The short, dark-haired woman shrugged. “Can’t. If I told you?—”
“You’d have to kill me.” Mary shivered.
Nick wanted to wrap her in his arms and warm her up. Instead, he slipped the shirt over his head and pulled it down, covering his naked chest. “Maybe not kill you, but it might put us and others in our organization in danger.”
Mary’s glance traveled from Nick to Kat and back. “Okay, keep your secrets, but don’t expect me to trust you overly much. Like I’ve told Nick, you could be the bad guys for all I know.” She squared her shoulders. “Which makes me all the more determined to go to the house by myself tonight.”
Nick’s chest tightened at her words. “Somebody shot at us today. I don’t know if they were shooting at you or me or both of us because we’re looking for your father. Either way, you’re in danger.”
“Right.” Kat stepped forward. “You might consider sending me and Nick in rather than going yourself. At least we’re trained in this kind of operation.”
Even before Kat finished her sentence, Mary’s head shook. “It’s my father who’s missing. He left me the clue in this key. I know the house. I know my father. The key goes with me.”
Kat nodded. “Fair enough. At least let Nick go with you to provide protection.”
Nick lifted Mary’s empty hand. “Look, if you’re hurt trying to help your father, he’ll have no one he can trust to figure this out for him. Let me help. I swear on the twenty-foot Santa standing out in the snow that I’m one of the good guys.” He squeezed her hand gently. “What do you say?”
Pearly white teeth gnawed on her lower lip as she stared up into his eyes, her own blue ones gray and troubled. She tugged her hand free. “Okay. But I’ll take care of the key. You have to promise to keep me informed with as much as you know about what’s going on. Promise?”
Nick held his hand up like a Boy Scout. “I swear.”
Kat snorted. “Like you were ever a Boy Scout. Give me a break.” Kat ushered Mary over to the computer. “As soon as I got here, I went to work on a background check on some of the people of interest Nick mentioned.”
Mary shot a look at Nick as Kat spun the laptop around so that they all could see the screen. On it was a picture of the man who’d accused Santa of being a criminal the night Nick and Mary arrived in North Pole. “What do you know about this man?” Kat asked.
“Silas Grentch is a businessman and real estate salesman, and whatever else he can find to do in town that makes money. He sold this land and building to Dad thirty years ago and has regretted it since. My dad made it a success. Silas has been trying to get Dad to sell it back to him for as long as I can remember.”
Kat leaned back in the desk chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “I did a credit check on our man Silas. He’s in debt up to his eyeballs from gambling in Vegas.”
Mary’s eyes widened and then narrowed. “I wouldn’t put it past the man. He likes to spend too freely. Always the most expensive car, the fanciest house, the latest gadgets.”
Tapping a finger to her chin, Kat nodded. “That doesn’t mean he’s our man, but he bears watching.”
“It also doesn’t explain the connection between my father and the man who died in New York City.”
Nick smiled. Mary’s reasoning skills impressed him. “Right. Grentch also served in the military. I have our people searching through military records to see if he served at the same time as your father and Frank Richards.”
Kat displayed another face on the screen. “Know this man?”
“Ed Scruggs.” Mary shot a look at Nick. “But you know that. We borrowed a snowmobile from him earlier today.”
Nick ignored her direct look and stared at the photo. “Your old boyfriend was arrested for the murder of a buddy of his on a hunting trip.”
“I remember. He shot Lance Rankin,” Mary said. “The jury ruled it an accident.”
Nick’s fist tightened. In his opinion, they couldn’t discount Ed just because a jury ruled his friend’s death an accident. According to the write up, Ed Scruggs had been hunting every year since he was four years old. He’d won several shooting competitions in his teens and early twenties. A man that experienced with a gun didn’t have hunting accidents. He’d rather have known about the “accident” before he’d allowed Mary to be in the same town as Scruggs, much less on the same street. “Scruggs knew we were going out on the snowmobile and could just as easily have followed us out to the cabin.”
“Why would he do that?” Mary asked. “Besides, Ed likes me. He always has.”
Nick’s brows rose. “Why would someone follow us just to take potshots at us?”
Mary’s mouth opened and closed without uttering a word.
“Both men are familiar with snowmobiles, guns and the lay of the land. Both have questionable circumstances. Therefore, both need to be watched.” Kat tapped the mouse and Ed Scruggs’s face disappeared.
“I think you’re wrong about Ed.” Mary’s forehead furrowed. “He’s not a murderer.”
Nick’s gut clenched. Mary had been involved with the man when she was younger. When he was working a case with someone else, prior relationships didn’t normally bother him. It did with Mary. And it gnawed at his belly even more that she’d stick up for the guy.
