Murder Fir Christmas (17 page)

They had to veer away from tracking the wolves. They wouldn’t present a danger to the surrounding community, especially since there was only one adult and one pup according to their prints. But a hungry bear awakened from its hibernation too soon could cause a safety issue for the people who lived in houses nearby. It was part of her job to keep that from happening.

Bonnie had a tranquilizer pistol in her backpack, though it wouldn’t be her first choice to use against the bear. Sometimes they could be diverted from the trashcans they smelled by a better meal.

“There are cabins up here,” Matthew said. “They’re probably empty right now. It’s too early for ski season and too late for tubing in the river. The bear is probably headed there.”

“We better get moving. Some people panic when faced with a bear.”

He laughed. “You think? But not you, though, right? You just talk it down, and it goes away.”

“I’m really not able to communicate with animals.” She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “Let’s just move on from the whole white fawn thing.”

“We’ll see.”

A shotgun blast sent them running through the woods. Bonnie could see the beginning of some housing that faced the lake. Some of the houses were huge to just sit empty most of the year. They were beautiful too, with tall windows mirroring the water. Some of them looked like ski chalets and others like elegant cabins.

“I see him.” Bonnie pointed to the man in his backyard facing an angry, hungry bear. “Oh no. The only thing worse than a bear with cubs is a pregnant bear. We can’t tranquilize her, or she could lose the cubs.”

“How can you tell she’s pregnant from way back here? Is there a plan behind all that?” Matthew asked as he ran. “Because all I see is an angry frightened man who’s going to shoot mama bear unless she attacks him first.”

“Don’t worry. We had bears in Alabama too. You just have to respect them. She really doesn’t want to hurt him. She’s just super hungry and cranky.”

“Maybe so, but I don’t think Mr. Homeowner feels the same way.”

“Stop!” Bonnie called out as the man in his white T-shirt, shorts, and boots leveled his shotgun at the snarling bear. “I’m with the Wildlife Agency. Don’t shoot that bear.”

“You’d better get it out of my yard if you don’t want me to kill it,” the man yelled back.

But as he aimed the shotgun at the bear, she lifted one large paw and swiped at him, knocking the gun out of his hand and him to the ground. She loomed over him, growling and showing her teeth.

“Now’s the time for that plan,” Matthew suggested.

She didn’t take out the pistol or touch the gun or taser at her belt. Instead she ran right up to the bear and put herself between the bear and the man on the ground. “This isn’t a good idea. Not if you want to have those cubs. Even if you kill this man, more will come, and one of them will kill you.”

The bear stopped snarling and stared at Bonnie.

“That’s right,” she encouraged. “Let’s not even look at him. I’ve got some snacks in my backpack. Let’s eat those instead, and then we’ll find you something big to eat that’s not human.”

The bear made sounds at her like she was trying to talk back. It came out as a series of groans and bellows but no snarls or growling.

Bonnie put two power bars on the ground beside the bear so she had to turn away from the man she’d knocked down and possibly had planned to snack on. The bear grabbed both of them and put them in her mouth. They were barely noticeable in that wide, red cavity. But it was enough time for Matthew to get the other man off the frozen ground and headed toward his home.

“I need some food,” she told him. “See if that man has anything she can eat.”

“Yes ma’am.” He ran to follow the man he’d just rescued. “Hey, wait. I need some food. Have you got some chicken or a nice ham?”

The bear dropped to all fours, but her eyes stayed locked on Bonnie’s. The two stood watching each other until Matthew came running out of the house with a whole roasted chicken.

Bonnie watched as the bear started to lunge toward the smell of food and the man carrying it. “Wait a minute. He’s bringing it right here to you. Let’s not eat the delivery driver.”

Very carefully, Matthew approached them and slowly handed the chicken to Bonnie. “There’s another one. I thought we could use that to lure her away from the area after she finishes this one.”

“Here you go.” She put the chicken on the ground where the power bars had been. “Of course you’re hungry. Being pregnant takes a lot out of you. How can you sleep when you’re hungry?”

The bear gobbled down the chicken and licked her lips. She made more guttural noises at Bonnie and waved her large paws around in the air.

