Alaskan Legal: A Legal Thriller

by Dave Daren

  If Yura had taken the extra steps to ensure none of her DNA had been left on the boat, then it was entirely possible for her to have hidden on the boat alongside Diana, Vann, and eventually Morris. Considering how long it had taken to confirm a third person on the boat, Yura’s presence wasn’t far out of the realm of reality.

  The woman in question sighed and closed her eyes, and I found my gaze drifting back to her.

  “Yura, whatever secret you’re protecting isn’t worth going to prison over,” Cassandra said as she grabbed the fisherwoman’s hand.

  “No, it’s not,” Yura whispered, but she sounded uncertain. “I… Two years ago, Harrison and I were trying to plan our next prank on Austin.”

  “With Ronan,” Waska interrupted.

  “No,” Yura said with a shake of her head. “He wasn’t there yet. He was running late, and I don’t remember why. What I do remember, however, is that Harrison was complaining about not knowing what Austin and his crew had planned for us, and I suggested, mainly as a joke, that we needed a rat within their ranks.”

  “And he said Diana?” Ansong asked.

  “No, but I wish he had,” the fisherwoman sighed. “He suggested Marlene, which was the obvious choice because they were kind of friends, but I refused. I didn’t want that bitch to be involved with us in any way because she could have easily gone from being a rat to being a permanent member of our crew. I was the one who suggested Diana since she seemed really lonely. I figured she would look past Harrison being from a rival crew.”

  “You encouraged your boyfriend to start a relationship with a married woman for the sake of gathering information?” Ansong said for confirmation.

  “I didn’t encourage him to get involved with her romantically,” Yura said. “I wanted him to get close to her, but I never imagined he would hook up with her. I didn’t realize she was lonely in more ways than one.”

  “Then how did you find out they were together?” I asked before Ansong could, and the woman nodded her head in approval.

  “Harrison told me,” the fisherwoman said as though it were obvious. “He didn’t keep it a secret from me because he wanted me to know that it wasn’t anything serious. He didn’t love her. He loved me.”

  She brought up a shaking hand to fiddle with her necklace.

  “You still haven’t answered Cassandra’s question,” I reminded her. “Why didn’t you come forward with all this information? Keeping it a secret only makes you look bad.”

  “It makes Harrison look bad!” she snapped. “I already told you and the police that Harrison and I had a relationship, so I didn’t want to explain he was with someone else as well and why. If it got out to the town, I knew everyone would think poorly of him. I didn’t want everyone’s final memories of him to be tainted by his stupid relationship with Diana.”

  “He took advantage of a woman’s loneliness just so he could get information from her about possible pranks,” Waska spat. “That’s pretty fucking bad.”

  “Yeah, but Diana’s the one who’s married,” Jackson argued. “As far as she knew, Harrison was a single man, so he could be with whoever he wanted. But she, on the other hand, should have known better. Even if Harrison was trying to hook up with her, she should have turned him away.”

  “Yeah, but--” Waska began.

  “Now is not the time,” Ansong snapped at them.

  “See?” Yura said. “This is what I’m talking about. Everyone would talk about whether he was a good or a bad person instead of grieving for him.”

  “Worry about that later,” Ansong ordered in a steely voice.

  “What was the real reason you and Harrison kept your relationship secret?” I asked as I remembered her odd behavior from yesterday. “Was it so that Diana believed Harrison was single?”

  “Not initially,” the fisherwoman said with a shake of her head. “We really did keep it secret because of the marriage talk. We weren’t ready for that, and by the time we were, he was with Diana. So then we were hiding our relationship for a different reason.”

  “What was the end goal?” Cassandra asked. “How long did he plan to be with Diana? When would the relationship end?”

  “I don’t know,” Yura answered with a shrug. “I didn’t know anything about their relationship. I never knew about his plans with her, like what they were doing, where they were going, any of that. I didn’t want to know.”

  “It sounds like you weren’t on board with this relationship as much as you let on,” I observed.

