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“Come out slowly. Out of the truck now!”

He didn’t move. She was poised with her gun, but she didn’t want to shoot him if she didn’t have to. An investigation would result. They would take her gun. They would likely have a psychologist talk to her about how she felt about shooting the man. Perhaps they would even put her on paid leave until they determined how it all unfolded.

Because her body cam was on, at least investigators could see everything that had happened.

She knew, too, that her boss would have something to say about her slipping around the back of the house to rescue Sherry alone, but she couldn’t have waited.

The man got out of the truck. She swore he towered over everyone there, downright intimidating.

“Put your hands up in the air!” “He’s got a gun!” “He’s armed!”

“Drop the weapon. Do it now!”

He raised the revolver and began firing. The police officers scrambled for cover. One yelled, “I’ve been hit!”

The other officers fired back at the kidnapper, and he crumpled to the snowy ground on the other side of his truck.

Once he was down, the police officers raced across the snow to get his weapon while another officer took care of the wounded one until an ambulance arrived.

Unless the kidnapper got up to fight again, this was done. She called for an ambulance and hugged Sherry.

“It’s done. The officers are taking him into custody,” she said to Sherry.

“He told me to tell anyone who saw us together that he was my uncle, but he isn’t.” Sherry was still sniffling.

“We know.” Then Monica called her boss back. “The kidnapper is in custody. I’m heading back to Anchorage after this is done.”

News vans pulled up, and reporters hurried to get the story. Despite not wanting to talk to them, they were in her face, and she said a few words. “Everyone in law enforcement has helped to end this case in the best way possible.”

“But you’ve successfully rescued four kidnapped victims in the last year,” a strawberry-blond-headed guy said.

“With the help of others.” Actually, no. Her polar bear senses helped her locate the victims and rescue them more safely, but she always wanted to ensure that everyone who had helped received credit for the good deed. The year before that, she hadn’t been successful, and that weighed heavily on her mind every time she tried to rescue a hostage or kidnapped victim.

The ambulance pulled up, and the EMS pronounced the kidnapper dead. Okay, so he wasn’t going to be taken into custody. Fine by her. She wondered if he thought he could fight it out with the officers and get away or if he wanted to do a suicide-by-cop routine. The wounded police officer had only been grazed, for which she was glad.

The EMS checked Sherry over, but she hadn’t been harmed. Not physically, anyway. She held her hand out to Monica. “Will you stay with me?”

Monica nodded. “Sure thing.”

One of the officers brought over a stuffed teddy bear. “Here you go, Sherry.”

Sherry smiled and hugged the polar bear.

Monica stayed with Sherry until her parents arrived to take their daughter to the hospital.

Her parents hugged their daughter, and when Sherry told them Monica had rescued her, they hugged her, too. She was so glad that the outcome had been exactly what everyone needed.

Once they left, one of the officers asked Monica, “How did you manage to get her out of the house without being shot?”

“I was just lucky, I guess.” Her polar bear instincts helped her to smell, hear, and detect movement better. And she’d had a bit of luck. “Thanks for coming to back me up.”

“You bet.”

The adrenaline still coursing through her blood, she climbed into her Ford Expedition, waved goodbye, and drove from Sea Lion Cove to a mini-mart service station in White Bear. She planned to head home to Anchorage when she got a call from Pierre Johnson, a guy she’d dated several times back home. That was a shocker.

“Monica, I heard you were in Sea Lion Cove and helped rescue a girl from a kidnapper.”

“News travels fast.” She guessed he must have been watching the news.