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Andy peered through the double glass doors and saw Monica waving at him. She was holding her gun, ready to shoot if Wendell tried to come in through the front door. It was all quiet outside. Andy suspected that Wendell wanted to learn what had happened to his cohorts, but was afraid to investigate.

“Teague! Lionel!” Wendell’s voice was coming from the other end of the house. He sounded a lot more panicked, not so happy-go-lucky that they’d brought the money for the ransom to Dennyifthey had.

Andy was confident Wendell would have a gun out, and he didn’t want to face him head-on and get shot. He still had to help Monica confine the other guys.

He ran around to the other end of the cabin and then to the front, desperate to reach Wendell before he moved to the back of the house and saw his cohorts passed out.

Wendell suddenly cried out, right at the corner of the house. Andy figured he’d gotten a shock when he witnessed his buddies knocked unconscious on the back deck. He might believe they were dead.

Wendell backed up and then turned as if he were going to run away. He was carrying a gun like Andy assumed he would be. Wendell saw Andy charging him, and he nearly fell back into the snow. Polar bears could leap six-foot hurdles. Andy just had to jump far enough before Wendell shot him.

Behind Wendell, Monica raced toward him. “Drop the gun, or I’ll shoot!”

Andy slammed into Wendell, knocking him over. Wendell’s gun went off, the round shooting into the dark sky. Wendell scrambled to use his weapon again, but Andy struck him in the head, knocking him out.

“I’ll put your clothes on the back deck,” Monica said to Andy.

He growled at her and followed her back to the deck. She headed inside and then came out with his clothes.

Once he had shifted and dressed, getting his boot on his injured foot even, they began hauling one of the men inside. Then she removed the scarf from Denny’s mouth and the hat from Helen’s.

“Hell,” Denny said, looking at the unconscious man.

“Yeah, that’s what happens to you when you decide to go on criminal ventures.” Andy felt smug that he and Monica could capture five of the perps “And we’re on the case.”

“A polar bear hit me!” Denny was irate.

“Right,” Monica said, returning to the deck, and Andy followed her.

They dragged in the second guy.

“Are they dead?” Now Denny looked worried.

“No, just sleeping it off.” Andy headed back outside to grab the last guy.

Monica went with him. “You know, once these guys come to, they’ll all share stories about that wild polar bear that nearly killed them,” she said, speaking low for Andy’s ears only.

“Yeah, you were behind Wendell, telling him to drop his weapon, and he could see me charging him. So he’ll mention that you had to have seen the bear.”

Monica pulled at Wendell’s arm. “Yeah. Maybe agreeing that I saw the bear will keep them from venturing outdoors. We do have another problem. We will be out of food sooner with so many more people to feed.”

“True. If these guys arrived on foot, they might have an operable vehicle closer to the cabin.”

“Yeah, good idea. Or we could leave them all tied up and then get help.”

Andy laughed. “I like that idea, but their defense attorneys would have a field day with that.”

Andy and Monica dragged Wendell into the cabin, and then she locked the back door.

"Okay, I have at least a couple more pairs of handcuffs. What about you?" Monica asked Andy.

"Three more. I have more in the squad car, but getting there is a bit of a trek." He pulled handcuffs out of his backpack and then confined Wendell, figuring he was the boss of the other two, while Monica secured one of the other men.

Andy got the last one. He glanced around the room, not wanting to put the three of them with Helen and Denny. "Okay, there's a pole here on the side. Wendell can go there."

"And the other two?"

"Well, the leg of the couch might work for each of them. I noticed the beds have wrought iron legs, but I think it's better if they're in the same place as us so we can keep an eye on them."