The Ruse Read Online Free PDF Page A

approach. Before opening the door, he looked at Tessa as she walked down the huge staircase. He frowned, and she shrugged in a don’t ask me gesture.
     
    Eric opened the door.
     
    “Good afternoon, officer. Can we help you?”
     
    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer came dressed in full uniform. He wore the Stetson hat, the pressed shirt and even the red stripes down the leg of his pants. But he had no horse.
     
    Is there a parade in town today or has this guy gone off the reserve?
     
    As Tessa approached the door, he lifted off his hat, and nodded ever so slightly.
     
    “Afternoon, folks. Sorry to bother you. Just wanted to do a routine drive-by to see how things were going.”
     
    Eric shot a look at Tessa, his eyebrows creased. “Everything’s fine here, officer. It’s Banff. It’s beautiful, warm, and we’re in our brand new house in the mountains. Nothing could be more right.”
     
    The cop looked from Eric to Tessa and back to Eric. The expression on his face made Tessa wonder if there was more to the visit he wasn’t telling them.
     
    “Good to hear. I’ll be on my way, but first, here’s my card.” He handed a white business card to Eric. “Call me if you need anything.”
     
    “If there was an emergency, wouldn’t 9-1-1 work just as well?”
     
    Tessa could tell that Eric wanted to know what precipitated the unannounced visit but he was too shy to ask the cop directly.
     
    “Nine-one-one would work well, but I live two kilometers away,” the cop gestured behind him, “and I could respond faster than any officer on duty in Banff. Oh, and I can see you’re wearing a Medic-Alert bracelet. I’ll let the local paramedics know.” The cop stepped back and examined the front of the house. “See, around here we all stick together and get to know each other.”
     
    Eric glanced back at Tessa again. She could see he was working up the courage to be more forthright.
     
    “Thanks again, folks, and sorry to bother you,” the cop said as he turned and walked to his car.
     
    “Wait,” Eric said. “Is there something we should know about?”
     
    The cop looked up and down the length of the porch then studied his boots like they were on the wrong feet. He lifted his left foot and inspected the underside.
     
    Weird.
     
    “There’s nothing to know about,” the cop said. “Consider this a personal housewarming gift from a neighbor who happens to be a cop.”
     
    “I need to be honest. As kind as this seems on the surface, it feels like there’s more purpose than a neighborly gesture. Did something happen here? In our house? Is that why we got it so cheap?”
     
    “Nothing happened that we know of.”
     
    “What does that mean? Did something happen that you don’t know of?”
     
    “Look, just call me if you need me. Really, everything’s fine. I only wanted to welcome you to the area.”
     
    The RCMP officer adjusted his Stetson and turned toward his car. Tessa’s stomach felt unsettled at how the cop acted. Could there have been a crime committed on their property or something worse? She’d never been welcomed in any home by a local cop offering his personal number.
     
    She stared at the officer’s back as he got to his car. When she looked at Eric, he stared at her. She knew he’d seen her expression of concern.
     
    Eric turned back to the cop. “Sir, please …” He jogged up to the front of the cruiser.
     
    From where she stood, Tessa could barely hear what the cop was saying. She stepped down front the steps to get within earshot.
     
    “… a man, Jared Tavallo, went missing last October after hunting in this area. We had detected his footprints in the snow, but they were quite faded by the time we found them. At this point, he’s still missing, and now that most of the snow is gone, his family has been roaming the area looking for his body.”
     
    “What’s that got to do with us?” Eric asked.
     
    “His tracks were found around here.”
     
    “But