Jingle Bell Wolf, page 23
“I’ll tell her we’ll help her, but no on her assisting us. It would be too dangerous.” Odette texted her.
“And if she’s guilty of the crime—just saying—you don’t want her involved in anything that might look like collusion on your part,” Landon said.
“Agreed,” the sisters said.
“Can’t they trace her phone?” Gabrielle asked.
“She said she’s got a burner phone,” Odette said.
“Did you ask her about the stuffed jaguar?” Gabrielle asked.
“Yeah. She said it was from her. She suspected our boss had made us come after her, and she wanted to give us a small token of appreciation for what she’d put us through when we were supposed to be on vacation. She appreciates us for believing her about her mate.” Odette got another text. “Okay, she’s glad we’re going to help her. And she has a clue he’s alive.”
“What? Why didn’t she tell us before?” Zelda asked.
“She just had a friend send a video to her that appears to be her mate getting money out of an ATM. So apparently she’s solicited a friend to help.”
“Oh, wow,” Zelda said. “Let me see it. Yeah, that sure resembles him. But her friend could be as much at risk if she has no law-enforcement training.”
Gabrielle looked at the photo of the guy. “So he’s a blond. Color of eyes?” Gabrielle asked.
“Blue. He’s a good-looking guy. It’s too bad he’s such a heel,” Zelda said.
“You’re right about Melany’s friend though, and the danger she could be in. I’ll tell her again she has to let us handle it. She says her husband didn’t have an account at the bank that she knew of. Which means he must have socked some money away and planned this whole thing sometime earlier. He had to get more money before he disappeared for good,” Odette said.
“You would think he would have gotten it beforehand.” Landon parked back at the lodge and they showed him the photo.
“Something must have happened and he didn’t have a chance to grab the money,” Odette said. “When he went to clear out his account, the bank wasn’t open, so he went to the ATM.”
“Man, okay, we need to get on this,” Zelda said. “He had to have used a different name when he went to the bank.”
“Exactly,” Odette said.
Landon asked, “Why don’t we have Nicole and her brother check into it while you enjoy the rest of your vacation? Nicole has actually worked several cases where a person pretends to be dead for whatever reason and they take on a new identity. I’m sure she would be glad to help if her caseload isn’t too bad.”
“Yeah, we can do that,” Odette said. “Since she’s worked other cases like this, she might have some good ideas about what we need to look for. We’ve never had a case to work that’s similar to this one.”
They got out of the car and Landon called Nicole as they headed into the lodge. “Hey, Nicole, we need your services. Nate also, or if you are too busy, he could help out.”
“Yeah, sure, I can. What did you need looking into?” Nicole was always there for the pack first.
He explained the situation with her while the sisters and Gabrielle waited to see what would happen next. “I’ll give the phone over to Odette and Zelda, and they can give you more details.”
After they spoke for a few minutes, Odette said to Nicole over the phone, “Thanks so much for helping us out. I’ll send you the video, bank location, all of that.” She sounded cheered.
Landon was glad Nicole could help the sisters with their case.
Then Odette ended the call and gave Landon a hug. “Thank you! Now we can meet with Nicole. Afterward, we’ll have dinner and then later, a jaguar–wolf run with Nicole and Gabrielle.”
“Yes!” Zelda said.
“That’s great news,” Gabrielle said.
“Nicole is good. If anyone can track down Melany’s mate, she can.” Landon took Gabrielle’s hand. “Are you ready to ski?”
“I sure am.”
Nicole waved at the sisters and joined them. “My brother wants in on helping to solve this case too.”
They smiled.
Zelda said, “I’m so thankful. If we can absolve the woman of the crime and charge her husband, that will be the best Christmas present ever.”
“I agree,” Odette said.
“We’re off to ski.” Gabrielle snagged Landon’s hand and headed for the office. “Let’s go. Unless you would rather ski with the expert skiers.”
“No way. I’m with you the rest of the afternoon.”
“I’m so glad you said that. I don’t know what I would do about it if you preferred skiing with them.”
“Ditch me for someone who was a better sport.”
“No way.” In the storage room, they put on their ski boots and then she wrapped her arms around Landon. “You are the best sport of all. You were willing to give me up to allow me some time to ski with my friends, and you were a good sport in skiing with them too.”
“Well, I had fun with the ladies. They certainly know how to ski. I think, being jaguars, they have some natural skills that make them really good at skiing, even though they don’t go to the resorts that often.” Landon kissed Gabrielle, and then they grabbed up their skis and poles.
“I agree with you there,” Gabrielle said.
They headed out of the office, through the lodge, and outdoors to ski. It was snowing lightly, which made skiing all the more fun.
While they were in line for the chairlift, Gabrielle sighed. “I hope Nicole and her brother help the sisters solve the case.”
“I do too. What an awful situation for Melany. I hope they can find her husband and clear her quickly.” Though he still wondered if she had killed her husband and it was all a ploy on Melany’s part.
Then they were getting on the chairlift and Gabrielle got quiet. Landon knew it was because she wanted to concentrate on getting on the chairlift without mishap. Once they were seated, she said, “How did the Secret Santa gift get into the room?”
