The chief stood and extended a hand. “Dale Landham, nice to meet you.” He turned back to Mary. “Did you go out to the lodge looking for your father?”
“Yes, but we found more than we bargained for.” She explained about the cabin being used. “We were on the way back when someone on a snowmobile ran us off the trail.”
“You sure it wasn’t an accident? With the snow falling the way it is, it would be hard to see another rider.”
Mary’s lips pressed together. “Maybe so, but that doesn’t account for the rider shooting at us.”
“Shooting!” The chief sat back in the chair behind his desk, his brows rising into the thatch of salt-and-pepper hair hanging down over his forehead. “Good Lord, has this town gone crazy? What with your father missing, Reuben’s house exploding and now this. Makes a man wish he hadn’t gotten up this morning.” He pulled a pad of paper across his desk and fished a pen from a drawer. “Give me the details.”
“Nick was on the front of the snowmobile. He had a better look at the driver.”
“What little I saw when he flashed by was a white coat and white pants that blended in with the snow. He also wore a white helmet with a face shield.”
“Would you say he was short or tall, small or big?”
“Hard to tell with him sitting on the snowmobile, bulked out in a snowsuit, and it was snowing pretty hard. Whoever it was knew his way around in the snow.”
“I didn’t even see him coming.” Mary shook her head, staring down at her reddened fingertips.
“Did you get a look at the machine?” the chief asked.
“White,” Nick said.
“I don’t know of a lot of snowmobiles in North Pole that are white. Most people want to see it against the snow. We could start there.”
Mary leaned forward. “Any word of my dad?”
The chief shook his head. “No. Nothing.”
“You’ll let me know?—”
“As soon as I hear anything, you’ll be the first to know.” He grinned. “Even before I talk to Mrs. Claus.”
“Thanks.” Mary gave him a weak smile, before turning to Nick. “Ready?”
“Yeah.”
The phone on the chief’s desk rang as Mary headed for the door. Nick could tell by the droop of her shoulders that she was exhausted from fright and cold. “Want me to take you back to the B and B?”
“No, let’s go over to the Christmas Towne Diner.”
“It’s pretty bad out, you think they’re open?”
“Positive. Those who can’t get home will wait out the storm with a cup of Lenn’s coffee.” She fumbled with her zipper, her fingers clumsy and stiff. She looked as though she needed a warm bath more than a cup of coffee.
The thought of a naked Mary in a warm bath, heated Nick’s afterburners. He coughed, clearing the sudden lump of lust blocking his airway. “Coffee sounds good about now.” Anxious to step back out into the frigid snowstorm to cool his rising desire, Nick turned Mary to face him and zipped her jacket. He took her gloves from her and helped her slide them onto her stiff fingers. Then he pulled her faux-fur-trimmed hood over her head and tightened the string. “There. Now you’re ready.”
She looked up at him with those pale blue eyes and gave him a lopsided smile. “Thanks.”
“See? It’s not so hard to trust me, is it?”
Her smile turned downward. “No. It’s too easy.” She pushed through the door the wind whipping it out of her hands and jerking it wide. A blast of arctic air and snow, mixed with hard pellets of sleet, slashed at Nick’s face and exposed hands. He pulled on his own gloves and walked out behind Mary. The woman had him alternating between hot and cold.
* * *
Mary stood by the snowmobile waiting for Nick to climb on before she did. Normally a two-block walk wasn’t bad, but she could barely see past a hand in front of her face. She opted for motor vehicle transportation to the diner, when she’d rather go back to her room and crawl into a hot shower.
With Nick.
