Snowfall

THE MINUTE DETECTIVE Maggie Doyle opened the car door, Allia jumped from the back seat and landed in the foot of snow with her tail swishing like a happy child minus the snowsuit. The German Shepherd dove her snout into the snow, flung the white fluff into the air, and then shook her head when the shower of flakes plopped on her snout. The dog barked at her own hijinks.

Maggie chuckled. “She does this every year.”

Ian stood from the driver’s seat, grinned, and nodded.

“She does,” he said.

They’d come to the same secluded Vermont country cabin every Christmas for the last five years, but this year was different.

Instead of the usual holiday giddiness during the road trip from Manhattan to Vermont, Maggie periodically stared out the passenger window and then leaned over toward Ian to check the rearview mirror. Finally satisfied that no car was following them, and once they left the interstate and proceeded along idyllic country roads, Maggie relaxed in her seat. Seclusion was exactly what she desperately needed. No one would find her out here, she reminded herself.

She’d testified right before the holiday break against, Quentin Ponce, aka Master Q, the drug kingpin who she and Allia, her trusted canine partner, along with her partner, Brian Yang, finally cornered after a three month sting operation. They’d penetrated his fortress, taking him and his soldiers down.

It wasn’t her first takedown, but it was the first time her partner was injured. She was the lead detective, the experienced one, but Brian only had a year under his belt in narcotics. She should’ve been one step ahead of Master Q and his posse. Damn! She didn’t see one his henchmen before he shot Brian. Maggie shuddered. He could’ve popped Brian in the head. Done her and Allia the same. She took him down, but not fast enough.

Master Q’s final words to Maggie before he was dragged away in handcuffs echoed in her head.

“I’m going to get you, bitch!” he growled and then bared his yellowed teeth at her.