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“Yeah, my cousins’ van. They take tourists on wilderness tours, and their vans are white like that. But they have signage on the side: White Bear Wilderness Adventures Tour.”

“That’s too bad they couldn’t help us, though they’re not law enforcement. The service station looks dark, as if no one is operating it.” Sounding frustrated, she peered closer at the service station.

Signs on the gas pumps stated they were out of gas.

“People probably made a run on the gas ahead of the blizzard,” Monica said.

“Yeah. And they couldn’t get a truck out to fill the gas tanks during the storm.”

Then she brightened with enthusiasm again. “A motel is up the road that way. We could stop there and see if we can get a landline reception. Their vacancy light is on.”

“Do you want to share a room?” Andy smiled at her in a way that said he was serious as sin. Man, he would love to.

She smiled back, appearing to like the idea. “I guess we could do that. We could keep driving until we run out of gas, get closer to White Bear, and sleep in the camper, but a warm hotel room sounds better.”

“Let’s see if we can get accommodations.”

Then Monica frowned. “What do we do about Eloise?”

“Get her a room of her own. I don’t want to take her into custody.

She won't be able to go anywhere. We can interrogate her tomorrow when she’s sober and learn all about her involvement in this.

” He pulled into the Frontier Motel, which had ten rooms in the single-story motel, except for the end of the lobby, which was a double-story structure with a covered roof over a drive-thru.

The outer walls were white metal, the bottom half of the motel was covered in red brick, and each motel room door was the same color as the brick. Each room had small double windows covered with curtains. All the rooms were dark, as if no one was staying there.

Snow covered the sidewalk from the blizzard, which hadn’t been cleared for guests, surprising Andy. The parking lot was also covered, but he managed to drive through it.

“The Yukon parked near the lobby might be the clerk's or manager’s, so I’m sure there’s someone here. I’ll go in and get us a couple of rooms. Then again, maybe I should stay with her, and you could have your own room if she’s involved in this. ”

He let out his breath. “We could do that.” But he didn’t want to.

And what was up with that? He was interested in the she-bear, that was what. Still, they had a job, and other considerations weren’t important. Telling himself that didn’t dampen his enthusiasm to get to know her better.

“I’ll wait in the truck with Sleeping Beauty while you go in and get the rooms,” he said.

“Be right back.” Monica left the truck while he kept the heater running, thinking of sharing a bed with her, even if it wasn’t practical.

From behind the check-in counter at the motel, a black-bearded man dressed in all black narrowed his eyes.

His mouth curved down, and his stance was rigid and untrusting as if Monica wasn’t supposed to be there.

That made her suspicious. She reminded herself that he might worry he was in trouble with the law when he saw her FBI parka.

Not everyone welcomed law enforcement agents.

Or he might be concerned she was there to arrest someone else at the motel, though there were no other vehicles parked there, so it appeared no one was there. It would cause trouble for him if it turned out to be a crime scene.

No one was in the lobby, and he was the only one behind the counter.

“You drove up in Wendell’s truck. What’s going on?”

Uh-oh. At once, she smelled his aggressiveness, and he could probably see Andy at the truck's wheel as he parked under the drive-thru awning in front of the lobby.

“He sent us to get some gas, but it looks like the only service station in the area is empty and shut down for the time being.” Her heart beat sped up; she was ready to pull out her service weapon.

“Why would he send a cop to do that? Has he been arrested? Where is he?”

She pulled out her revolver. “Put your hands where I can see them.”

He dropped down behind the counter and came up with a shotgun.

Damn! “No one can get here in time to take care of your bullet wounds if you don’t put down your weapon,” she shouted.

He snorted. “When I shoot you, you won’t need medical attention.”

“What’s Wendell to you?”

“It’s none of your business.”

She shrugged. “If you think you’re going to kill me, what does it matter if I know?”

“He’s my cousin.”

“So you know what he’s involved in. Drop your weapon, and I won’t charge you with obstruction.” And more. She suspected he wouldn’t comply.

“How come you got his truck?”

