Alaskan Legal: A Legal Thriller

by Dave Daren

  If those were the odds at play, then why wouldn’t she take her chances in the ice fields? It then occurred to me that Waska probably wasn’t aware of the full situation. He probably hadn’t been present for the smartphone reveal because he’d still been standing guard in front of the Vintage Vann. He likely had no idea why we were chasing Yura, or what had prompted her to zoom across the Arctic Ocean.

  “Oh,” Cassandra gasped.

  I looked back at her and discovered she had finally lifted her head. I followed her gaze to a lone polar bear standing on some sea ice off in the distance. The mammal stared at us in return, and when the motor of the speedboat sounded as Waska went around some ice, the bear dove into the water. I turned my attention back to Cassandra, but she still stared at where the bear had been just moments before with a smile.

  “Yura should be around here somewhere,” the officer said as he squinted.

  The boat moved slowly between chunks of ice while Waska searched the sky for the plane that was tracking Yura’s movement. When his search proved to be fruitless, he gripped his walkie-talkie and spoke into it. The device crackled with static and then a muffled voice finally replied.

  “She’s on the move again,” the voice said. “Wait, we see you.”

  The three of us looked up, and after a couple of seconds of searching, we found the plane moving toward us from the right. It wasn’t actually an airplane, as I had been led to believe, but a helicopter. It appeared to be coming toward us, but that was our perspective from the ground. The chopper was still tracking Yura, and so if the vehicle was visible from where we sat on the water, then Yura should have been nearby. Jackson and Ansong would be there as well, though I hadn’t seen or heard any signs of them since we’d arrived.

  I looked around at the surrounding water as I tried to locate one of the other boats, but all I could see for miles was sea ice and the occasional distant iceberg. If Yura was nearby, she must have stopped moving again, or else we would have heard the motor of her boat.

  The only sounds that surrounded us were our own motor, the water lapping against the ice and boat, and the distant sound of the helicopter flying overhead. The wind had died down to a gentle breeze, and the sun made the ice glisten. If we weren’t chasing a murder suspect through large chunks of ice that could capsize our boat, this would have been a pleasant ride.

  The sound of a motor ripped through the air suddenly, and the three of us moved our heads to figure out the source of the noise. I was the first to see an object speeding by on the water to our right. It was too far to make out whether or not it was Yura in her speedboat, and I was inclined to believe it wasn’t because it was heading in the direction we had just come from. Why would she travel this far out only to return to Alaska?

  “Are Officer Ansong and Officer Jackson still on the water?” I asked as I turned to look at Waska.

  “Yeah, they are,” he answered as he maneuvered the boat so that it was now facing the vehicle in the distance. “But they haven’t reported that they’ve found her yet. They also never said they were returning to port. As far as I know, they’re still looking for her.”

  “Should we get closer?” Cassandra asked.

  “We’ve got nothing to lose,” Waska answered as he started up the motor.

  “Except for time,” I argued, but the officer was already in pursuit.

  He cut around the chunks of ice like they were traffic cones rather than potential capsizers, and he only slowed down once as he moved between two enormous slabs of sea ice. Once he passed through, he gunned it, and the boat seemed to fly across the waves.

  There was less ice in our way then, and the ice we encountered was smaller and easier to navigate around. Waska released an excited laugh as he swerved around some ice so he could cut an angle across the bow of the other ship, and then we were barreling toward Yura with nothing in between us.

  I gripped the edge of my seat as I saw that the speedboat we were chasing was red and white and I held my breath as Waska turned the boat again so that we were running parallel to the other vessel. We pulled in just behind the speedboat, and this allowed us a perfect view of the driver. Or rather, the back of the driver.

  A sigh of relief escaped my lips as I spotted the familiar green coat and spiky hair. Yura hadn’t escaped after all, but I didn’t understand why she was heading back toward the town. Had she gotten cold feet? Maybe she’d decided navigating the ice was too dangerous, though that didn’t seem like the woman I’d met.

