Christmas Under Fire

by Michelle Karl

To her relief, they finally passed the welcome sign for the town. But as she pulled up alongside Aaron to remark on their progress, she was suddenly startled by the sight of the man beside her and found the words caught in her throat. Aaron led the way with a calm ease, willingly carving a path for her and constantly checking to ensure she stayed directly behind him so that he could take the full brunt of the cold wind and blowing snow. He looked confident and assured. A tiny flutter stirred inside her stomach.

  Where is that coming from?

  Why wasn’t he married yet? If she knew him better—and perhaps if they weren’t trudging through a snowstorm after a series of bizarre attacks by a possible kidnapper—she might ask him. She thought she still might, after they reached the station and warmed up, because the curiosity was a little overwhelming. Aaron was a serious catch for any woman, the way she saw it. Secure career, good family, loved by the community—or so she gathered from the interactions she’d seen so far—and exceptionally handsome. He and his brother Leo shared the same strong, square jawline and short, dark hair, though Aaron wore his even shorter, and his eyes were a lighter brown than his brother’s. Almost more hazel than brown—not that she’d noticed for any reason beyond a matter-of-fact observation, of course.

  She was also lying to herself, and she knew it. Escaping the guilt, on the other hand, was an impossible task. Plus, they lived in different countries.

  “Cally? Are you all right?”

  Cally looked up to find Aaron watching her with concern. Her cheeks warmed. “Yes, sorry. I’m fine. Just lost in thought.”

  “The swirling snow will do that to you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been driving through a blizzard and had to shake myself out of a spiraling thought pattern. Look, we’ve reached the edge of town!” He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket, sighed and put it back. “Still no signal. Well, the RCMP station is on the other side, so we don’t have that much farther to go, but it’s still a small hike.”

  “Lead on,” she said, trying very hard not to look at him. It felt like her thoughts were written clear across her face.

  As they started walking again, the outlines of buildings on either side of the street became a touch clearer, though Fort Mason as a whole looked like an abandoned town. There were no cars in the streets, and no one walked around outside. The sparkle of holiday decorations on the light posts and sidewalk trees had been dulled by accumulated snow, making them look worn and tired. Cally thought back to Leo’s comment on Fort Mason during the winter, how many residents either went south for a few months or stayed indoors most of the time. She supposed it was even worse than usual right now, in the middle of a snowstorm.

  She was about to remark on the eerie serenity of the town when movement at the edge of her vision caught her attention. When she turned to look, she saw a hooded figure in white duck into an alley between two retail stores. Alarm punched into her stomach, but she shoved it away just as quickly. It was ridiculous to get worked up about every single person she saw wearing full-coverage clothing. The poor individual was probably just trying to get from point A to point B without freezing to death, so of course they’d have their head and body covered as much as possible.

  But several minutes later, a sensation of discomfort washed over her, like she was being watched. It was the same feeling she’d had during her spa tour. When she turned her head to check, hoping it was simply her mind playing tricks on her, she once again made out the shadowy outline of a person ducking between buildings.

  Was that the same person? It couldn’t be.

  “Aaron?” She tapped his shoulder and he paused, turning around. “Have you noticed anyone else outside since we’ve been walking?”

  He shook his head. “No, we seem to be the only people outdoors. None of these shops are even open today. Why, have you?”

  “Maybe I’m seeing things, but I thought I saw someone slip between the stores back there. Once about five minutes ago, and then again just now.”

  He frowned. “I’d like to say we don’t need to worry about it, but after all that’s happened, I’m not taking any chances. Come on, let’s get off the main drag.”

  He led them down the next street, taking a shortcut through a small parking lot and around the block before meeting back up with the main street again. The moment they walked up to the corner, Cally gasped. The shadowy shape was back, and it appeared to be a person leaning against a wall under a store awning—not a trick of the light or her mind making shapes out of the falling snow. It looked as though the person was waiting for something. Or someone.

  “Aaron...” Cally couldn’t stop her voice from wavering.

  “I see him,” Aaron said in a low tone. “Come on, we’re almost to the station. If we hurry—”

  But as they took the first steps to resume their journey, Cally couldn’t resist the urge to look over her shoulder.

  She almost screamed.

  The white-clad figure had started moving, and the person was running straight for them.

  SEVEN

  Aaron heard Cally’s soft gasp and glanced back. Alarm and frustration flared in his gut. Could they not catch a break? This person was heading their direction at a rapid clip, and if Cally was right and they’d been followed as they trekked through town, the individual was unlikely to be running at them in order to offer a ride or a kind word for the holidays. The fact that the person hadn’t said anything to introduce him or herself told Aaron all he needed to know.

  They needed to hide, and fast—because there was no way they’d make it to the station before their pursuer caught up.

  “This way,” Aaron said. He ushered Cally around the side of a building and they ran down an alleyway, weaving around trash cans and recycle bins. Once they’d reached the back of the building, he led Cally down the narrow backstreet for delivery vehicles, heading toward the closest place he knew of where they’d be able to find shelter, even closer than the police station—the grocery store on King Street where his mother worked as an occasional merchandiser and food sample demonstrator. More than once, he’d helped his mother bring her boxes of product into the store before it opened for the day, so he knew the security code to get inside via the stockroom entrance.

