Tundra Threat

by Sarah Varland

  She needed to go check on the polar bear population. But first, she needed to talk to the man who was more and more becoming her top person of interest.

  * * *

  “I want to know what you know about polar bear poaching.” McKenna wasted no time coming to the point when George answered his door. If he was surprised, it didn’t show on the lines etched in his leathery face. He just stood there with the door partially open, staring at her. McKenna’s heart beat a quick rhythm in her chest as she second-guessed her decision to come alone—maybe she should have taken Will up on his offer to come. But as incompetent as George seemed to think troopers were to begin with, she didn’t want to reinforce that perception by bringing civilian “backup.”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “You talked to Anna about it yesterday,” she countered.

  This time an expression crossed his face. McKenna couldn’t quite identify the emotions behind it but it was there. She was definitely on to something.

  He narrowed his eyes, his look becoming more contemptuous by the minute. “If you mean the paramedic who patched me up—” he motioned to the bruises on his face and on one arm “—then yes, I talked to her. But I don’t know why that would interest you.”

  McKenna clenched her jaw, taking deep breaths to calm her temper, but it wasn’t working. Every time she started to feel as if her emotions were under control, she thought of Anna. Saw her lying on the floor, helpless. “This isn’t a game, George,” she said in a low tone, hoping to remove that look of condescension from his face. “People are dying and I need to know why.”

  “Greed, most likely. Those people are always greedy.”

  “You keep saying that. Those people. Who are those people? And what do you know about the low polar bear population? Are you killing them?” She knew it wasn’t exactly the questioning progression they taught at the trooper academy, but it was the best she could do at the moment. Maybe her to-the-point questions would shake him up, make him give her some straight answers.

  He stared at her for the space of several heartbeats. “Even if I was killing them...” He leveled her with a glare. “You couldn’t stop me. Native Alaskans are allowed to harvest polar bears, responsibly, for subsistence reasons. Or didn’t you know that, Miss Wildlife Trooper?”

  “I’m aware of the laws. I’m also aware that there are tagging and reporting requirements and if you’re not meeting those for one reason or another, you’re guilty of committing a crime.”

  Her heart thudded in her chest as George regarded her.

  “Always suspecting the wrong people. Assuming things.” He shook his head.

  “I’m not trying to assume. I’m trying to solve this!” She couldn’t keep the earnest desperation from her tone. Again, showing so much emotion was something she feared might be hurting her investigative abilities, but she was way more emotionally invested in this case than she’d ever thought she’d be when she went through training.

  George watched her. Said nothing. Then finally spoke.

  “East of town,” he said slowly, in a quiet voice, “the polar bear population seems to have dropped. They’ve been dropping for some time now, but I am growing more and more concerned.” He narrowed his eyes again. “Isn’t it your job to keep track of that?”

  As if she could be held personally responsible for tracking the hundreds of thousands of individual animals of all different species in her area—on her second week at the job. “It’s part of my job, yes.”

  “If you want to do it well, I suggest you look into that. That is all. I have nothing else to say to you.” In one motion, George stepped backward into the house and slammed the door.

  Apparently, their conversation was over.

  McKenna looked down at the ground to gather her thoughts, then looked back up, glancing around as she ran back to her car. She needed to contact Will, fast, and get a flight out to the east of Barrow.

  Anna hadn’t had much time from when she had the same conversation with George to when he or someone else had come after her. McKenna wasn’t going to waste whatever time she did have. She was getting closer. And one way or another, she was going to beat the clock and finish this.

  As she climbed into her car, she realized she hadn’t felt as if she was being watched during her conversation with George. Coincidence? Or was he the one who’d been watching her?

  ELEVEN

  Will did a final check of his plane and glanced at his watch again. McKenna was meeting him at the airport in five minutes. She hadn’t said much when she texted, just told him she needed him and asked if he could meet her with the plane ready to go.

  He’d needed a destination so he could file a flight plan and he’d finally managed to get that info out of her, but that was all. She’d been adamant about not talking about it on the phone.

  So for now he was planning a flight along the coast, not knowing exactly why. The things a man would do for a woman.

  He walked back to the cockpit and climbed in, deciding he may as well wait for her in there.

  She came running across the runway three minutes later, waving her arms at him.

  “Go, go, go!” she shouted as she climbed in and slammed the door.

  The events of the last week all too clear in his mind, he took off without question, taxiing across the runway and then lifting off in one seamless, effortless motion.

  Once they were in the air and at their cruising altitude, he glanced her way. “Mind telling me what that is all about?”

  “Someone’s been following me all day.” She cocked her head to the side. “Well, not all day. I didn’t notice it when I was at George’s house.”

  She said the words casually, as if she was telling him what she’d had for breakfast that morning. “Someone’s following you and you didn’t call me? And why were you at George’s house alone? I thought when you turned down my offer to go with you that you’d changed your mind about going.”

