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“ O kay, so where is Helen? Does Wendell have her stashed away somewhere?” Andy asked Denny as Craig stayed behind Rob, who was driving Andy’s SUV, only slowing when Andy’s vehicle took a minor icy detour. That held Andy’s attention, as he didn't want him to drive off the embankment.

“What are you asking me for? I have no idea. We left for my place when Eloise came to our rescue after you stranded us at my neighbor’s cabin.

Wendell’s truck was at my house, and Helen left with him, mad because I wouldn’t be with her.

She keeps thinking we’ll work things out, but I’m not interested,” Denny said.

“So she for sure went with Wendell?”

“She stormed out of the house, and Wendell left right after. I assumed she was with him. She couldn’t have walked in deep snow anywhere. She would have frozen to death. Since she wasn’t with him when he got to my grandparents’ cabin, I assumed he had left her back at his place.”

Andy had an eerie thought about Wendell’s truck and how he had shoved it off the drive into the snowbank.

She couldn’t have been in the truck, could she have been?

Just waiting for Wendell’s return? Andy hadn’t looked in the back seat when he had driven it into the embankment.

What if she had been hiding on the floorboard?

“Why did Wendell even go to see you at the cabin?”

“Hell, if I know. I wasn’t expecting it. He didn’t text or call. Unless…well, maybe he did, and it didn’t go through. But also, Eloise and I were in the shower when you broke into the cabin. I wouldn’t have heard it. My phone was downstairs, charging in the kitchen.”

She could freeze to death in the truck if she were inside it, and she wouldn’t have any way to get to safety. Well, no, she could go to the cabin. Even though Craig had wrecked the front door, she could get warm in the upstairs bedroom. Andy felt a little better about that.

He tried his phone as they approached where they’d had reception before, and was glad he could reach Monica. “Hey, Monica, I had an alarming thought. Denny said that Helen was with Wendell, he thought. What if she was out in his truck?”

“That you drove off the drive?”

“Yeah.”

“Let me ask Wendell again. He seems reluctant to talk.”

Monica prayed that Helen hadn’t been in Wendell’s truck, but what if she had been? What if she had been hiding there when they were about to leave? Or even sleeping and never knew they had taken everyone out of the house and left?

When Andy got into the truck and she saw that it wasn’t Wendell, she might have lain down on the floorboard, not wanting to get arrested.

Or she might have been in the camper. Wendell wouldn't have said anything, not wanting her to be arrested, either. Unless he’d been so out of it, he hadn’t thought of her. Or she hadn't been in the truck at all.

The good thing was that she could go to the cabin and stay warm. Plus, there was food, water, and a bathroom, so it wasn't like she would starve or freeze to death.

"Wendell, this is important. Was Helen in your truck?" Monica asked.

He had his eyes closed and didn't respond. She shoved at him. "Wendell!"

He startled awake.

"Don't go to sleep on us. We need to check out your injuries." She hoped he didn't have a brain injury from being knocked out. "Was Helen in your truck when you went into the cabin?"

Eloise snorted. "I bet the dumb bitch was. She can't stay away from Denny."

"Wendell, was she?"

Wendell let out his breath. "I don't know where she is. I took her to White Bear, and she said she was going shopping. Then I went to the cabin to check on Denny because he said we had more trouble. That he didn't know where Lionel and Teague were hiding out."

"They're both in jail, spilling their guts."

Wendell's eyes widened.

"Okay, did Helen go with you to Denny's cabin? Don't feed me a line of bull about her shopping. She knows we're looking for her—either as a real kidnapped victim, which we don't believe, or the original mastermind of the crime. She wouldn't be out 'shopping' in White Bear. She's not that dumb."

"Says you," Eloise said.

Monica turned to her. "You know, the reason we handcuffed her in the first place when we found Denny and her was that she was having sex with Denny on the sofa in the living room at the neighbors’ cabin." Monica figured she might as well set Eloise straight on the matter.

Eloise narrowed her eyes. "Denny better not have."

"How else would we have known it? As far as Pierre told me, she was kidnapped. But when we found them, the story was totally different."

Eloise clenched her teeth, and Monica focused on Wendell again. "Where is Helen?"

He wouldn't speak.

"Okay, look, we pushed your truck off the road, right?

We flattened the tires on Eloise's car so they couldn't take off.

A polar bear knocked the front door in and wreaked havoc in the cabin.