  “I guess he planned to be with her until he was tired of pranking Austin,” Yura replied as she avoided my gaze.

  “This goes beyond pranking,” Ansong said. “Disturbing the sanctity between a married couple is beyond playing a little trick, even if the marriage was already falling apart. There was malicious intent behind his actions.”

  “That’s not true,” Yura insisted. “Harrison didn’t hate Austin.”

  “According to Ronan, he did,” I countered.

  I realized Vann’s end goal must have been Morris’ departure from Utqiagvik, and his knowledge of the illegal fishing was the perfect tool to achieve that goal. Blackmailing Morris into leaving town would have helped him both get rid of his competitor and the loveless relationship with Diana. Had he lived, he might have put the plan in motion.

  “Westcott?” Ansong said as she stared at me. “What did he tell you?”

  “We can worry about that later,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. “Right now, our main concern should be Diana. Based on what Yura said, she was the last person to see Vann alive, and that makes her our killer.”

  “No,” the fisherwoman protested. “I’m telling you, Diana loved Harrison. She never would have killed him.”

  “She would if she found out Vann was also seeing you,” I explained. “Not to mention, a drug was found in Vann’s wine glass, and Diana currently has a prescription for Sonata.”

  “Even if she had found out, there’s no way she would have killed him,” Yura insisted.

  “Then you explain what happened that night,” Waska demanded out of frustration.

  Coming up with theories wasn’t a strength of Yura’s, and so as we waited for her to think through whatever scenario she was concocting in her head, I updated my journal with everything she had revealed.

  As much as I didn’t want to believe it, Diana being Vann’s second lover made a lot of sense. It explained how Vann knew about Morris’ illegal fishing in the Arctic Ocean. Diana must have told him in passing during one of their secret meetings. It also explained why the text messages between Vann and his secret lover all involved him going to meet her. Diana didn’t have a car, and the Morris house was so secluded that Vann could have easily visited without attracting any attention to himself.

  The problem I still had, however, was the implication that Morris was connected to Vann’s murder. His wife had been on the boat, and then he appeared on the boat later. A connection was bound to be drawn between the two, and I feared Yura’s reveal had just built a strong case for Ansong’s insistence that my client was involved. It would be easy enough to put together a convincing argument that Morris had killed Vann after he discovered that Diana was on the ship, or that husband and wife had conspired together.

  “I think…” Yura finally began. “If Diana had found out about Harrison’s relationship with me, then she would have felt heartbroken. She drugged Harrison, but…but she wasn’t planning on killing him. She just wanted to get revenge on him while he slept. I have no idea what the revenge would be, but she wouldn’t have been able to do anything to him while he was awake. But… but…”

  Yura knitted her eyebrows as she thought, and then her face lit up with realization.

  “It’s so obvious,” she declared. “Before the drug knocked Harrison out, Morris appeared on his boat all angry about the fishing net, but he saw Diana with Harrison. Now he had another reason to be angry, so he attacked Harrison and was knocked out during the fight. The drug fina
lly kicked in, Harrison fell asleep, and Diana was left alone with two unconscious bodies. She was afraid of Morris waking up while she was still there, so she ditched her plan for revenge and left on Harrison’s jet ski. Morris woke up, saw that Harrison was knocked out, drowned him in a fit of rage, and then called the police to appear innocent.”

  Yura nodded with finality and then looked up at all of us with confidence. My heart sank down into my stomach as I replayed her explanation in my head, because I knew she was wrong.

  She hadn’t accounted for the deliberate steps taken to destroy the second wine glass and abandon the jet ski at Northernmost Point, and those actions contradicted the image of a panicking Diana. But it didn’t matter. There was too much evidence stacked against Morris, and this was the perfect explanation for his involvement in the case. I silently cursed Yura for creating it as I watched Ansong’s eyes light up with joy.

