“I could walk you home.”
She gave him a light smile, pushing coppery hair behind her ear. “I think I want to walk alone, clear my head.”
He nodded. “I understand.”
“It has nothing to do with you,” she said quickly.
“You don’t have to explain, Meghan, or make excuses. I’m not disappointed or angry. You’ll be around. I’m not going anywhere.” The engine revved and rattled when Calvin stepped on the accelerator. “I’ll be seeing you.” He drove away, turned the corner. Meghan made a mental note; the next time she saw Calvin she’d warn him about having a brake light out.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
By Friday afternoon Meghan had finished proofed and printed three copies of the incident report and the deposition for the murder investigation. She gave Lester and Oliver their copies and kept one for the main file. She emailed the final reports to Detective Anderson at the Alaska State Troopers office in Anchorage. There was a gentleman from the town who was quietly replacing the metal frame for the door to her office. Meghan didn’t have to ask, didn’t have to argue with Duane. Somehow, there was enough in the budget for a replacement door to her office.
She waited until after the man installed the new doorframe, patched the chipped drywall around the frame, and left before Meghan closed up the police station and made sure the doors were locked. She had three missed phone calls. No one left a voicemail, and two of the calls were numbers she didn’t recognize, one was labeled ‘private.’ Meghan knew police officers using personal cell phones for communication paid the extra few dollars a month for the blocked number identification.
One of the numbers was listed ‘mayor’ on her contacts. She returned the call after she got home. Meghan was ready to settle down for the night but dressed in casual wear that made it easy if she had to run out the door again for emergencies.
“Meghan, thanks for returning my call,” Duane said casually, “Even so late.”
“No problem, what’s up?” The man was informal, not quite relaxed, and the dig about it being late, it was barely after six in the evening, likely meant Meghan was supposed to call during regular business hours.
“I wanted you to make arrangements before we left so your officers can handle business while you’re gone.”
“Before I left?” she repeated.
“We’re taking a trip into Anchorage tomorrow. The Borough Council is convening an emergency meeting, and they want you and I to attend.”
A trip to Anchorage, she thought. They have money in the budget to fly the mayor and the police chief to Anchorage on a charter plane, but they can’t afford toner cartridges, extra paper, express mail, plane tickets? No problem. She wasn’t going to question it. Meghan knew better than ask the mayor about town business. Now she was inside the administrative circle, that place where the finer points of budgets and administration used to be left to someone else. It was never a good sign to have an emergency meeting, which usually meant someone was in trouble.
“What time are we leaving tomorrow?”
“Be at the airfield at eight-thirty.”
“See you then.” Meghan was fairly certain Duane ended the call before she finished her words.
Slipping on the bunny boots, oversized coat, ski cap, and gloves, Meghan left the house and walked up Bison Street to the small two-story house where Cheryl and Brian lived. Meghan kicked the mud off her boots before she knocked on the door.
The heavy footfalls inside told Meghan Brian was about to open the door. She presented a smile for him when the front door swung wide.
“Hey Chief,” he said somberly, “Come in.”
Kicking off the boots inside the door, Meghan followed Brian to where Cheryl sat with her feet tucked under her on the couch. The house had a stale cigarette smell that permeated everything.
“So, I have to leave tomorrow for Anchorage, police business. I wanted to stop in and see how you two were holding up.” She let the words hang between Brian and Cheryl. They were quiet as if she’d interrupted a meaningful conversation. Meghan wasn’t involved in the dialogue between the couple, and as long as it was a conversation and not a domestic dispute, it was none of her business. “Eric is able to hold Nancy for a little while. You can make arrangements with him when it comes time to take her.” It was difficult to talk about because Meghan wanted to keep Nancy a person instead of a thing when it came to what to do next with her.
“We were talking about having her cremated.” Cheryl got so far with her words before they stopped. It had been a week, grieving sometimes took years, it sometimes drove people apart.
“We’re looking at taking out a small loan to cover the expenses. If it doesn’t work out, we can wait until the ground thaws more and bury her here.”
“Nancy would have liked staying here.” Cheryl dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “She always came home again.”
Meghan nodded.
“We’ll talk to Eric,” Brian added. He looked hurt, not angry. “Maybe there’s something we can work out.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about, Meghan.” Cheryl got off the couch and approached her. She wrapped her arms around Meghan and squeezed. “Thank you for everything. It felt like no one cared. You kept going.”
“Sometimes when you don’t see something doesn’t mean there aren’t things going on. You both had a lot on your plate. I was doing my job.”
“You need to get a smaller parka,” Cheryl mused.