“I told you. He needed gas.”

“Come on. You’re going to take me out there, and we’re going to make sure he’s not handcuffed in the back seat of the truck or the camper.”

She couldn’t let him go out to the truck. If she didn’t disarm him, he could shoot Andy and her. She hoped that at least Andy would make it out safely.

The guy started to rack his shotgun, and she shot him in the arm.

She hated to do it in case she put him in a life-threatening situation, but she felt she didn’t have any other choice.

He cried out but aimed his shotgun at her.

She dove out of his sight and landed behind a sofa in the lobby.

The blast was loud as the round slammed into the back of the faux leather couch with a thunk.

Before she could rise and shoot him again, hopefully fully incapacitating him this time, a large, beautiful polar bear ran into the lobby.

Whenever she saw Andy in action, she thought how striking he was.

When Andy scrambled over the counter, the man looked like he would die of fright.

He cried out in distress, and Andy knocked him out.

They heard the truck back up and take off, and Monica raced outside.

Eloise was at the wheel, tearing down the road toward the cabin.

Had she seen Andy shift? Had she heard the shots fired?

Would she make it as drunk as she’d sounded?

Unless that had all been an act, just like the kidnapping had been.

What about Andy’s clothes? She ran outside and found them where Eloise had run over them with the truck. Monica carried them into the lobby. Security cameras were installed in the lobby, so she entered the restroom and placed his clothes there.

She would have to erase some of the video anyway. Not of her shooting the man or of him shooting at her, but just of a polar bear attacking him.

“Eloise took off with our truck.” Not that it was their truck. Monica tried the landline to call for help. The phone line was dead. “Not working.”

Andy licked her hand and then headed into the men’s restroom. She began binding the man’s wounds while Andy dressed and returned to take care of the security videos, which had been her next plan. She liked that he thought along the same lines as she did.

She searched for a wallet and learned from his ID that he was Harvey Marquart. “He’s Wendell Marquart’s cousin, who owns the truck we had confiscated.”

“Great,” Andy said from the office.

“Do you think Eloise knows where to go?”

“She won’t make it to the cabin on the amount of gas she has. Driving as fast as she did out of here and with the unwieldy height of the truck, I would say before long, she’ll lose control of the truck and end up in the ditch in a snowbank.”

Monica found Harvey’s keys. “Okay, I’ve got his keys.” She put a No Vacancy light on for the motel and then put a sign in the window saying: Closed.

“I hope no one had plans to stay here,” Andy said as she joined him in the office, and she watched him delete the last footage of the polar bear attacking Harvey.

“You shifted inside the camper.”

“Yeah. I figured no one would see me from any motel room if anyone was there. Eloise wouldn’t have either. But there’s only one vehicle out there.”

“The Yukon that we’re going to take to White Bear.” She poked the key fob, and the Yukon’s lights flashed on and off. “Hopefully, it will have more gas than the truck.”

“And it will get much better gas mileage than the truck with the camper on top.”

One thing was puzzling her, though. “If you stripped out of your clothes inside the camper…”

“I dropped them at the end of the camper, and I left the door open so I could run back out there, climb in, shift, and dress. When she tore off, my clothes fell out. Thankfully. Though she went backward instead of forward. I was afraid she was really out of it. The door looked like it shut on its own.”

“That’s how she drove over your clothes then.”

“Yeah.”

They both tried their satellite and cell phones but had no luck.

Because they had to get Harvey medical treatment, and he was involved in trying to kill her, they needed to incarcerate him. She bandaged his wound, then put a pair of cuffs on Harvey, and they dragged him out to the Yukon. When they got him inside, they secured him in the back.

Andy took over the driving, glanced at the gas gauge, and smiled. “It looks like he must have filled up before the blizzard hit, got stuck here, but at least he has a full gas tank.”

“Good. Something’s working for us for a change.”

“Hey! What the hell! You shot me, and now you’ve stolen my vehicle?” Harvey shouted from the back, struggling to get loose.

Andy and Monica could be in a real mess again if he broke free from his constraints.