Alaska Twilight

by Colleen Coble

“What are you doing?” Haley asked. “Do you think we’re in danger?” Brooke tossed a ball for Oscar while she and Libby watched indulgently.

  He didn’t look at her as he worked. “With your idiot boss around, you can never tell.” He grimaced. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. At least he cares about the bears.”

  She looked over toward Kipp, who was shouting and waving his arms as he instructed Denny, Cary, and Erika. “He cares about his image.” She squatted beside him. “So why the gun?”

  “A friend is meeting me out here today. We’re going to chase down some bears by helicopter and put radio transmitters on them. Brooke loves to go watch, and there’s no danger.”

  “You’re leaving us alone here?”

  “No, I’m taking you all along. There will be two choppers and enough room for all of us. I thought it might make an interesting addition to your book and video.”

  “Have you mentioned it to Kipp? He might have other ideas.”

  “Not yet. I thought it would be a nice surprise. You think he won’t want to go?”

  “He likes to look like a hero where he’s up close and personal with the bears.”

  He grinned at the disgust in her voice. “You can get some shots of him right next to the bears when they’re knocked out. Oh, hey, here’s an idea—we can roll the sleeping bear on top of him so it looks like they’re fighting.”

  “That hardly has the drama of a live bear showing its teeth.” She smiled at him.

  Something in her smile put a hitch in his breathing. He looked away, then stood and shouldered his bag of darts. He heard the sound of rotors. “Here come the helicopters.”

  She brightened. “Hey, we could send my film back with the pilots, couldn’t we?”

  “Sure, Max will drop it off at the store for me. We’ll be heading back to town for more supplies next week. The prints should be back by then.” He frowned and looked down at her. “I’ve been thinking about the attack on you. Is there anyone down in the Lower Forty-eight whom you’d consider an enemy?”

  A slight smile tipped her lips. “Enemies? I beat out Rachel Lambert for a photography prize in high school, but I hardly think she’d be stalking me here in Alaska.”

  “You never know. A woman scorned and all that,” he said playfully.

  “I just can’t imagine why anyone would care about my backpack. It has to be related to that.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe someone wants a designer backpack. We don’t see fancy city packs like yours often.” He rubbed his chin. “Seriously, does anyone know who your parents are?”

  She thought. “Joy. Ned Bundle. And a few people in the café, but the attacks started before we went to town.”

  “Still, someone could have recognized you or heard you were coming.”

  “Why would anyone care?”

  He frowned. “The family that was caring for Joy. I wonder . . .”

  “What?”

  “Remember what she said about your dad’s estate? She stands to inherit their land. It’s a sizable chunk and worth some money. What if they want to make sure she gets it so they can get their hands on it?” It sounded ludicrous even as he said it. When he saw the pain crash onto Haley’s face, he wished he could take back the words.

  “They left everything to her? I guess what Joy said didn’t register. You’d have thought they would have at least left something to Augusta, even if they hated me.”

  “They were very private people. A bit odd. Do you remember much about them?”

  She nodded. “I thought my dad hung the moon, and that my mother was the most beautiful woman alive. I was always trying to get them to praise me like they did Chloe, though it never happened. That’s probably why I acted up so much.”

  He could hardly bear to think about what it did to a child to have such hateful parents. His glance went to Brooke. It was impossible for him to imagine ever letting her go. She lit up his days with happiness. He knew the Walshes had a daughter in Arizona, but he wished he’d known the circumstances. Maybe he could have talked to them, made them realize how wrong they were. Scripture could sometimes get through when nothing else could.

  He shaded his eyes and looked across the open plain. The helicopters hovered, and the sound of their rotors began to block out other noises. He waved, and the pilot waved back, then lowered the craft to the ground.

  Kipp stalked to Tank. “What are they doing here? They’ll scare off the bears.”

  “We’re going for a ride to find the bears. I need to put radio collars on a few today, and I thought you’d all like to come along and watch. You’ll see bears feeding in places we can’t get to on foot.”

  Kipp’s brows raised. “Maybe I can get some good video as they’re awakening. They’ll look alert then.”