  “I did call you—well, I texted you—just now. And I was alone because it’s my job.” She frowned at him, head titled to the side in that adorable way she had when she thought he was being overprotective.

  Wait. Adorable? When had he let that be an acceptable way to describe her in his mind? Wasn’t he trying to fight this crazy feeling of intense attraction? He had to think of her as Luke’s little sister. As someone completely, thoroughly, wrong for him.

  If he didn’t, he’d soon run out of good reasons not to admit his feelings for her.

  “This is the first I’m hearing of someone following you.”

  “Oh. I didn’t call you about the stalker. That’s true. But I did call to ask you for help. See? I know when I need help. I’m making progress.”

  Her grin was too cute to lecture her. At the moment. So he decided to let it go for the time being. Until the word she’d used came back and startled him. “Stalker? We’ve gone from someone following you to stalker?”

  “It’s really the same thing.”

  “Stalker implies a little more intensity, McKenna.” Were they seriously having this conversation? “And why were you at George’s house?”

  “Okay, let me explain.” She settled back against the seat. “These seats are super comfortable.”

  “Thanks. Now, focus. The stalker? George?”

  “I’ve wondered several times since I got to Barrow if someone was following me. It actually happened the first night I was in town, before I’d even started work. I wrote it off as paranoia. Then when everything happened, I started to pay closer attention, but I was never sure. Today I knew someone was watching me. Like I said, I didn’t notice it at George’s house. But just in case, I took a complicated route to the airstrip to try to lose him if he was there and I didn’t notice.” She shrugged. “But I don’t know how good of a stalker he is.”

 
; “You sound entirely too laid-back about this.” It was like having a conversation with her brother, who would talk casually about crime scenes and then shift the conversation to sports without a second thought, as though they were both equally normal subjects to discuss.

  “Think about it, Will. If the stalker were the same person as the guy who’s after me, he would have tried to kill me by now.”

  “Someone has been trying to kill you. In case that has somehow escaped your notice.”

  “Yes.” She glared at him, as if he was the one being unreasonable. “Thank you. I did notice that.” She waved a hand dismissively. “But no one has tried to kill me when I’ve felt like someone is watching me. Besides, I went to my office alone this morning—early, before there were many people out. I was an easy target.”

  McKenna said the words as if she was trying to make him feel better, but somehow they just didn’t have the desired effect.

  He hoped his glare told her so.

  “And in answer to your other question, I was at George’s house to get information. And I think I struck gold.”

  “How’s that?”

  “He does know something about the polar bear population. Anna was right. All I could get out of him was that the population is dwindling, and that I should look to the east of town.”

  “What do you mean, she was right?”

  “I didn’t tell you about the email? She sent me an email, just before she was shot, about George telling her the polar bear population outside of town seemed low. She wondered if that could tie into the case somehow. And I think she was right.”

  “So, do you still think George is behind it all even though he seems to be helping you?”

  She frowned. “I don’t know. He could be. This could be a trap.”

  Great. That was reassuring.

  “Or he could be genuinely concerned about the animals.” She looked off into the distance. “It’s getting harder to narrow down who I can trust. I have feelings about different people, but I don’t know how much I should trust my instincts.”

  He identified with that problem completely. About this case and about his relationship with McKenna.

  Coincidently enough, when they flew over the stretch of coastline McKenna wanted to investigate, they saw a beached whale.

  “Jackpot,” she breathed. “Perfect polar bear bait. How close to that whale can you land this thing?”

  Will frowned. “Do you want to check the bear population? Or get eaten by it?”

  “All right. Just pay attention to landmarks. Wherever we do land, we’re going to need to hike back here.”

  Will had never been so thankful for the .44-caliber revolver he kept on his belt when he was flying. There were few animals out here that made him truly nervous, but the polar bear was known for its brutality. It was the only bear species in Alaska that would deliberately hunt down and eat a human for any other reason than utter starvation.

  He guided the plane down to a flat spot by a small river, probably a mile away from the coast. “Does this work for you?”

  McKenna patted the boots on her feet. “I came prepared for a hike. We’ll be fine.”

  They climbed out of the airplane and Will did his post-flight check. “All right, Sherlock,” he teased McKenna. “Lead the way.”

  She laughed as she started across the tundra in the direction of the ocean. “Maybe I seem a little melodramatic today, but it’s because this case is finally showing some signs of progress. We’re close. I can feel it.”

  So could he.

  As they approached the whale carcass, which was more of a skeleton at this point, the first thing Will noticed was the stench. It was unlike anything he’d smelled, even with all his hunting experience.

  McKenna gagged. “Why polar bears would eat that, I have no idea, but usually they love it.” She looked around. “But I don’t see any.” She shivered a little. “How many do you think are watching us, though?”

