Chapter 27
As soon as the police arrived, Sheri was in a bind. She didn’t know what to do. Otis was terrified of her. For good reason. Every time he moved a muscle, she growled at him, and her hackles rose. She looked like a very growly wolf, ready to tear into him.
He tried to reason with her, telling her she was a good dog, but she had to keep him here out of Slade’s way. She didn’t want Slade to have to deal with two armed men at the same time in the event Otis retrieved his gun. When she heard the gunshots, Otis looked like he wanted to race out of the bedroom—and so did she, to save Slade—but she growled low at Otis, lowering her head, showing just how menacing her teeth could be.
Then she heard Slade talking to the police as they entered the back door. Someone headed down the hall toward the bedroom that she and Otis were in. She dashed into the closet, figuring the police officer would take Otis into custody. She didn’t want them to find her wearing her Arctic wolf coat. The bedroom happened to be the master bedroom, the clothes in the closet all Nancy’s. Sheri suspected Tex slept in another room.
She shifted, then hurried to pull off one of Nancy’s sweater dresses hanging in the closet. Sheri couldn’t think of anything else to do at the time.
As soon as the police officer had Otis in hand, she came out of the closet and said, “Oh, I’m so glad you finally got here. I’ve been so scared.” She wasn’t wearing shoes, or anything else, just the sweater dress.
Otis was just staring at her, like he couldn’t believe someone had been hiding in the closet all this time. She almost smiled.
“There’s a vicious dog in there,” Otis said, motioning to the closet with his good hand. The officer tried to cuff him, and he shouted, “Hey, hey, hey, my wrist is broken! Be careful.”
Sheri needed to get her clothes. She was hoping she could grab them from the living room before Nancy saw her wearing her dress and wondered what that was all about. But it was already too late. She could hear the police escorting the couple into the living room and the officer was taking Otis there too.
They were all talking to the police, Tex saying, “Slade and Sheri have saved my life twice now.” He explained about the BWCA incident and that they had brought him Benny because of his heart condition.
“Where’s Sheri?” one of the officers asked.
“She stayed in the bedroom,” the other officer said.
“I’ll go check on her,” Slade said.
She was so relieved when Slade walked into the bedroom, and he was carrying her clothes. He was the best mate ever. She hurried back into the closet with her clothes and rehung Nancy’s dress and then slipped into her own things.
“Thank you.” She hugged Slade. “I’m so glad you didn’t get shot.”
“That hiking walking stick came in handy. You should have seen Fitz’s expression when he saw me.”
“Oh, I bet! Everywhere he goes, we show up to thwart him.”
Then they joined the others in the living room and Otis was claiming he wanted to charge Slade with breaking his wrist.
“You were going to shoot Slade,” Sheri said. “He had no other way to stop you from shooting him.”
One of the officers said to Sheri, “One of my former partners, Dulcie? She said both of you would make a couple of outstanding police officers.”
Sheri was glad it had all worked out.
EMTs arrived to check out Tex to make sure his blood pressure and heart rate were okay, to wrap Otis’s wrist, and to check out Fitz’s chest after Slade hit him with the wolf walking stick. He would be wearing a hefty bruise, but that was all.
After getting everyone’s statements, Otis and Fitz were hauled off in a couple of patrol cars. Slade and Sheri shared their witness statements and signed them.
Then the police left, and the Lincolns thanked Sheri and Slade for all their help, for bringing Benny to live with them, for saving them, and wished them a Merry Christmas.
Sheri smiled as she and Slade walked out of the house to the rental van to drive to the mall. “I think this time, Fitz and Otis will get a stay in jail.”
“I agree. Which makes for a very merry Christmas for all the rest of us. When we get to the mall, do you want to shop together?” Slade asked.
“No way. Our presents are supposed to be a secret from each other.”
“I don’t want to lose you,” he said.
“We both have our phones, no problem with reception here, so we should be good.”
“It’s going to be crowded. Oh, speaking of which, we need to make a reservation for lunch because of the crowds.”
“I’m on it,” she said. “How about a grill house? Another place has wings, shrimp, burgers.”
“The grill house sounds good. After all we went through, we deserve something special.”
She made reservations and then when they arrived at the mall, she looked at it in wonder. The whole place was filled with frosted Christmas trees, and it looked magical.
One section of the mall had a grouping of Christmas trees with a sign announcing MOA for Mall of America, giant Christmas presents, and enormous nutcrackers. Huge snowflakes and Christmas ornaments hung high above. Santa was sitting on a fancy white upholstered chair with a child on his lap while wearing a red vest, red pants, a green and red shirt, and a real long white beard. He totally looked like a real Santa.
