Christmas Under Fire

by Michelle Karl

Too bad she belonged to another country, another place. She had responsibilities of her own, and had experienced nothing but disruption and pain since arriving in Fort Mason.

  He gently cleared his throat and she roused, blinked up at him and smiled.

  His insides melted and his patience with himself waned. He’d only known this woman for less than two days, and yet already he was trying to hide the truth from himself.

  Whether he liked it or not, he was falling in love.

  * * *

  Cally’s anxiety skyrocketed with each passing hour. While Aaron seemed perfectly capable at completing his paperwork and conducting the investigation from behind a desk—a necessary part of the job, she was well aware, plus the wisest course of action while trying to keep her safe—she couldn’t relax. Despite his insistence that they were safe inside the police station, instead of feeling protected, she just felt restless and trapped.

  Did she trust Tricia’s assertion that her interest in Cally’s visit was purely business-related? That it didn’t actually have to do with what she thought she might have witnessed after the attack at the spa? Unrequited love sometimes made people react in extremes, and Aaron had implied that this wasn’t the first time Tricia had acted strangely under the guise of trying to get close to him—or get back together with him. Did Tricia really see Cally as a threat? Had she been trying to scare Cally off, resorting to outrageous measures and using weapons after seeing Aaron’s and Cally’s faces a little too close together when they’d been sitting next to each other in the hallway? Tricia had asked a lot of questions, but she didn’t seem like the type of person to attack and shoot at somebody. Plus, the attacks had started the day prior to that incident.

  Then again, weren’t most criminals also great actors? And Tricia had taken an obscenely long time to respond to the call button after Cally had pressed it. It was almost as if Tricia had been purposefully killing time—giving someone else a chance to get to the room first. The room had also had a convenient escape route, though it had required breaking a window. As outlandish as the suspicion seemed, Tricia’s visit still wasn’t sitting right.

  “How are you feeling?” Aaron entered the room, wearing more gear than he’d sported earlier. Was he planning to go somewhere?

  She shrugged and rubbed her temples. “I’ve been better, but that’s no surprise. I’ve been trying to rack my brain over why this might be happening, but it seems like your abduction for ransom theory is the best one we have so far. Unless you have a new lead and a different idea?”

  “Yes and no. The interview with Tricia didn’t reveal any more pertinent details. I know, pretty much everyone is a suspect right now, but I still have reservations about her guilt.”

  Cally nodded, wanting to trust him. He seemed like the kind of man who saw the good side of everyone—even if his job probably wanted him to do the opposite—and she appreciated that. “Maybe she’s just a woman in love who doesn’t know how to handle it?”

  Aaron’s cheeks turned pink. “Uh, well...”

  “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. She’s not your responsibility. I think she’s otherwise a nice person. I only wish our conversation had been about more substantial topics—she is a successful business owner, after all. I could learn a few things from her about client relationships that might help with my freelance contracts.”

  He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms. “Are you being serious?”

  “I am. Provided she’s not behind the attacks, that is.” Cally sat upright and gestured to Aaron’s outfit. “But what’s with the getup?”

  Aaron fiddled with his radio for a moment before responding. “The guys found an abandoned snowmobile in a back field and have brought it to the local garage for testing—fingerprints, serial numbers and so forth. Leo also found evidence of a break-in at Mrs. Henderson’s home, which tells us that of the three phony 911 calls, at least one was made on-location. Mrs. Henderson likely had no idea—I mean, her hearing has mostly gone anyway, so someone sneaking around might have been able to get in and out without her noticing. The call from the church also probably came from on-location—there was apparently someone working in the main office at the time that I was wandering around searching for the source of the call, but that individual had stepped out to take a parcel to the post office. The church doesn’t lock its doors in general, so it would have been easy to get inside and make a call before slipping away.”

  “But didn’t you say a woman made one of those calls?”

  “Yes, a woman made one of the calls, according to the operator I spoke with. The other two calls came from male callers, but honestly, that’s not something we can trust, either. There are phone apps that can record your voice and then alter it. I listened to the 911 calls, and it’s entirely possible they were prerecorded. People don’t use natural cadence when making emergency calls due to the high-adrenaline nature of the moment, so it’s hard to tell a true call from a false recording.”

  “So you don’t think there are two people working together? Just one?”

  “I honestly don’t want to rule it out either way. We could have one person, two or three, and I can’t rule out male or female. We know at least one of the individuals involved is male, but that’s all we can say for sure. What I do know is that they’re not going to be able to continue to get away with this. The entire town has been alerted to the situation, and as soon as we receive a phone call with information on a suspicious person, an unrecognized vehicle or any other unusual activity, we’re going to be on it.

  “Finding the snowmobile is a huge break. It gives us something to go on, or it will once we search the registration records to help us pinpoint where the vehicle came from—then we can figure out who sold or rented it, and to whom. If it’s a rental, the rental place may even have video security footage. And if not, unless it was a cash sale, there’s going to be a paper trail, either through credit cards or a rental agreement. As far as I’m aware, there are no shady rental companies around here—and if it’s a privately owned off-road vehicle, the province has pretty strict paper trail requirements.”