  “Yura!” Cassandra yelled.

  There was no way Yura hadn’t seen us driving toward her before we had switched directions. She must have caught sight of our boat out of the corner of her eye, but I wondered if she had seen the boat’s passengers and known who was giving chase.

  The combined sounds of our boat’s engines were enough to drown out any other noises. The sound of the helicopter flying above was also increasing, and a quick glance toward the sky confirmed that the chopper was decreasing its elevation. It was hard to believe Yura could have heard Cassandra over all this noise, and even if she had, would she really have stopped?

  “Can’t we go any faster?” I complained.

  “This is the fastest it’ll go,” Waska responded. “She’s at max speed, too, so we’re not going to be able to catch up to her until she either slows down or stops.”

  “It’s fine,” Cassandra yelled. “We have her in our sights, and we’ll just follow her to wherever she’s headed. No matter what happens, she’s not going to escape.”

  “Still, I wish she’d slow down,” the police officer said. “Going this fast while there’s ice around isn’t safe.”

  At that moment, Yura swerved around a sizable piece of sea ice, and because our view of it had been blocked by her boat, Waska had even less time to avoid the floating piece. The boat jerked to the left, and I held my breath as I considered if these would be my final moments on Earth. We were going so fast that there was a chance that the side of the boat would lift up and then flip over, but Waska proved to be an impressive pilot with his ability to dodge the ice and not kill us in the process.

  I heard gasping behind me and turned to see Cassandra grabbing at her neck. I reached over and grabbed her by the shoulders.

  “You’re fine,” I yelled at her as I forced her to look at me. “You’re fine. Just breathe.”

  She nodded several times as she slowly moved her hands away from her neck to clasp the edge of her seat instead. She closed her eyes, held her breath to stop the hyperventilating, and then forced herself to take slow, long breaths. Once her breathing calmed, and she had regained her composure, she opened her eyes to look at me. She said something, but I couldn’t hear it over all the noise. It was likely a thank you, so I simply patted her on the shoulder and faced forward.

  There was now some distance between us and Yura’s boat, but we were still hot on her trail. The fisherwoman turned to look back at us, probably to see how close we were behind her. The gesture made me wonder if she had intentionally dodged the sea ice at the last possible minute to prevent us from chasing after her.

  Waska frantically waved his arms at her to stop, and I shook my head at the notion of it actually working. If the waving of arms was all it took to get her to stop, then she never wanted to escape in the first place.

  So it was a surprise when I saw the subject of our high-speed chase wave back like she was greeting an old friend. The gesture struck me as odd, and I felt the first doubts about my theory start to bubble up.

  Did someone on the run casually wave at their pursuers? Confusion built as I realized we were now gaining on her. Was she actually slowing down? The idea that she had come out on the water to pass time rather than to flee planted itself in my head, and I couldn’t shake it free.

  The roar of another engine cut through the air as a white boat sped across the water in front of Yura, toward her boat. Two people occupied the boat, and I guessed them to be Ansong and Jackson since I couldn’t think of anyone else
on the Arctic Ocean searching for Yura. Yura’s attention was directed at us rather than the path in front of her, and so she wasn’t aware that she was heading straight toward the incoming speedboat.

  “Look out!” Waska warned as he pointed in front of him.

  The fisherwoman couldn’t have been able to hear him, but his wild gestures were enough to make her face forward. She jerked her speedboat to the right as she reduced her speed in order to avoid the approaching watercraft, and then she made several more sudden turns as she circumvented patches of sea ice. Her boat finally came to a halt, and Waska pulled up to her starboard, the other boat pulled up to her port, while the helicopter hovered overhead. She was now sandwiched from all sides, but she didn’t appear to be either upset or angry. Her bruised face only displayed confusion, and that convinced me she wasn’t on the run at all.

  “That was reckless,” Ansong complained.

  I craned my neck to look at the boat on the opposite side of Yura, and just as I suspected, Ansong and Jackson sat at the helm.

