Jack tapped Alice’s leg under the table. She had always been his fiercest protector, and he knew it was driving her crazy that she’d have to stay behind. But this job would help pay for their wedding.
“That’d be me,” Jack said.
Leah swallowed her irritation. “Send me his contact information. I’ll get the paperwork processed and be in touch.” Rising majestically, she nodded around the table at no one in particular. “I have to get back. I can’t miss any more production time.”
Brian stood, holding his hand over the stack of papers like it was the nuclear button and he was ready for launch. “I’m sorry, but there will be no production without an observer on-site. This is nonnegotiable.”
Leah drew in a long, jagged breath, then nodded. Jack understood the squeeze Brian was putting on her—production downtime gobbled up profits, so she’d have to move quickly, despite her reservations about the plan. “Give me the afternoon to get it done. I’ll send someone down to get him tomorrow morning. Ten o’clock. Agreed?”
Brian nodded. “Tomorrow, then.”
“But I have to make one thing perfectly clear before we begin this observation. He stays in the background, does exactly what I say, and in no way impedes my show or interferes with my people.”
“I understand perfectly.” Brian shook her hand in agreement. “Jack is a professional and will be discreet.”
Leah turned to Jack. “Bring cold-weather survival gear. I’ll have my assistant email Brian a list of the other things you’ll need.”
Jack nodded but kept his poker face on. Internally, he was grinning from ear to ear.
As soon as the door closed behind Leah, Alice turned to Brian. “I still think it would be best if Jack and I work together on this.”
Brian picked up the remote and tapped it against the oak table. “You will. Just not in the same location. I need you back here, spearheading another aspect of the investigation. In light of the threatening note, the earlier death needs to be reevaluated. We’re reopening last year’s accident claim.”
Alice perked up and gave Jack a look that was invisible to Brian but signaled to Jack her giddy excitement for a new case.
Brian dimmed the lights again and pressed the remote. The TV began to play the footage from the accident. Jack and Alice had already seen it, of course. It had all been caught on tape. Well, almost all of it.
First the iconic north face of Mount Minuit. A helicopter swung into the shot, with Gavin Maddox, Planet Survival’s shameless, showboating host, in full ski gear, suspended from the end of a rope. The helicopter set Maddox down on the slope, and when he gave a thumbs-up, the helicopter rose and began to fly away.
That’s when everything went wrong.
As the helicopter rotated around, a section of snow on the cliff face beneath it gave way and then the whole slope began to slide, picking up ice chunks and spewing plumes of snow. In a heartbeat, the peaceful mountain scene had become an unstoppable wave of destruction. An avalanche.
The camera panned, following Maddox frantically skiing away from the crumbling wall of snow, until spruce trees and a small hill blocked the shot and all you could see was a white wave flattening the trees as it swept down the mountainside, crushing everything in its path. The camera jerked back and forth, searching wildly for the host, who appeared a moment later, skiing triumphantly away from the path of destruction.
Several crew members ran into the shot then, shouting and pointing. One woman sank to her knees and dropped forward with her head to the snow.
Brian hit pause. They’d already seen the bulk of the video. The real tragedy of the avalanche hadn’t been caught on camera. Charlie Parker, a crew member, had been filming from a different vantage point behind the ridge, directly in the path of the avalanche. He never stood a chance.
Brian cleared his throat. “Our original accident investigation blamed the avalanche on wash from the helicopter’s props—and that’s still the most likely explanation. But with the delivery of that note, we’re obligated to reexamine the evidence.” He had a hard drive that included hundreds of hours of footage, evidentiary reports, OSHA reports, and interviews with everyone on that mountain. “That’s what I want you to work on, Alice.”
“Great!” Alice gushed. “If everything’s on a portable drive, I can take it with me and go with Jack and do the work up there.”
Brian shook his head. “I’m sorry. Not on the mountain. There is no Wi-Fi and the only phone service available is via satellite phone. Besides, this is extremely sensitive information. The last place we want it is anywhere near the very people we’re investigating.”
