Whether he left then or later, she did not know, but when she woke in the morning he wasn’t there.
10
Edie went to the detachment to take a shower. Derek was out feeding his lemmings, which she was glad about, not wanting to expose him to her bad mood before she’d had a chance to wash it away. She was just finishing up when he came in and offered her some tea. Feeling better, she told him she’d go back to the tent to dress then return in five minutes.
She was crossing the little front yard and trying not to think about what Chip had said last night when she heard a pair of wings and a screech and from the corner of her eye she saw something dark and hectic bombing through the air towards her. Instinctively her arms rose to protect her face. There was a rush and whirr of wings, then the attack was over and the aggressor was sitting on the overhead cable eyeing her. A jaeger. This particular individual was either inexperienced or disorientated, because it had made its nest, a chaotic agglomeration of willow twigs and settlement trash, under the frost pilings in the back yard. She and Derek had been observing it over the past couple of weeks, assuming that sooner or later it would realize its mistake and leave, but the bird had remained, steadfastly brooding its eggs, and now there were four tiny, blind chicks to feed and protect. Only one or two would grow to adulthood, fed on the bodies of their weaker siblings. Nature threw away life with casual indifference, but flesh was precious. Nature never wasted flesh.
Walking back to the tent she wondered whether Chip had a point. Maybe she’d been a little too defensive. It was just that qalunaat seemed so often to label Inuit either as victims of the south or of each other. Inuit could be insular and suspicious of outsiders, but in that regard weren’t they just like any other group of human beings? She reached for the tent flap, wondering if she shouldn’t make Chip some peace offering without conceding her point that he really had no right to judge.
To her surprise, Willa Inukpuk was waiting for her inside the tent. Her ex-stepson was in his Rangers uniform but he looked as though he hadn’t slept much. After he hadn’t showed on Saturday night she’d got a message that his ATV had broken down. Since then she hadn’t heard from him and wasn’t expecting to either.
She went towards him, hoping to get an exchange of breaths, but his body stiffened.
‘I figured you wouldn’t be able to resist playing detective again,’ he said pointedly. ‘Everybody’s talking about it at Camp Nanook. That soldier you interviewed.’
She decided to ignore the bitter tone. ‘You know him?’
Willa shook his head. ‘But the guys at the camp don’t think he had anything to do with it and they’re pretty pissed to hear that the police are just assuming the killer’s a soldier.’
‘That might be what folk in the settlement are saying, but we’re not assuming anything.’
Willa sucked on his teeth as though he found this hard to believe.
‘Is that why you came to see me?’ Edie unwound the towel around her head and threw it on the sleeping platform. ‘To tell me to back off the investigation because you’re getting some heat?’
Willa shook his head and eye-rolled. He leaned his elbows on his thighs and put his head between his hands, so he didn’t have to look at her.
‘Maybe I should just leave.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. Their relationship had only just started to improve. She didn’t want to sabotage it now. ‘Don’t do that.’
Willa took a deep breath. ‘Listen, you should probably know, Lizzie Salliaq and I have been seeing one another these last few weeks.’
This was another surprise.
‘We’ve been keeping things under wraps,’ Willa went on. ‘Be glad if you kept it that way too. You know how Charlie Salliaq is.’ He inspected his fingers. ‘I just thought with what’s happened . . .’
She stood looking at him for a moment, struck by the sense that he was telling her this in order to avoid telling her something else.
‘Did Lizzie mention something? Is that why you’ve come?’ Edie began combing her hair with her fingers, remembering the odd little lecture she’d had from Gutierrez on the subject of sisterly relations. Wouldn’t sisters share confidences? She suddenly felt on unfamiliar terrain.
‘Nothing about Martha, if that’s what you’re getting at. She didn’t tell Martha about us, either. I’m just saying, if my name comes up.’
‘Why would it?’
Willa frowned. ‘It wouldn’t, OK? But if it did. I’m just saying.’ His legs began to bounce up and down.
‘So you don’t think it was anyone at Camp Nanook?’
‘Did I say that?’ He was making no effort to hide his irritation. How often it started out OK between them and ended up like this.