  “That’s pretty dangerous. They might charge you. The drug affects their eyesight, and they don’t see well.”

  “I’ll take the chance.” Kipp gestured to his crew. “Head to the helicopters. We’re going for a ride.”

  Haley leaned out of the open window. The wind whipped her hair into her eyes, and she pushed it away with an impatient hand. Below her, the tundra undulated in a golden green expanse. The breeze brought the scent of fresh air, moss, and spruce to her nose.

  “There’s one!” The pilot, Max McCarthy, pointed a stubby, tobacco-stained finger toward a dark blob running flat out for the safety of a mountain crag.

  “I see him.” Tank aimed the tranquilizer gun, then squeezed off a shot.

  The bear kept galloping, and Haley thought he must have missed. Tank laid the rifle back down and watched. The helicopter followed the animal, and the bruin looked up, then ran faster. It had almost reached the safety of the rocks when the bear stumbled. It rolled over, then staggered to its feet and galloped forward again. It paused, then tumbled to the ground and lay still in a heap of reddish-brown fur.

  “He’s down,” Max said. He took the helicopter lower and landed near the bear’s still form. The other chopper landed moments later, and Cary and Kipp emerged with huge grins.

  “Excellent shooting,” Kipp proclaimed. “Haley, get some shots of this. The rest of you get the film rolling.”

  Haley clambered out of the helicopter and joined her boss beside the bear. Libby and Brooke stayed inside with Oscar while the crew got the film tripod set up.

  “Stand back,” Tank ordered. “Let me make sure he’s out. I’ve been fooled before.” He approached cautiously and prodded the bear, then checked its eyes. “Hand me that bag, would you, Haley?” he asked, his gaze still on the bear.

  The rotors whirred above her head, and she kept her chin down as she dragged the black nylon bag from the helicopter seat. The wind whipped her hair into her face with such force it stung her cheeks. Bending over at the waist, she ran back to join Tank beside the bear. The pilot cut the engine, and the resulting quiet was a relief.

  “Thanks.” He took out a yellow transmitter attached to a collar.

  “Hey, I want some pictures before you put that thing on,” Kipp yelped. He scrambled to reach the bear and motioned for Denny to join him. “Can I put the collar on? That would play well with the viewers.”

  Tank glanced at Haley, and she could see the irritation in his eyes. “Sure,” was all he said.

  Kipp straddled the bear like a conqueror, then flashed a smile at the camera. Haley sighed and fingered her camera. Too bad she couldn’t just walk away. Snap, whir. She walked around Kipp and the bear to get some different angles as she shot a whole roll of film. Denny filmed the action from about six feet away.

  Kipp flashed his famous smile. Without moving his mouth, he managed to throw his voice so it seemed to be coming from the bear. “I wouldn’t hurt you, Mr. Nowak. You’re my friend.”

  What a ham. Haley rolled her eyes, and she grinned when she saw Tank shake his head.

  “The bear is starting to come around,” Tank said, peering into the bear’s face. “Better wrap it up, Kipp.”

  “Did you get enough v
ideo?” Kipp asked Denny.

  “I think so. Looks good, boss.” Denny put the lens cover back on his video camera and took it off the tripod.

  Haley became vaguely aware of Oscar barking frantically, though the noise barely carried above the wind. Tank made a sound beside her, and she looked up. A bear as big as a glacier stood on its hind feet and looked at them. Though it was twenty feet away, it looked massive and dangerous. It was gaunt with mangy, matted fur. One ear looked clipped. Those eyes seemed to look right through her and see her as a tasty meal.

  “Back slowly away,” Tank instructed. “Try to get to the helicopter. This guy is nothing to mess with.” Tank waved his hands in the air. “You bear! Get away. Go!” As big as Tank was, surely the bear would think twice about approaching. Instead, it dropped to all fours and began to advance slowly. Tank grabbed Haley’s arm as she began to back away.

  “Slowly,” he hissed. The others were moving away already. Kipp’s eyes were wide, and even he seemed to understand this bear wasn’t acting normally. “It’s a predatory bear,” Tank muttered. He placed himself between Haley and the bear.

