“And if I don’t?”
“If you don’t, I’ll kill you.”
Aleksei watched as Maria’s already pale face turned as white as an Arctic hare. He smiled. “I figured I might as well just give it to you straight.”
Maria opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.
“If you were an actress,” Aleksei said, “I would tell you to consider the holiday as your audition. The most important audition you’ve ever gone on.”
Maria finally managed to find her voice. “What am I auditioning for?”
“To see whether you’re fit to stay here and share my winter with me. You see, I like to bring my guest here on the Solstice, with the intention of keeping her with me for the winter. But the winter is special for me, and I don’t want to have it ruined by an uncooperative guest. So, if you don’t pass your audition, I’ve still got plenty of time to find someone else.”
“You mean, kidnap someone else?”
“Well, if you want to look at it that way.”
Maria had never felt so cold. She clutched her knees to her chest and tried to keep from shaking. “So what am I supposed to do to pass your audition?”
“Just be Natasha. That’s all I want.”
“How can I be her when I have no idea who she even is?”
“I can guide you. And I chose you because you already resemble her. Once you get cleaned up and dressed appropriately, you’ll be beautiful, just like she was.”
“Why don’t you just have her here with you? Why do you need me or some other woman?”
“I wish I didn’t need you. But I can’t have Natasha without you. She’s gone.” Aleksei looked down at the floor. “She’s been gone for years. Decades.”
“Decades? How old are you?”
Aleksei stood up and brushed his black pants with his hands. “It doesn’t matter. I need to go.” He glanced towards the tray again. “I think I’ve spelled out the situation for you. You know your choices. For now, you might as well just enjoy your Christmas dinner.”
He climbed up the stairs and was gone without another word. Maria heard the door of the root cellar slam shut behind him.
She looked down at the food and felt her stomach convulsing. If she’d thought about it rationally, she would have known all along he planned to kill her. But now that he had spelled it out, he had left no doubt. She jumped up and ran to the chamber pot across the room. She barely made it to the pot before she vomited.
Chapter 13
Danny walked out of the bar and stumbled down the empty street, trying to remember where he had left his car. He looked up and down the street, but found no car in sight. Puzzling. Hadn’t he driven here when he’d left the library?
He shrugged and decided he’d worry about it tomorrow. Home wasn’t that far away. And he was drunk enough that the cold didn’t bother him. He noticed flyers hanging on every telephone pole he passed, and saw Maria Treibel’s smiling face staring back at him. He remembered Nate Clancy mentioning a vigil, and assumed Maria’s friends had posted flyers around the town as part of the event. He wished he could say he thought they would do any good, but he knew the efforts were futile.
He walked past the Catholic church, where the bells were playing Christmas music once again. What time was it, anyway? Wasn’t it a little late for church bells?
He had his answer a few seconds later, when churchgoers began filing out of the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass. They were all dressed in their best, in spite of the cold, and they held hands and clutched arms as they made their way to their cars and headed home for Christmas.
Danny had vague memories of going to Midnight Mass with his mother at St. Patrick’s church in Chicago. He loved when the mass was over and he could run to the car. He couldn’t wait to go home and go to bed, as he knew Christmas would be there when he woke up.
He pulled up the neck of his parka and trudged through the snow-covered sidewalks, wishing he had thought to wear his boots. He felt like the boy who couldn’t wait to get home again. But not because it was Christmas. Because the cold was sobering him up. He was glad he’d had the foresight to go to the liquor store and stock up before everything closed for the holiday.
Finally, he turned onto his street and walked up the sidewalk to his apartment. He fumbled with his keys and managed to unlock his door. He got inside and tossed his coat and gloves on the floor and kicked off his soaking wet boots.
He considered starting on one of the bottles in his cabinet but felt too light-headed to open the cabinet door. He just needed to lie down for a minute. He headed to his bedroom and collapsed onto the bed. He was out before his head touched the pillow.
Chapter 14
Danny woke up to the sound of more church bells. He groaned. Christmas morning church bells, now. He needed a drink.
He forced himself out of bed and stumbled to his kitchen, where he pulled a bottle of scotch from the cabinet. He didn’t bother to get a glass and took a long swig from the bottle. He padded to his living room and slumped onto the couch with the bottle in hand. He looked out the window at the heavy snow falling and blowing in the wind.
“Merry Christmas, Danny.”
He turned towards the sound of Caroline’s voice.
“You’re not here,” he said. “Leave me the hell alone.”
“What’s happened to you?”
Danny shook his head and took another drink. “Like you don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“Are you really going to act like you don’t know?” Danny yelled at the empty room. “Give me a fucking break, would you?”
He leaned his head back on the couch. What had happened to him? She really needed to ask? He scoffed and closed his eyes.
He could still hear the asshole taunting him. There in the bedroom he shared with Caroline. He could see him, his hand around her neck as she knelt on the floor next to the bed. The knife touching her throat…
“Leave her out of this, Jackson,” Danny said. “I’m the one you’re pissed at.”
