Taluak shrugged. ‘We handed it over to the PD.’ There was a pause, which Taluak filled by slapping his knees and asking if anyone wanted another drink. He came back in a few minutes later with a new set of frosted tankards, which he put down in front of them.
‘I don’t know what happened to my manners,’ Taluak said. Edie dumped her soda into a tankard, then curled her right hand over the glass, enjoying the burn of the ice crystals as they melted on her fingers.
‘You guys heading back up to Nome tomorrow?’
‘Guess so,’ Derek replied.
A log spat sparks on the hearth. Taluak went over and poked at it.
‘Pretty exciting Iditarod this year,’ he said, by way of making conversation. ‘I was just watching on the TV. I got twenty bucks on Steve Nicols. A couple of days back I thought he couldn’t lose. Nicols was steamin’ ahead. But now, I don’t know. He seems to have lost his edge. He’s not careful, Duncan Wright’s gonna lick him.’
He rattled on. Edie had stopped listening. She picked up the frosted tankard and turned it slowly in her hand. The surface was smooth, the light coating of frost crisp and matt under the fingers like frozen whale skin. Her mind flashed back to the pattern of ice crystals on Lucas Littlefish’s skin where it had been crushed from contact with the embroidered cloth. She remembered the freezer in Schofield’s office. Then she thought about Sharon. Her focus turned outwards. She blinked. Chris Taluak was saying something to her, his face so close to hers that she could smell the warm scent of beer from his breath.
‘Oh I forgot,’ she said, over him. ‘A friend of mine in Anchorage gave me something to give to her pal, Sharon, and I haven’t done it.’
Taluak looked peeved at the interruption. Edie caught his eye and tried to rustle up a calming smile.
‘I can’t remember her last name, but our friend told me she’s an executive assistant. Works for a man named Tommy Schofield. You wouldn’t know?’
Taluak thought for a moment. Something clicked and he held up the index finger of his right hand. ‘I’m guessing that’ll be Sharon Steadman,’ he said. ‘Used to work as a beautician with my wife.’ He checked himself with a bitter little laugh. ‘Ex-wife.’ He pressed his spoon into the salmon roe, brought up a heaped spoonload, jammed it into his mouth and began chewing. ‘Small town. Everyone here knows pretty much everyone else. They got heavy snow forecast for tonight, but we can go visit Sharon in the morning, no problem.’
Edie smiled. ‘Nothing like now. In any case, Sharon’s not the morning type.’
Sharon Steadman lived in an apartment in an undistinguished building just down from the Homer Museum. It wasn’t yet 9 p.m. but she came to the door in a pink bathrobe and pink slippers. Behind her, Edie could see she had a pink thing going on all over her apartment.
‘Hey,’ Edie said simply.
Sharon squinted first at Edie then at Derek, then back at Edie again. Recognition began to dawn on her face. She reached out and grasped the door lintel, blocking entry.
‘I have nothing to say to you.’
‘I have nothing to say to you either.’ Edie paused, glanced at Derek. ‘But we both have plenty to say to your boss. I guess you realize he’s in danger.’
Sharon glanced at her feet. Her skin flushed and she bit her lower lip. When she looked up, Edie could see there were tears in her eyes.
‘Honestly? He asked me to leave that message on your phone. I have no idea what’s going on. I haven’t seen Mr Schofield in three days.’
Derek took a step forward. Sharon tensed. For a moment she looked afraid. He brought out his Ellesmere Island police ID. She scrutinized it but didn’t ask any questions.
‘We need to get inside Schofield’s office. We’re not interested in any of his papers, we just want to look inside the building.’
Sharon looked up at Derek. ‘Mr Schofield gave me the number of a security firm to call, asked me to set up a guard.’
‘You think you can persuade the guard to let us through?’
She looked at her slippers again and nodded. He was good, Edie thought, just the right mix of gentleness and authority.
‘How’s about you put on some clothes and we’ll just go right on over?’
Sharon bit her lip, her eyes wide and watery. She looked so lost and terrified that for a moment Edie felt sorry for her. Then she remembered Lucas Littlefish and Jonny Doe and the feeling went away.
