Framed For Christmas

Beside him, Gideon’s neighbor gave his fingers a quick squeeze before releasing his hand.

He let out a long breath. It was hard enough having his personal space invaded by a small army of excitable teens. But now he was being forced to hold hands and say grace. Talk about being pushed out of his comfort zone.

For over two years, he had been preparing and eating meals at the cabin, and this was the first time he had even thought about thanking God for his food. After what had happened to his family, he wasn’t exactly on friendly terms with the Man Upstairs, so it wasn’t all that surprising.

Still, the kids and their chaperone seemed to take comfort in spending time in fellowship and prayer. Maybe he could take advantage of their relaxed mood to do a little digging into the circumstances of their visit to Dagger Lake.

“Miss Jones tells me that your youth group is based out of Mason City. Go, Hawkeyes, right?”

“We’re from Blooming Prairie, actually,” Josh corrected. “And most of us prefer the Cardinals.”

Gideon raised an amused brow. “Good to know. And were all of you part of the original group who visited the reservation this past summer?”

“Yup.” Josh seemed comfortable assuming the role of spokesman. “Only, Mr. Anderson was our chaperone the first time we came.”

“Mr. Anderson, huh? What’s he like?”

At the far end of the table, Joe grinned. “He’s okay. He’s the choir director at our church, and he’s really big into Gregorian chants. We actually prefer Miss Jones.”

Gideon nodded. It wasn’t hard to see why. Before sitting down to dinner, Dani had pulled her hair back in a braid, and her clear gray eyes seemed to sparkle every time she turned to face the kids. With her calm demeanor and sympathetic smile, she clearly was one of those people who related well to teenagers. He would definitely have been one of the boys crushing on her when he was their age. Unfortunately, that was then and this was now. At the moment, she was his number one suspect in a drug-smuggling case. “What kinds of things did you do at the reservation?”

“A little bit of everything,” Josh answered again. The kid acted like he was thirteen going on thirty. “Babysitting. Playing basketball with the younger kids. A few of us lent a hand helping restore one of the murals that was damaged in the flood.”

Gideon settled back in his chair and listened to the kids talk about the jobs they had done on their first visit to Dagger Lake. Many of the homes on the reservation had been ravaged by the high waters of the early-spring floods, and it was difficult not to admire the group’s willingness to travel such a distance to help out. The kids were direct in answering his questions, but their leader was acting skittish. In the last five minutes, Dani Jones had spilled a glass of water, knocked over a saltshaker and twice dropped her napkin onto the floor. He was starting to think there was something about him that made her nervous.

He must have been staring again, because she gave him an inscrutable look when she met his eye.

“This is a lovely cabin, Gideon.” Gid-ee-yun. She drew out the syllables of his first name, making it sound foreign and exotic. “How long did you say you’ve been living here?”

“Two years,” he replied. He was amused to see she was doing a little interrogating of her own. “But I’ve owned the land for quite some time. I used to keep a trailer on the property for fishing in the winter.”

“Cool,” Joe exclaimed. “I still can’t believe you can catch perch through a hole in the ice.”

“It’s pretty easy, actually. I use a hand auger to cut a seven-inch circle, and then all I need to do is drop in my line and see what I can pull up. The ice is already pretty thick this year. Some of the guys in town haul out their shacks in early December, but I usually wait until January.”

He noticed that Dani was frowning as she peered across the room. Apparently, she didn’t find his description of ice fishing all that scintillating.

“Is everything all right?” he asked.

Dani nodded. Something was bothering her, but if she didn’t want to tell him, he wasn’t going to pry it out of her. And before the group got too comfortable, he needed to review the plan for the evening and next day.

“Why don’t we take a moment to discuss the sleeping arrangements for tonight? Gentlemen, how about we let the ladies have the bedroom, and we’ll set up on the living room floor?” When no one protested, he continued. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll do my best to get you to the reservation. Unless you’d prefer to stay here indefinitely to hang out with Lou and me.” He forced a wry grin to show that he was joking. “I’d like to get an early start, so all of you need to be prepared for a 7:00 a.m. departure.”

A couple of the kids groaned.

“Are we going to walk across the lake?” Lucy asked.

He shook his head. For the second time that evening, he kicked himself for not ordering the parts to fix his truck. “The drifts are too deep for that. I’m going to take you by snowmobile, but I can only fit one at a time.”

“Fun!” Gabe exclaimed.