“You got that right. So why would I leave her out of it?”
“She had nothing to do with this!”
“Yeah, I’m aware of that. But she’s the way to get to you, isn’t she? To hit you where it hurts? Surely even you can figure that out.”
Danny’s hand started to shake as he stared at the knife at Caroline’s throat. He couldn’t have that. He needed a clear shot.
“Just get the knife away from her. Please.”
Jackson chuckled. “Please? You’re seriously saying please to me? Oh, okay, well, now that you asked nicely, sure I’ll let her go.” He laughed again. “Give me a fucking break, Fitzpatrick.”
Caroline stared at Danny, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Danny…”
Danny tightened his grip on his gun. No shaking now. He could put a bullet right through Jackson’s head.
He squeezed the trigger just as the knife slid across Caroline’s neck, and her pale skin erupted in a sea of red. The champagne colored walls of their bedroom were instantly splattered with Caroline’s blood. Danny heard himself screaming as the sound of the gun echoed in his ears, and the blood pumped out of Caroline’s neck.
“Caroline!”
Danny sat up straight on his couch, startled. He looked around him, at first not recognizing the sparse furnishings of his dreary Alaskan apartment.
There was no blood on the walls.
He grabbed for the bottle of scotch, finding it empty, and slowly forced himself to his feet. He needed another bottle in order to forget that he had been too late.
He had fired the gun too late.
Chapter 15
Danny’s eyelids fluttered as he slowly came to consciousness, a state he immediately regretted. He was spread out flat on his stomach, one arm hanging off the side of his disheveled bed. He was still wearing the clothes he had worn to meet with Amanda Fiske, and had no idea how much time had passed since that meeting.
He glanced at the clock on his
nightstand. 1:00. He briefly wondered if that was AM or PM, then realized the sun filtering through his window blinds meant it had to be afternoon. So it was 1:00 on what he assumed was Christmas Day. But, for all he knew, that day had come and gone while he was too drunk to notice.
He slowly raised himself to a sitting position, keeping his throbbing head as still as possible. There were no voices to accompany him this morning. Or afternoon, to be more accurate. There was no Caroline. He wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
Setting his feet on the floor, he forced himself out of bed and stumbled down the hall to his kitchen. He turned on the light and squinted from the glare. The bright kitchen light was too much for his eyes to handle. Danny made a pot of coffee as quickly as he could and walked into his dark living room, where he collapsed on his couch. He briefly noticed his boots on the floor next to him and figured he must have kicked them off after he got home. Had it been last night? He still couldn’t remember.
Danny rubbed his eyes and tried to will himself back to a state of sobriety. It wasn’t going to work without coffee.
Grateful to hear the beeping that indicated his coffee was done brewing, he got up and headed back to the kitchen. This time, the light wasn’t quite as hard to take. He grabbed his biggest mug and filled it with coffee, then headed back to the couch.
He drank the hot coffee and breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t going to work immediately, but at least he was on track to feeling like a human being again. If he could keep this mug down, he’d try to find some breakfast.
Danny rested his head on the back of the couch and tried again to focus. He turned on his television and was greeted with a Christmas parade from Hawaii. Hula dancers wearing Santa hats in addition to their traditional leis and grass skirts smiled at him through the television as they danced to a curiously Hawaiian version of “Jingle Bells.” So it was still Christmas Day.
Suddenly remembering he was on call for the department, he grabbed his cell phone. Fortunately, he had no messages. Apparently Fairbanks criminals also took a break for the holiday.
Danny took another gulp of coffee and tried to remember what he had been doing before going off on his latest bender. Amanda Fiske popped into his head and he groaned. How could he have forgotten the vampire lady?
He finished his coffee and sat up, resting his elbows on his knees and cradling his face in his hands. He was back to square one on Anna Alexander now that his big lead had turned out to be a crazy woman, so he had to figure out what he could do. He wasn’t willing to concede that he had nothing on Anna, or on the recently disappeared Maria Treibel.
He needed to go talk to Anna’s parents. He’d never actually met them, but he’d talked to them briefly on the phone when he first took over Anna’s case. The Alexanders had called in to the department to check on what, if any, progress had been made on finding out what had happened to their daughter
Mostly, Danny had relied on the case notes left by his predecessor to get up to speed. According to the records, Anna’s parents had been a dead end and, by all accounts, they were simply terrified, grieving parents who wanted answers about their only daughter. Danny wanted to give them those answers, but he’d have to figure them out for himself, first.
He wondered if he could talk with the Alexanders today. Would they be angry if he turned up on Christmas? A light bulb went off in his head as he mentally scanned the case notes about Anna and her family. The Alexanders were Jewish, so odds were good they wouldn’t care at all if a detective showed up at their door on Christmas.
Danny headed back to the kitchen and poured a second mug of coffee. He grabbed the last of his blueberry Pop-Tarts and ate one cold while he waited for the other to toast. He could feel his energy returning. For whatever reason, he had a good feeling about meeting the Alexanders. His gut told him the visit was going to be worthwhile.