“Alice,” Jack said, “Brian’s right. It makes sense for you to work the investigation from down here.”
Though Jack agreed with Brian, it was for very different reasons. Brian was concerned about pushback from Leah and putting the undercover nature of the operation at risk. Jack was concerned about the love of his life and her safety. With an active threat against “invaders,” not to mention the occasional rogue avalanche, he wanted Alice safe and sound and as far away from that mountain as possible.
Alice’s green eyes grew wide and her lips pressed together. She’d clearly expected Jack to back her up on this.
Brian, apparently oblivious to the growing tension in the room, excused himself to retrieve the hard drive. “I’ll be right back.”
“Jack, I can’t believe you!” Alice said when he was gone. “Why did you agree with him?” She gave Jack no time to answer. “You need me up there, and you know it. I’ve been training so hard I can climb faster than most monkeys! I’m really ready, totally willing, and super able to help you on this. We’re a team. C’mon, we can think of something before he gets back.”
Jack put his hands on Alice’s shoulders, looked her straight in the eye, and said, “We are a team, but this is for the best. I need you to trust me on this and stay put, okay?”
She didn’t respond, and Jack knew from experience that her silence didn’t necessarily mean she agreed; but maybe it meant she’d trust his judgment on this.
Brian walked back in and handed Alice a portable drive. “That’s everything we’ve digitized. It includes the background checks we ran on everyone on the mountain at the time of the accident and just prior. But I want you to dig deeper.”
“How can you be sure you know who was on the mountain?” Jack asked. “What if someone climbed up another way?”
“That part’s simple. There are only two ways up, gondola or helicopter, so we know who came and went. The only people up there were eight crew members, five competitors, and a researcher who mans the weather observatory.”
“Are all of them back on the mountain now?” Alice asked.
Brian shook his head. “Not everyone. Mack Carson, the helicopter pilot, died on vacation last month.”
Jack noticed Alice’s slight frown and shared her disappointment. Witness statements were sometimes only as good as the investigator’s questions. Now that the pilot was dead, they couldn’t get in any additional questions of their own.
“Fortunately, we’d already gotten his sworn statement concerning the accident,” Brian went on. “It’s on the hard drive. And Carson wouldn’t have been back anyway. McAlister didn’t renew the show’s helicopter insurance policy for this location, so Planet Survival will have to rely on drones for aerial shots now.”
“How did the pilot die?” Jack asked.
“Climbing accident. The whole crew is a bunch of adrenaline junkies and extreme sport enthusiasts. Any downtime they get, they scatter to the four winds to base-jump off buildings, run with bulls—you wouldn’t believe the antics.” Brian raised an eyebrow at Jack. “Do yourself a favor and don’t catch that fever. There’s a reason the premiums for those activities are so high. Statistically, those people don’t live long.”
Alice cleared her throat and cast a sideways glance at Jack, doubling down on Brian’s warning without saying a word. “Brian,” she said, “can you pleas
e email me all the information you have on Mack?”
“I’ll do it right now. Jack, can you be ready to go in the morning?”
“Sure. I’ll just need the gear list that Leah said she’d email over.”
Brian said he’d check on it, and they concluded the meeting. In less than an hour, Jack and Alice had gotten not one but two jobs.
Alice waited for Brian to leave. “Jack, I don’t have a good feeling about this.” Her beautiful eyes pleaded with him to find a way for her to go with him.
There wasn’t a way—but he couldn’t blame her for trying. He knew how he’d feel if she was the one going up a dangerous mountain and someone had threatened to kill everyone on it.
“Don’t worry, Alice,” Jack said. “We’re a team, remember?”
3
Breathing Is a Must
Jack held open the door for Alice and followed her inside the apartment. His senses immediately buzzed with alarm. Something’s off. Usually, Lady would bowl them over, begging to go out. But she wasn’t at the door waiting for them.
He flicked on the light, and Alice gasped.