The fluorescent overhead light flickered on in the offices of Schofield Developments. Edie walked through the door and into the corridor where the freezer stood. She opened up her Leatherman and flipped open the pick. Within seconds she had the padlock open. Pushing up the lid she felt the sudden suck then the hard pulse of air at –20C on human skin. A light shone up, illuminating the icy layer around the freezer walls. She glanced over at Sharon. The girl was clueless: this part of Schofield’s activities she knew nothing about.
As Edie expected, the freezer was empty. The appliance hadn’t been defrosted in a long while. Her eyes scoped across the surface of the interior, clear now what she was looking for. The ice was evenly encrusted, suggesting that the chest hadn’t been full for a long time, maybe ever. Nonetheless, when you looked closer there were places here and there, small indentations, where the surface of the ice had been disturbed, the crystals compressed or crushed. She switched on her flashlight and began meticulously scanning her eye in the Inuit way, in ever-decreasing circles, around each indentation until she found what she was looking for – a tiny, almost invisible, tuft of superfine black hair. Baby hair. She closed the freezer back up and refitted the padlock. Nothing she didn’t already know, but it was good to get confirmation.
Sharon was staring anxiously at her. She seemed drifty and dissociated, as though she was in a state of shock. Edie reached out and clasped her arm. It was an old Inuit custom she had picked up as a child from her mother. When it really mattered that someone answered a question honestly, you made sure you were in contact with them before you asked it. Made it tougher for people to lie.
‘Sharon, what do you know about Lucas Littlefish?’
The girl’s brow furrowed. She shrank back.
‘You need to go see the Littlefishes,’ was all she said.
31
The moon bathed the ice across Kachemak Bay in soft, silver light. Edie stared at it in the side-view mirror of the Land Rover as they ground their way back up onto the forested ridge where the Littlefishes’ cabin stood.
Annalisa Littlefish came to the door with her sleeves rolled up, smelling of meat. There was blood on her oilcloth apron and her hands looked like two raw steaks. Her upper lip was beaded with sweat. For a moment or two she just stood there, resting her hands on her apron and gave no sign of recognizing Edie.
‘Mrs Littlefish?’ Edie held out her hand. Annalisa Littlefish squinted a little. Bad eyesight, Edie thought. She wiped her right hand on her apron, as if she was about to take Edie’s, then thought better of the idea.
‘Yeah, I remember you.’
Derek got out of the truck and stood smiling.
‘This is my friend, Derek Palliser.’
‘Mr Littlefish in?’
Annalisa maintained her impassive stare. Her jaw set tight and there was hurt in her eyes.
‘Nope, he been hunting. Goes off to the bar afterwards to brag about it. I’m out at the back kitchen, field dressing.’
‘What you got?’ Edie said. A little of the old hunting fire coursed around her blood.
‘You come round at ten at night to ask me that?’ She flashed Edie an indignant look. ‘Blacktail, since you’re asking.’
Edie swung round to Derek. ‘You need a hand? Me and Derek can have it all butchered up in no time.’
Annalisa shook her head. She’d already played friendly with Edie once and didn’t seem willing to repeat the experience. There was nothing for it except to get right to the point.
‘Mrs Littlefish, I saw the picture of Lucas at Thanksgiving. I saw his body. I know yo
ur grandson had already been dead months before I found him.’
Annalisa gulped. Her head snapped back. The skin on her face looked grey-green in the moonlight.
‘Please, Mrs Littlefish.’
Annalisa was breathing heavily now. She was shaking. All of a sudden her legs seemed to go from under her. Derek leapt forward and caught her as she fell. She came to on the sofa. Her eyes were vacant for a second, then they filled with fear.
‘I knew this would get out eventually. I told Otis it would.’ Rocking slightly to and fro she brushed her hands across her apron. ‘That Detective Truro came and talked to us, right at the beginning, but he didn’t ask about Lucas’s birthday and we didn’t tell him. I guess he got the hospital records so maybe he knew, but whichever, he didn’t say nothing about it. A while later he left a message for us to call him back. We didn’t get back to him but no one never followed up on it.’
‘Detective Truro is off the case,’ Derek said.
‘Off?’