  “Unless it’s a stolen snowmobile, in which case the owner is probably panicking.”

  “And if that’s the case, we’ll deal with it when it comes to that. But you’d think that if someone noticed their snowmobile missing, they’d call us. I mean, where is the thief going to go? All the way to Vancouver? I mean, it sounds elaborate, but we’re in a very small town. People notice things. Getting away with medium-to large-scale crime is nearly impossible.”

  “Except for the illegal guns thing?” She felt bad when Aaron winced. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

  He sighed, but nodded. “Yes, okay. That’s major, and very serious. But Ellen’s brother, Jamie, is on the case for it, so it’s not within our wheelhouse. If this case brings any leads, great, but otherwise it’s not my assignment. I’d be handing off any intel to someone else.”

  Cally stood, stretching her back and legs. Sitting around the police station was not only driving her stir-crazy, it was also making her body cramp up. “That’s fair. I guess you have your hands full enough with these thefts. Do you work multiple cases at a time, though? I suppose you must.”

  “We do, especially here. The RCMP is a federal police force, but in rural areas like Fort Mason, we serve as the local police. Sometimes we take on more federal-based assignments, though. Special tasks, that sort of thing.”

  “Like what?” Now she was curious. “If you’re federal, does that mean you’re like the FBI?”

  A tiny smile curved the corner of his mouth. “In some ways. We do deal with some national incidents. We also escort foreign dignitaries, for example.”

  “Oh, right.” She laughed. “Like me, apparently.”

  “Yeah.” He looked back over his shoulder. “I have a few more things to finish up, then my parents will be over to covert
ly move you to their home, if you’re okay with that. Or we can wait until your uncle gets here, but I thought that might be a little more conspicuous than my parents coming and going from the station. Any update from your uncle lately?”

  She checked her phone. The last she’d heard from him was about two hours ago, a final text as the cabin was instructed to put their phones in flight mode. “He should be here soon, I’d think. He’ll let me know when he arrives, and I’ll tell you right away.”

  “Great. Leo is ready to head out to get him.”

  She thanked him and tried to plaster on an expression of contentment while he went back to work. But inside, all she felt was churning acid. Staying indoors in the station felt like a constant state of anticipation, waiting for the next terrible thing to happen.

  But despite all the terrifying attacks she’d been through in such a short time, she found herself trusting that Aaron would see them through. She hoped, truly and deeply, that he’d be able to find and arrest the attackers as quickly as possible, because as much as she’d come to terms with having Uncle Zarek visit, she didn’t relish the thought of bringing anyone else into the line of fire and ruining someone else’s holiday.

  Secondary to that, however, was the strange and invasive thought that if Uncle Zarek didn’t stick around for more than a day or two—and if Aaron was able to catch these attackers as quickly as he hoped to—there was a chance, however slight, that she might spend some stress-free time alone with the handsome RCMP officer.

  Just to say thank you, she told herself. Just to show my appreciation for everything he’s done for me.

  But as Aaron walked back into the room to refill his coffee, offering up a genuine half smile as he passed by, Cally knew that wasn’t true. As strange as it was, and as guilty as she felt for it, she had feelings for Aaron—and she didn’t have a clue what to do about them.

  TWELVE

  Aaron kept a close watch on the front of the RCMP station. His parents were due to arrive any minute to transfer Cally over to their home, and he felt increasingly uncomfortable at the thought of her leaving his sight. Just because there hadn’t been a deliberate attack since yesterday didn’t mean the culprit wasn’t outside someplace, hiding and waiting...

  The upside was that, since returning from the spa, Hatch had been able to park around the corner to keep watch on the building, just in case. The downside was that he couldn’t stay there forever, not with the detachment’s limited resources. Not to mention that his review of the spa’s security system had revealed very little. It was difficult to tell whether it’d been deliberately tampered with, or if the system had gone out due to the power outages. They’d called Fort St. Jacob to ask for a tech expert to come in—and served an official warrant to the spa—but it was going to be a day or two before the expert arrived.

  The radio buzzed on his belt—Leo was likely calling from his car, on the way to receive Cally’s uncle. Cell service had grown spotty again as the wind outside had picked up, blowing around yesterday’s snow and generally making a worse mess of an already dicey weather situation. He felt bad for the town’s community volunteer crew who were currently attempting to set up for tomorrow’s tree lighting event. They’d have a hard time doing much of anything.

  “How’s the drive?” Aaron said in response to the radio call. Footsteps came toward him down the hall, and he glanced up to see Cally settling into a chair in the public waiting area. She looked nervous...or was that loneliness?

  “Terrible,” Leo said. “I’m pulling into the airport now. Looks like the plane is landing. Good thing, too, with how this wind is gusting. I heard back from the garage and sent you a message that the snowmobile was rented at a place on the other side of town, the one down the road from the spa—did you get that?”

  “I did. Sorry, I didn’t get a chance to follow up with you on that, but I have some ideas. Let me know when you’re coming back into town, and I’ll make sure Cally is over at Mom and Dad’s.” Cally glanced up at the sound of her name. Aaron gave her a thumbs-up, which she acknowledged with a tiny half smile. “Drop him off there, too, and then come back to the station,” he continued. “I want to head out to the snowmobile rental place and ask the owner a few questions, see if they have any security footage we can check out. They’ll have a rental agreement. That’s not something the rental place can get around, so it could be the break we’re looking for.”