  A crack echoed above the sound of the wind. The bear flinched and bit at its flank, but it continued to approach. Another shot came, and this time Haley saw the dart plow into the bear’s chest. She didn’t think the drug would take effect in time and expected the bruin to charge them at any moment.

  Her hand touched the helicopter, and she felt for the floor, then scrambled inside the chopper. The bear roared, then galloped toward them. Tank threw himself into the helicopter and slammed the door. The bear’s snarling face rammed the window. “Get us out of here!” Tank yelled.

  The chopper rotors roared to life, and the bear turned tail and ran. Haley never did see it fall down from the effects of the drug. Her heart was still slamming against her ribs as the chopper rose in the air.

  Brooke scrambled onto her lap. “I didn’t like that bear.” She leaned over and patted her father’s face. “He wasn’t good like Miki and Aslan.”

  “No, he wasn’t.” Tank mopped the sweat from his forehead.

  His gaze met Haley’s, and her mood plunged at the expression of alarm in his eyes. They had been in more danger than she’d thought. “Explain to me what a predatory bear is. I thought all bears were predators.”

  “They are to some degree. A predatory bear is one actively on the hunt for humans. Most bears are just scavengers and would rather run than hunt a human for food. But when animals are sick or too old to get food in the normal way, they can lose their normal fear of humans. Once they discover humans are easy prey, they can be deadly. This bear is old and sick. And dangerous.”

  “That bear was like the wicked White Witch in Narnia,” Brooke said. “Maybe Miki could show him how to be good.”

  “I don’t think he’d listen, Brooke. He’s sick and old. Not really bad.”

  “God should take him home. He’d be happy in heaven. Mommy would take care of him.”

  Brooke’s perfect faith brought tears to Haley’s eyes. What must it feel like to believe God had everything under control? She couldn’t fathom it, but a new yearning made her wish she could be that young and trusting. It felt like a tiny tendril of green reaching for the sun. “I haven’t read your book yet. I’ll get started on it tonight.”

  “Read it to me!” Brooke said.

  “Okay, we’ll start it tonight after supper,” Haley promised. Maybe it could melt the glacier around her heart. For the first time, she was beginning to wonder what it would be like to be free of her burden.

  The phone rang in Marley’s Anchorage apartment, and she snatched it up. It had to be her lawyer. She’d promised to call today.

  “The home study is back, and the news isn’t good.”

  Marley exhaled and gripped the phone so hard her hand shook. “What do you mean?”

  “The report recommends that Brooke stay with her father.”

  The finality in Janine’s voice stole the protest from Marley’s voice. “That’s not possible,” she whispered finally. “I have to get custody of Brooke.”

  “I’m sorry, Marley. Without a home-study report in your favor, I don’t believe we stand a chance in court. I’d recommend you drop the suit now and work on mending your relationship with Mr. Lassiter so you can spend time with Brooke. Pursuing it now will only harden his stance against you.”

  “I’ll never give her up. Never.” The tears trembling on Marley’s lashes dried as rage began to flare in her chest. “Leigh will be livid. You have to fix this.”

  Janine’s voice softened. “I think you need to talk to someone, Marley. I know it’s been difficult for you to come to grips with your sister’s death, but you have to accept it.”

  “Brooke belongs with me,” Marley insisted. “I want to take my plea to the judge.”

  “Then you’ll need to find another lawyer. I’m too busy to waste my time on a lost cause. I’m sorry. This is something you need to accept. I told you from the beginning it was a long shot. I’ve found no one who can testify that Tank is a bad father. It would be your word against his. Even your father won’t testify against him.”

  “My father is a weakling,” Marley shot back. “He was taken in by Tank right from the beginning.”

  “It’s over, Marley. That’s all I can tell you. Let me know if there’s ever anything else I can do for you.”

  The phone clicked in her ear. Marley pulled it away from her head and stared at it with disbelief. This couldn’t be happening. She had to get custody of Brooke. Leigh insisted on it. Marley stared with wide eyes out the window in the direction of Denali. The mountain rose in the distance, and its peak punched through the clouds and disappeared in the mist.