The MOA also had a festival of more than fifty trees that Sheri and Slade enjoyed seeing, trees decorated in all different colors and with all different themes. The proceeds from the raffles for the trees were going to the Special Olympics Minnesota. Decorated by companies and sports teams, they featured purple, gold, blue, red and green, and silver trees, as well as a pink tree covered in flamingos, bows, and balls, some with winter themes, and others with features from a popular kids’ TV show with search and rescue dogs. They were all beautiful.
Sheri and Slade hugged and kissed before they separated to do some shopping. She swore Slade looked uncomfortable to leave her and that he didn’t like the crowds. She went to a department store first. She normally didn’t regift things, but she was going to give Elizabeth the aqua waffle maker she got at the office Christmas party because Elizabeth had wanted it, and Sheri was going to get a waffle maker for two people and give it to Slade for Christmas. She had made sure when they were packing his stuff that he didn’t have one in his own household goods. She also got him some stocking stuffers—special grilling spices, socks, his favorite chocolate mints.
She went to an electronics store that might have accessories for his drone and found a bundle of them that she thought would be perfect for her mate for Christmas. As soon as she took hold of the package to really look it over—and it was the only one the store had left—a redheaded, red-bearded man who was about six two, towering over her, grabbed hold of it.
He knew she already had hold of the package. He might be bigger than her, but she wasn’t letting go of the package no matter what. She had it first! She wanted to turn into her wolf and growl at him. He actually had the nerve to tug at it, trying to pull it from her hands, but she tightened her grip on it, not about to let it go.
“Excuse me. I had ahold of this before you did.” She knew it was the only one there, but she still wanted to look it over and see all the different goodies that came with the selection before she bought the set. She couldn’t believe she had to even say that much to the guy.
Even then, he wouldn’t let go of it. She wasn’t letting go, though he actually pulled her toward him. It was good that Slade didn’t see this, or she was sure there would be a real fight.
“Just let go of it, lady,” the man growled.
Just then a customer arrived with a manager and the customer pointed toward the man who was still holding on to the drone accessory bundle and said, “He didn’t grab the merchandise until she did.” Sheri was glad that the other customer vouched for her.
The manager asked Sheri, “Is this the item that you want?”
“Yes.” Sheri hoped after all the angst, Slade would really like it and get some use out of the items.
The other customer finally released the package.
“Do you need to shop for anything else?” the manager asked Sheri.
“No, thanks. That will do it.”
“I’ll ring this up for you then.” The manager said to the other customer, “We can order it for you, sir.”
“I’ll shop somewhere else.” he said, then he stalked out of the store.
“Sorry about that,” the manager said.
“It’s the holidays. For some, it totally stresses them out. But this was the only chance we had of coming to the big city to shop.”
***
After finishing his shopping for Sheri, Slade pulled out his cell phone and called her, “Hey, are you ready to meet up for lunch?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s about that time, isn’t it. I’m on my way to the restaurant. I’m starving.”
“Me too.” When he finally reached the restaurant, she was just arriving. She always brightened his whole outlook on life. Despite the crowds at the store that made him want to return to the woods surrounding the lake where the wolf pack lived and get out of the crowded place, she made him feel like it was just the two of them there and everyone else just vanished. They hugged and kissed, then he took her hand and they went inside.
“Did you get everything you needed to?” Sheri asked as the hostess escorted them to their table, the restaurant beautifully decorated in garlands and Christmas ornaments, each of the tables having a candle surrounded by a wreath of greenery and red berries, adding to the holiday ambience.
“Yeah, how about you?”
“I sure did. I dropped off the packages at the van. You’re not to peek now.”
He laughed and they took their seats near one of the mall windows and began looking at the menus. “I dropped off the presents that I purchased in the van before I called you about our lunch date. I didn’t see your packages in there.” He’d worried when she said they were in there that someone had stolen them—which could happen at the height of the holiday season while thieves were on the prowl for easy snatching.
“I hid them in the back of the van.”
Glad about it, he smiled. “I promise I’m not going to sneak a quick look.”
“Not like Tex peeked at his hiking stick wrapped in Christmas paper under the tree?”
“I’m so glad he had and then offered it to me to use to protect ourselves from Fitz and Otis.”
“Oh, me too. Hmm, after the wild time we had of it—not to mention fighting over a Christmas present for you when a man was bound and determined to have it instead—I need something really good. Like that shrimp pasta. I would have a rib eye steak, but we’re having that for Christmas Eve dinner tonight.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I think I’ll have the hamburger and chips.” Once they had ordered, he said to her, “Okay, so what did you fight over?”
