At the Scene of the Crime
Page 27
He hadn’t taken his .30-30 with him because he had his .357 with him instead. Sometime the night before, he’d put the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
He’d been sitting in the snow with his back up against a spruce tree, and he’d frozen solid in that position, what was left of his brains splattered across the outspread branches like Christmas tree flocking. It was hell getting the body into the plane, and torture getting the door closed on it.
They found Bev in Kivalina, where she told the village public safety officer that Noah and Simon had fought when Simon came home. Noah had put her on a plane to Kivalina to keep her out of harm’s way. She told them that Simon had been drinking before the fight, and that Noah had tried not to hurt him but that Simon had forced Noah to put him down hard. This had happened in Ambler the previous week, and right after that Noah had headed for Kiana to go hunting with his cousins.
Johnny talked to the Ambler elders and they were persuaded to admit that Simon had been holed up in his shack, drinking up a good portion of the local bootlegger’s inventory, ever since. The day of the massacre, he had left early, last seen heading down river on the Evinrude.
That seemed to be that. When they got back to Kotzebue, there was a message waiting from Brill, who had called to say that by some twist of malign fate all of the wounds in all three bodies were through and through, no bullets or pieces of bullets remaing. “A hell of a mess, though,” Brill said on voice mail. “Looks like somebody used a Cuisinart on these guys, on the inside, anyway.”
The next morning Wy and Liam took off at daybreak.
Liam was marginally more comfortable at cruising altitude than he was at takeoff or landing, which explained why he didn’t immediately notice which direction they were headed. “Uh, Wy?”
“What?” Her voice over the headphones was remote.
“Aren’t we going in the wrong direction?”
“No.”
He looked at the control panel and located the compass. “North-northeast? Last time I looked on a map, Newenham was south-southeast of Kotz.”
“I need to check out something. It’ll just take an hour or so.”
Liam thought about this for a minute. “Do we have to land to check it out?” he said, without much hope for a reply in the negative.
“Yes,” she said.
“What I thought,” he said, and focused on the horizon, trying to white out the fact that there was only a thousand feet of nothing but air between his ass and the nearest object with the most gravitational pull.
She set them down gently on the surface of the river in spite of gravity, almost exactly in the tracks of the plane that had rescued Kurt Fraad the week before. She pulled two pairs of snowshoes out of the back of the plane and Liam was so glad to be even temporarily in connection yet again with Mother Earth that he didn’t whine about the fact that it was now forty-five below zero.
Instead, he followed Wy up the river as she backtracked Kurt’s postholing footsteps. It was, among other things, a fine opportunity to watch Wy’s ass in motion, and he became so absorbed in the pastime that he didn’t notice at first when she veered off Kurt’s trail and headed for the side of the river.
“Hey,” he said, waking up to the fact. “What’s going on?”
She kept going until she reached the bank, a high white wall of snow and ice sparkling in the sun. The wall curved inward, topped with bare, spare bones of leafless brush looking as if they’d been gelled in place by a giant hand. Wy, moving as if she knew where she was going, knelt down and crawled beneath the overhang. She brushed at the snow. Liam could hear the sound of her down mitten scraping at the ice. “Wy, what on earth—”
A part of the icy bank fell away, then more, revealing a long, narrow hole in the bank. Wy tugged, and the rifle came free easily.
They stood, staring down at it for a long time.
“A thirty-thirty,” Liam said.
Wy nodded, and pointed at a stain on the stock. “Blood?”
“Yeah,” Liam said, and pointed at another and said, unnecessarily, “and brains.”
They carried it back to the plane in silence and climbed inside. The engine, mercifully, started at first try.
“How did you know it was here?” Liam said, raising his voice to be heard over the roar.
Her mouth twisted. “I’m Moses Alakuyak’s granddaughter,” she said.
“I was in my sleeping bag, listening to them talk,” Kurt said. “They were talking in Eskimo. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I was scared. I had to pee so I got up and went outside and one of them grabbed his rifle and started shooting, and I grabbed my rifle and started shooting back.” He began to weep. “It was awful, I was all alone, all the way out there in the middle of nowhere. I just knew I was going to die.”
“All three of them were outside talking?” Liam said.
“Yes,” Kurt said, wiping his eyes with the heel of his hand.
“Funny how we found two of the men inside the tent,” Liam said.
