“Right. Let’s go.” Mary led the way through the aisles to the back of the building. “You go on out. I’ll set the alarm.”
Nick stepped outside, the bitter wind an immediate reminder of his lack of appropriate clothing for a midnight stroll in subzero temps.
Mary closed the door between them so that she could reset the motion sensors and enter the code to activate the alarm.
With Mary out of his sights, tension peaked and Nick looked around for something with which to cover their tracks. A young spruce tree stood at the edge of the paved area, its branches laden with snow. Nick broke off a limb, shook the snow free and returned to the back door.
What was taking Mary so long?
Holding his breath, Nick leaned close to the door, trying to hear anything over the wail of the wind. Nothing. Had she been waylaid? Had she forgotten the code? What if someone hadn’t changed the off code but had changed the alarm reset code? Certainly, lights and sirens would have gone off by now and the police would be notified. But would the door lock automatically, trapping Mary inside?
Nick had seen security systems like that. But who would need one so robust in this forgotten corner of the world? Still, he reached for the doorknob, intent on pulling Mary out prior to the door locking.
Before he wrapped his gloved hand around the handle, the door opened and Mary hurried through.
Branch in hand, he stared at her, the desire to hug her foremost in his mind.
Her brow furrowed and she pointed at the branch in his hand. “What’s that for?”
Her question pulled him back to the task at hand. “To cover our tracks. You go first. I’ll follow.” Nick gestured with his free hand for her to lead the way.
Mary skipped down the steps and around the side of the building where someone had cleared the drive earlier. Unfortunately, snow lay another two inches deep since that time and every step she took left a glaring footprint.
Nick followed behind her, sweeping the snow gently with the spruce branch, effectively obliterating their trail.
All the way back to the B and B, Nick dragged the branch behind him. With the continuous snowfall, their path would be completely covered in the next ten minutes.
When they reached the B and B, Mary was first through the back door.
Nick tossed the branch behind nearby bushes and entered behind her.
Mary pulled the package of papers and photographs from her jacket. “My place or yours,” she whispered.
With thoughts of activities other than looking at faded pictures of GIs springing into his head, Nick brushed past her, fishing for the key in his pocket. “Mine. I want to compare that picture with the one I have of a younger Frank Richards.”
Once inside, Nick shed his jacket, pulled out his cell phone and called Kat.
“Back already?” Kat answered on the first ring. “What did you find?”
“Some photos and documents from the Bosnia NATO peacekeeping operation.”
“Anything interesting?”
“Maybe. We’ll know more after I scan and send them to the office.”
“Good. Need me for anything?”
He glanced across to Mary. who watched him closely. Oh yeah, he needed Kat to run interference between him and his crazy desire for Santa’s daughter. “Not yet. Get some rest. We have a lot of ground to cover in the morning.”
“If you’re sure.” Kat yawned in Nick’s ear. “I haven’t caught up on sleep since my honeymoon.”
“See ya in the morning.” Nick hung up, opened his laptop with one hand and held out the other toward Mary. “Let me have the group photo first. I want to scan it and send it to headquarters.”
Mary unzipped the plastic bag and laid all the papers across the bed. When she located the group photo, she handed it over, pointing to the man on the left side. “That’s my dad.”
“At least we know one of the guys in the picture.”
She returned to the bed, her fingers skimming across the documents and the individual photos of her father. “Do you think that’s what my father wanted us to find?”