  Thank You, Lord! Your provision never ceases to amaze me.

  They rushed up to the door. Aaron fumbled to remove his glove and lift the protective lid from the security pad.

  “He’s in the alleyway.” Cally’s voice cracked. “Aaron?”

  His fingers, cramped from the cold, refused to do what his brain was telling them to. He had to hold his right hand steady with his left, guiding his fingers to punch in the numbers on the pad, all the while praying that the code hadn’t been changed since the last time he’d visited.

  The white-clad figure was close enough for Aaron to see that he or she wore a heavy white winter coat and a ski mask over the face—a getup similar to the one worn by the attacker at Cally’s cabin, but the coat was a new addition, as opposed to the plain white hoodie from the cabin. The person also wore heavier boots than the man at the spa. Footsteps thumped the ground with every step. Was the attacker at the spa a different person than the intruder at the cabin? What about the attacker in black at the airport?

  It didn’t make sense, but he wasn’t going to wait around to ask questions. The metallic click of a sliding lock brought a wave of relief, and he pushed the door open to usher Cally inside. He slipped in behind her, slammed the door closed and slid the manual interior lock into place just as a heavy object thumped against the metal.

  Cally screamed and jumped, and Aaron flinched back in surprise. The handle rattled as the person outside tried the door. The manual lock shook, too, which worried Aaron more than he wanted it to.

  “Can you use the electronic lock again?” Cally said, backing deeper into the stockroom. “That doesn’t sound very sturdy.”

  “It’ll hold,
” Aaron said with more confidence than he felt. “It’s old, but it’ll hold. I’m afraid I don’t know the code to lock back up—I’ve only ever come here before opening. Let’s not stay, though. There should be a landline somewhere in the store that we can use to call the station for backup. Let’s go.”

  He wrapped his arm around Cally’s shoulders to lead them into the main area of the store, but as soon as they crossed the threshold from the stockroom, Aaron pulled them to a halt. He’d forgotten that the entire front of the grocery store was made up of large glass windows. And while they could hardly see anything outside of the windows thanks to the snowstorm—the stores on the other side were totally obscured—anyone could walk by and peer in. He’d been thinking he might turn on the lights so they could navigate the store better, but the curtainless windows ruled that right out.

  “Where should we search for the phone?” Cally whispered.

  The rattling at the back door stopped as Aaron squinted into the darkened store. “The manager’s office should have a phone. Maybe the customer service desk, too.” He waved her along the back aisle, behind the shelving units. Faint light from the freezers illuminated the way enough that they could see where they were going without banging into things.

  They reached the door to the manager’s office and Aaron turned the knob. It was locked.

  “The customer service desk is up near the front,” he said, heading down the next closest aisle.

  He froze as a blurry shape moved in front of the window.

  “Go back!” He gestured at Cally to back up to the far end of the aisle. They stood with their backs to a display of soup cans, and Aaron prayed that their reflection in the security mirrors mounted around the corners of the store’s ceiling wouldn’t be visible to the person outside. He peered around the edge of the aisle. The person dressed in white was walking slowly past the broad windows. If Aaron tried to reach the customer service desk, he’d be spotted. He pulled out his phone again, hoping the signal had returned. It hadn’t.

  Cally exclaimed something in what he figured was Amaran before sighing in frustration. “Why don’t they just give up? Clearly I’m not an easy target. I’m being protected by armed law enforcement—they’re not going to win if this turns even more serious.”

  “I appreciate your faith in me. And if I have to, I’ll use my Taser or sidearm, but I’m hoping the situation won’t come to that.” Aaron looked around the shelves again. The person was gone—or at least no longer visible. For all he knew, the individual might be waiting at the edge of the windows, peering around to look at them the same way Aaron was looking for him. Or her.

  Aaron couldn’t say for sure if this was the same attacker as at the spa, but if so, he had to be using a highly reliable form of transportation to be able to move from one place to another so quickly. Otherwise, how had they all made it into town at the same time? There’d been no other tire tracks on the road into town. Even if the tracks had been covered by snow, this person’s car would have certainly been stuck, too... It wasn’t as though he and Cally had left much later than the fleeing attacker.

  Were there actually two people involved? Maybe Aaron had read the man’s expression wrong during their face-off at the spa. Regardless, Fort Mason was a small town—this person or these people wouldn’t be able to hide for long. And for that matter, certainly the attacker or attackers knew that Aaron was an RCMP officer, and still they’d gone after Cally. Twice prior while he was in uniform—three times if he counted this incident, since he was still wearing his gear despite technically being off the clock. This culprit was either incredibly brave or very unwise.

  Or totally clueless.

  “I’m going to make a break for the customer service desk,” Aaron said. “Our options here are to sit and wait for cell service or to make a landline call out, and I’m not content to just sit here. I can defend us if necessary, but as an RCMP officer, I need to disengage as much as possible.”

  Cally took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Do you think they’re going to find another way in? There’s not another door we’re unaware of, is there?”