  “Diana needs to be confronted immediately,” Ansong announced. “Yura, you need to go to the police station and complete a written testimony of everything you said here. Officer Jackson, take Yura and her boat back to Utqiagvik. Officer Waska, you’re coming with me to confront Diana.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” both officers responded.

  Jackson climbed onto Yura’s boat and shooed her out of the driver’s seat. The fisherwoman was forced to climb into the back seats, and Cassandra followed after her.

  “I’m going back with them,” my paralegal told me as she settled into her seat next to Yura.

  Cassandra smiled as Yura reached for her hand and gripped it, and the two seemed to share a secret just then. When Yura turned to watch Jackson fiddle with the controls, the young paralegal returned her attention to me. She beckoned for me to come closer, and I leaned across the almost nonexistent gap between the boats.

  “I hate to admit it, but this case isn’t looking good for Mr. Morris,” she whispered. “I don’t know how strong Diana is, but if I had tried to throw Vann overboard, I think I would have broken my arm in the process.”

  She patted me on the arm as she pulled away.

  “Are you going with her?” Waska asked me as he started his boat.

  Ansong was already speeding off in the direction of the Alaskan coastline while Jackson stared at me expectantly from the driver’s seat of Yura’s speedboat.

  “No, I’m tagging along,” I answered. “I’m curious to hear what Diana has to say for herself.”

  “Sure you are, buddy,” Jackson taunted, and then he turned his attention to Waska. “Make sure this guy doesn’t pressure Diana into lying for her husband.”

  “Fuck you,” Waska said and then sped off after Ansong’s boat before Jackson could respond.

  I’d barely had time to grab the railing before Waska took off, and it took me a moment to find my balance as we bounced across the waves.

  “Ignore that dumbass,” Waska advised me as I dropped into a seat.

  I nodded, but I wasn’t interested in what Jackson had to say. Cassandra’s words nagged at me, but I wasn’t sure if I was bothered by her display of pity or the words themselves. I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the sky and its unmoving sun.

  What Cassandra said didn’t matter beyond how well they represented the views of those around us. Diana and what she had to say for herself were what really mattered. After all, not only had Yura’s theory slapped a definitive guilty verdict on Morris, but she had also granted Diana immunity.

  The pale woman could easily make Morris out to be the sole killer. All she needed to know was Yura’s version of what happened that night, and either Ansong or Waska could easily supply her with that suggestion. I doubted the two officers would intentionally do that, especially Ansong, but it was the unintentional planting that I feared.

  As we moved closer to Utqiagvik, I hoped my presence alone would be enough to prevent that from happening.

  Chapter 14

  “This might be an issue,” Waska said.

  I pulled my gaze away from the ocean and sat up straight in my seat as the shores of Utqiagvik came into view. We were heading toward the docks on the beach across from Osaka Restaurant. These were the same docks that housed the Arctic Wizard, and when I noticed the trawler wasn’t in its usual spot, I understood Waska’s concern. Morris’ boat and his crew were gone, and his wife was gone with them. I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed.

  Waska pulled his boat into the dock next to where Ansong had parked hers.

  “Now what?” he asked the middle-aged officer. “Should we get the helicopter out again?”

  “I already put in the request,” the woman responded. “I told them to check around the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean, but I doubt they’ve gone that far, though. We’ll check the Chukchi Sea and then the Bering Strait. If they’ve already passed through the strait, then we’ll wait for the helicopter to finish its search before we do anything else.”

  “We can split up,” Waska suggested, and I was sure the suggestion was less about efficiency and more about being able to drive his motorboat. “I can check the Chukchi Sea while you search the Bering Strait.”

  “No, I don’t want us separated,” Ansong said as she looked at me.

  I felt the same way, though for different reasons. I didn’t want her finding the Arctic Wizard and confronting Diana alone any more than she wanted me to. The only compromise was to accompany her on her boat. Together we would scour the Bering Strait for Morris’ trawler, but we both would have had to come to terms with the idea of Waska finding the trawler alone. Waska didn’t strike me as the type to wait for us to arrive before boarding the boat and confronting Diana himself, and that seemed like an even worse alternative than letting Ansong handle the interrogation alone.

