At the mention of her radio, it came back to her.
“Oh! I remembered what I wanted to tell you earlier.” She sat up. “I realized this afternoon that the killer probably believed he could get away with murder. He—or she—thought that Patty’s body would stay here on station until November. If you Cobra guys hadn’t been sent down here, she would still be lying in a body bag in the LO arch. The autopsy wouldn’t have happened until everyone who’s here now had gone home. That would make it almost impossible to investigate, wouldn’t it?”
Thor sat up, his brow furrowed. “Say that again.”
“The killer probably thought they could get away with it because Patty’s body wouldn’t have gone back to the US for an autopsy until November. They counted on being gone before the autopsy results came back. Whoever loaded her body onto your plane and sent it home unknowingly ruined those plans.”
Thor seemed to consider what she’d said. “I need to pass this along to Shields.”
“I doubt that helps with anything, but…”
“It might. Thanks. You’re right. If we Cobra guys hadn’t come down here and those men in the service arch hadn’t taken it upon themselves to load her body onto that outgoing plane, she would still be here, and we would have no idea that she’d been murdered. We’d be focused on the satellite hack and nothing else.”
She ran a hand up his chest. “I want to thank you for listening to Kazem and Bai today. I told them they could trust you.”
Thor lay back, drew Samantha with him. “I’m waiting to get confirmation on elements of their story, so I can’t write them off as suspects just yet. But, yeah, I don’t want anyone getting hanged for being gay. I shouldn’t be discussing this with you.”
“Am I still a suspect?”
He kissed her hair. “No—but I shouldn’t tell you that, either.”
“What was it like reading Patty’s journal? You don’t have to tell me what she wrote or anything related to the investigation. I just … I miss her so much.”
For a moment, Thor was quiet. When he spoke, there was a note of sadness in his voice. “I feel like I got to know her a little. She seems like a fun person and a good friend. When I finished, I felt grief, like I’d lost a friend, too. She loved you.”
Samantha’s throat went tight. “Did she write that?”
“Yeah, she did.” Thor kissed her forehead.
Samantha blinked back tears. “Thanks for telling me.”
“I promised her I’d find the bastard who killed her. They won’t get away with it.”
Samantha hoped that was true. “Just don’t get killed yourself, okay?”
He kissed her again. “You got it.”
* * *
Thor invited Ryan McClain into the small conference room. “Have a seat. We just have a few extra questions for you.”
“Sure.” McClain sat across from the computer. “Are you filming?”
“Yes.” Segal explained. “It’s hard to take in everything that’s said while we’re talking, so we film it in case we need to check back later.”
Thor sat across from Ryan. “I spent the morning down in the LO arch talking with the guys about Patty’s body and how it ended up on the airplane. Dean, Bob, and Walt said you were the guy who made that happen.”
“Oh. Yeah. Well, I helped carry her down there. We all felt awful about losing her. Patty was a friend to all of us. When I heard a plane was coming in, I talked with Hardin about sending her body back, but he wouldn’t approve it. He said there wasn’t enough time because the pilot had to get airborne right away. I told him we could be standing there when the plane landed, but he cut me off.”
This was all news to Thor. “So, Hardin refused to let her body go on the plane?”
“Yes. I got to talking with some of the guys down in the LO arch, and we figured we could handle it ourselves. During the summer, the guys down there are responsible for all of the outgoing shipping. They filled out the shipping form and emailed it to the authorities in Christchurch. Her ID and passport were already in the body bag with her, so we just carried her out and waited for you to land.”
Thor had been standing right there when Hardin had gotten the news that Patty’s body had gone out with the plane, and Thor couldn’t remember him being particularly upset or angry about it. But Barclay had been. He’d shouted at Samantha. “What did Hardin say to you afterward when he found out?”
Ryan let out a breath. “Man, he was pissed at first. He reminded me that he was the site manager and said he couldn’t run a station if we didn’t follow protocols. Then he calmed down and said he appreciated what we’d done for Patty. He said he ought to have taken the time to hear me out when I initially suggested sending her back and that he was happy she was on her way home.”
Thor wasn’t sure what to make of that. “Did anyone else confront you about sending Patty’s body home?”
“No one spoke to me, but I heard that Lance lost his shit in the hallway and started shouting at Samantha. She had nothing to do with it.”
“Yeah, I witnessed that myself.” Thor had gotten the information he wanted. “Thank you for speaking with us again.”
Ryan stood. “Happy to help. See you all at the meeting this evening.”
“Meeting?” Thor hadn’t heard about that.
Segal turned off the camera. “Hardin called a meeting for seven—something about water usage with extra people on station or some shit.”
“See you all later, and thanks for your help.” Ryan left the room.
Thor waited until the door was closed. “What do you think?”
Jones stood, stretched. “I think we need to get Hardin in here.”
“Has Shields gotten back to you about Kazem Hamidi and Bai Zhang Wei?”
Thor shook his head. “I talked with her early this morning, and she was still working on it. I asked her to take a second look at Hardin. Here’s the thing that keeps coming back to me. Who wanted to keep her body on station? And who’s the person she would have gone to if she had something suspicious to report?”