  The landscape where they were didn’t leave many places for an animal that large to hide, which was a small consolation. But Will could see that McKenna’s tip had been right. If this area was as populated with polar bears as it should be, even now that the whale was down to bones, bears would be feasting on it.

  The fact that they weren’t said they all had plenty to eat already. Which said that there were fewer bears than usual sharing this area and fighting over the food.

  “I think you found a motive strong enough for murder.” He looked back at McKenna. “If someone is hunting polar bears illegally, they might kill to keep that information hidden.”

  The offense was a serious one. Whoever was behind this would go down, in a big way, if he was caught, facing heavy fines and possibly jail time. Which meant he had nothing to lose.

  “Let’s get back to the plane.” Will heard the tension in his voice. Chills ran down his spine as he realized it wasn’t only polar bears that could conceivably be hiding and watching them. And it was the two-legged human predators that could be there, sniper rifles trained on them, that he was more concerned with.

  He expected her to argue.

  She didn’t.

  * * *

  The wind sounded as though it was crying as it moaned through the tundra. McKenna couldn’t blame it. The things that had happened here if they were right—polar bears illegally killed, people murdered... If she were the wind and had seen it all, she’d cry, too.

  Why did people do evil things? It didn’t matter how long she did this kind of work, how many stories she heard from Luke about the depravity of humanity, she would never understand. And maybe that was good. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t want to understand.

  Becoming a wildlife trooper had been something she’d wanted to do to help. To keep animals safe, and bring justice down on the people who broke the laws related to them. Never had she dreamed she’d be seeking justice for crimes done to people, something even more important, but even more emotionally draining.

  McKenna continued hiking, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Will was still there.

  “I’m here,” he assured her.

  There were days she loved this land, days that even though she’d rather live in a city, she relished the vast expanse of nothing. The wild, stunning beauty that was Alaska.

  Today it haunted her, chilled her to the core. The plane couldn’t come in sight fast enough.

  When they finally reached it, McKenna climbed inside, shivering though it wasn’t cold. She sat alone while Will did his inspection, trying to wrap her mind around the wispy threads of this case that all seemed to be coming together.

  Someone had been killing polar bears illegally. Then two bodies had ended up on the tundra, and it seemed the two incidents were connected. Had the victims found out about the polar bear hunting and threatened to expose whoever was behind it? Had they been behind it? Maybe, but if so, they hadn’t been acting alone. A killer was still out there—the man who had attacked her and nearly killed Anna.

  Who was responsible?

  She had suspects, but no concrete evidence pointing solidly at any of them. She had to look deeper.

  God, if you really are interested in the outcome of this case, please help me, she prayed, realizing even as she thought the words that He had. What were the chances they’d come across a dead whale, the perfect “bait” for polar bears, which would make it easy to check on the population in this area?

  Maybe He cared a little after all.

  “Ready to go?” Will asked as he climbed in and readied the plane for takeoff, fiddling with buttons and knobs on the instrument panel.

  “Yes.”

  He took off smoothly, guiding them back up into the air with the skill of someone who spent more time behind the throttle of a plane than the wheel of a car.

  “I d
on’t know what to think,” she confessed as they flew over the scene they’d just investigated. “George was telling the truth. But does that mean he’s behind it and that’s how he knew for sure? Or does it mean he’s innocent, and is trying to help with the case?”

  “I don’t know what motive he’d have for telling you if he was guilty.” Will shrugged. “Unless he feels confident you won’t find any evidence pointing to him and he’s trying to taunt you.”

  He did seem like that kind of person. But was that reaching too far for answers? The most logical conclusion would seem to be that he wasn’t responsible for the murders and the poaching. But then, who was?

  McKenna relaxed against the seat again—they really were so comfortable—and closed her eyes. The flight back to Barrow wasn’t too long, but maybe she’d catch a quick nap before they got back. Then she could jump into the case with both feet again. Her brain was on overload at the moment, and any attempts to synthesize the information were falling short.

  She hadn’t been asleep for long, if she’d fallen asleep at all, when the entire body of the plane jolted, startling her eyes open. “What was that?” she asked Will, half expecting him to tease her about overreacting.

  The tight set of his jaw made her stomach churn. “I don’t know,” he said, not taking his eyes off the instrument panel and the glass in front of the plane. He looked at all the readouts then scanned the horizon.

  “You’re not, like, looking for somewhere to land, are you?” she asked, again thinking she must be overreacting.

  Will didn’t answer. He didn’t have a chance, because the plane jolted again, the entire body shuddering, stuck in some kind of terrifying convulsion, before she heard a loud noise and the engine seemed to lose power.

  “Will?”

  “Just hang on!” he yelled over the deafening quiet. The cabin of the plane that had hummed with activity and a thousand different working parts just minutes earlier was now silent.

  McKenna was no pilot, but she was pretty sure that was a bad sign. She double-checked her seat belt and gripped the armrests on either side of her seat as tightly as she could.