Chapter Twenty-Five #2
“Good job.”
She lowered her voice to a murmur. “Will he come here?”
“I don’t know. I can only tell you we’re as on top of it as we can be.”
Zoey nodded. “Well, I hope he’s having a miserable Christmas. And we’re not.” She glanced toward the living room as Arden began passing out gifts. “And ours is about to get a lot noisier.”
Kids squealed, remote-control cars zoomed, some musical toy banged out tune after tune.
Even when he’d been one, Gideon hadn’t shared Christmas with so many kids. He found it fascinating, and entertaining when Jonah offered him the remote and a turn with his Grave Digger.
He found it more fascinating yet that Arden had gifts for his parents. A scarf in every shade of blue for his mother, and one in a variation of grays for his father.
When he managed a minute, he had to ask, “How’d you come up with the scarves?”
“Preplanning. I always have a couple of gifts put aside for emergencies.”
“Of course you do.”
“Arden, you’ve got something here from Santa.”
“Oh boy. Uncle Doug always has a little something from Santa,” she told Gideon.
She made her way over, evading the truck, the little dog who happily chased it.
She sat on Doug’s knee as she unwrapped the small box.
“A … Skeletool.” She took it out of the box. “It’s so pretty! Pink and teal, and it has my name on it.”
“Don’t let the pretty fool you. Leatherman makes a good multi-tool, and this one’s small and practical.”
“Santa put a tiny pink flashlight on the carabiner.”
“Because he knows I’m not ten minutes away. You’ve got needle-nose pliers, regular pliers, wire cutters, the knife. The carabiner, bottle opener, the bit driver.”
“I have a bit driver.”
“You never know,” he said solemnly. “So keep it in your pocket.”
“Santa’s so wise and thoughtful.” She snuggled into him, kissed his cheek.
“And he likes knowing good girls have tools handy.”
“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” Scarlett moved over, put an arm around Gideon’s waist. “Family. Not always conventional, God knows, but lovely. Your dad and I? This is a very happy Christmas for us. And look at Joe, down on the floor with that little boy, playing with action figures.”
“He used to do that with me.”
“One day, he’ll do it with yours. Jesus, Gideon, you’re going to end up making me a grandmother.”
“And you and Dad will eat it up like ice cream.”
“We absolutely will. You’re making a good life here, Gideon. I really like the people you’re making it with.”
Her dinner hit all the marks, and that brought Arden both relief and pleasure.
“You might be stuck with Christmas dinner duty from now on,” Zoey warned her.
“I’m up for it, as long as Nick and Jamie bring the dessert. No way I could conjure up anything as beautiful as that trifle or the glory of the b?che de Noel.”
“I wanna eat the log,” Jonah claimed. “Grandad can chop it up with a hatchet.”
After cleanup, where Arden tried not to feel strange that a woman she’d admired on-screen and a man who’d directed some of her favorite movies pitched in, Nick served dessert.
“Best log I ever tasted,” Joe declared, and laughed when Jonah made gnawing noises. “After all this, I’m going to have to join Gideon in his workouts.”
“So say we all.” As he did, Liam ate another spoonful of trifle.
“I’ve had Christmas dinner at home, in strange places, remote locations, but I’ve never had one as happy and festive as this.
” He lifted his cup of cappuccino. “Much appreciation for the hospitality, and many compliments to the chefs.”
“I peeled stuff,” Gideon put in.
“Including the sous chef.”
When the house found its quiet again, Arden sprawled in a chair.
“I’m full of food and happy and success. We did it.”
“Not a lot of we in there.”
“You peeled stuff,” she reminded him. “Hauled out trash, played with half-crazed kids, herded dogs, and made sure everyone had their drink of choice. That’s plenty of we.”
He sprawled in a chair beside her. “What Zoey said? You taking this going forward? I think she’s right.”
“I have three hundred and sixty-three days to plan and prepare. That includes finishing the downstairs. You’d have ideas there.”
“I could have.”
“Starting with the people I’d need. Electricians, plumbers, carpenters. I’ve got Tessa for painting. And I know where to go if we want any built-ins.” She smiled at him. “We’ll talk about it when we recover from this Christmas.”
“That could take a while.”
“So, what are you doing New Year’s Eve?”
“I’m on. People will drink, get rowdy and stupid. Sorry.”
“No sorry, it comes with the job. I believe Zorro and I will enjoy a movie marathon with massive amounts of popcorn.”
“That’s a party.”
“My kind of party. I loved this, but my social battery’s happy to get a good recharge.”
Since his read dead empty, he studied her. “We’re going to do okay together, Legs.”
She studied him in turn. “How about we change into clothes suitable for plopping down, and plop down to watch the best Christmas movie ever.”
“That depends on what you see as the best Christmas movie ever.”
“Please. Die Hard.”
“Yeah. We’re going to do just fine together.”