  “Well, we caught her,” Jackson argued as he gestured toward Yura.

  Ansong glared at him until he looked away and then turned her attention to Yura. She looked past the fisherwoman to give me a cold but unsurprised stare.

  “Of course, you would be here,” she sighed as she stood up.

  The middle-aged officer waved up at the helicopter and then grabbed her walkie-talkie.

  “We’ve got it,” she said into the device. “Thanks for the help.”

  The device didn’t make a noise in response, but the helicopter started to climb before flying away in the direction of Alaska.

  “What’s going on?” Yura asked as she looked back and forth between Waska’s boat and Jackson’s. “Why are you all here?”

  “I could ask you the same thing,” I said as I stood up and climbed into the seat behind Waska. “Actually, I am asking you. What are you doing out here?”

  She stared at me with an arched eyebrow and then glanced back at Ansong.

  “I’m going to be frank with you,” Cassandra said, and Yura looked past me to stare at the paralegal. “Everyone here thinks you killed Harrison, and... Excuse me.”

  Cassandra patted me on the shoulder to move over, and I stepped to the side to let her pass. She stood at the edge of the boat with the full intention of crossing over to Yura’s side, but she froze at the sight of the ocean between the very small gap of the boats. She took in a shaky breath, and I reached out to grab her since I figured she had lost her courage. Before I could however, Yura extended her hand toward Cassandra.

  The paralegal grasped it without hesitation, and she hopped over onto the neighboring speedboat. She fell into Yura’s arms with a terrified yell, and when she had recovered from the fall, she looked at Yura’s face. The two women made eye contact before erupting into laughter.

  “Why would you get onto a boat if you’re afraid of them?” the fisherwoman laughed as she released Cassandra.

  “I’m not afraid of boats,” the paralegal said with a smile. “I just don’t like large bodies of water, and I wanted to see if it were true, if you were really running away to Russia or something.”

  “Running away to Russia?” Yura repeated as she looked around at all of us. “Is that what you guys think I was doing? I wasn’t running away. I came out here to clear my head.”

  “Clear your head of what?” Jackson asked in excitement. “Of guilt?”

  Waska released a laugh that shook his body.

  “What kind of Scooby-Doo shit is that?” he asked, and Jackson glared at him.

  “Shut the hell up,” Jackson growled.

  “Both of you, stop interrupting,” Ansong ordered, and her voice cut through the air like a knife.

  Both officers looked down at the decks of their respective boats as the middle-aged woman glared at them. Satisfied that both men would behave, Ansong then turned her attention to Yura.

  “You said you came out here to clear your head?” Ansong said.

  “Yes, that’s it,” Yura confirmed. “I just wanted to be on the water. Harrison, Ronan, and I were supposed to go on a fishing trip today, but we can’t because the boat’s not available, and Harrison’s…”

  She shook her head.

  “Is that why you were asking about the Vintage Vann this morning?” I asked.

  She nodded and then laughed, but she looked far from amused.

  “You want to know something stupid?” she asked as she turned her attention to Cassandra, but she didn’t wait for a response. “I thought once the investigation was over and someone was behind bars, everything would go back to normal. The boat would be released from police custody, and that meant we could go fishing. And by we, I mean me, Harrison, and Ronan.”

  She took in a shaky breath, and tears pooled in her eyes.

  “I thought--” she started, cleared her throat, and then tried again. “I thought Harrison would come back, and I know it’s so stupid. He’s never coming back, but I just wanted to believe that somehow he would. That he was gone because he couldn’t use his boat.”

  She covered her face as a sob shook her frame. She leaned forward onto Cassandra, and the paralegal responded by wrapping her arms around the fisherwoman.

  “He’s gone, and you all think I killed him,” Yura cried.

  Jackson and Waska frowned out of discomfort, but Ansong stared at the sobbing woman while wearing a blank face.

  “You have to understand how suspicious it looks when someone takes a boat out onto the Arctic Ocean after it’s been discovered that Vann was drugged the night of his murder,” Ansong explained. “It’s even more alarming when we learn that he had more than one lover.”