Jack’s hand flew to his gun.
Perched on the edge of his leather recliner was an extremely beautiful Asian woman. She sat calmly, balancing a teacup in one hand and stroking Lady’s head with the other. The enormous, 120-pound King Shepherd lay at the woman’s feet, gnawing on a new dog bone so big it looked like it originally belonged to a dinosaur.
“Good evening, Officer. Alice.”
“Kiku.” Jack took his hand off his gun. Like gears jamming, his muscles struggled against his mind as he ordered his body to stand down and the sweat to stop rolling down his back.
Alice gave a tight smile and a quick wave.
“I’ve already become acquainted with your dog.” Kiku scratched behind Lady’s ear with her long red nails, and the giant dog’s thick tail drummed the floor with a happy beat.
“Lady?” Jack shook his head in disbelief. “The great watchdog that would never let a stranger into my house, unless that stranger happened to bribe her with the thighbone from a T. rex? Where’d you get that thing, the natural history museum?”
Alice laughed, revealing the deep dimple that melted Jack every time he caught a glimpse of it. No matter the pressure of the situation, Alice always had his back; that was one of the things he loved most.
Kiku set down her cup and rose, her black evening dress shimmering. “Lady likes me. We are kindred spirits.” She smiled broadly, revealing sharp canines. “It has been far too long, Officer.” Her eyes traveled slowly over Jack’s body, then finally locked on his face. “I see you are well.” There was a lilt to her voice that made Jack’s cheeks flush.
“Life’s good, thanks. You stopping by on the way to the opera?”
Kiku’s four-inch stilettos clicked on the wood floor as she strolled over and stopped well inside Jack’s personal space. Her perfume smelled of an unknown flower, but it was like a good drink—once you have a sip, you want more.
“I have another visit to make later this evening. Forgive me if I am overdressed. Would you care for me to remedy that situation?”
“I wouldn’t.” Alice’s brunette ponytail swung back and forth like a metronome.
Jack laughed. “What brings you by, Kiku?”
Kiku’s gaze shifted to Alice for only a fraction of a second, but for a trained police officer it was enough; it confirmed Jack’s suspicions.
“You two have been in touch with each other?” Jack said. He crossed his arms, stared at his fiancée, and waited for the answer.
“Actually…” Alice squirmed. “I asked Kiku for a favor.”
Jack looked at Alice in utter disbelief. Dealing with Kiku was like walking into a lion’s den. And doing it without thinking it through first was as bad as having a steak in your pocket when you went in. “Please excuse us, Kiku.” Jack took Alice by the elbow and marched her to the bedroom and shut the door.
“Are you out of your mind, Alice?” Jack whispered. “Kiku is Yakuza.”
“She’s still our friend, Jack.” Alice picked up a hairbrush off the bureau.
“Being a Japanese mobster makes her our long-distance friend.” Jack started pacing. “That’s how this friendship works. I can’t believe you reached out to her without talking to me about it first.”
“You would’ve said no way, Jack. Besides, you asked her for a favor not long ago.” Alice’s beautiful eyes hardened.
“Yes, I did. It was the only way to bring that child molester back from Thailand.”
“And she did it, right?” Alice leveled the hairbrush at his chest.
“Yeah, she brought him back. In two different boxes,” Jack whispered loudly.
“Maybe he was dead when she found him.”
“Oh, come on. Look, I like Kiku. I owe Kiku. But she’s dangerous.” Jack stopped pacing. “Wait a second, what was the favor you asked for?”
Alice sat on the side of the bed. “I need her to find out who killed my family. I’m too close to it to think clearly, and you’re too close to me. I was afraid what you’d do if you found the killer.”
Jack’s stomach tightened. “What I’d do? Did you miss the part about the guy who hurt you coming back here in pieces?”
“This is different. I’ll make Kiku promise she won’t kill them.”
“And you believe her, but you don’t believe me?”