“What?” This reminded him of when Gabrielle had been pondering how Rosco had found the kitten.
“The stuffed jaguar wasn’t shipped to the hotel. It was wrapped up and then left in the room. How would it have gotten there?”
Landon was thinking she was just like Nicole in the way she solved puzzles. “I’ll have to check with the staff that was on duty when you found the package in your room. Since we hadn’t thought it was anything sinister, I hadn’t checked into it. But if you think Melany is here, we need to make sure the sisters know about it.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
They got to the top of the ride and left the chairlift and skied to the slope. Landon paused to pull out his phone and text Roxie: We need to know who delivered the Secret Santa package to Gabrielle’s and the sisters’ room. How did they know it belonged in their room? What did the person look like who left it?
Roxie texted back: So we have another mystery afoot.
Landon replied: Agreed.
Roxie texted: I’ll get right on it.
Then Landon put his phone in his jacket pocket and zipped it. “Roxie will question everyone about it.”
“Oh, good.”
Then Gabrielle skied toward the expert slope. He was so surprised.
“One time down an expert slope,” she said. “Then when I’ve moved here and can ski more regularly, I’ll get better at it, but I wanted to just try it this one time before I get too tired this afternoon.”
“Right. You’re still acclimating to our higher altitude too. I’ll be with you all the way.” He was glad the altitude difference hadn’t made her sick.
She pointed down the slope. “There’s Odette! And Zelda is probably at the bottom.”
Then Gabrielle took a tentative slide and started down the slope. She was doing well, slowly but surely turning on the steeper slope, the moguls more defined, resting on top of them, and then going to the next one, taking her time.
He was skiing down far enough to get close to her but pausing on a mogul above her, waiting for her to navigate the next section so he’d be there for her if she got into trouble.
She kept going until she was finally at the bottom of the slope, and he skied in to join her.
“Woo-hoo! I did it. Just this once, though. I’ll have to get better at this. That’s tiring.”
“You did great.”
She had made it down without any spills, and her form would get better with practice. For now, she did swell with taking on an expert slope and making it down fine.
She smiled up at him, her nose and cheeks rosy. “Well, it was fun. More fun if I could have just zipped down it like other skiers were doing.”
“We all have to start somewhere,” he said.
“That’s true.”
He maneuvered next to her to hug her, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her mouth. “You are so much fun to be with, and I’m proud of you for trying new things even if you don’t feel you’re ready for them yet.”
“Hmm, you are such a great instructor. You say all the right things.”
“You’re a great student, willing to try anything just once.”
“But we’re skiing the rest of the time on the intermediate slopes,” she said.
He chuckled. “That works for me.”
“And maybe a green one at the end of the day.”
He smiled. “Whatever works for you.”
They skied the rest of the day on the intermediate slopes, even for the last run down. “Swimming in the pool after the tavern tonight,” she said.
“Absolutely.”
“Ohmigod,” she said suddenly, “I know where I had seen the dark-haired woman in the lodge. That’s Melany. She had her hair up in the photo so I couldn’t place her. But she’s Melany Williams, the jaguar Odette and Zelda are looking for.” She immediately got on her phone. “Odette, I think Melany is staying at the lodge!”
“Yes! She is,” Odette said.
Gabrielle and Landon headed into the lodge where they met up with Odette and Zelda talking to Nicole.
“She’s here, Melany Williams, our perp,” Odette said excitedly to Gabrielle and Landon. “You were right. We gave her photo to the clerk, and she remembers her registering and asking if we had come in yet. It turns out Melany was afraid to actually get in touch with us once we got here, just in case we were only humoring her that we believed she wasn’t lying to us about the status of her mate.”
“You have her in custody?” Landon asked.
“Yes. Your sheriff took her into custody until our people can pick her up,” Zelda said.
“Do you want to come with us to the tavern for dinner, Nicole?” Gabrielle asked.
“I’m going to have dinner with Blake and then run with you all later,” Nicole said.
They said they would see Nicole in a bit, and Landon drove the other ladies to the Silver Town Tavern for dinner.
Chapter 18
At the tavern, Silva had reserved a table for the group of women and Landon. Sam came over to bring them water and took their drink orders: brandy Alexanders for the ladies, since Gabrielle had raved about them, and a beer for Landon.
Sam raised a brow at Landon. “You sure have a lovely group of ladies to dine with tonight.”
Landon smiled and reached over and squeezed Gabrielle’s hand, telling Sam and everyone else in the tavern that Gabrielle was with him.
She leaned over and kissed his cheek and he kissed her back.
“I love this place,” Odette said. “I wish we had a tavern like this back home—for shifters only.”
“It makes it nice for us to be ourselves and not worry if any humans are about. Roast beef sandwiches for everyone?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, sounds good to me,” Zelda said, and everyone agreed.
“We’ll bring them right out.” Sam left to handle the food while Silva checked on other tables.