Edie jumped in. ‘We think maybe he stopped doing what he was told and got himself suspended.’
There was a rustling sound from outside. Annalisa looked up. Derek went to check. The two women heard the truck door slam. A couple of minutes later, Derek was back, carrying Taluak’s Remington. Annalisa looked up and registered the weapon. She gave Derek a sideways look.
‘I shut up the shed for you. It was just an old porcupine out there.’
Annalisa grunted.
Edie said, ‘Mrs Littlefish, you told me when we first met that you didn’t know who Lucas’s father was. We’re pretty sure now it was Tommy Schofield.’
Annalisa looked up suddenly, eyes flashing. ‘You think I don’t know that.’ Her mouth formed a tight, angry line. ‘I know that.’ She began to cry, then, picking herself up, she leaned forward, resting on her elbows, her voice lowered. ‘Now you listen to me, no one killed anyone. My grandson died a cot death. TaniaLee discovered the body and it drove her crazy. She was crazy with grief.’ Annalisa’s face seemed to swell then. The rims of her eyes reddened. She looked down at her hands, trying to steady herself. ‘Why would you understand?’ Her tone was despairing.
Edie closed her eyes. ‘I understand, Mrs Littlefish, believe me.’
But Annalisa wasn’t listening. She carried on. ‘Tommy took Lucas away. He said they would blame TaniaLee, say she did it in one of her crazy spells. I don’t know, maybe he didn’t want an investigation, didn’t want anyone finding out he was the father.’
‘Did you know your daughter was seeing Tommy, Mrs Littlefish?’ Annalisa bowed her head. It was answer enough.
Derek said, ‘Your daughter was thirteen years old.’ His voice was full of disgust.
Annalisa whirled round to face him, her eyes flashing.
‘Mister, I was thirteen years old when I married Otis Littlefish. Might not have been official according to them folks down in Juneau, but if you’d asked me I woulda said me and Otis was married. Her face took on a softer expression. ‘He might look like some old cripple to you and me, but TaniaLee loved that man. Pass any judgement you like, but I know my grandson was born out of love.’ She sighed. ‘Any case, we wouldna been able to say nothing even if we’d had a mind to. Otis gets work from Mr Schofield and we need the money.’
‘Mr Schofield ever tell you what else he was up to, Mrs Littlefish?’ Derek snorted. ‘Aside from love, I mean.’
He’s a developer, that’s all he said and all I knew. He had some crazy scheme to put buildings all over Kachemak Bay.’
Edie flashed Derek a warning look not to go any further. Some things the family didn’t need to know right now. They’d find out soon enough.
Annalisa went on. ‘It was Tommy paid for TaniaLee to go to that place she’s in first time. She got out a couple of times, one time around the same period you found Lucas. The police picked her up and she told them that story about her boy. I don’t know whether she cooked that up with Tommy or where she got it.’ She looked Edie directly in the eye, her expression almost infinitely sad.
‘Did you know what happened to Lucas’s body between the time Tommy Schofield took him away and the time I found him?’
Annalisa shook her head. Edie leaned in and took her hand, but Annalisa moved it off. A faraway look came into her face. ‘His spirit went to heaven, that’s all I know.’
Derek said, ‘Mrs Littlefish, you know where Tommy Schofield might be right now?’
Her face hardened. ‘Don’t know, not so sure as I care,’ she said. ‘Caused us enough trouble.’
In the silence that followed, Edie and Derek both stood to leave.
Edie said, ‘You want us to stop off wherever Otis is, tell him we had this conversation?’
Annalisa shook her head. ‘I don’t need the trouble. Otis asks about the tyre marks, I’ll say it was a couple of duck hunters stopped for directions.’
She waited for them to leave, then they heard the door lock.
Back on the track, the wind whirled little eddies of ice but by the time they reached the top of the ridge the air had cleared some. Below them, the lights of Homer blinked and sparkled and beyond these the broad arm of Kachemak Bay stretched out silver in the moonlight all the way to the ocean.
‘Let me get out,’ Edie said. She felt bruised, as though something was inside her trying to punch its way out. ‘I need to be in the open for a moment.’
