Under a Black Sky (Part of the Daniel Trokics Series)

by Inger Wolf

  Smith sighed in satisfaction. "Finally."

  "What will they do to me?"

  "I can't answer that. But we don't have the death penalty here. Right now, I'm more interested in knowing what you did with Marie."

  Connolly's eyes filled with tears. "I killed her."

  "No," Smith said under his breath.

  "It was a mistake, taking her with me. I didn't mean to. I regretted it, so I shot her."

  Something broke inside of Smith. That poor child. They'd tried to save her. His headache was returning. And he wanted to slug the man across from him. Very hard. The lawyer's mouth was half open, his pen twisting and twirling frantically between his fingers.

  "And what did you do with her, Adam?"

  Connolly looked down at the table. Several seconds passed before he said, "I buried her. I had to."

  "But where, goddammit?"

  Connolly looked up and dried his tears. "You'll never find her.”

  Chapter Sixty

  THEY WALKED into a cozy restaurant overlooking Redoubt and ordered a bottle of white wine and reindeer chili. The paneled walls were filled with old photographs and postcards from all over the world. They sat in a small niche; Trokic was glad no one could hear what they were talking about.

  "I can't believe it," Angie said, her eyes moist. "He really shot her. Smith said that Connolly regretted taking her along. How long did he keep her? She must have been terrified."

  Trokic reached out and took her hand and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "I think Den gave him the alibi because he wanted him at the observatory." His anger grew. "Maybe she was still alive when we brought Connolly in the first time. Maybe he was holding her someplace, and when Redoubt started acting up, he realized he needed to be at the observatory more. So, he killed her."

  Angie took a drink of wine. A sizable drink. "We'll never find her body. He knew exactly where to dump it. He said he climbed mountains in his spare time, he has to know lots of places. But it all makes sense. Maybe he knew for a long time that Asger and Griffin could have been responsible. It might even really have been an accident. Maybe Debbie wandered off the trail. Or got lost in a hunting zone. Connolly could have confronted Asger with his suspicions, and Asger confessed. Who knows, it might have been the call Asger got that afternoon when he started acting strangely at the university. And it's like Smith said on the phone, Connolly had a double motive to kill him. Revenge, and the director's job at the observatory."

  "Killing the entire Vad family, and the Griffins too. That's so incredibly violent. He must be totally out of his mind, the sick bastard."

  The waiter brought their food, and they were preoccupied with their thoughts as they blew on their chili.

  "What happens now?" Trokic said.

  "We'll have to prepare for the trial. It's going to be a lot of work."

  "I mean with us."

  She looked down at the table and pushed her bowl aside. "What can I say?" she mumbled. "It's impossible. You'll be going home to your boss and your country and your world. And I'll go back to my trailer and the life I had before you came along."

  She looked up at him; there was a darkness in her eyes, from the time before their brief, hopeless love. And for a moment, he saw why she'd had to be so strong. To overcome the loss of her mother and a great deal of her identity. The loneliness of her trailer. And there was nothing he could do to ease her pain.

  "Come with me anyway," he mumbled. "Take a leave of absence. Just for a while. Maybe we'll find a way. Maybe—"

  He broke himself off. She drew her hand back, drained her glass, and said, "But I can't, can I? You know that. Maybe it's a good thing this case is over. It ends something that was short and sweet, but doomed from the start. I wish they'd sent an ugly, stupid officer instead."

  He stared at her. How could she say that? Casually toss away what had happened between them? Was it that easy for her? She turned the small raven around and around in her fingers, then let go of it. It twirled in the air. As if she were reading his thoughts, she said, "It's being aware of this impossible love that makes your feelings stronger. If I'd been a Danish girl, right there for you and ready and willing, you wouldn't have felt the same. Maybe it's not even really me you want."

  He shook his head. "Don't say that. And anyway, I could say the same thing about you. You knew all along I was going back."

  The silence at the table felt empty, cool. Angie barely touched her reindeer chili. Instead, she poured herself another glass of wine and stared into space.