“That might be an overstatement, but it shouldn’t be too bad. I have extra gear to help you stay warm. Like I said before, it’s a pretty straight shot from my dock to the sheriff’s office on the other side. When we get there, you can call your parents and let them know you’re okay. Sheriff Stanek may want to ask you a few questions, but after that, he’ll arrange to get you to the reservation in time for the ceremony.”

“Questions about what?” Josh homed in on the million-dollar detail.

Gideon stood and walked over to the stove to pour himself a cup of hot water from the kettle, taking his time to stir in a tablespoon of coffee granules before rejoining the group. The kids were young, but that didn’t mean that they shouldn’t know the truth. Besides, they were going to find out soon enough. “Earlier this evening, I discovered a significant quantity of cocaine in the back of your van. I discussed the situation with Miss Jones, and she was quick to assure me that no one in your group is involved with either taking or smuggling drugs. So, unless someone wants to make a confession, I’m going to operate on that assumption, but only temporarily. If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a few questions about your preparations for the trip. Are you all okay with that?”

Seven heads nodded in unison. Their solemn faces reflected the seriousness of his request.

“Good. Let’s start at the beginning, then. Miss Jones has already explained most of the details of your mission trip. But as you think about the days leading up to your departure, I’d like you to try to remember if you noticed anything out of the ordinary that caught your attention. Maybe it was something as simple as spotting someone carrying a box through the parking lot when you arrived with your gear. Or maybe it was a person you didn’t know very well who was asking too many questions about your plans. Basically, I’m interested in anything and everything you might have seen or heard that relates to your visit to the reservation.”

There was a long silence. Josh and Gabe shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

“Gentlemen?” Gideon asked. “Do you have something to add to the discussion?”

Josh suddenly looked a lot less confident as he turned to meet Gideon’s eyes. “I... We...don’t really know if this is the kind of thing you’re looking for, but after Gabe and I left our stuff at the church, we thought we saw a car that looked like my mom’s at the far end of the lot. The driver was slumped down, talking on his phone. When he saw us approaching, he reached across to the passenger seat, picked up a gun and held it in front of the window.” Josh gave a nervous laugh. “We took off running and didn’t look back. At least I didn’t,” he added with a shrug.

Dani gasped. “A gun? Boys! Did you tell Josh’s mom?”

Josh looked at Gabe, who shrugged sheepishly.

“We thought that if we said something, our parents might not let us go on the trip,” Gabe explained. “And when we talked about it later, we decided it was probably a toy and the guy was just trying to scare us so we’d leave him alone.”

“Did you happen to notice the plates on the vehicle?” Gideon wanted to know.

“No,” Josh admitted. “But it was a white Jeep.”

A white Jeep, not a tan SUV. Interesting. “And you didn’t recognize the driver?”

Josh’s laugh was high-pitched. “No. He was wearing a hoodie, so I didn’t get a good look at his face.”

“How about the rest of you?” Gideon asked. “Did anyone else see or hear anything unusual?” His eyes made a loop of the circle, finally coming to rest on Dani. There was something nervous and wary in her eyes. It was a look he had seen often during his years at the DEA, although it was usually the victims, not the perpetrators, who wore that expression of panicked confusion. It was as if there was something she wanted to share but didn’t know quite how to bring it up. “Dani? Is everything okay?”

Dani’s fingers trembled as she raised them to her lips. “I just saw a shadow of something moving outside.”

Gideon pushed back his chair and walked over to the large picture window. “It’s probably a deer looking for food. I’m surprised Lou’s so quiet. He usually sounds the alarm when anyone gets close to the house.”

On cue, the dog perked his ears and began to bark.

“Like I said, there’s a good chance that it’s just a hungry animal, but it can’t hurt to check things out.” He slipped on his coat, grabbed a flashlight from the shelf and pointed at Lou. The shepherd jumped up. Clearly, he didn’t need to be asked twice.

For a moment, no one spoke. Then Joe stood and folded his arms across his chest.

“I’ll bet it’s a bobcat,” he said. “Don’t worry, Miss Jones. Lou will scare it away.”

“Or maybe it’s a moose,” Gabe suggested. “Or a mountain lion?”

“Or a gray wolf or a coyote?” Josh almost spilled his glass of juice in his excitement. “Maybe we men should help Mr. Marshall look for tracks.”

Gideon shook his head. “Thanks for the offer, boys, but it might be best if you stay back and help with the chores.” Given the fact that the drugs were now hidden in his barn, he couldn’t discount the likelihood of a far deadlier threat.