Page 36 of Protecting the White Bear

Mr. Holmes resettled himself on the front passenger seat and removed his hat. “I’m just grateful that no one was badly injured.” He glanced at Monica. “At least you’re going in the direction I wanted to go.”

“Not us. We were visiting my brother and his wife and returning home,” the mom of the two daughters said.

“When we get somewhere with reception, you can call them and arrange to get home.” Monica felt bad for everyone involved in the accident. She was surprised to hear that the drunken woman hadn’t been the cause of the pileup. “I guess the Richardsons were behind all of you and then ran into?—”

“Those two men’s car,” the woman said. “The drunken woman plowed into their tail end. That made the speeder lose control, and he drove off the shoulder and down the embankment. I was glad since they’d caused the accident in the first place. I would have been angered if they had just driven off and left us all in a mess. And I’m sure they would have.” She kissed her daughters’ cheeks. “Of course, at the time, I hadn’t known the driver of that last car was inebriated.”

“The weather conditions are bad enough. No one should have been trying to navigate these roads under the influence.” Monica got a call on the Yukon’s Bluetooth startling her. The caller ID showed it was from Wendell. She glanced back in the direction of the hatchback.

The woman looked over the back seat. “He’s sound asleep and lightly snoring back there.”

“Good.” Monica answered the call but said nothing, hoping to learn where Wendell was now. Had Eloise made it to the cabin? How didhehave reception?

“Hey, Harvey, where the hell are you? Eloise said that she woke up to find two cops in my truck, and they drove it to your motel. She took off in my truck when she heard shots fired in the lobby. Luckily, there was a gas can in storage in the camper bed. When we reached the motel, there was no one there. So where the hell are you?”

9

Glad to see that there was cell phone reception, Monica ended the call with Wendell on Bluetooth, pulled out her phone, and checked in with her office, but she couldn’t get any answer. The same thing happened when she tried to reach the police. She figured there were so many emergencies because of the storm's severity that the phone system was tied up for emergency services.

She contacted Andy. “Hey, we’ve got reception, but I can’t get through to law enforcement agencies.”

“I’ll call my family and see if I can get through.”

“One other thing. Wendell called on Bluetooth and asked Harvey what was going on. Harvey’s sound asleep in the back, though we really don’t want him to sleep; at least he didn’t tell him what had happened.”

“So they have reception now.”

“Right. The bad news is they’re at the motel. The drunk woman in Wendell’s truck drove to the cabin where Dennis and Helen were staying. I don’t know if they’re all together now at the motel.”

“They probably are because they need to move before we send reinforcements to pick them up at the cabin, and I doubt they have another vehicle. They won’t have gas to get them very far unless Harvey has some stored at the motel. Eloise could be involved, not just someone clueless, sleeping it off in the truck.”

“They had more gas in the camper. But I agree. I will call Helen’s new boyfriend, Pierre, and tell him Helen is in on the whole thing so he doesn’t worry about her safety.”

“All right. I would hate to be him.”

“I know, right? At least now you and I can talk back and forth until my phone runs out of charge.”

“Yeah, the same with mine.”

“I’ll talk to you in a bit.” She ended the call and phoned Pierre, but there wasn’t any answer.Great.She called Andy back. “I’m going to give you the number for Pierre. I couldn’t reach him, so if you can call him periodically, we’ll tell him not to worry about Helen.”

“Okay. I’ve got my parents on hold. Speak with you in a little while.”

“Everyone has beenout looking for you, son,” Andy’s dad said. “Your cousins, your brothers, and half of White Bear. I’m damn glad you’re all right.”

“We’re coming in. I’ll explain it all to you later, but we’ve got a caravan of cars, two involved in a five-car pileup, and I’m driving the one in the lead. Though I’ve slipped a few times on the icy, snow-covered road, the road is fairly clear. We need medical attention for a man who has been shot.”

“Shot? Who did the shooting?”

“Monica O’Connell. She’s an FBI agent.”

“We never expected you to be in such a mess. Ben and Craig found your vehicle and two others stranded. We learned you’d run into an FBI agent’s vehicle.”

“Uh, she ran into me. My car was stuck.”

“Okay, well, we’ve been looking for her also.”

“She’s with me in a vehicle we commandeered. I’ll tell you all about it later. Both of us are safe. Do me a favor. If you have time, try to get hold of Pierre Johnson for us.” Andy gave his dad the phone number.

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