Sheri chuckled. “You are not learning what I picked up for you that easily. I might have let him have it, but I was still feeling rather growly about how Fitz and Otis arrived at the Lincolns’ home to harm them, and it was the last one of the, um, items they had for sale that I really wanted to get for someone special in my life.”
“Me.”
She smiled. “Anyway, the guy was determined to have it. Period. And so was I. I saw it first, grabbed it first, end of discussion.”
“Hell, you would think the other customer would have been nice enough—as it is the Christmas season, after all—to let you have it since you’d grabbed it first.”
“Nope. So how was your shopping experience?” Sheri asked.
Bread and butter, their glasses of water, and salads were brought to the table, and they thanked the server.
“Well,” Slade said, tearing off part of the loaf of bread for Sheri, “three older women were helping me shop for… I can’t say what.” He buttered his bread.
Sheri laughed. “Usually when I’m telling my family about Christmas shopping stories, I’ll at some point let something slip about the actual present I bought.”
“I know. It’s hard not to do. So of course I didn’t really need their help, but it was sweet of them to offer. I finally picked out what I thought you would love, even though some of their suggestions were for other items I was sure you wouldn’t want. They were being nice and helpful, much more in the spirit of the holidays, unlike the guy you had to deal with.”
“Well, that’s cute.”
Their meals were finally delivered to the table, and they were about to eat when Sheri glanced at the entryway to the restaurant and frowned. Slade glanced that way and saw a gruff-looking guy glowering at Sheri.
“Don’t tell me he’s the one you had a fight with over the Christmas present.”
“He is.”
Slade didn’t plan to have any confrontation with the guy if he didn’t cause her grief. He didn’t want to ruin their lunch, but he was a wolf, and he wasn’t going to back down if the guy got hostile.
Sheri took another bite of her shrimp pasta. “This is so good.”
Slade watched another guy join the first and the hostess led them to a table deeper into the restaurant where they couldn’t see them. He started eating his hamburger. “Hopefully, he’ll eat and forget all about this until after we have a nice lunch and we leave.”
“I sure hope so.” But then Sheri’s eyes widened as she saw someone else come into the restaurant. “Ohmigod, it’s the man who was at our cabin.”
Immediately, he thought she meant Fitz or one of his partners in crime, but then he saw it was the news reporter. “He won’t recognize us.” Slade hoped.
The reporter was with a woman, and he appeared not to notice them, thankfully. The hostess grabbed menus and headed straight in Sheri and Slade’s direction. Sheri and Slade didn’t look at them while they continued to eat and talk to each other, completely ignoring the reporter. But they should have figured he would notice them.
He continued past them as if he hadn’t seen them, but Slade suspected that the reporter would have and would circle back once he and his companion had their table.
“He didn’t stop here,” Sheri said.
“Nope. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see him return.”
“Yeah. He saw us, but I thought maybe he didn’t recognize us.”
“Or he did,” Slade said, seeing the news reporter head straight for their table. Slade took another bite of his hamburger. He really wanted to enjoy his meal with his mate in peace. But he wasn’t going to hurry through the meal to avoid him.
“Hi, I’m Tom Briggs. You’re Slade White and Sheri Whitmore, correct?” the reporter asked.
There wouldn’t be any sense denying it. The reporter obviously had done his homework.
“We’re enjoying a meal here on Christmas Eve,” Sheri said, speaking up.
“I can relate. I just wanted to touch base and see if you would like to be interviewed about the—”
The customer who had the issue with Sheri over the gift at the store came over to the table. Immediately, Slade stood up. Now he was a wolf ready to get rid of a menace. The reporter was one thing. But someone who was there to give Sheri grief, that was another story.
Tom Briggs glanced at the approaching man, looking like he thought there could be a story here. Slade didn’t want the reporter to get a story about some guy who had been fighting over a gift in a shop with Sheri.
“Yeah, sure, we’ll give you an interview,” Slade said, Sheri’s jaw dropping. “We’re heading home after lunch and it will have to be after Christmas and a trip we’re taking, but we’ll do it.” He shook the reporter’s hand, and he looked like he wanted to hang around to see what this was all about because the man approaching them looked angry. And reporters loved new news.
“Thanks, Mr. White. You and Ms. Whitmore have done some really wonderful things for folks this Christmas season and you epitomize what Christmas is all about,” Tom Briggs said.
“Yeah, right,” the disagreeable customer said as he joined them at their table. “That woman forced me to let go of—”
Before the man could finish what he was saying, the reporter interrupted the guy. “They saved lives in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area a few days ago, helped catch some thieves, delivered a hundred toys to kids during the Santa Seaplane Toy Drop, and even today, they saved a couple from housebreakers who planned to murder them.”