  Finally, Trokic said, "I wonder where they're buried. Debbie and her daughter."

  Angie gazed at the wall beside them, her eyes moist again. She blinked several times and turned to him. "Somewhere in the area Griffin marked, I think. Maybe he kept going back because he'd been there that day, and he regretted it. Even though that sounds strange. Maybe they did it together, he and Asger. Went out there."

  "Maybe we should go out and take a look at the place?" Trokic said. "It might be nice to get out and walk around."

  She looked a bit skeptical. "I suppose since we're here anyway. It can't hurt."

  She checked her watch. "It won't be dark for another three hours. We can look around. Connolly might not know where they're buried, but maybe we can find out where to look later."

  "Eat your food. You'll need the strength. I'll drive, I've only had one glass of wine."

  She stared at her plate, pulled it back reluctantly, and began to eat.

  He smiled. "Good girl."

  "Just think, if we found them," she said thoughtfully between bites. "In a way, it would tie everything up. Complete the circle."

  "Then eat up so we can leave."

  Chapter Sixty-One

  ANGIE CHECKED the map in the car while Trokic drove slower than she was even able to. Yet, he didn't feel confident driving the black Ford, though Angie had sworn she had winter tires on. He wasn't used to an automatic, either. He wouldn't be surprised if a state trooper stopped him for driving too slow. There weren't many cars on the road, though the snow was on pause. The sky was blue. Suddenly, he wanted it to snow. Wanted to be buried in all that white, so he'd never have to go back to Denmark. He tried to imagine it, but it was impossible. How could he stand the months of darkness, when he could barely make it through the Danish winter? He would be like a fish out of water in this place of great beauty and extreme nature.

  "I'm comparing a map from the tourist office with Griffin's and the one from the hotel," Angie said. "There are some trails a ways away from here. They're rated as easy. They could be the ones that guide recommended to Debbie. It makes sense that she chose something in that direction, and it's very close to the area Griffin marked. According to the map, there's a parking area; let's see if we can find it."

  They drove in silence until they reached it. Except for a bench and a big sign, it was empty. Trokic parked the car, and they got out and looked at the sign.

  "A map of the area," Trokic said, stating the obvious. "It looks like a bigger version of the one from the tourist office."

  She looked a bit unsure. "You want to try it? The snow is sort of packed, several people must've already walked here, even though it's so far away from everything. The trails should be marked. If it looks like we can't make it, we can always go back."

  "Okay. Let's do it."

  "Good. I'll call Chadwick and tell him we're on the trail up here. Just in case one of us gets hurt and we don't have phone coverage."

  She sat in the car with the door open and fumbled with her cell phone. While she called, Trokic studied the map. The easy trail looked to be about two miles around a small mountain. But what if Debbie accidentally took a more challenging trail, and it became too difficult with her two kids? Would she have taken an easier trail back and then got lost?

  "All right," Angie said. "Now he knows. So, if I haven't called him back in an hour and a half, he'll send someone out to look for us."

  She opened the glove compartment, pulled out tw
o pairs of mittens, and handed one pair to him. She got out and pulled up the hood on her coat; her face looked small inside the fur collar. Her forehead creased as she looked up at the sky. "Two miles. And clear skies. We should be able to do this in less than an hour, even with the snow. Before it gets dark."

  ANGIE STOPPED when they reached a small plateau. They looked down over a forested wilderness with small lakes and hills as far as the eye could see, a magnificent view. Trokic looked back and noticed the inlet and, on the other side, Redoubt. Yet they weren't very high up. The trail seemed to circle the mountain at a lower elevation.

  "A person can walk down there from this trail," he said, pointing to the trees.

  "We're not going down there, it's too easy to get lost."

  "That's exactly what I mean. Maybe that's what Debbie did. And she and her children hiked into a hunting area. She knew nothing about all this."

  Angie pointed. "Someone's walked down there. There, see, those footprints."

  "But they go both ways, and they end up here at the trail."

