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ChapterOne
“No, I’m wide awake,” Frieda Strauss said into the phone as she scurried out of her covers. It was true. It was nearly eleven, but she was still wide awake, sitting among her pillows and wrapped in blankets, reading one of her guilty pleasure romance novels. She loved the cheesy smut books but practically flung it away from her when her phone began to ring, and she saw Erik’s name flash across the screen.
“Good,” Erik said on the other end of the line. “Wendy’s heading through town to get to her place and she’s going to be going right by you in five minutes or less. I need you to go down and wait in your truck until she goes by, then follow her home. But don’t pull out right away because she thinks she has a tail with no lights. Don’t turn your lights on, and try to see if you catch who it is.”
“Done,” Frieda replied curtly, pulling on her sneakers. She was already wearing a long-sleeved flannel shirt and similar bottoms, so she didn’t bother to change. Instead, she reached directly for her keys, and left her townhouse as is.
The frigid December air blasted her harshly as she opened her front door, and she snagged her coat off of her hook as she went outside. Frieda shivered involuntarily as she hit the unlock button on her key fob and all but threw herself into the cab of her black Dodge pickup truck. Shoving her key into the ignition, she turned it on and blasted the heat.
As she buckled her seat belt and warmth began to fill the cab, Frieda spotted a pair of headlights in her rearview mirror. She immediately put her truck into drive, and waited in anticipation for the car to pass. Just as she’d thought would, Frieda spotted the familiarities of Wendy’s vehicle, and her heart leapt with anticipation. Then, just as Erik had warned her, she saw the outline of a car following approximately 100 feet behind, its headlights out.
Stealthily, Frieda pulled her truck onto the road, careful not to spin her wheels on the ice and snow that had drifted around her tires. It was difficult to make out any distinctions, especially without her lights on, but Frieda did catch bits of the license plate at times. F something-something-357- something V1- something-something. She was so intent on trying to make the rest out, she almost didn’t realize that they were all slowing down, and that they’d made a turn onto Wendy’s street. As she pulled her truck into park a safe distance away from the other vehicle, her phone rang again. It was Erik.
“I see you,” he said immediately. “Stay in your truck until I give the clear.”
“Are we going to approach them?” she asked, looking down at the baton she always kept in the door of her truck. With the appropriate strength, it could snap a bone like it was a dried-out twig.
“Only if absolutely necessary,” Erik replied. “If they get out and try to follow her inside, yes. If he stays in his vehicle and drives off, we leave him be. We don’t want to reveal ourselves unless we have to.”
Frieda grunted in disappointment, almost wishing the perp would.
“Do we have any idea who it might be?” she asked.
“Wendy thinks it’s Jimmy,” Erik explained. “She said he was acting very creepy at the party.”
“He was there?” Frieda asked, floored at this. Then mumbled, “Bastard.”
“Agreed, and I was as surprised as you were,” Erik replied. “Maybe there’s some sort of ménage à trois going on or something. Either way, we’ll find out more when we go inside to talk with Wendy and make sure she’s okay.”
Their conversation ended quickly, and Frieda leaned forward and waited. She was torn. Even if it wasn’t Jimmy, she wanted an excuse to do some real harm to whoever was messing with her family. The three of them had worked so hard to getThe Mystic Refugeto become exactly what they wanted, and she would be damned if she was going to let someone destroy that.
On the other hand, though, she didn’t want Wendy in any danger. She was doing them all a huge favor by helping them catch the people who were terrorizing them. Wendy was innocent in all of this and had no reason to get involved, but yet here she was, helping them.
Last year, the Christmas Contests had gone so well, Frieda thought back, her mind drifting off to their troubles. It had been so much fun and almost easy to win all of the contests. But this year…this year, the contests only brought them trouble. They’d been broken into, sabotaged, had a wild animal unleashed upon them, been set on fire, and vandalized on epic proportions: first the window painting, and then, the hot spring pools that were normally their biggest amenity.
They were going to cost thousands to repair, and at a time when customers used them the most. Already customers were cancelling their stays early and letting their unhappiness be known. The police had been no help. So now here she and her sisters Birgit and Heidi were getting help from their own rag-tag team of friends and trying their best to find the perpetrators and make the harassment stop.
Frieda’s focus came back to the present as she heard a car door open and watched as Wendy walked into her home. She waited awhile, her eyes darting back to the car she’d followed to the door. Minutes ticked by, and her body started to tense and curl up as if it were getting ready to strike. But then, instead of getting out of their car, the driver turned the car on and drove off once again with his headlights off.
Frieda let out the breath she’d been holding as her phone chirped.Let’s head in,the message from Erik stated. Even though she was parked out front, Frieda knew that they all had to use the door facing Wendy’s backyard just in case. She met Erik at the back gate, and they could both see Wendy waiting for them on the back porch.
“Are you okay?” Erik asked, his voice full of concern as he opened his arms.
“I’m fine,” Wendy promised, accepting his hug with as much enthusiasm.
Frieda felt a sense of longing as she watched the intimate exchange, and turned her eyes to the ground to give them privacy. Erik and Wendy hadn’t been an item for very long, but it was very clear how much they were drawn together.
“Frieda, thank you so much for coming,” Wendy said, going from Erik to Frieda. The two women exchanged a brief hug before Wendy urged them inside.
“Anytime,” Frieda replied, thankful when the warmth of Wendy’s house greeted her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more. I didn’t get a look at the driver, and I only caught some of his license plate.”
“That’s okay,” Wendy assured her. “I’m almost certain it was Jimmy anyway. I’m just glad that someone was there to have my back. It was super creepy when I looked back and saw the headlights going out. I freaked me out a little.”
“You did the right thing,” Erik assured her quickly, putting a comforting hand on her back. “There’s no ethical reason that anyone would do that. Now what happened? How did we end up here?”
“I’ll make us some coffee while I tell you,” Wendy offered.
“No, you sit,” Frieda insisted. “I’ll make it. You just tell us what happened.”