He just needed to get cleaned up and make himself presentable. He finished the last of his coffee and headed for his bathroom and a steaming hot shower.
Chapter 16
An hour later, after more coffee and several Excedrin tablets, Danny pulled into the Alexander’s driveway, glad he had remembered to call them and ask if they would be willing to talk to him before he had left his place. He was actually surprised he had been able to concentrate enough to make the call and relieved that the coffee combined with the shower had clearly had the desired sobering effect.
Danny trudged through the snow-covered sidewalk to the front door, anxious to get inside and out of the still falling snow. He wondered if the snow would stop falling before March. Danny had been sure the Alaskan winters wouldn’t bother him, as Chicagoans knew all about cold and snow. But he was now sure that this had been a naive assumption.
A man Danny assumed was Ted Alexander opened the front door to the house as Danny stepped onto the porch.
“Detective Fitzpatrick?” he asked.
Danny nodded. “Mr. Alexander, I assume?”
“Right. Call me Ted, please.” He opened the door and stepped aside to give Danny room. “Come on in and get out of the cold.”
“Thank you,” Danny said, stomping his boots on the floor mat. “This has to be the coldest day of the year.”
Ted raised an eyebrow. “You new to Alaska?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because this isn’t even all that cold. Wait until January.”
Danny shivered at the thought. “I was sure growing up in Chicago would prepare me for this.”
Ted took Danny’s parka and hung it up in the narrow hall closet. “You’re more prepared than I was. I grew up in Florida.”
Ted led Danny into a small living area, where a petite woman with short silvery-blond hair stood up to greet him.
“Detective, this is my wife, Marilyn.”
Danny shook the woman’s small hand. “Mrs. Alexander.”
“I want to say it’s good to meet you, Detective, but in these circumstances…”
“Believe me, I understand. Social niceties usually don’t matter too much in my line of work.”
Marilyn nodded and gestured to an olive colored armchair. “Please, have a seat.”
She sat back down on the matching olive sofa and folder her hands in her lap. Ted rubbed his hand through his curly black hair and sat beside her.
“So you’re working on my daughter’s case now,” he said, his voice instantly strained.
“I am. I’ve been following up on my predecessor’s work.”
“I don’t mean this as a knock on him,” Ted said. “But I doubt there’s much for you to follow up on. He never found anything.”
“I know,” Danny said. “But I guess I want to start at the beginning with you. Try to see if I can dig up something that could have been missed.”
Marilyn clutched her hands more tightly together. “I don’t know what we can tell you that we didn’t already say.”
“Probably nothing,” Danny said. “But I’ve got a new angle I’m working on, another missing woman case. I’m hoping something will tie in that wouldn’t have made sense before.”
“Another girl’s gone missing now?” Ted asked.
“Yeah. A few days ago.”
“This is when Anna disappeared.”
“I know. That’s why I’m trying to see if I can find a connection.”
Both Alexanders seemed to perk up, however slightly. “What do you want to know?” Marilyn asked.
“Was there anything unusual that happened before Anna disappeared? Did she meet anyone new? A new job, maybe?”
Ted shook his head. “No. Not that we were aware of, anyway.”
“What about the winter solstice celebration that year? Was Anna involved in it?”
“You mean did she work there?”
“Any involvement, really. Work, volunteer…”
“No, she wasn’t working anywhere at the time because she was busy with her studies.”
“What about the studies? Did she mention anything n
ew at college?”
Marilyn shook her head. “No. But you would be better off talking to her friends. They knew more about what she was doing at college than we did.”
Danny nodded. “I’ve no doubt of that. That’s the way it works at that age, isn’t it?”
“Most definitely.”
Danny sat forward in the plush armchair, his elbows on his knees. “Could I take a look at her things? I know it’s been a while but…”
“We still have all of Anna’s things,” Marilyn said, interrupting Danny. “You’re more than welcome to look at anything you think might help.”
Marilyn stood up from the couch and motioned for Danny to follow her. “Let me just show you her room.”
Danny got up from his chair and followed Marilyn, feeling a twinge of guilt that his request to search Anna’s belongings may have given her mother a false sense of hope. It was impossible to miss the sense of eagerness in her voice and on her face as she led him to her daughter’s room.
“We haven’t changed anything,” Marilyn said as she turned on the overhead light in the room she hoped would one day welcome her daughter back to it. “All of her things are here.”
“Anna lived with you while she was in school, didn’t she?” Danny asked, searching his memory for the details of Anna’s case. “She didn’t live on campus?”
“That’s right. She lived here with us to save money.”
Danny glanced around the room at the double-bed with a navy blue comforter and an assortment of blue and white pillows and a large mahogany desk filled with books and writing utensils. A laptop lay closed on top of the desk, and Danny knew from the case notes that his predecessor had involved the department’s computer forensic experts to go over every detail of the laptops’ contents, to no avail. Above the desk, Anna had hung a UAF Nanooks banner, proudly displaying the school’s traditional blue and gold colors.
Polar (Book 1): Polar Night Page 6