Alice tapped the hairbrush against her leg and stared up at him. “It’s not that—”
There was a knock on the bedroom door, and Kiku opened it a crack. “Excuse me. With these thin walls, I can hear every word of your conversation. There is one fact that both of you are neglecting to consider in your deliberations.”
“Which is?” Jack opened the door the rest of the way, and Kiku stepped in.
“Alice has asked for my assistance, but I have not yet said that I will provide it.”
Jack didn’t know whether he felt relieved or indignant. Ambiguity was only one of Kiku’s specialties.
“I’m sorry.” Alice tossed the hairbrush onto the nightstand and walked back into the living room. “This isn’t going very well. Let’s sit down and I’ll try to explain.” She held her hand out to the recliner and sat on the well-worn couch.
Kiku took the offered seat. Jack leaned against the doorframe. Lady was still munching on her bone.
“When I was seven,” Alice began, addressing Kiku, “my parents and my twin brothers were killed in a head-on car accident. When I was in the hospital, a nurse told me that the other driver died in the crash. I don’t know if she was trying to protect me because I was just a child or if she was misinformed. But when Jack and I were in Florida last month, Jack tracked down a friend of my mother’s.”
“I was trying to help Alice learn more about her mom and to spare her the disappointment if it was another dead end,” Jack added.
“My mother’s friend had some photos of my family, and she also told Jack that the other driver didn’t die in the accident. The scumbag fled the scene. The truck he was driving was stolen. All these years, the police haven’t been able to find him.”
Kiku closed her eyes and bowed her head for a moment. “My sincere condolences for your loss.” She turned to Jack. “You are the detective. And there is little on the internet you cannot uncover, Alice. Why do you two need my help?”
Jack looked at Alice. He wanted to hear her answer, too.
“Because I’ll kill the man if I find him,” Alice admitted as she started to shake.
Jack took two long strides over to the couch to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Kiku traced a fingernail down her jawline. “But that is an empty threat. You are not a killer, Alice.” She spoke nothing but the truth here, as usual, and they all knew it. “However, as demonstrated by Jack’s protective reaction—he is more than capable of killing the man, and he would find him.”
Alice’s green eyes caught his, the golden flecks sparkling with a look
of love, admiration, and understanding Jack had never known before her. “I don’t want Jack to have to make that choice. You know he doesn’t count the cost to himself—it’s who Jack is.” She leaned forward to plead. “But Kiku, you’re not too close to this. You can promise me you won’t kill him, and I know you won’t.”
“Kiku promised me that once before,” Jack said, giving Kiku an intense look.
“No, Jack,” said Kiku. “You asked that I bring a child molester back to the United States. I did exactly what you asked of me. You never specified he was supposed to be breathing.”
“You knew I didn’t want you to kill him.”
“Did I?”
He felt his stomach knot. He wished he’d specified “breathing,” and now wondered if, subconsciously, he didn’t ask on purpose. Kiku’s cold stare reinforced her words. She was a mercenary, a skilled hunter who killed her prey at the end of the hunt. That was her job, and Jack had known that when he asked for the favor.
Alice broke the awkward silence. “Kiku, I need your help—we need your help—and I trust that when you give your word, you will honor it. Will you find the man who killed my family, and if you locate him, will you allow him to live to stand justice?”
Kiku sighed and smoothed an invisible crease in the black silk along her thigh. “What you’re asking me to do will not ease your pain, Alice. Pain from your family’s death is separate from seeking justice for them. Even if I do find him, only you can address the former.”
“What I can’t live with is my family’s murderer walking around free. I live with the pain of their absence every single day! I’m forced to live with it.” Her voice broke and her lip trembled. “Kiku, my brothers were practically babies… Will you help me?”
Kiku had been calm and silent, her porcelain hands folded in her lap. Her gaze shifted from Alice to Jack. As usual, he assumed she could see inside his head. “My apologies, Officer, but yes, I will help Alice.”
Jack Frost: Detective Jack Stratton Mystery Thriller Series Page 2