She jumped from the truck and landed in the hard, compacted drift at the side of the road. Steadying herself, she reached out to the ground and it was then that she saw it, dark grey in the moonlight. A tyre track, made within the last few hours, and from the same model of vehicle as had driven out of Tommy Schofield’s cabin earlier that day.
It might be coincidence. Then again, it might not. She called to Derek who got down from the truck and inspected the tracks.
‘Won’t hurt to follow. One of us will have to stay down here on the ground, though,’ Derek said, volunteering himself as the tracker. It was cold and the wind made it feel colder. ‘Can’t see zip from up there in the driver’s seat.’
Edie followed the tracks with her eyes. ‘You know the way I drive, Derek. I’d like to get out of this with at least one of us still alive.’
They followed the tracks her way, with Edie walking along the side of the road, pausing every so often to make sure they were still chasing the same set, Derek idling the truck up behind her. They turned a blind bend and just ahead, in a break in the forest, the tracks appeared to veer off the main road between the trees. Signalling for Derek to pull over, she swung open the passenger door and pulled out the rifle borrowed from Taluak. Derek went first, diving confidently into the forest with a flashlight in one hand, the other resting on Megan Avuluq’s service pistol. From the state of the thin new ice, which had gathered around the edges of the tracks where the heat from the truck had melted the snow, Edie guessed the truck had made its way up the path around 6 or 7 p.m. They crept along among the spruce, the path so narrow now that they could see where the sides of the truck had brushed snow off branches, or snapped them altogether. Whoever had driven up the path had been careless or else in a big hurry.
After a while, the path widened and came to an end in a tiny clearing. To one side of the clearing stood a hunting hide and there was a fire ring poking out of the snow beside it but neither the hide nor fire had been used in a good while. From here, the tyre tracks plunged directly back into the forest, swerving crazily between the spruce, leaving broken branches and pine cones scattered all around. Whoever had been driving the truck then had either been in one hell of a panic or in some other way out of his mind. Not far into the trees, they caught a glimpse of the outline of the truck itself, picked out in dappled moonlight, leaning at a strange angle where the front wheel on the passenger side had caught in some kind of gulley.
They approached with care, hands on weapons. A few metres from the vehicle Derek called out, but there was no answer. The area around the truck had been cleared of snow i
n a hurry. Or maybe there had been some kind of scuffle. Either way, the snow had been kicked about and it was impossible to discern any discrete footprints in it. Derek called out again. Once more, nothing. He turned to Edie and whispered,
‘You ready for this?’
They moved forward slowly, tensed, weapons drawn and ready. Derek swung his flashlight through the interior of the vehicle. The air inside seemed milky but there was no one there. The door on the driver’s side was unlocked. As Edie opened it she was hit by the smell of stale cigar smoke. In the ashtray the nub of a cigar lay, extinguished. She scoped around and found nothing else until she opened the glove compartment. Inside was a key on a ring. She pulled it out, turned the tab of the ring over in her hand. The word Cessna was printed on it in raised letters. She ducked out of the vehicle and dangled the key for Derek to see.
‘He wanted to get far away, you would have thought he would have gone in his plane.’
‘Maybe there was nowhere his plane could take him that would have been far enough.’ Derek looked puzzled.
Edie went on, ‘You want to get away from everything you ever thought or knew or were, where do you go?’
He looked at her and picked up her meaning.
They moved forward to the edge of the clearing, where the trees began. A single set of footprints snaked away. They agreed that Derek should stay and watch the vehicle in case anyone came back for it. Following the prints Edie came suddenly to a place where the spruce and hemlock pine gave out onto a wide frozen lake, brilliantly lit in moonlight. She stopped and looked. The footprints stretched out to the water’s edge of the lake then onto the surface of the ice, where they became much fainter. The only other prints visible were those of a moose a little way away, its hoofmarks snaking back away from the shoreline. Edie bent down and inspected the human prints. They were small and the pattern matched that of the prints leading from the front door of Schofield’s cabin to the carport. There was a heaviness on the left side consistent with Schofield’s limp. The right footprint seemed to swing out a little as though the hip was a little stiff. She hadn’t noticed anything on Schofield’s right side, but she’d only seen him walk briefly.
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