It remains open to the world. So what if Helen gets to the house and finds all the food gone, there's no cell reception, and she can't keep any marauding bears out? "

Wendell frowned at her.

"I'm serious. What if one of them—there were two—came in and went up the stairs where she could retreat and stay in the bedroom, but he knocked that door down?

Even if they didn't, she's still on her own out there with no way to let anyone know she's there.

So you can either just leave her there and be considered for negligent homicide if she dies, or you can tell us, and we'll be sure to pick her up. "

Wendell didn't say anything for a long time.

"Don’t you care about her?" Monica suddenly wondered if something had happened between them, that they’d even had a falling out. Maybe something to do with the money?

"She was in the truck."

Eloise scoffed. "I knew she was trying to see Denny again."

Monica immediately called Andy back. "Helen was in Wendell’s truck."

"Okay, I've called Roger, and they're having some patrols coming to meet us.”

“As soon as we transfer the detainees over to the patrol cars, and an ambulance is on the way for Wendell?—"

"I see one of the patrol cars now. His lights are flashing.

There are two more, and an ambulance following them.

Have Rob pull over, and we'll make the transfer.

Craig and Rob can come with us with the additional patrol car, and we'll return to the house and grab Helen.

" Andy was concerned about Helen’s health, but also wanted to get her into custody with her fellow co-conspirators.

"Pull over, Rob. We're going to transfer these two to the patrol car and the ambulance," Monica said.

"Gotcha."

"What about Helen?" Wendell asked.

"We're going back for her."

"What about Andy's car?" Rob asked.

"We'll take the two cars, and one of the patrol cars can come with us so that they can transport her to jail."

Then, the patrol cars pulled up alongside them, and the transfers began.

Smiling, Roger shook his head at Andy as the other officers transferred Denny and Eloise to separate patrol cars. EMTs checked out Wendell and then put him in the ambulance.

“I can’t believe you’re still on this case,” Roger said.

“You know me. Just like with the guy trapped in his vehicle that no one else could find, I was bound and determined to locate him. Are you ready to go with us to pick up the last of the perps in this case?”

“Yeah, sure.” Roger got back in his patrol car.

Though Pierre was really the last of them.

Andy and Monica climbed into his car and turned it around to return to the cabin. Craig and Rob followed behind the patrol car as additional backup if needed.

“I hope she’s not unconscious in the truck,” Andy said.

“Yeah, I know. I’m just glad we thought about it and questioned Wendell further. I thought Helen might have fought with him, or he was trying to protect her.”

“So Denny and Pierre still have a thing for her?”

Monica shrugged. “Some women have it. But boy, when I mentioned Helen was having sex with Denny, and that’s why we believed she wasn’t a kidnapped victim, Eloise was furious.”

Andy laughed.

“Also, she was angry that Helen would even go to the cabin. I’m really sure Helen planned to go inside, but once Wendell saw your car, he told her to stay put while he checked it out.”

They finally arrived back at the cabin. Monica and Andy exited the vehicle to check on Wendell’s truck and camper. Roger parked behind him and left his patrol car to help them. Craig and Rob quickly joined them.

The truck was now on its side, and Monica guessed it had slid that way afterward but had only been tilting in that direction before that. They opened the driver’s side door, but no one was inside. Maybe Helen’s moving around inside the truck had unsettled it.

They all returned to their vehicles and drove up to the cabin. Once there, they quickly left their cars, but as soon as they did, Helen opened the window above the patio and started to shoot at them, the bullets ricocheting off the trees nearby.

Okay, so Monica hadn’t planned for that to happen! The woman had just staged a kidnapping scheme for money. Now she was responsible for firing at law enforcement officers?

Monica was so perturbed. “You’re only wanted for a kidnapping scheme, Helen. If you pursue this, you’ll get many more charges tacked on.”

Helen had retreated away from the window. Right now, they needed a polar bear to take over. Which they could if they didn’t have Roger with them. She knew his vehicle was the perfect one for taking her into custody, which they needed, but?—

Then Andy said, “I’m going around to the back of the house.”

“I’ll go with you,” Roger said.

“Uh, I want you to stay here,” Andy said. “Monica can go with me. She knows the layout of the house.”

“Do you want me to go out back and watch the house while Rob and Roger stay here to watch the front? That way, if Helen slips out unseen through the back door, one of us will be there,” Craig said.

Normally, that’s how they would conduct a mission, so Andy agreed.