  "They look fresh. Maybe someone's out there hunting."

  "Now?" he said.

  "The snow doesn't scare anybody away here. There are several small lakes and streams, too. Someone might be fishing."

  She crawled a few yards down the slope, then she glanced back at him. "Two sets of tracks. One big, a man. And a smaller set of tracks. A kid."

  "Someone's out here with their child, taking a hike."

  "Here? Off the trail?"

  "Maybe they're lost too?" he said.

  "I can check with the police in Soldotna, to hear if anyone's missing. Or if anyone's in trouble."

  She grabbed her phone and called, but then quickly gave up. "No coverage here. That's no big surprise."

  She brought out the map again and studied it. Turned it around. "Griffin marked some of this area down here. If we assume it really was a hunting accident, like Connolly was wishy-washy about, it could have happened around here. Though it is a large area…"

  "Let's follow the tracks. We can retrace them back to here; they won't get erased anytime soon. Maybe someone's lost, or they might know the area and could help us."

  She looked at him, then checked her watch. "Well, we still have an hour before we have to be back, and I guess it wouldn't hurt."

  THEY WALKED CAREFULLY DOWN the slope until they reached the trees, mostly pines, and once in a while, they walked into a limb that dropped a load of snow on them. Despite his thick coat, Trokic was getting cold. It had to be well under freezing. And the temperature would keep falling.

  "It's a bit steep here, watch your footing," she said. "It looks like they've walked a lot here. Like they know their way. It would be nice to talk to somebody who knows the area."

  They walked for fifteen minutes. His cheeks stung from the cold, and his every breath stood out clearly in front of him.

  "I don't know," Angie said, looking up at the sky. "I don't like this; I think we should go back. It takes longer to climb up. I'd hate to have every state trooper in Kenai out looking for us."

  Suddenly, they heard a distant rumbling, and they stopped. It sounded almost like thunder. Instinctively, Trokic looked up at the blue sky—not a cloud in sight. They turned to face the sound, and Trokic swallowed nervously. Far away, over land and water, stood Redoubt, a leading character in the enormous drama he'd been involved in during the past week. Asger Vad's life. The white, glacier-clad mountain was surrounded by a great mushroom cloud, more dense and craggy than any cloud he'd ever seen, in sharp contrast to the clear sky. Gray ash above, white and steamy below. It steadily rose into the sky and spread faster down the mountainside, a landscape of ice and ash. Redoubt was erupting.

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  TROKIC STOOD FROZEN; even though the volcano was several miles away and across the inlet, he panicked. He was helplessly trapped in a showdown with nature. The mountain was a ten-thousand-foot roiling hell on top of kilotons of magma. Was this the same paralysis that struck the citizens of Pompeii as the lava swept down on them? The feeling of no longer being in control of your life? The grayish white mass roaring down the mountain was a thick cloud. It rumbled again, the only sound they could hear. They were in an audio vacuum where only Redoubt was allowed to speak.

  "There's going to be another lahal," Angie said, her voice breathless. "Just like last time. You probably heard about it, mud and rock and whatever else comes out, and it forms a stream that destroys everything in its path. I've never seen it so close. It's…awesome."

  Trokic's heart hammered as he recalled the Iceland villages buried in ashes. What if there was so much ash that they couldn't breathe? "You look pretty calm."

  "They're our neighbors. We live with them, like my people have for thousands of years. We know this happens, and there's nothing to do about it. We're just pawns that nature moves around wherever it wants to."

  "Are we in danger here? It looks incredibly destructive."

  "Not directly, not right now. But if the cloud over there comes our way, it can cause trouble. We can't know how much will come. Look, the cloud is tipping in our direction. There's not much wind here, but it's coming this way. It might take a half hour, it might take several hours. But if the wind doesn't change direction, we're getting company soon."

  She frowned at him. "It can get dark, and ash will fall. It's impossible to know how much. It might be hard to drive because ash plugs up air filters, and the roads get slick. We need to get back to the hotel before it gets here. And we might have to stay there until it's all over."