“Hardin,” Jones and Segal said almost at the same time.
“Exactly.” Thor glanced at his watch. “Let’s upload all of this and check in with Shields to see if she’s got anything new for us. It’s about seven p.m. in Denver.”
They caught Shields at home having dinner with her husband, Quinn McManus.
“You’re keepin’ my wife busy. You boys must be freezin’ your bawbags aff. It’s pure Baltic down there.”
Most of the time, Thor had trouble understanding McManus’ Glaswegian accent, but he got this one. “Believe it or not, they have heat down here. Our nuts are fine. Thanks.”
“Quinn!” Laughing, Shields turned the screen away from her husband. “I was going to ping you after dinner. Bai’s story checks out. Credit card records show he was definitely in Denmark when he said he was. But I can’t prove anything where Kazem Hamidi is concerned. If Hamidi entered the Schengen Area through a different country, that would explain why there’s no record of his entering Denmark. I need his flight information if you can get it.”
“We’re on it.” Thor brought her up to date. “Anything on Hardin?”
“Not yet, but I’m working on it.”
Quinn stuck his face in front of the camera. “She does need to eat and sleep and spend a wee bit of time wi’ her husband, aye?”
Shields shook her head, but she was smiling. “Hey, you three be careful. We did a threat assessment this afternoon about your situation.”
“Let’s hear it.” Thor had learned to respect Shields’ judgment.
“We believe there’s an eighty-percent chance the killer will react with violence when he hears that the package is leaving Antarctica. Watch your backs.”
* * *
Kristi poked at dinner—chicken fried steak, biscuits, and mixed frozen veggies. “You’re so lucky, Sam.”
“It’s Samantha, please.” Samantha got the words out despite the awkwardnes
s of her request. “I’ve never liked being called Sam.”
“Oh. Okay. Samantha.” Kristi didn’t seem bothered. She looked up from her plate. “You’re so lucky that Thor is staying longer. I wish Malik weren’t leaving. It’s going to be so hard to say goodbye.”
Samantha glanced around the galley, but Thor, Malik, and Lev weren’t there yet. “You’ve only known him for a couple of weeks. What happened to just taking what you can and enjoying yourself?”
“Malik happened.” Kristi leaned in. “He’s just too good in bed, and he’s sweet, too. He’s ruined me for other guys.”
A week ago, Samantha would have thought Kristi was exaggerating or being overly emotional, but now she understood. She couldn’t imagine getting together with anyone but Thor. He wasn’t just a fantastic lover. He also saw her for who she was. His kindness had carried her through some of the toughest days of her life. “Maybe you two can reconnect after you get home.”
“I’m not sure he would want that. We agreed there would be no strings.”
“And now you want strings?”
“I want the option for strings.”
Samantha wasn’t sure what that meant. She hadn’t let herself think about Thor leaving, but this conversation pushed her mind in that direction—and her stomach sank. It was hard to imagine six more months down here without him and Patty. “Maybe you should talk with him about it. Maybe he feels the same way.”
“You think so?”
“You’re both adults, right? Talk to him.”
Of course, there was no chance that Samantha would take her own advice. Thor lived in the mountains west of Denver, while she worked in Chicago. There was no way for them to be together once they returned home.
She tried to change the subject, but Kristi couldn’t get her mind off Malik. By the time she’d finished her meal, Samantha felt she knew more about Malik than she did Thor. “Are you sure he’d want you to tell me all of this?”
Then Hardin walked up to their table. “Hey, Sam, Kristi.”
Kristi corrected him. “She prefers Samantha.”
“Ah. Okay.” He knelt beside the table and leaned in. “Samantha, can you do me a favor? I got an email from Patty’s parents. They’ve got questions about her last week. You knew her a lot better than I did. Can you help me answer them?”
“Sure. See you later, Kristi.” Samantha carried her tray to the dish pit and followed Hardin out of the galley toward the administrative offices.
“I really appreciate this,” he said. “It was hard enough having to tell her parents that she was gone. But I just don’t have the answers they want.”
“I’m happy to help.” Samantha meant it. “I can’t imagine what it’s like knowing their daughter was murdered.”
“Neither can I. They seem like good people.” He opened the door to his office, gestured her inside, then closed the door behind him. “Let me wake up my computer. It’s on the screen. You can take my seat.”
She sat. “I hope they find some kind of peace when—”
A sharp jab in the shoulder.
She gasped, jumped to her feet, saw Steve holding a hypodermic needle in his hand. Ice slid into her blood, the pieces coming together with a chilling click. “Oh, my God. It was you.”
A rush of dizziness.
“Patty wouldn’t mind her own fucking business. She kept poking around the computer I was using to hack the satellite. I made a special bottle of wine for her. When she came to report what she’d found, I offered her a drink. But I didn’t want to kill her. I liked her. I don’t want to kill you either. I just need to get information from your lover boy—and then I can get rid of him and his two goons.”
“What did you give me? Was that methanol?” Dizziness left her unsteady on her feet, his office closing in around her.
“No, idiot. It’s midazolam—a sedative. I stole it from the infirmary. It won’t kill you. It will just make it easier for me to get you out of the building.”