  “Like at the cabin? No. I don’t think so. But I’d advise you to stay here and keep low to the ground, okay? Stay out of the way while I make the call. Backup should get here in minutes—or faster.”

  Cally frowned but nodded in support. Part of him wanted to wait a moment longer, to say something to reassure her that everything happening had to be a huge misunderstanding, but he couldn’t bring himself to say words he didn’t fully believe. He’d be setting a bad example as a leader if he willingly offered false hope. But if he kept her expectations realistic and brought them out of this peacefully and uninjured, it’d look good on his record. First and foremost, however, he’d have done his job honestly and well.

  He crouched and turned around to face the direction of the customer service desk. He didn’t want to spend time unlatching the small gate at the desk, but his other option was to hoist himself over the countertop and drop into the center of the customer service space.

  The longer he waited, the more he’d get inside his own head—so he counted to three and sprang out from the hiding spot. He bounded across the store without anyone in sight outside.

  Less than three meters from the desk, the figure dressed in white appeared at the window. Aaron’s stomach lurched in surprise, but he kept moving. The figure stopped in a wide-legged stance and reached for something at their waist.

  Aaron’s fingers touched the edge of the customer service desk’s countertop, and he made a decision—he gripped it and launched himself over the side, spotting the phone immediately. He grabbed the entire handset and pulled it down into the central well of the desk, then dialed the station directly. The click of his call being answered came within seconds.

  “Requesting assistance at the Grocery Mart. I repeat, we have an emergency at the Grocery Mart, needing backup immediately.”

  “Aaron?” Leo’s voice was incredulous. “You’ve got it. Is the perp armed?”

  “Unsure.”

  “On our way.”

  Aaron dropped the phone and started to stand, but the instant his head crested the top of the customer service desk, he dropped down again.

  A bang split the air, and the front window of the grocery store shattered as the figure in white fired at Aaron’s hiding space.

  Please, Lord. Keep Cally safe.

  He hoped she’d stay quiet and make her way to the back room. There were boxes to hide behind or inside until the cavalry arrived. He could already hear sirens. He also heard the secondary smash of window shards being knocked out of the way so that someone could enter over the windowsill without slicing themselves open. What was with this person and smashing windows?

  Aaron reached for his sidearm—then thought better of it and chose his stun weapon instead. He didn’t know exactly where in the building Cally had holed up, and he didn’t want to take the risk of shooting toward the shelves with real bullets. Carefully and quietly, he slid his Taser out of the holster. As long as the individual remained focused on Aaron’s hiding space and not Cally, Aaron was confident he could hold the person off with his stun weapon until backup arrived. The sirens were already growing louder, but the footsteps still came closer, crunching on the broken glass.

  And then he heard the thump of an overturned box. The footsteps stopped. Glass scraped.

  The footsteps took off in another direction.

  Aaron didn’t waste a moment. He leaped over the customer service desk, Taser at the ready. He raced after the intruder as Cally suddenly cried out. Flashing lights were visible in the falling snow as Aaron ran past the windows.

  “Stop! RCMP!” Aaron shouted, seeing the intruder disappear into the back room.

  Seconds later there was another bang.

  Cally’s screams went silent.

  * * *

  Cally s
curried backward in the darkness of the stockroom, weaving around boxes and under shelving as the intruder advanced on her hiding place. An empty box had fallen as she’d come into the room, surprising her so much that she’d accidentally cried out. Now, the intruder’s head swiveled side to side as if trying to figure out where she’d gone, and there was no mistaking the shiny black object in his hands.

  Why am I being shot at?

  She filled her lungs, readying a scream for help, when the whoop of a siren sounded outside. The intruder took two steps toward where she’d crouched behind a pile of crates, then seemed to think better of it and ran at the back exit, slamming a shoulder into the metal door. The loose manual bolt, which she’d been worried about earlier, came free and crashed to the floor with a bang. The intruder went sprawling outside, and the stockroom door swung closed.

  She almost cried from the intensity of her relief. If she still talked to God, she’d thank Him for keeping her safe...but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Was her anger justified? She wasn’t sure. She knew the Book of Job inside and out and was well aware that sometimes tragedies happened for God’s greater purpose, even if it was impossible to understand at the time—and even if it hurt terribly—and she also knew that feeling bitter and angry toward God was a dangerous state to be in. Would she ever blame God for taking Esai away from her? She had at first, even if she hadn’t said it aloud. She’d known intellectually that it wasn’t God’s fault, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

  Aaron burst into the stockroom, his own weapon drawn. “Cally! Where are you?”

  Without waiting for an answer, he crossed to the back door that was swinging shut and poked his head out.

  “I’m over here!” She stood as Aaron rushed forward and reached out as if he wanted to hug her. At the last moment, he pulled his arm back. “Are you hurt? I heard a bang. It sounded like a shot went off.”

  “It was the door,” she said, pointing at it. “See the sliding latch? It’s on the floor. I had a bad feeling about that latch when it was rattling. Good thing the store has upgraded to the electronic security, but they might want to replace that.”