“Let’s get out of here. That way.” She pointed. “Toward the mountains over there behind the lake. You should be able to sleep there for the winter without anyone bothering you again. And when you wake up next spring, there will be babies for you to feed and play with. It’s gonna be okay. Just come with us.”

“I’ll get the other chicken,” Matthew volunteered. “She doesn’t want to follow me anyway. Look at her. She’d follow you whether you had food to eat or not, Unega Awinita. You still haven’t proven me wrong.”

Bonnie didn’t have time to argue. The bear was loping along beside her as she started walking away from the expensive lake housing. She didn’t think Matthew was right about her having any special powers. The bear was going with her because she’d fed her. She knew she’d better have something else for her to eat by the end of their journey, or she could just as easily turn on her.

It was a long hike. They got around the side of the lake and began the steeper ascent into the rugged terrain. There was the occasional path that they could discern, but mostly it was just them out there in the middle of miles of trees. Bonnie glanced at her watch. She wasn’t going to make it home for lunch. She tried to call her mother but couldn’t get enough signal on her cell phone.

Instead she called the police department on her radio and got rerouted to Officer Trump’s police car. She told him her dilemma, and he promised to stop in to check on her mother. Bonnie thanked him and kept moving along with the bear.

A little after two p.m., they reached a creek that was full of water from the melting snow and ice. Bonnie paused for a moment and splashed some of the cold, clear water in her face.

The bear lifted her head after taking a deep drink and sniffed the air. She bellowed and began to take off in another direction further into the forest and away from Sweet Pepper. There seemed to be no stopping her as she recognized a previous dwelling and headed for it.

“You forgot your chicken,” Matthew called out after her. “Oh well. I’m starving. I think it’s time for lunch.” He dropped to a large rock at the side of the creek. “Chicken?”

They stayed there eating and talking for about thirty minutes. Matthew looked around at their location and thought there was a faster way back to civilization from where they were. “It looks like we’re a lot further from Sweet Pepper than we are. We could’ve been up here an hour ago.”

“The bear didn’t exactly bring a map with her.” Bonnie washed the chicken from her hands in the creek water. “But we got her up here, and she didn’t try to eat either of us.”

“No wonder. She knew you were on her side.”

“Please. She knew I fed her so she was willing to put up with me.”

“Has no one else ever noticed this about you? You worked with animals for the last ten years and no one thought your methods were insane?” He stared into her eyes until she looked away.

“I spent a lot of time by myself. But I’ve never had anyone make such a fuss over what I do.”

“Are the people in Alabama crazy and blind? Or do they all talk to animals?”

Bonnie got up from the sunny rock where she’d been sitting. “The people in Alabama were friendly and wonderful. I hated to leave them.”

“Oh yeah?” He glanced up at her. “Anyone in particular? Maybe they were afraid of you. Otherwise I think you would’ve brought someone back with you. No love interest?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but there was someone. It just didn’t work out.”

Matthew stood up close beside her. “We’re working together. That makes it my business. And you can ask me anything about my personal life. You already know about my ex and my son. I was seeing a waitress over at Scooters Barbecue for a while, but that didn’t work out either. Anything else you’d like to know?”

“Not really.” But she smiled as she said it. “We should get going. It’s a long walk back, even with your shortcut.”

“How can you say that? I haven’t showed it to you yet.” He pointed in the direction they needed to go and then turned his warm eyes back to her. “How about dinner Friday night—no kids and no relatives?”

“You don’t waste any time, do you?”

“I can’t afford to. I saw the way that wolf pup looked at you. I’m sure humans are probably affected by your charisma too. Ricky was flirting with you. Maybe John Trump too. It’s good for people to know up front that you’re with me.”

She laughed as she followed him down the trail he claimed to be able to see. “That’s the worst reason ever to go out on a date with someone.”

“Oh sorry. Did you think I meant it was a date? No. This is just a friendship new working partner thing.” He kept talking even though the terrain grew tougher with trees growing closer together.

“Really?” Had she misjudged his flirtations?

Matthew stopped and grinned when she walked right into him.

“No. Absolutely not. I just want to make sure no one else tried to date you.” He put his big arms around her.