‘If I understood right, you seemed to be saying we should be looking closer to home.’ She recalled what Klinsman had said about that. ‘What about the old man, Charlie? He’s pretty possessive, isn’t he?’
‘I don’t know the fella. I fixed his ATV for him is all.’ When he wasn’t doing Ranger work, Willa took on mechanic jobs for cash. His father always said there wasn’t an engine Willa couldn’t fix. ‘That’s how I met Lizzie.’
‘But do you think Charlie would have been capable of hurting Martha? Say, if he found out she’d been seeing someone?’
Willa narrowed his eyes, considered this a moment then shook his head. ‘Might have made her life miserable for a while, but, nah, he wouldn’t have hurt her. He’s ornery but underneath – from what Lizzie says about him – he’s OK. Martha was his favourite. Martha was everyone’s favourite.’
He stood, anxious to get going. ‘Listen, don’t mention to anyone I came, not even Lizzie. I don’t want to get her into trouble.’
• • •
Edie dressed in a hurry and walked over to the Pitoqs’ house, intending to speak to Lizzie about her sister, see if she could detect some sense that Lizzie thought Charlie might be responsible, but the whole family were sitting in the living room with Sonia Gutierrez, evidently discussing their approach to the case, and it was clear they didn’t want her around.
Back at the detachment, Derek was sitting at his desk staring at his computer screen.
‘Your tea went cold,’ he said without looking up.
She told him where she’d been, leaving out the part about Willa.
‘I was hoping the lawyer would make things easier for us. Now I’m not so sure.’ Derek lifted his arm from the table and began rubbing his temple. ‘I don’t like the way she’s been prowling around this investigation.’ He reached for the pack of Lucky Strikes sitting on his desk and slid out a cigarette.
‘You think she knows something we don’t?’ Edie volunteered.
‘About what?’
‘Camp Nanook? She gave me this whole speech about dealing with the military.’
‘I think she’s used to keeping things close to her chest. Like I said, I think we should keep an eye on her.’
The conversation ended. Edie went into the kitchenette, opened the fridge and felt a tiny thud of disappointment. Three fried caribou ears which, by the look of them, had been in there some time.
Derek’s face appeared around the door.
‘If you’re looking for that soup, I got peckish in the night,’ he said. ‘Microwaved the shit out of it. Have to get you to show me how to work that thing sometime. By the time I got it out all that was left was a little brown rock stuck to the bottom of the bowl.’
The phone rang and Derek went to answer it. Edie absent-mindedly crunched on a fried ear, thinking about how much she’d love to wash it down with a cold beer right now. It was like they said. Alcohol was the one relationship you never got over.
Back in the office, Derek was still deep in conversation. He signalled to her then, turning his attention back to whoever was on the other end of the line, said, ‘No, we’ll come to you. We got a lot of folk making their way in from their summer camps today to meet tomorrow’s supply ship. I’d rather keep this containe
d.’ He finished the call and hung up. His eyes were bright.
‘Klinsman searched Namagoose’s quarters. Seems he might have found something. A woman’s amulet. Namagoose claimed it was his mother’s, but they got some kind of expert there who says it’s Inuit.’ He bit his lip and curled his mouth. ‘Dammit, though, I can’t be running around after him on this. We need to be seen to be more proactive.’
Edie thought back to her conversation with Luc. Maybe the nurse was right. Murder was changing. And just now it looked like the Ellesmere Island Police was having a hard time keeping up.
• • •
Colonel Klinsman walked them along the by now familiar route towards the doorway of the administrative unit on the east side of the compound. His face wore an expression of practised sincerity and there was no sign that he felt rattled by this latest development.
‘There may be a perfectly innocent explanation for this, but I want you to be confident that we at the camp are doing everything to cooperate with your investigation. I had Namagoose’s clothing bagged up. You asked him about a camera. We didn’t find one, only his cell phone, as he said. The battery was down so we recharged it. I’m happy to hand it over to you, but the only pictures you’ll find are of the private’s family, I’m afraid.’