  Yura wiped her face with the back of her arm before looking up at Ansong.

  “How do you know about that?” she asked in a hoarse voice.

  “Vann’s phone,” the middle-aged officer answered. “And according to his phone, we know that you were on his boat the night of his murder.”

  Yura’s eyes widened.

  “He made plans with you weeks prior,” I added.

  “No, he didn’t,” she denied. “I wasn’t on his boat that night. I spent the day with my family, and then I spent the night at home.”

  “We saw the text messages between you and Vann,” I insisted.

  Yura knitted her eyebrows in confusion and then dug through her pockets for her phone. As she held the thin smartphone in her palm, she tapped at the touchscreen until she found what she was looking for and then handed the phone to Cassandra.

  “Uh-oh,” Cassandra said as her eyes roamed over the screen. “Looks like we got our hearts mixed up.”

  Waska looked confused while Jackson’s eyebrows shot up on his face. Even Ansong was unable to hide her surprise.

  “But the nautical necklace,” I said as I looked at Yura. “You confirmed that Vann had bought you a necklace, and he sent you a picture of it.”

  “Yeah, he did buy me a necklace,” she said. “Did I say it was nautical themed? If I did, then that’s my bad. This is what he bought me months ago.”

  She unzipped her coat and revealed a silver chain around her neck, but the pendant wasn’t an anchor. Instead, it was several silver and gold bands overlapping each other to form the shape of a feather. The bands were embedded with gemstones that were either diamonds or some lesser knockoffs.

  As Yura showed off the gift with pride, I thought back to that moment in the house when I’d found the box. She had assumed the jewelry box was for her necklace, and I never imagined it would be a necklace for anyone else. But I hadn’t shown her the description of the necklace that had been on the box.

  “Wait, doesn’t this mean that the killer is the other woman?” Jackson asked.

  We all stared at him as the realization hit us that Ansong’s young partner was right. If Yura wasn’t the killer, then his mystery lover was instead, but according to the text messages, Yura knew who the other woman was.

  “Diana?�
� Yura said, and we all turned to look at her. “Diana didn’t kill Harrison. The only thing she’s guilty of is adultery.”

  “What?” Jackson screamed as he stood up.

  “The ghost lady?” Waska said with narrowed eyes. “Harrison was hooking up with her? And you knew about it?”

  “I don’t understand,” Cassandra said as she handed back Yura’s phone. “If you knew Harrison was cheating on you with Diana, and that she was on the boat with him the night of his murder, why didn’t you say anything to the police?”

  “I only knew about the relationship between Diana and Harrison, not that she was on the boat,” Yura claimed.

  “You expect us to believe you found out Harrison was cheating on you and then did nothing about it?” Ansong said, and her neutral persona was unraveling into one of rage.

  “If Harrison wanted to see other people, it was fine with me,” she mumbled as she looked down at her lap.

  Outside of that being a blatant lie, all of Yura’s actions indicated she had loved and still loved Harrison dearly. Her previous claim of their relationship being casual was contradicted by both Tash’s assessment of her and the messages she had sent Harrison. She had claimed he belonged to her, and so I didn’t understand why she had shared him with Diana.

  “What kind of bullshit is that?” Ansong snapped, and everyone flinched at her raised voice. “I’m half-convinced you worked with Diana to kill Vann, and now the two of you are working together to pin the murder on Morris.”

  This was the theory working through my mind as well. Both of them had discovered Harrison’s infidelity and then made plans together to get revenge. The only issue was the execution. Diana couldn’t have possibly thrown Vann overboard alone. This idea only worked if Yura was on board and helped Diana toss the captain’s body into the freezing water, and then the two escaped on the jet ski. But where would Yura have hidden herself? In the fish hold?

  The police would have found fingerprints on the ladder that led down there unless Yura had worn gloves. I started to tap at my scar as I tried to picture how the murder would have taken place.