Now it was time to do some murder investigation work and put aside all thoughts of the holidays.
Gun tucked in her holster, she closed the door behind her, locked it, then hurried to her vehicle, hoping Bjornolf wouldn’t hear her leave. He’d follow her in short order if he did.
Like she often did on the job, she wanted to concentrate on this part of the work alone.
Chapter 9
Bjornolf didn’t intend to intrude on whatever Anna was up to. As long as she stayed in the cottage, he was satisfied with listening to her move about the house. He thought of pretending to need something to drink and seeing what she was up to. It was killing him not knowing. Besides, he still wanted to settle things between them.
He was wearing out the plush beige carpeting with his pacing. Then, making a decision, he threw on his clothes and headed for the bedroom door. That’s when he heard the front door open and click shut. Hell.
She had to be on her way back to the tree farm to investigate the crime scene, but she wasn’t doing it alone. No matter how often she might have done such a thing in the past, they were together in this. A team. She’d quickly learn that one way or another.
He was hurrying straight for the front door, when he spied a bowl of half-eaten popcorn and another that was empty. Then the tree caught his attention. His jaw dropped. Well, he’d be damned. A warm glow worked its way through his chest as he stared at the sight of the festive-looking country popcorn garland wrapped around the tree. The work had taken her time, energy, and patience, and yet she had done it.
Breaking away from his surprise and the admiration he had for her all over again, he hurried to the Land Rover and took off for the Christmas tree farm, hoping he could catch up to her before she began working alone.
Bjornolf still hadn’t caught up to Anna when he eased up on the gas and began to analyze the situation further. She was a professional. He knew from studying her profile that she did a good job investigating situations alone. Just as she did a good job working with a team. If she felt the need to investigate this on her own for now, he’d let her.
Except she wouldn’t exactly be on her own. He had every intention of watching her back like the ghost he could be.
Anna thought Bjornolf was following her, but then figured she had assumed wrong when he never caught up to her. She was almost disappointed, but there was no way she would have woken him to ask him go with her, just because she couldn’t sleep.
Driving the speed limit while on a mission was important as she did not want to get stopped for a ticket. A cop would remember her if something went wrong during her investigation. She hadn’t seen any headlights behind her for the past half hour. Nathan and Bjornolf were probably snoring in happy unison.
Patches of ice made her tires slip a little as ghostly snowflakes drifted from the heavens in the dark night. By the time she arrived at the tree farm, the light snow had covered everything in a sheet of pristine white. She drove past the gift shop and parking lot. The shop’s sign was still lit and a few security lights illuminated the ghostly mist of snow in the chilly air, but the store windows were dark.
She parked off to the side of the road alongside a chain link fence. In the dark, she supposed she was safe enough from discovery. She climbed over the fence, hating the way the metal rattled. To her wolf’s hearing it sounded as loud as an ear-piercing alarm signal.
With barely a sound, she landed on the other side in a soft snowdrift, then headed toward the area where she had smelled the dead bodies. Half an hour later, as she was poking around the pine-needle-covered ground with the toe of her boot, using a small flashlight to aid her, she discovered something. She swept away the light layer of snow and found a small piece of half-buried metal. When she tugged, it pulled free of the matted pine needles, and she found it was attached to a long chain. Dog tags.
She gave a little involuntary shudder. Had the other man been a SEAL, too? Or just another former service member?
Her heart quickening, she shoved the dog tags in her pocket, anxious to get this information back to Bjornolf and Hunter. She wondered why the dog tags had been left there. They wouldn’t have fallen off the man. The killer wouldn’t have tugged them off and discarded them, leaving evidence behind. The pine needles wouldn’t have buried the tags from seasons past since the deaths had occurred very recently unless the mulch was applied lately. In the dead of winter? She didn’t think so.
Had the man struggled with his murderer here? Was he able to remove his dog tags and bury them with the hope that someone might discover the truth?
She would discover the truth. The murderer would pay dearly for the wolves’ deaths.
The crunch of footsteps coming toward her instantly caught her attention. Her skin prickled with awareness and her body chilled even further.
She turned off her flashlight and quickly headed down a lane of trees. She moved away from the footsteps, her own steps light and soundless, like a wolf’s.
Without warning, a stout, black-haired man stepped in front of her, towering over her, his fleshy fat cheeks red. Her heart did a flip. Flashlight in his gloved hand, he pointed the beam of light into her eyes.
Blinded, she squinted, her heart still racing.
“Stealing a tree in the middle of the night, are we?” he asked gruffly. He was wearing gray pants, a brown coat smudged with dirt, muddy work boots, and a black knit ski cap. He looked like someone who might work on the farm.
Her spine tingling from surprise, she felt a lot more rattled than she liked. She took a deep breath to smell him and couldn’t detect that he was a wolf. Once he lowered the flashlight and gave her a really good look, she saw his eyes were blue. Not a wolf then.
She might look like a cat burglar ready to steal the family jewels. A tree thief? Hardly.
“Stealing a tree? No. Nathan, my nephew who works here, called and said he’d lost his watch out here. He said he was getting ready for bed when he realized it,” Anna smoothly said. “I told him I’d come and help him look for it. You know his parents died last year, right? His father gave it to him on his sixteenth birthday and he’s really torn up about it.”
“So where is he?” The man didn’t take his cold eyes off her.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t find him, so I thought I’d hunt for it myself since I was here already.” She looked down at the ground again as if she might still be searching for the watch. “He said he lost it out here where he’d taken us to look at the trees earlier today.” She flipped on her flashlight and waved it around the area. “He dropped off the tree we bought at our house. We weren’t home at the time. Then he came back to look for it, and when he couldn’t find it, he called me to help. I thought he’d still be here.”
“In the dark.” It wasn’t a question.
“We were afraid one of your sleds would run over it during the day and ruin it. And it’s supposed to snow more. It’s not waterproof. I figured I’d check since I was here already, and I might just see it. You know how kids are. They can never find anything on their own.”
The man narrowed his beady eyes at her. “I’ve never seen him wearing a watch.”