Out of the building? Where was he taking her?
“There’s nothing out there.”
“There’s ice and cold and darkness.”
“You … bastard! You acted like you were grieving! You stood up at Patty’s memorial and talked about how wonderful she was, but you killed her. Liar! Murderer! Dick!” She lunged for the door, but he caught her easily, pushing her back into the chair as if she were a child. “What are you … going to do to me?”
The drug was acting fast.
His face swam before her as he put on his parka, a hat, gloves, and mask. “We’re just going for a little walk out the back fire escape. Oh, don’t worry. I disabled the alarm. I’m hoping I got the dose right and you can still walk, but if you can’t, that’s okay. I’ll carry you or drag you by your hair. I don’t care.”
She screamed. “Help! Help me!”
Steve laughed, took her phone and station radio. “They can’t hear you.”
“I need … my parka… my hat. Please!”
Darkness dragged her down, the world around her blurring.
“No parka for you.” He slipped an arm around her waist, opened the office door, and walked through the dark administrative wing toward the rear fire escape. “Everyone’s gathering for the meeting. I’m sorry you’re going to miss it.”
He pushed open the fire escape, frigid air blasting her in the face, burning her skin, searing her throat. “It’s eighty-five below, so it should be quick.”
He was going to leave her to freeze to death.
The thought snaked its way through her mind, brought an adrenaline rush.
“No!” She tried to scream again, tried to jerk free of him.
Steve half-dragged, half-carried her down the stairs, then threw her in the snow. “I’ve heard that hypothermia is a relatively painless way to die—unlike methanol poisoning. Oh, yes, I kept Patty in my office after she drank the wine to make sure she couldn’t go for help. It took hours of stomach pain before she finally lost consciousness. When I was sure she was beyond help, I carried her to her room and left her.”
Samantha’s heart shattered. “Patty.”
“You’ll see her soon enough.” Steve dragged her somewhere, the Aurora Australis flashing overhead, the Milky Way bright. “Your Norse god will be joining you before too long.”
Thor!
“L-leave … h-him… a-alone.”
It was so cold, unbearably cold, the ice chilling her through her jeans and sweater.
Then the stars disappeared. Was she beneath the station?
“I-I’m s-so c-cold. Please…”
“Sorry, Sam—oh, I mean Samantha.” He tied her up, trussed her like an animal. “I can’t risk you crawling anywhere. Now, be a good girl and die.”
“Steve.”
He walked away, leaving her on the ice.
Her teeth chattered, cold making her bones ache, her throat raw, her skin on fire.
Had Patty felt alone like this? Had she felt this afraid and desperate?
Tears filled Samantha’s eyes, her eyelashes instantly freezing together.
She didn’t have the strength to force her eyes open again, the cold seeming to devour her, the wind gnawing through her with icy teeth.
Her last conscious thought was of Thor.
18
Thor locked up the laptop and took the stairs two at a time, heading for the B1 Lounge, already late for Hardin’s damned staff meeting. Jones and Segal were there, waiting for him. The three of them had spent the rest of the afternoon questioning Hamidi and Wei again, and Thor had just finished uploading the video to Cobra’s server.
Wei and Hamidi claimed that Wei had paid for their hotel and meals with his credit card and that Hamidi had paid him back with cash. Hamidi said he’d entered the Schengen Area through Frankfurt and had then taken a train to Copenhagen. Shields would check with German authorities to confirm his date of entry, but since he’d taken a train, there was no way to prove he’d been to Denmark.
Wei had shown them
selfies of the two of them eating at a café on Strøget, in front of Rosenborg Castle, and standing on Langelinie with the Little Mermaid sculpture behind them. Thor had sent those photos to Shields, too. They looked real to him, but someone who could hack a satellite would have no difficulty faking selfies.
Thor wished Shields would get back to him on Hardin. The more Thor had thought through the evidence, the more uncomfortable he felt about the site manager. Hardin could go anywhere in the station at any time without arousing suspicions. He had access to the entire facility and its computer resources and coms. He had denied Ryan’s request to send Patty’s body home. Also—and this was important—people trusted Hardin. Patty had trusted him, and if she’d decided to report what she’d seen, she would have gone straight to him.
Also, the perpetrator had to be a stone-cold sociopath and extremely intelligent, capable of concealing his true emotions and intentions behind a mask of friendship. Barclay wasn’t capable of that. Jason Huger couldn’t control his mouth or his temper. Hamidi and Wei had both broken down during questioning.
There had to be something in Hardin’s background, something the analyst team had missed.
Down the hallway, Thor saw Hardin standing just outside the B1 Lounge. Hardin spotted Thor, waved to him, met him halfway.
“Can we talk for a second? It’s about Sam… Samantha. That’s what she prefers to be called, I guess. I’m worried about her.”
Hva’ fanden? What the hell?
“Okay.”
“My office. It will only take a second.”
Thor’s instincts told him something wasn’t right. He pulled out his radio, called Jones and Segal just to let them know where he was going—and who he was with. “I’m meeting briefly with Hardin in his office. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Hard Line Page 17