‘I appreciate that, colonel, but in future if I need some help I’ll ask for it. We have police procedures to follow.’
Klinsman smiled graciously and in a pleasant voice said, ‘Got it, sergeant. We’re bringing Private Saxby in from exercises this afternoon. As you requested, I believe? You should be able to speak to him as soon as he arrives. We can search his locker too.’ He hesitated, adding carefully, ‘If you think it necessary, of course, but if it’s all the same to you I’d rather do that after he gets here.’
He held open the door into the corridor. As they walked through, he said, ‘I see you’ve made a start on draining the lake area. If there’s anything we can help with, pumps, plant, anything like that, you’ll let us know?’
‘We’ve got it covered,’ Derek said carefully.
They were at the door to room number 3 when Klinsman stopped and turned. ‘We’re as eager as you are to put this whole thing to bed with as little publicity as possible.’ He said this very deliberately, as though the form of words had been chosen beforehand and rehearsed.
‘We can all agree on that, colonel.’
Klinsman nodded, and swung the door open. The room was set up as before, with the video camera in one corner. Jacob Namagoose sat behind the table, this time with his legs spread, eyes fixed on the middle distance; determined, it seemed, not to take any notice of the newcomers.
Klinsman punched in a number on the desk phone.
‘Marty? We’re ready for you.’ He put the phone down and explained that the camp counsel, Marty Fielding, would be joining them.
‘Procedures,’ Klinsman said pointedly.
It struck Edie as a little jumpy for a camp with no military police to retain the services of a lawyer. Suggested they’d been expecting trouble with the locals from the start.
A plump, dark-haired man in uniform knocked and came in carrying a folder of papers and a ziplock bag. He seemed nervous and out of sorts, a dark half-moon of insomnia slicked beneath each eye. Edie recalled what Chip had told her, that thirty per cent of Arctic postings returned to the south with some kind of mental disorder. Looked as though Marty Fielding might be among them.
He handed over the ziplock bag to Derek, who peered at it before passing it to Edie. Inside was a small, delicate bracelet exactly matching Markoosie’s drawing.
‘Our expert said you guys don’t give these things away. Don’t sell them either,’ Fielding said.
All eyes turned to Namagoose, who sat in silence, a look of boredom on his face. The orca on his tricep twitched its tail.
‘Tell Sergeant Palliser what you told me,’ Klinsman said.
Namagoose leaned back in his chair, looking as relaxed as a sunning seal.
‘I didn’t do nothing,’ he began.
‘How’s about we talk about what you did do, soldier,’ Derek said.
Namagoose sighed, as though what was being asked of him was unreasonable. ‘Friday night I took the shuttle into Kuujuaq to have a drink.’
‘Meet the local women?’ Derek cut in.
‘That ain’t illegal, is it?’ Namagoose had spent an hour or so in the Anchor then taken himself off to the Shoreline Bar. ‘There was this girl standing there.’
‘Martha Salliaq,’ Derek confirmed.
Namagoose didn’t answer. ‘She asked me for a drink. She said the guy behind the bar would only give her a soda. She was upset so I got her a beer.’
‘She say why?’ Edie asked.
Namagoose shrugged. ‘Why all women get upset. Gotten into a fight with her boyfriend. That’s what she said, anyhow.’
From the corner of her eye, Edie saw Derek and Klinsman exchange glances, something between men she couldn’t pick up on.
‘We had a few drinks, she said she was hungry so we went to get some hot food from that dump around the back,’ Namagoose went on.
‘What time was that?’
‘Around seven forty-five, maybe eight.’
‘Were you drunk?’
Namagoose’s jaw pulsed. ‘A little, maybe. There’s nothing says a man and a woman can’t have a drink together.’
Derek nodded. It was a fair point. ‘Did you go on anywhere else?’
Namagoose closed his eyes and groaned, a cornered man waiting for the first punch to hit. ‘Look, OK, I’m gonna tell you the truth here. The girl asked me back to her house. She was up for it, man. I didn’t force her or nothing. She was all over me.’
‘So you had sex?’ Derek asked.
