’d had in more than a year. And I’ll help you as much as I can. But I have my orders. We have today to accomplish what we can, but I need to be on the road by dawn tomorrow. There’ll be a plane waiting for me in Fairbanks. Not showing up at the designated time isn’t an option. I hope you understand.”
I didn’t but reali
zed there was no point arguing. I wasn’t happy Shredder wasn’t going to stay until Tim’s killer was found one way or another. But he’d come here to track down Pickard and his investigation, therefore, would most likely take him where the trail to the madman led.
******
When we arrived at room ten at ten o’clock we found it empty. The guests had checked out, but the maid hadn’t yet been through. I figured we’d have maybe thirty minutes to look around before management would want it cleaned in preparation for whoever was checking in later.
“What are we looking for?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. I still don’t know if Tim met his contact here in this room or if he left the drive hidden, where the person who checked in after him knew to look for it. We’re still only guessing that whatever he was to hand off was a thumb drive, but given that Pickard deals in stolen information, it’s a very good guess.” Shredder opened and closed all the drawers in the dresser, running his hand along the bottom and sides of each one, as if looking for a hidden compartment.
“The hiding space wouldn’t need to be very large, but it would have to be something the maid wouldn’t stumble across. Did you find out who stayed here after Tim each time he was here?” I asked.
“I have a list, but the names and addresses don’t bring up any red flags. I’m having my team take a closer look.”
Shredder was running his hands over the walls so I went into the bathroom to look around. There was the usual sink, shower and tub combo, counter, and toilet. I knelt and examined everything as closely as possible but didn’t find anything. I opened the cabinet under the sink and ran my hand over the decorative mirror. If Tim had a hiding place, it was well hidden.
I went back out to find Shredder standing in the center of the room with a frown on his face.
“No luck?” I asked.
“Not yet, but there has to be a reason Tim always asked for this room.”
“This room can be used as a family suite,” I pointed out. “There’s a connecting door to the next room. Maybe he didn’t leave anything behind after all. Maybe his contact stayed in the adjoining room.”
Shredder raised a brow. “I guess it would be worth looking at. When we’re done in here, I’ll see who stayed in the adjoining room when Tim was here. I think a drop would be a better bet, but so far I haven’t found a likely location.” Shredder glanced around the room once again, frowned, and narrowed his gaze. Then he walked across the room to the fireplace and ran a hand along the mantel, stopping every so often to take a closer look at the wood beneath his hand. After a full minute, the face of one of the moose heads decorating the front popped open. “Well, lookee here. It seems our first suspicion might have been right after all.”
The space behind the moose head was small, but not so tiny that a thumb drive couldn’t be hidden there. When the head was closed, it didn’t look at all different from its counterpart on the other side of the mantel. If you didn’t know where to press to open the small compartment, you’d likely never stumble across it.
“I think we found our drop box,” I said.
“Yeah. It’s empty, which, because Tim never checked in that last time, is to be expected.”
“Is it possible he stashed the drive in the hiding place and then someone picked it up much later? I know we’re looking at whoever checked in immediately after Tim, but the hiding place is a good one. Someone could have come by for it at any time.”
“Unless a name really pops, I doubt we’ll figure out who picked it up. I’ll get a list of everyone who’s stayed in this room for the past three months. For now, let’s pack our things, check out, and head for the bar.”
The snow had stopped and a plow had been by, making the trip south a lot faster than the trip north had been. Shredder seemed deep in thought, so I put on my headphones and listened to music while we sped along the straight, flat road. I’d only known Shredder for a couple of days, but we’d delivered puppies together and I’d grown to like him. I was well aware that the people in your life were simply borrowed; even the ones closest to you could be gone at any moment. I tried not to get overly attached to anyone, especially those who didn’t live in Rescue, but I’d miss my mysterious friend when he was gone.
It was lunchtime by the time we arrived at the bar, which, like Neverland, also served food, meaning the place was crowded at noon. We found a table in the corner and Shredder ordered us each a soda and a sandwich to share because we’d had such a big breakfast. When our order was placed, Shredder pulled the bartender aside. I could see he was showing the man the photo of Tim. I watched as the bartender nodded. Shredder handed him a folded bill, which I suspected was a hundred, and returned to the table.
“Bingo,” Shredder said. “Tim was here the day before he was found dead. The bartender said he came in, used the bathroom, and left. He also said he’d been in a couple of other times over the past few months.”