  Trapped in a hotel with Angie for several days didn't sound that awful to Trokic. But right now, he had other concerns; he didn't like the idea of abandoning whoever was walking here. "It looks like the tracks go right up to the mountain. Let's take a look on the other side, real quick."

  "But we really have to get—"

  Angie sighed and followed him. The tracks led to a tree, then behind it, then around a ridge and a large boulder. Redoubt roared again, this time louder, and Trokic felt the earth tremble slightly. His joints went limp. It reminded him of cannon fire, the war in Croatia. Angie looked worried, but she was resigned.

  "Looks like there's a small cave in here," he mumbled. Suddenly, he felt sick, horrible even, in a way he couldn't put his finger on. He felt trapped by the volcano and enslaved by his own need to follow the human tracks. He looked around, but he couldn't see anyone. The forest was just as quiet as before.

  He knelt down and peered inside the entrance. Someone had recently been in there. And left again. Small and large footprints, first one way, then they mingled and took off the other way. He turned to Angie, but she was looking up above Redoubt, still visible over the trees. He crawled through the snow at the entrance. Someone had done the same thing not long ago. It was completely dark, but there seemed to be empty space inside. He took off one of his mittens, pushed himself up, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. The screen glowed faintly in the small grotto when he turned it on.

  He jerked back when he realized what was in front of him. His brain worked to process the faint visual input, and for a second he even forgot about Redoubt. Bones. A lot of them. A whole jumble of them. As if animals had disturbed a gravesite. And there were two skulls in the middle.

  "Angie, there's someone in here," he yelled, hearing the tension in his voice.

  Thoughts raced through his head, and he stopped breathing momentarily while trying to make sense of what he saw. Was this where Debbie and her daughter had been buried? Hidden in a secret, holy place? He smelled soil, plants, excrement from an animal. But no creatures seemed to have been living in the grotto.

  Angie laid her hands on his shoulders. "I can't see anything."

  He crawled backward to give her room. Without a word, she knelt down and looked around inside.

  "I think it's them," Trokic said. "Debbie and her daughter."

  "It could be older bones. We find bones from old burial sites all the ti
me."

  "But the tracks outside. Somebody knows this place."

  Suddenly, he could barely breathe. What did this mean? Who had been here? "Somebody's on to something, and I don't like it. It can't be a coincidence that she disappeared right in this area. Those bones are from an adult and an older child."

  Angie kept staring into the cave. "Wait, I see something, like a little bag over there. Maybe I can get ahold of it…okay, got it."

  She backed out again and held up a bag, filthy dirty and small, the size of a pack of cards, with a shoulder strap. It was light purple, with "Hello Kitty" stitched on it. Something had been gnawing on it.

  They stared at it for a few moments. "The daughter was crazy about Hello Kitty," Angie said. "Do you remember? Thereza Mendell told us."

  She told him to turn around so she could get into his backpack. She pulled out a plastic bag. "I don't have a DNA kit with me, but I don't think there's been anything inside her bag. I'll put it in here so it doesn't get any more contaminated than necessary."

  "It's them, it can't be anyone else," Trokic said. The cold crept further inside him; what had their deaths been like? What had happened? Had the father actually left the body of his ex-wife and daughter right here?

  They heard more rumbling behind them, and he shivered. The sky seemed to grow darker. Just a bit. As if a mass of small particles shielded the sun. The cloud was moving their way.

  "The only question is, whose tracks are these?" he said. "Could Connolly have brought Marie here before he killed her? But why didn't he leave her here? What the hell is going on?"

  Angie shook her head. She squatted down and lightly felt around in one of the tracks. Then she stood up. "These tracks are very new. They'd be covered up in a matter of hours. They were made after Connolly came into the station, they can't be his. My guess is they're no more than an hour old."

  They stared at each other. Angie wiped melted snow off her cheeks with her mitten. “If someone had discovered these bones, they'd have reported it.”