  “I doubt Tash and Marniq are aware of Diana’s part in this murder,” the older woman explained. “But on the off-chance they’re helping her escape, it’ll be important for the three of us to confront them together.”

  “I’ll be frank, ma’am,” Waska said. “If it comes down to facing Luke, we don’t stand a chance. I think the air of a missed punch from him would be able to knock us back.”

  I entertained the idea of the three of us trying to pin down Marniq, and an image of the three of us hanging off of Marniq’s bulging arms as he tried to swing us loose filled my head. I tucked my chin toward my chest as I stifled a laugh that threatened to escape.

  “Come on,” Ansong ordered as she gestured for me and Waska to climb aboard.

  As I transferred to the back seat of Ansong’s motorboat, Waska moored his boat and then climbed aboard Ansong’s vessel. He looked like he wanted to join her at the controls, but at a look from her, he dropped into the seat next to me. He reminded me of an excited child going on a field trip, and as Ansong pulled out of the dock, I realized that despite the gruesome nature of a murder case, the crime was likely a source of entertainment for the people in the small, unchanging city of Utqiagvik.

  As we raced across the Chukchi Sea, we stared intently across the water for any signs of the Arctic Wizard. This was a difficult task to accomplish since more boats floated on the Chukchi Sea in comparison to the Arctic Ocean. We passed luxury yachts filled with sightseers, speedboats engaged in races, and several trawlers on their way to fishing spots.

  More than once, we spotted a trawler that resembled the Arctic Wizard, and the air around our little craft would become electric as we sped closer. But then we would realize the trawler was in better condition than Morris’ boat or its name was different, and our disappointment made us slump down in our seats once again.

  “I don’t think they’re here,” I said as we passed another trawler.

  “Yeah, I don’t think so, either,” Waska agreed. “Let’s check the Strait.”

  Ansong said nothing in response to either of us, but she turned the boat suddenly in the direction of what I assumed to be the Bering Strait. We flew across the water as we weaved between other boats, and several of the passengers waved at us as we zoomed by. Only Was
ka bothered to wave back because Ansong and I were too preoccupied with both our search for Morris’ boat and, I suspected, our line of attack for when we confronted Diana.

  The middle-aged officer had no reason to believe Morris was innocent since neither I nor any of the evidence uncovered during this investigation had changed her mind in that regard. I assumed the police officer was going into this confrontation with the expectation that Diana would deny any wrongdoing or involvement in Vann’s murder, and I needed to get this notion out of her head for my client’s sake.

  “Do either of you really think Yura’s story is plausible?” I asked.

  “Yeah, it sounds pretty right to me,” Waska said with a shrug. “I don’t see how else Harrison would have gotten overboard.”

  “I have to say, Brooks, I’m impressed by your dedication,” Ansong said. “Or maybe it’s stubbornness. How do you still believe Morris is innocent?”

  “Yura thinks Diana panicked and left on Vann’s jet ski,” I said. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would someone who hasn’t committed murder think to destroy a wine glass before leaving?”

  “Well, she drugged Harrison,” Waska answered. “She was probably afraid he’d call the police and tell us what she’d done when he woke up. He could always bring the wine glass to the police station.”

  Based on what Tash had told me, Vann would have never done such a thing. His pride wouldn’t have let him, and considering how long Diana had been in relationship with him, she must have known this as well. She had likely chosen to drug him because she knew that if her plan didn’t work, and he suddenly woke up, he would never say a word of it to anyone.

  “I don’t think she was worried about that,” Ansong said before I could make my point about Vann’s pride. “What makes you two think she was the one who broke the wine glass?”

  “Well, I mean, who else would it have been?” the younger officer asked.

  “The person who killed Vann,” the woman answered in a matter-of-fact tone. “Morris broke the glass after he killed Vann since he knew his wife’s DNA would be all over it.”