In the station the next day, Gideon had plenty to keep him busy. He had holiday incident reports—some people just couldn’t get through Christmas without fighting or finding some way to cause trouble.
He had calls to take, others to make, a budget to reconcile.
With Harley on desk duty, he was an officer short, so took up the slack in patrol and calls.
He was riding back to the station after handling a fender bender when Brill contacted him.
“Detective, what’s the word?”
“I’ve got a few of them. You’ve got the switched plates in Chicago—you gave us that one. I’m giving you one from Nebraska, near Wayne. The owner of the car can’t say when or where. She didn’t notice until the morning of Christmas Eve.”
“Not airport parking this time. But no question he’s heading west.”
“No. But we learned this morning his father transferred some property to him before he died. The widow didn’t think of it before.
Actually, it was the kid, Willow, the daughter, who told us.
The widow’s in pretty bad shape. She’s scared he’ll come back for them so she’s taking the kid to their place in the Caymans for a while. ”
“Where’s the property?”
“Washington State. The kid says they call it The Retreat, and that Dubecki asked for it. Specifically. She states that the old man told Dubecki to ask for something he wanted, and this is what he asked for. It’s up in the Olympic Mountains—a rich man’s idea of a cabin at about ten thousand square feet. ”
“That’s a lot of cabin.”
“Yeah, and it’s remote, private road. I’m going to text you the address. He could be just stupid enough to go there.”
“Okay. Possible.”
He thinks he has the right, Arden had said. Believes he’s above the rules.
“We’ve alerted the locals out there. If he shows up, they’ll bag him.”
“It seems like he should’ve started heading north instead of due west from Iowa.”
“The Midwest is getting hit hard with this storm system. He could be trying to avoid the worst of the snow, but we’ve got that in mind. How’s Arden?”
“Tougher than she looks.”
“Yeah, I got that. Let her know we’re not letting up.”
“I’ll do that.” He pulled into his slot at the station. “It matters to her that you haven’t, and you’re not.”
“I’ll say it right out loud. The son of a bitch should’ve gone to the state pen, and he should still be there.”
“Can’t argue. Things don’t always work out right the first time around. His mother paid a hell of a price for it working out wrong. Arden won’t.”
“Hold that good thought. We get anything else, you’ll hear about it.”
“Same.”
He sat in the car, studying the fog drifting around the mountains while he thought it through.
He’d asked for the house, so he’d wanted it for a reason. Gideon could see him heading there, thinking of it as some sort of hideout. Rich man’s cabin at ten thousand square feet? It had all the amenities, and he’d want that.
But the isolation, the remote? Bound to bore him before too long.
Then again, they’d make sure, if that was his target, he didn’t stay bored long.
Arden put together a file on the downstairs project, and by the time Gideon came in through the mudroom, had begun sorting through leftovers.
“Hi. Interested in a post-Christmas feast?”
“I had a slice of cold pizza for lunch.”
“Then you are. Busy day, huh?”
“There are a lot of dumbasses in the world,” he said as he gave Zorro a rub. “And a chunk of them live in Riverbend.”
“The smart-asses are lucky to have you, Chief.” She turned into a kiss. “I spent most of the day playing around with ideas for downstairs. I have a file.”
“I bet you do.”
“I’m on an alcohol purge for a few days and pushing water. Do you want a beer?”
“I’ll join the purge.”
“Water it is. There’s enough of all this for both of us if we aren’t greedy.”
“We’ll get to it. I have some new information.”
“Oh. Dubecki.”
He watched her react, adjust, settle. Yeah, tougher than she looked.
“And not that he’s in custody or you’d look satisfied. Has he hurt someone else?”
“Not that we know of. He switched plates again in Nebraska.”
She felt her insides shudder, but kept her hands busy with the meal. “So he’s heading west.”
“His father left him some fancy cabin up in Washington State, in the Olympic Mountains. He asked for it, specifically asked for it.”
She stopped, looked at him. “A place in the mountains. Gideon, he talked about that. The night he attacked me, he said something about us living in the mountains, how he’d take care of me and I could write in the quiet.”
“It’s all part of his pathology, and now he’s got the place.”
“And he started traveling that way right after … His mother. His father died, he inherited, and he had no use for her after that. God, Gideon, he could grab some other woman and force her to go with him. Maybe he already has.”
“We’ll be checking missing person reports on his route. Arden, there’s a good chance that’s where he’s going. Local law enforcement’s been alerted. But I don’t want you to think it’s the only chance.”
“I don’t. I won’t. But I’m not crawling into a hole. I’m not putting chairs under doors again. If he’s put a target on my back, we’re going to make sure he misses.”
“Tougher than you look.” Gideon ran a hand down her braid. “Brill said to tell you they won’t let up.”
“I know that. And neither will you.” She turned to him, and felt her insides settle again when he held her.
“How about you feed the dog,” she said, “and I’ll feed us?”
“That’s a deal.”