Kurt looked around, probably for his father, who this time hadn’t been allowed anywhere near the interview room. They were in Anchorage this time too, and Liam had backup. “I don’t know how that happened,” he said, faltering.
“Oh, I think you do,” Liam said, but he’d been at it for eight hours, with Kurt changing his story on average once per hour, and he needed more coffee if he was going to stay awake.
On the other side of the door a district attorney in a three-piece suit with a miniskirt and four-inch heels cocked a hip, displaying her admittedly killer legs for his appreciation. “A nutcase, but he knew what he was doing and he knew it was wrong. Slam dunk.”
At trial, the defense claimed that Kurt Fraad was suffering from a paranoid psychosis with delusions of persecution, exacerbated by being in the middle of a killing field, pieces of dead caribou and blood all around him, with three Natives who couldn’t or wouldn’t speak English to him. “Mr. Fraad was totally unprepared for this hunt,” said the defense shrink. “He felt himself to be in danger of losing his life, and he shot these men in self-defense.”
The jury didn’t buy it, finding Kurt guilty on all three counts. After the trial, the foreman told a reporter that the testimony of Dr. Brill and the graphic description of the multiple gunshot wounds in all three victims were what had put the prosecution’s case over. Liam had testified to finding the rifle and to tracing the registration back to Fraad senior, and jury members were warmly complimentary of the professionalism of the state’s finest. Wy’s name hadn’t come up.
Outside the courtroom, Brill tapped Liam on the shoulder. “You going back up to the scene anytime?”
Liam shook his head and hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “No need to.”
Brill raised an eyebrow. “You that sure you got the right thirty-thirty? There were two of them, Adams’s and Nageak’s. I’d like to have just one bullet from a test round, and be sure.”
Liam thought about Wy that day, snowshoeing determinedly upriver, goaded by some force she feared to identify and that he would not, could not question. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,” he said beneath his breath.
“What?” Brillo said.
Liam adjusted his cap and slapped Brill on the shoulder.
“Forensics isn’t everything,” he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
N. J. AYRES has published three forensics-based novels and numerous short stories and poems. When not indulging in common writers’ delusions, Ayres edits reports and proposals dealing with the cleanup of spent lead and cartridges at firing ranges in the Northeast, frequently going onsite to better document the challenges and processes. Of course, a story will emanate from these experiences as well as from special locales in each of the nine U.S. states in which she has lived.
A police officer with the Matteson, Illinois, Police Department for twenty-nine years, SERGEANT MICHAEL A. BLACK is the author of two different series: one featuring Chicago-based priv
ate investigator Ron Shade (A Killing Frost, Windy City Knights, A Final Judgment) and the other featuring the male/female police detectives Leal and Hart (Random Victim and the upcoming Hostile Takeovers). This award-winning author has also written two nonfiction works for young adults, two stand-alone thrillers (The Heist and Freeze Me, Tender), a pulp-era adventure (Melody of Vengeance) and a novel with a celebrity who shall at the moment remain nameless. In addition, Mike collaborated with his writing partner, Julie Hyzy, on the recently released Dead Ringer (Five Star) in which Mike’s private eye, Ron Shade, and Julie’s protagonist, Alex St. James, team up to solve a baffling conspiracy. Please visit: www.michaelablack.com
MAX ALLAN COLLINS is the author of the New York Times best-selling graphic novel Road to Perdition, made into the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. His other credits include such comics as Batman, Dick Tracy, and his own Ms. Tree; film scripts for HBO and Lifetime TV; and the Shamus Award-winning Nathan Heller detective novels. His tie-in novels include the best-sellers Saving Private Ryan, Air Force One, and American Gangster. He lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, Barb, a writer.
MATTHEW V. CLEMENS has collaborated with Collins as forensics researcher and co-plotter on eight USA Today best-selling CSI novels, two CSI: MIAMI novels, and tie-in novels for the TV series Dark Angel, Bones, and Criminal Minds. He and Collins have published over a dozen short stories together (some gathered in their collection My Lolita Complex). He is the coauthor of the true-crime regional bestseller, Dead Water. He lives in Davenport, Iowa, with his wife, Pam, a teacher.
BRENDAN DUBOIS is an award-winning author of short stories and novels. His short fiction has appeared in various publications, including Playboy, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, as well as numerous anthologies, including The Best Mystery Stories of the Century. He has twice received a Shamus Award for his short fiction and has been nominated for three Edgar Allan Poe Awards. DuBois’ long fiction includes six previous books in the Lewis Cole mystery series, as well as several other suspense thrillers. DuBois lives in New Hampshire with his wife, Mona.
