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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."

"I agree."

Andy dragged one of the men over to the couch and secured him. Monica helped him pull the last man over to the farthest couch and confined him.

"You can't keep us like this forever. If that bear breaks in, we're all dead," Denny said.

"You can't confine me," Helen said. "It's illegal. What you're doing is illegal!"

"We could confine her to one of the bedrooms," Monica said.

"I have every right to speak. The Fourth Amendment gives me that right. And you can’t do that to me."

"Yeah, let's move her." Andy figured that would free up one of the brass poles, which could hold one of the men.

Then, between the two of them, they took her out of the room and confined her to the bed.

"You can't do this to me," Helen screamed.

But they really needed that other pole to confine the last of the men. The couch would have to do for the other.

Once they secured her to the bed, they started to leave the room.

“You can’t do this to me!” Helen screamed at them. “I’m going to sue you both. What are your badge numbers?”

They gave her their badge numbers again and then left the room, shutting the door. Then they moved the man secured to the couch to the other bar pole. They checked the men’s pockets for anything and found three more loaded handguns.

“So this one is Lionel Boyer, the guy in camo,” Andy said, looking at his driver’s license.

“And this one is Teague Moore.” Monica stuffed his driver’s license in his wallet and set it on the kitchen counter.

They checked Wendell’s driver’s license and saw his name was Wendell Marquart.

Andy put Lionel’s wallet with Teague’s. “So tell me about these guys, Denny.”

“I’ve never seen them in my life.”

“That’s why they’re here at this cabin, hollering your name. Or at least Wendell was,” Andy said.

They opened Wendell’s backpack to see what was inside.

“You can’t go through my stuff without a search warrant.” Wendell’s face turned red with anger.

Wendell’s shaggy, mousy brown hair covered his ears, a scar raked across his cheek, and a skull tattoo on his left hand mocked the viewer.

His chin was stubby with a cleft the size of Texas on it, and another scar cut across his bottom lip that dove into the cleft.

What had he been involved in that had caused the scars? Other criminal pursuits?

“He said he had the ransom money, patted the bag, and that’s good enough to check out the bag to see if he has the money.” Andy opened the bag while Monica recorded it with her cell phone. “Besides, we needed to look for any other weapons.” Andy pulled out another gun.

“You’ve violated a million of our rights,” Denny said.

“We saved your lives from that polar bear, remember?” Andy figured the gig was up as far as making up a story that all four men couldn’t have seen what they thought they had seen.

Monica checked the two other guys to ensure they were still breathing.

Teague started to stir and sat up, alarmed. “Hell.” He looked around the room. “Where’s the bear?” His red hair was tied back in a tail, and he wore a mustache; his chin was clean-shaven. He had a baby face with red freckles that bridged his nose and cheeks.

“See, I told you it was a polar bear,” Denny said, annoyed.

“Hell, yeah, it was a polar bear,” Teague said. “He got you too? I can’t believe we’re alive.” He pulled at his restraints. “What the hell?”

“You and the others are under arrest for obtaining ransom money for a false kidnapping,” Monica said. “Are there any more of you involved?”

No one said anything.

“What are you going to do with us?” Teague raised his brows. “How many of you are there? Just two?” He scoffed. “You won’t be able to handle all of us.”

“Where’s the vehicle you drove to get here?” Monica asked.

“Like I’m telling you.” Wendell leaned against the island while sitting on the floor.

Monica took Andy aside and spoke to him privately.

“We need to find that vehicle. One of us can look for it now while the tracks are still fresh. If it’s a big enough vehicle, we could take them all back to White Bear, at least to the point where we can get a hold of other law enforcement to help take these guys in. ”

“How close were you to the cabin before you had to walk?” Andy called out to Wendell.

“Listen, man, you can’t leave us and go looking for our truck. The bear will kill you, and then what will we do?” Wendell said.

Denny glowered at Wendell, and Andy suspected he hoped one of them would look for the truck. Then they would manage to free themselves and take out the last person who was left watching them.

“I’ll go,” Monica said.

“Okay.” Andy would have suggested it because he figured she would prefer that, and he certainly would if he had to handle one of the men or more.

Monica pulled on her cold-weather gear—hat, coat, snow boots, and gloves. Then she put on her mask and snow goggles. She put all their guns in her backpack. “I’ll be back as soon as I find the vehicle.”

“You’re making a mistake, lady,” Wendell said, sounding panicked.

Ignoring him, she left the cabin and headed out into the cold snow. At least the snow wasn’t coming down as hard now as Andy watched her walk in the direction the men had taken.

He hoped she would find a vehicle to take them to White Bear. He also hoped they could manage five co-conspirators without any trouble. Without a confining cage to put them in, trying to transport them safely to White Bear would be a dangerous prospect.

Monica headed through the deep snow on the path the men had made. She walked for about half a mile when she saw a black pickup truck sitting on a clear road. The one that she had just traversed hadn’t been plowed. She immediately felt relieved to see the vehicle and the plowed road.

The truck even had a slide-in camper on the back and over the double-wide cab. She looked in the back—a full-sized bed, pallet, fridge, sink, propane tank, solar module, and storage—nice. Hopefully, they could incarcerate some of the perps in the camper.

She tried her satellite phone but couldn’t get a signal. She tried her phone next, but there was no signal.

She turned around and headed back to the cabin as quickly as she could to give Andy the news when she heard shots fired back at the cabin, sending her heart into overdrive.

“Bang, bang, bang!”