The disgruntled customer’s eyes widened, and he said, “Hell.” Without saying anything further, he turned around and walked back to his table.
Sheri shook the reporter’s hand. “Thanks.”
“I like to write about good news, though I have to admit I would love to know what that was all about,” Tom said. “And knowing what I do about you and Mr. White, you deserve some praise.”
Sheri smiled. “Thank you.”
“I’ll let you enjoy your lunch and look forward to hearing from you.”
They shook hands again, and Tom left to join his companion at their table.
Slade sat down at the table again and they began eating their food.
“I was surprised you said we would do the interview, and then I realized you were trying to stop that other guy from giving us trouble. It worked.” Sheri leaned over and kissed him.
He kissed her in return. “Yeah, I didn’t want him ruining my gift by mentioning what it was, and I didn’t want him giving the reporter a story he might want to share that would put us—”
“Me, you mean.” Sheri forked up some more of her shrimp.
“Yeah. You in a bad light and I had no intention of him doing that.”
“So now we have to do an interview,” she said.
“Yeah, but Tom only likes to write feel-good stories and that won’t hurt us a bit—for either of our jobs, you know.”
“True, for promotional purposes. I hadn’t thought of that.”
Then they finished their meals and left the restaurant, but the customer Sheri had trouble with and his friend followed them out. Now what?
“Hey, sorry about the…gift,” the guy said to Sheri. “Really. Merry Christmas.”
Sheri smiled. “Thanks. Merry Christmas.”
Slade inclined his head to the man, and then he held Sheri’s hand as they left the mall.
“Well, that was a surprise,” Sheri said.
“I’ll say. But a welcome one.”
“Maybe the guy just needed to get some food in him.”
“I think the reporter’s words made him feel like he had wronged some good Samaritans and he changed his tune. And that he needed to get some food in him. I can get grouchy when I’m hungry.” They reached the rental van, and he unlocked the doors.
She laughed. “I’ll have to remember that and send snacks with you when you don’t have time to eat while you’re flying missions.”
Slade squeezed her hand. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Once they were in the rental van, they returned to the airport, then moved their packages into the plane. “I’ll stay awake this time,” Sheri said.
Slade smiled as he got ready to fly. “I love your company when I’m flying whether you’re asleep or not.”
She chuckled. “I knew you were the wolf for me when we mated. So I guess we’ll tell everyone what went on at the Lincolns’ home when we have Christmas Eve dinner with your parents tonight.”
“Yeah. That will be an interesting topic and the family will be glad to hear that Otis and Fitz went to jail for Christmas.”
“Yeah, glad just like we are.”
When they landed at the airport in Ely, they carried all their presents to the SUV and then drove to the apartment. As soon as they walked into the place, still so cluttered with his boxes, Slade was thinking that he had to do something to put all this stuff away and fast.
They didn’t have much time before they went to the Christmas Eve dinner at Slade’s parents’ home, and Sheri needed to make her potato dish. He was going to help her, but she said, “Go ahead and work on finding room for your things. I’ll assist you after I get this started.”
“Okay, sure.” He wanted to help Sheri make her special dish for tonight like he’d planned to, but he knew she had things under control, and he figured she would be happiest if he got a lot of his stuff put away. They really needed to do that so that Christmas morning they could wake up to her beautifully decorated living room to open their Christmas stockings.
Then he had a thought. “Hey, you’re not really using your second bedroom for much of anything. Can I store some of my stuff in there until the house is built? At least my stuff won’t be cluttering up the whole apartment then.”
“Yeah, sure. I just do some investigations on my computer in there at night sometimes after work. But you sure can. I suspect when we get home at night, we’ll be busy with other stuff, and I won’t be tempted to work on any cases.”
He laughed. “I know what I’ll want to be doing when we both are together after work. But I’ll understand if you need to investigate your cases. Especially when I’m getting in late, or you have a clue you want to check out. I’ll make sure that I don’t block access to your computer in any way. And I’ll continue to sort through things and put them away as much as possible.”
“That’ll be fine. I know we don’t have that much room and I want you to feel like this is your place too, not that you just moved in on me. We rent it jointly—though of course your name isn’t on the lease, but it can be. If you need to move some of my extra clothes or other items into the spare room, go right ahead. I don’t need any of my summer clothes right now and that can make room for your winter things. When it warms up, we can move our winter things into the spare bedroom until our house is finished.”
“Okay, but I’m leaving your bathing suits where they are because we’ll be taking them with us on our honeymoon.”
She smiled at him. “I can’t wait.”