‘You Inuit men don’t think much of us Cree, I know that.’ A smirk slid across Namagoose’s face. ‘But seems your women got different ideas.’
Derek let this pass. ‘What did you do afterwards?’
‘I came back here. Didn’t want to get listed AWOL.’
Klinsman interrupted. ‘You and Saxby clocked in together.’
Namagoose looked shifty but he said nothing.
‘Did Saxby come back to Martha’s house too?’ Derek asked.
‘Uh nuh.’
‘You sure about that?’
‘Yup.’
Edie found Derek’s gaze. He blinked to signal that he’d sensed Namagoose’s lie and went on,
‘Tell us about the amulet.’
Namagoose leaned forward, his forearms resting on the solid muscle of his thighs. ‘She gave it to me. Said she didn’t need it no more. Got out this little pocket knife and sliced it right off her wrist.’ Namagoose’s eyes flashed about then landed on the ziplock bag. He began gesticulating with his hand. ‘Take it out of that plastic, you’ll see. She just cut the thing clean off.’
‘She said she didn’t need it any more,’ Derek repeated. ‘What did she mean by that?’
‘I don’t know, man.’ There was a tone of righteous indignation in Namagoose’s voice, as though there was something ridiculous or maybe demeaning in the question. ‘People say all kinds of shit when they’re wasted.’
‘Can you describe the knife she used?’ Edie said. She recalled seeing a small pocket knife in one of Martha’s drawers and thinking nothing of it. Everyone on Ellesmere kept a blade of some sort.
Namagoose made a space about ten centimetres long between the forefinger and thumb of his right hand to indicate the length. ‘Mother-of-pearl handle, maybe.’
The description fitted. Edie tried to catch Derek’s eye but he was staring intently at the Cree.
‘You took it, didn’t you? What else did you take from Martha Salliaq?’ The counsel raised his eyebrows but Namagoose answered anyway.
‘Say what? Some shitty Inuit thing don’t mean nothing to me. Look, we were both pretty drunk. Maybe I made her a few promises I didn’t intend to keep,’ he added, trying to sound reasonable, ‘but I didn’t have nothing
to do with what happened. Nothing, zero. She was unhappy so I cheered her up. That’s all.’ Edie looked up. Namagoose was staring straight at her, that tree-like stillness in him; maybe trying to unsettle her.
‘What did you two fight about on Saturday morning in front of the store?’ Edie said.
Namagoose’s nostrils flared with irritation at the question, but he kept his cool. From his side of the room Marty Fielding signalled to him to continue.
‘I told you, she thought I was being pushy, she told me to back off. Wasn’t anything else in it. I tried it on – that’s what men do.’ He looked at the men in the room for confirmation. ‘But I didn’t really care whether she said yes or no.’ Namagoose sat back in his seat, brow furrowed. ‘She seemed OK or I wouldna gone after her. She wasn’t some skank type.’
‘But you still expected sex from her again and got mad at her when she wouldn’t give it to you.’
Namagoose’s eyes rolled. ‘I was fine about that. So she didn’t want to see me again? Big deal. You win some, you lose some. It was her who got mad at me.’
‘And you didn’t think to mention any of this to us before?’ Edie said.
An expression of alarm moved momentarily across Namagoose’s face. Under the table the private’s left leg was jiggling about like a fish on a hook, all traces of his earlier calm gone.
‘You people and my people don’t get along,’ he said simply.
‘Which people you talking about, private?’ Derek sounded riled, maybe at his own failure to draw Namagoose out the first time.
‘Inuit people.’ He looked up and there was a sly cast to his eyes. ‘Eskimos.’
Derek’s face went red. Using the E word was provocative and Namagoose knew it. ‘That didn’t seem to worry you when you had sex with Martha Salliaq,’ he said.
‘Martha and me, we pretty much had the same opinion of this dump. She didn’t wanna be up here either. Couldn’t wait to get away,’ Namagoose said. ‘Sex was her idea.’ He added, petulantly, ‘We were all drunk.’
‘All?’ Edie interjected.
The Bone Seeker: An Edie Kiglatuk Mystery (Edie Kiglatuk Mysteries) Page 10