Page 89 of Protecting the White Bear

Denny cursed out loud.

“That’s what happens when crooks trust crooks. Do you know who was giving the money to Pierre?” Andy asked.

“No. I didn’t need to know who it was. Just that I was getting the money.”

“I want to know if Pierre thought he would get away with this scheme and no one would realize he was part of the mastermind behind it, why would he be in hiding?”

“Okay,Wendell, how much money did you get on this take?” Monica asked, as Rob drove Andy’s car on the snow-covered road, slipping on ice and correcting his direction, but not before Eloise gasped.

Wendell was quiet, still looking out of it as he rested his head against the window.

“Eloise? How much did you get?”

“I’m not saying.”

“You know, Helen and Denny got a big windfall. Knowing Denny, he’s going to want to be with the woman with the money,” Monica said, trying to stir up the pot.

Eloise’s lips parted, and then she narrowed her eyes. “How much did they get?”

“Fifty thousand each,” Monica said.

Eloise’s face reddened. “No way. Denny told me he got five thousand like I got.”

“Well, he lied. What about you, Wendell?”

“Five thousand. I would have gotten more if I hadn’t taken Lionel and Teague. I would have gotten their shares. But Denny called me on Bluetooth with the offer, and both were with me then. I knew them well enough that if I didn’t cut them in on the deal, they might have gone to the police.”

Wow, so they weren’t Wendell’s buddies, as she thought. They were just a bunch of cutthroats.

Eloise was sitting in the corner, fuming.

“You know Helen hatched this plan to get back with Denny, don’t you?” Monica rubbed the notion in, even if it wasn’t true.

“She wasn’t with him. I was.”

“Oh, yeah, but that was soon going to change.” Monica loved making stuff up as she went to throw her off-kilter and get more of the answers they needed. “He was just planning all this, so it looked like he was really with you, but as soon as he got his new passport, he would leave with Helen to go to Mexico.”

“He already has a passport.”

“Right, with a new name? You and the others wouldn’t know where he went if you all got caught and he didn’t. He and Helen could live nicely off a hundred thousand.” Then Monica turned her attention to Wendell again. “So, where is Helen?”

22

“Okay, 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’thave 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.

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