  “You’re going to leave Roslin with Mom and Dad? And her uncle, I guess. But shouldn’t you be at the station, or at least nearby in case of emergency? She trusts you. The rental shop is fifteen minutes east in good weather.”

  Aaron ran his hand down the side of his face. The weather was making this investigation difficult to organize and conduct, and while he was fully aware that couldn’t be helped, it didn’t mean he felt any better about the lack of progress thus far.

  He’d promised to do his best to bring the criminal responsible for the attacks to justice by the end of today, in time for the event tomorrow, but he was hardly closer to a resolution than he’d been on the day of Cally’s arrival. She trusted him to get this taken care of, she’d told him so more than once, and yet he continued to fail her at every turn.

  Not to mention that there was no way she’d be giving a favorable report on his work after the assignment had ended. He’d never get his promotion.

  Though, truth be told, the promotion was the furthest thing from his mind right now. Ever since admitting to himself that he had romantic feelings for her, Cally was all he could think about. Even now, she sat only a few meters away, and yet it felt as if they were miles apart. There was no point in indulging any of his emotions, not when a future with her was an impossibility.

  The thought was a harsh reality. He wished he could escape the station for a breath of fresh air, to clear his head.

  “Plus,” Leo said, voice crackling through the radio static, “we need to find a way to wrap this up, because you’ll be needed at the tree lighting tomorrow.”

  “I’m not sure I can legitimately let Cally attend that.” He sighed. “Not with the danger still present.”

  “You think these goons would make another abduction attempt in a town full of RCMP officers? There’ll be at least ten of us, plus volunteers and auxiliary. Someone draws a weapon and they’re not making it two feet before we’re on them.”

  That gave Aaron pause. There were ten additional officers plus extra help coming into Fort Mason for the tree lighting—an unusual amount for such a small town, but the local detachments cooperated to support each other during holiday events. Besides, nearly every resident who’d remained in town, plus folks in the surrounding area and plenty from Fort St. Jacob, would be driving in for the event. In return, citizens from Fort Mason would drive down to Fort St. Jacob for their Christmas parade next Friday, and everyone from both towns would go to the holiday lights show at Schroeder Lake on Christmas Eve.

  There’d be hundreds of people and a significant security presence in Fort Mason’s town square. Leo wasn’t wrong—anyone who produced a weapon would be taken down immediately. A thief wouldn’t get far, either. All factors considered, Cally would be safe as long as she remained in full view of himself and the other officers—in fact, probably safer in a public gathering than if she stayed at the police station, though he’d already drawn up multiple scenario response plans in case one of her attackers became impatient and decided to simply stride through the front door. Not that he thought anyone would get far if they stepped into the police station. They’d be identified and the station locked down in seconds—well, provided they had full power restored first.

  But judging by how shaken Cally had been when ensconced safely inside the patrol car and had a gun drawn on her, he didn’t want to imagine what it would be like if someone started rapping on the doors, or shaking door handles, or shooting at the glass to try to get into the station.

  “I’m
thinking we keep the visitors near you and pull in two of the Fort St. Jacob guys to watch your six in the meantime,” Leo suggested. “Okay? I’ll brief Biers as soon as I’ve dropped off the visitor and finished up at the rental shop, then call to update.”

  Aaron begrudgingly agreed, then hung up and glanced over the desk to check on Cally—and found her watching him, a stricken expression on her face. He hurried over to her. She had her phone in her hands, tapping the device against her palm over and over.

  “Is everything all right? What’s wrong?”

  Cally blinked as though trying to process whatever information she’d received. “I just spoke to Ellen. I guess Tricia called to update her on the offer to do a private booking, the same thing she suggested to me during her visit here. Anyway, Ellen thought it sounded great and rescheduled a few treatments for the two of us. At your parents’ place.”

  “And?”

  “The spa just called her to cancel.”

  Aaron shrugged. “That’s not so unusual. The next day or so will be pretty busy for the town, since the tree lighting is tomorrow. All those empty streets will have plenty of people, residents and visitors, so everyone is preparing.”

  “No, that’s not the important part.” Cally stared at him, her eyes wide with concern and a hint of fear. “They canceled because Tricia didn’t show up for her afternoon clients. And she’s not answering her calls. No one can get in touch with her. Aaron, Tricia has gone MIA. And she knows where I’m staying tonight.”

  * * *

  Cally’s heart pounded in her chest as Aaron growled under his breath and got back on the phone. She listened as he made calls to the spa, to the other officers and to Ellen to find out exactly what she’d said to Tricia. She also heard him on the phone with someone who she suspected was his father.

  She tried deep breathing through waves of light-headedness. She didn’t want to believe the spa owner had anything to do with the attacks, but...it was too strange that she’d up and disappeared. When Aaron marched back down the hallway to the staff room, the intensity on his face only aggravated her anxiety. “Did you learn anything?” she asked, hopeful.