“We do have a jaguar hot spot—a dance club, the Clawed and Dangerous Kitty Cat Club—in Orlando, but it’s open to everyone. Of course, humans don’t realize the owners and staff are all jaguar shifters, nor that a lot of its patrons are too,” Zelda said. “But it’s really fun.”
“I’ve never heard of it. I guess we don’t have any in Colorado,” Landon said.
Gabrielle sat back in her seat. “They took me once to see it. There were no wolves there, just jaguars and a few humans. It was a real eye-opener.”
“The jaguars were fascinated with her,” Odette said.
“But she wouldn’t dance with any of them, which fascinated them all the more,” Zelda said.
Landon laughed. Gabrielle was precious. “What if I had been there and asked you to dance?”
“You would have stood a chance.”
He knew he would have convinced her to dance with him, if for no other reason than he was the only male wolf among jaguars and humans.
Silva delivered their drinks. “Food will be right up.”
Odette began telling Landon and Gabrielle more of the details about Melany’s situation. “She actually met Jim at the same jaguar club. He was so sweet and fun to be with, she said. She didn’t know he had a gambling problem. He was free with his money, buying strangers drinks. No one was a stranger to him. She couldn’t believe he would set her up to take a murder rap so he could convince the Mob, or whoever he owes money to, that he is dead. Untouchable.”
“It takes all kinds,” Landon said.
Silva served their food. “Enjoy.”
“We certainly will,” Landon said. Once Silva left, he asked Odette and Zelda, “Did they have life insurance policies for each other?”
“No. Nicole already asked us that. She said that was one reason people faked a death or were truly murdered, for the money. It would have given Melany more of a motive to end his life. Someone would…” Zelda was staring at her water glass.
“What are you thinking?” Odette asked.
“What if someone did get life insurance money for his death? Not Melany. She didn’t think he had any on himself, and she certainly wasn’t the beneficiary if he did have a policy, but what if he had a girlfriend on the side and they fixed it so she would get the money and then they would live together off the proceeds?”
“Do you have any idea who he might have been seeing?” Landon asked.
“Melany had mentioned a best friend, Belinda Montgomery. Melany said she always thought the two of them seemed more like lovers than just that Belinda was friendly toward him because he was Melany’s mate. Shared looks, catching them together in the kitchen and the living room in more intimate poses than Melany thought seemed right. But then he would be so loving toward her, and Melany would think she was just making something out of nothing. Of course, Belinda was her best friend, so Melany figured she would be in her court when she told Belinda she hadn’t killed him. She said Belinda was so upset, sure he was really dead, but Melany knew she hadn’t killed him,” Zelda said.
“Belinda didn’t believe Melany?” Gabrielle asked.
“Nope. Melany said Belinda reminded her of all the times she and her mate had fought, as if saying she had to have done it. That it didn’t look good. The whole thing was so upsetting, and Melany didn’t even have her best friend to back her. Then we were assigned to her case and we found where Melany was hiding and believed in her,” Odette said.
“We tried calling Belinda and she didn’t answer. We dropped by her house, and she wasn’t home. Maybe she was out, who knows, but we wouldn’t be surprised if she just—vanished, like Melany’s mate did,” Zelda said.
“The thing with a gambling addiction is he’ll blow through any money they have and be in the same predicament he was in with Melany. But of course if Belinda helped stage this, she deserves everything she gets,” Odette said. “Someone had to pick Jim up from the boat, if he didn’t fall overboard. He had to have an accomplice.”
“There are no family members or other friends that might have helped him out?” Gabrielle asked.
Odette drank some of her water. “A brother, but as far as we know, Jim is estranged from him, and from his parents. He kept asking for more money from them because loan sharks were going to kill him. They would loan him the money and he would spend it gambling. They finally just cut him off about two months ago.”
“Unless he had other relatives—aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. His parents said they weren’t sure about what happened on the boat. They hoped Melany was okay. She said they never reached out to her. We sent them the video of him at the ATM. Who would be better able to identify him than his own parents or his brother? But they didn’t respond,” Zelda said.
Landon took a swig of his beer. “They’re probably too ashamed to admit he has lied to everyone once again.”
After they finished their delightful meals, they drove to the house to switch out vehicles so Nicole could drive the ladies to Doc Mitchell’s ranch house to run as shifters.
“Oh, wow, this is the giant snowman you all built?” Zelda said. “It’s fantastic. Gabrielle, you don’t start small, do you?”
Gabrielle laughed.
Chapter 19
When Gabrielle, Nicole, and the jaguar sisters arrived at Doc Mitchell’s house, he gave them a warm welcome. “You can use any of the rooms to change clothes and shift. The back door has a wolf door, perfect for jaguars too.”
“Thanks, Doc,” Gabrielle said.
“Thank you. Oh, here’s a map of the property.” He showed her the map while the other ladies went into one of the guest rooms and stripped off their clothes. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you for taking over the clinic for me.”
“I’m glad to. I can’t wait to move here and get started.” After she looked at the boundary lines to the property, she went to the guest room to remove her clothes. The ladies had already shifted, so she said, “Doc Mitchell has the map if you ladies want to look at it and make sure we don’t stray too far.”