Her face was pushed into his chest—he was several inches taller than her. “You’re very subtle.”

“Subtle? Subtlety never got any man a girlfriend.”

Bonnie put her arms between them. “Are we hiking out of here or what? I’d like to be back before dark.”

“Sure. What did you have planned?”

“Okay, I’m taking point now.” She disengaged herself from him and started walking again. Was he serious? It was hard to tell. Not that she wanted him to think of her romantically. They barely knew each other.

“See?” he asked from behind her. “Isn’t this much better now that we both know how we feel?”

“I don’t think either one of us feels any particular way about the other. Just keep walking.”

“You walk. I’ll follow. Try not to fall into the lake when we come to that sharp drop-off just beyond those trees. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy a little mouth to mouth with you, Bonnie, but not after you were drowning.”

She laughed at him again and kept walking. The trees were so tightly bunched together that it slowed their progress. Then suddenly the trees were gone, and her next step would have taken her over the edge of a sharp, twenty-foot drop into the cold lake.

Matthew immediately wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her back from the edge. “You thought I was joking, didn’t you?”

Bonnie wasn’t close enough to the edge that she was worried about falling. She hadn’t lived here in a long time, but she knew there were some scary and dangerous spots around the lake. She’d hiked these mountains since she was a teenager.

“I wasn’t that close to the edge,” she told him. “And we should maintain a professional relationship if we’re going to work together. But thanks for your help.”

He was right about the way back. It took a lot less time to reach the truck than it had taken to get above the lake. Of course they weren’t shepherding a mother bear on the way down either.

They got in the truck and drove back to Sweet Pepper. Bonnie was hoping the impound lot was still open since it was after three p.m. She had no idea how long it stayed open.

There were carolers dressed in costumes from the 1800s walking along the sidewalks, singing Christmas songs at the top of their lungs. A church bell rang in the distance, and a sleigh with one horse was parked in front of town hall. The sleigh and the horse were decorated with flowers. The horse even wore a Santa hat.

“Christmas in Sweet Pepper,” Matthew sighed as they passed the town lit by twinkle lights. “Almost as good as Christmas Eve in the valley.”

“Are they doing something for Christmas in the valley now?” she asked. “They never did anything besides selling trees when I lived here.”

“It’s different now. Christmas Eve is the official end of the tree-selling season. There’s a parade and Santa. People throw candy in the streets, and music plays until midnight to celebrate Christmas Day. Everyone has pancakes and sausages at the general store. And then we go home.”

“Sounds exciting,” she remarked as they stopped at the gate to the impound lot. “I’m here to get the Hummer,” she told the man at the tiny guard house.

“Could I see some ID on that?” he asked, holding a clipboard. Dozens of sets of keys were lined up on the wall in the shack.

“Really, Sparky?” Matthew glanced around Bonnie’s head. “Are you really asking me for ID?”

“Well, no. Not if it’s you. I didn’t see you in there. It’s getting dark.”

Bonnie held out her ID. “You’re releasing the vehicle to me anyway.”

“Oh, sure, Agent Tuttle.” Sparky grinned and handed her the keys. “Chief said to give you a message too. He’s got something going on at the police station. He’d like it if you’d go there when you’re done here.”

“Thanks. I will.”

It wasn’t hard to find the Hummer in the dimly lit parking lot. It was the biggest thing there. Bonnie left her keys in the truck and got out.

“Don’t you want me to drive the Hummer?” Matthew asked as he got out too.

“I told you—we can’t do that. Regulations.”

“Don’t you ever break any regulations?”

“Not so you can drive the Hummer,” she retorted. “Be careful with my brother’s truck. Thanks for your help.”

“Okay. But I feel so used, you know? You just push me aside, even though I saved your life today.”

“Dream on.” She waved as she got into the Hummer. Despite the fact that Matthew Brown Elk was a little crazy, they’d worked well together that day. She had to remember to put in a pay voucher for him and have him put on her regular contractor’s list.

The Hummer drove like a tank. She wasn’t surprised but was glad she’d driven every kind of truck and farm equipment in the past ten years. The vehicle seemed so out of place in quaint little Sweet Pepper. It took up two parking places in front of town hall.