“So, we know he did head north that day; he just didn’t make it to the inn. Do you think he arranged to meet his connection somewhere else?”
“Maybe,” Shredder said. “Or maybe he hid the drive. The note he sent Harley indicated he had a plan. Maybe he was going to try to negotiate a deal of some sort using the drive as leverage.”
“It could have happened that way. Maybe you should take a look around the bathroom. That’s where the bartender said he was heading.”
Shredder smiled. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
While I waited, I checked my messages and returned a couple of texts to members of the animal shelter team, who were working on the remodel while I was busy chasing an international criminal. Shredder made it sound like Pickard had no alliances and would steal information from anyone. No wonder he found the need to stay hidden. It must be difficult to stay alive with so many enemies. Personally, I didn’t understand the motivation for doing something like that. Sure, there was the money, but the guy was obviously a genius, and there were easier ways to make a buck. I supposed he might just like the challenge of hacking into the most well-secured databases in the world. It seemed like a waste to me, using his genius for evil, not good.
Shredder returned fifteen minutes later with a grin on his face.
“Did you find it?”
“I found it. Let’s get out of here.”
We still had another hour to go before we’d reach Rescue and I was about to settle in for another silent ride, but this time Shredder was chatty.
“I need to try to decrypt this to know what sort of information Tim had, but the fact that the drive hadn’t been found could mean Pickard still has eyes in Rescue, just waiting for someone to come up with it. If he does, maybe we can lure them out. Either way, I’ll put the word out that the drive has been retrieved before I leave. You should be safe once Pickard knows we have it.”
“Isn’t it a bad idea for you to let him know you’re on to him before you find him?”
“Maybe. I’ll talk to my superiors. Depending on what I find on the drive, we may need to come up with an alternate plan.”
The rest of the drive was accomplished in silence. When he dropped me off, I asked Shredder if he wanted to come in, but he informed me that he needed to retrieve some things from the place he was staying. He asked if it would be okay if he left Riptide with me and came back for some dinner in a couple of hours. I told him Rescue didn’t really have takeout places, though Sarge could box something up if he stopped by Neverland. He said he’d do it, and I headed into the house.
“You’re back early,” Justine said when I walked through the door, to be greeted by an entire pack of dogs.
“Weather cleared up, so it was a quick trip. How’d everything go?”
“Great. All the animals were fed this morning, but I hadn’t gotten started on evening rounds yet. The pups have had two of their four meals. I was just about to give them the third. I’ve really grown attached to the chocolate-colored pup. He’s a lot more alert than the others. I may even want to adopt hi
m when he gets older, if that’s okay.”
“That would be great. I plan to find homes for all the puppies if I can. I already have quite the houseful.”
“You really do. I took a drive out to the site for the shelter this morning. They have a lot done already. Having a place to take strays and unwanted pets is going to make a huge difference.”
I felt my heart gladden. “Yeah. It really will.”
Justine began to gather her things. “Oh, before I forget, someone called you. A man with a deep voice. I tried to take a message, but he didn’t want to leave one. He said he’d call back, but I want to warn you, he sounded sort of creepy. Almost like he was talking through one of those voice-altering devices.”
Well, that didn’t sound good.
Chapter 12
Shredder arrived at around six with a bag from Neverland. He hadn’t asked me what I wanted, but Jake and Sarge would be able to steer him in the right direction, so I wasn’t worried. We decided to eat first, then discuss where we stood when we had some food in our stomachs. It seemed as if we’d done nothing but eat for the past twenty-four hours, yet I found I was hungry.
I knew I needed to tell Shredder about the creepy call Justine had taken for me, but I figured I’d wait until after we ate. I’d fed, exercised, and tended to all the animals after she left, so all I had to do was give the pups their final supplemental meal of the day and I’d be free the rest of the evening.
“So, do you have a home? A place you go when you aren’t on the road chasing bad guys?” I asked.
Shredder nodded. “I have a place. I can’t say where; it doesn’t matter.”
“I guess with all the traveling you do, it makes it hard to have things in your life like plants or a girlfriend.”
“I tried to have a plant once. The woman at the nursery assured me it didn’t need a lot of water or attention, but it died during the first assignment I had after I got it. I have Riptide, however, and I do have friends who have grown to mean a lot to me despite the fact that I’ll very likely be moving on before long.”