  She would just grab Brooke and get to New York where a competent lawyer would make sure Marley kept possession of her. Possession was nine-tenths of the law, right? These backwoods yokels would never know what hit them once she got a real lawyer to take her case.

  Eighteen

  Something was going to have to be done about that bear. Tank had never run into a predatory bear that was this aggressive. He’d heard stories but had never come up against one himself. Bears were generally safe if left to themselves. They’d rather run than fight most of the time. Several things could cause a bear to begin to see humans as prey, however. This one looked old, which was the most common reason. A bear that lost some of its teeth would have a hard time finding enough to eat. Sometimes close contact with humans showed a bear how easy it was to obtain food from them. The bear comes to associate humans with easy food and then one day makes the leap to seeing humans as food themselves.

  Whatever the reason, he was going to have to get rid of this bear. He would push for moving it to a remote place, but his superiors might insist on destroying it. If only that could be avoided. At least he wouldn’t have to do it. Hunters would be called in to take care of the problem.

  He became aware of Haley’s gaze on him. Her amber eyes studied him, and he could still see fear in their depths. The encounter had shaken her, as well it should. Shoot, even he had felt the effects of fear and adrenaline pumping through his veins. It was a good thing Libby and Brooke had never gotten out of their chopper.

  “Enjoying living dangerously?” he asked with a grin.

  “About as much as a polar bear likes the desert.”

  To give her credit, she was trying to smile, though her poor attempt looked more like a grimace. The color that had leached from her cheeks came surging back, so he took encouragement. “Or as much as a lizard likes the ice.”

  Her smile seemed more genuine. “I think you just described me. The desert seems even more appealing after today.” She glanced outside the chopper window at the gray clouds. “I always thought there would be more sunshine in Alaska in the summer. We’ve had so many gray days. Is this usual?”

  “Some years we get more than others. But we’re near the coast. If we were farther inland, there would be more sunshine.”

&nb
sp; She stretched her leg out and rubbed her knee. “You ever been to Phoenix? Valley of the Sun, we call it. You can always count on the sun to be up there shining down and making everything more cheerful.”

  “I’ve never been, but you make it sound very appealing. Do they have bears there?” He grinned and winked at her.

  “In the zoo.” She laughed and unzipped her backpack, then extracted a small package of powdered-sugar donuts. She offered him one, but he declined. “We have black bears in Arizona. The last grizzly was killed in the early nineteen hundreds—1902, I think.”

  “Tragic.” Tank shook his head. “The grizzly used to roam all over the West. Its habitat is reduced to the Yellowstone area, a bit of Washington, and here in Alaska.”

  “When man and animal clash, animal loses,” Haley said. “I have to admit I wouldn’t want to worry about a grizzly roaming the desert where I live.”

  “You’ve had some bad experiences. Bears are fascinating.”

  “I’ve already seen that.”

  The chopper flew over the cluster of buildings. Kipp turned around in the front seat and glanced back at Tank. “Are we landing at Stalwart? Aren’t we going back to our campsite?”

  Tank shook his head. “I need to report that predatory bear and figure out what we’re going to do about it.” He eyed Kipp. The bear activist still looked a little pale.

  Kipp nodded. “I don’t mind admitting I’ve never seen a bear act that way. The look in its eyes—I think it thought we were caribou or something.”

  “It was definitely looking at us for lunch,” Erika put in. She shuddered.

  The chopper flew lower, over the roofs of buildings to the north side of town, where it hovered over a grassy field, and then finally touched down. The pilot kicked off the motor, and the rotors slowed. The other chopper landed behind them.

  “How long do you plan to stay here?” Kipp asked. “So far, this trip has been a bust. I’ve gotten little video of bears and even fewer pictures. And what about the gear we left at camp?”

  “I’ll pick it up for us later. Besides, you’ve got all summer to get your video,” Tank pointed out. “I can’t let you go back out there until we deal with the predatory bear. Cool your jets. Learn a little about the people of Alaska while you’re here. Take some video of some of the characters in town. It will add to the drama of your story.”