LOREN D. ESTLEMAN is the author of more than sixty novels. He has earned five Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, four Shamus Awards from the Private Eye Writers of America, and three Western Heritage Awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. In 2007, the Library of Michigan named his twentieth Amos Walker, private detective, novel American Detective, a Notable Book of the Year, and Publishers’ Weekly singled it out as one of only eight mysteries on its list of 100 Best Novels of 2007.
JEREMIAH HEALY, a graduate of Rutgers College and Harvard Law School, is the creator of the John Francis Cuddy private investigator series and (under the pseudonym “Terry Devane”) the Mairead O’Clare legal thriller series, both set primarily in Boston. Jerry has written eighteen novels and over sixty short stories, sixteen of which works have won or been nominated for the Shamus Award. He served a four-year term as the president of the International Association of Crime Writers (IACW), and he was the American Guest of Honour at the 35th World Mystery Convention (or “Bouchercon”—phonetically: “BOUGH-shur-con”) in Toronto during October 2004. Currently he serves on the National Board of Directors for the Mystery Writers of America.
EDWARD D. HOCH (1930-2008) was a past president of Mystery Writers of America and winner of its Edgar Award for best short story. In 2001 he received MWA’s Grand Master Award. He had been the guest of honor at Bouchercon, twice winner of its Anthony Award, and recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award. The Private Eye Writers of America honored him with its Life Achievement Award as well. Author of some 950 published stories, his fiction appeared in every issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine for the past thirty-five years.
JULIE HYZY’S newest series debuted last January with State of the Onion featuring Olivia (Ollie) Paras, a White House chef who feeds the First Family and saves the world in her spare time. The second book in the series, tentatively titled Hail to the Chef, is due out soon. Julie has also written two books in her other series featuring Chicago news researcher and amateur sleuth Alex St. James, Deadly Blessings and Deadly Interest, which won the 2007 Lovey Award for best traditional mystery. Julie’s short story, “Strictly Business,” in the Bleak House anthology, These Guns for Hire, won a 2007 Derringer Award from the Short Mystery Fiction Society. In addition, Julie collaborated with her writing partner, Michael A. Black, on the recently released Dead Ringer (Five Star) where Julie’s Chicago news reporter, Alex St. James, works with Mike’s private eye, Ron Shade, to uncover a shocking
JOHN LUTZ is the author of more than forty novels and approximately 250 short stories and articles. He authored the book that was made into the hit movie Single White Female, and coauthored the screenplay for the HBO movie The Ex, adapted from his novel of the same title. He has won both the Edgar and Shamus awards, the Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award for mystery short fiction, and the Shamus Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been president of both the Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. His latest novel is the New York Times bestseller In for the Kill.
KRISTINE KATHRYN RUSCH is an award-winning mystery, science fiction, romance, and mainstream author. Her latest mystery novel, written as Kris Nelscott, is Days of Rage. Her latest science fiction novel is a science fiction mystery called The Recovery Man. To find out more about her, look at her website, www.kristinekathrynrusch.com.
DANA STABENOW was born in Anchorage and raised on a seventy-five-foot fish tender in the Gulf of Alaska. She knew there was a warmer, drier job out there and she found it in writing. Her first science fiction novel, Second Star sank without a trace, her first crime fiction novel, A Cold Day for Murder won an Edgar award, her first thriller, Blindfold Game hit the New York Times bestseller list, and her twenty-fifth novel and sixteenth Kate Shugak novel, Whisper to the Blood, comes out in February 2009. No, she doesn’t believe it either
JEANNE C. STEIN was raised in San Diego, the setting for her Anna Strong Vampire series. She now lives with her husband outside Denver, Colorado. where besides working on her books and short stories, she edits a newsletter for a beer importer and takes kick boxing classes to stay in shape.
MAYNARD F. THOMSON is the author of numerous novels, short stories, and articles. A lawyer, he was for many years a partner in one of America’s leading law firms, specializing in litigation on behalf of large, well-heeled corporations hoping to shield their plunder from the red horde. Today he lives with his wife, Laura, and Airedale, Abby, in northern New Hampshire, where he plots crimes and climbs rocks.
© 2008 by Tekno Books and Dana Stabenow
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