“I like this coat. It was in the back of the Suburban when I got here. I washed it, and I know it’s big, but I think it suits me.” She held out her arms when Cheryl stepped back. “Keeps me warm.”
“Well, in another month you won’t need that heavy thing.” Brian went to the kitchen counter to pick up a pack of cigarettes; Meghan used that as a cue to leave. “If you need anything you know you can call me.” She went back to the door and slipped her feet into the boots.
“Thank you again, Meghan.”
She nodded. It was never easy dealing with the death of a loved one. It was impossible to say anything that didn’t sound glib. Sometimes a nod worked better than words.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone. Call the station if you need something if you can’t get a hold of me.”
Back outside, the ice fog had finally lifted earlier in the day. Above her, in the nautical twilight kept the clear sky lit with an azure tint only letting the brightest of the stars in the northern sky to flicker overhead.
Meghan took a deep breath, pulling in as much of the chilly arctic air as her lungs would hold. Things were changing. She’d put herself in danger apprehending a person who was suspect in a major violent crime. Meghan made a mistake, and she got lucky. The community expected her to keep them safe. She lived in a world that is a little different than anywhere else in the United States. Nothing should be taken for granted.
The walk home gave her time to reflect, on the job, her life, and the choices she made to get to where she was at that moment. Retiring as an FBI Agent to take over as Chief of Police in Kinguyakkii, four thousand miles from where she grew up, Meghan felt in that moment she hadn’t run away from anything, she was right where she was supposed to be, and it felt good.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The central seat of government in Alaska is Juneau. An isolated, landlocked community that sat on the corner of the last temperate rainforest in the United States; surrounded by overgrown broadleaf forests and coniferous trees, it was a vacation destination for millions of people every year traveling on cruise ships. Picturesque, the state capital left indelible impressions on anyone who came to Alaska as a visitor but didn’t live there.
Anchorage, Alaska, was a city like many cities in the northwest United States. Weather was a little more predictable than most of the outlining towns along with the Alaska Highway system. The largest city in the state, most patronage was done in the Cook Inlet city, considered the gateway
to mountain ranges that included Talkeetna, Chugach, and Kenai.
Flying low over the city, the charter plane was snug and loud. They were on what essentially was an air taxi service. The price per hour for the particular flight out of Kinguyakkii to Anchorage, landing at the small airport of Merrill Field, was more than two months’ salary for Meghan and while she wanted to enjoy the flight, see the vast mountain ranges and wilderness terrain, it was hard to look down when part of the wing had duct tape on it, and a piece of it had feathered and flapped in the high winds like a dog ear hanging out a car window.
Instead, Meghan drew up her legs, pressed her shoulder against the fuselage of the Cessna 180 while Duane sat in the copilot seat up front and chatted with their pilot. She had to listen to the sputtering engine and the whining through the aluminum membrane of the aircraft.
In the back of the plane was the body of Nickolas Hodge, secured in a tarp with ropes. It wasn’t pretty, but it was efficient. There was supposed to be an ambulance crew waiting for the charter plane when they landed. It was something the Borough Council worked out with the medical examiner’s office in Anchorage. Eric had sent the preliminary cause of death along with the physician assistant’s signature for corroboration. Someone was paying the bill for transporting the corpse of a killer, but the victim remained in cold storage at a trading store. Somehow, that didn’t seem fair to Meghan.
When they landed at Merrill Field off Fifth Avenue two miles from downtown Anchorage, it was after five in the evening and whatever Duane had planned he wasn’t sharing with Meghan.
“The Borough booked us rooms at the hotel on Third Avenue. It’s nice,” Duane said, handing Meghan her travel bag. He was the kind of guy who wanted to be in charge of everything, including things that were none of his business. He was a jerk, plain and simple. “We’ll catch a ride to the hotel together.” He grinned like a hero. “My treat,” he added. It wasn’t; Duane would get a receipt from the taxi driver and turn it in with the monthly expense report to get reimbursed.
***
Anchorage was the first stop Meghan had when she took the job as police chief. It had been a few years since she returned. Everything Meghan owned was either in Kinguyakkii or back home in Syracuse, New York, including a daughter. Brittany was independent at fifteen. When Meghan split up with her ex-husband, Meghan allowed Brittany to choose to stay in New York or to follow her mother on an adventure into the Alaska wilderness. The internet was slow, and cell phone signals were spotty, she’d have to change schools and leave friends behind.
It was a tough decision allowing her to stay with her father. A man who was a good dad but a terrible husband, whatever differences Meghan had with the man, she wasn’t malicious and wasn’t going to use Brittany to get back at her father. They sometimes emailed, when Brittany found time to do it.
Meghan kept up with her daughter’s grades through the integrated services the school provided. She was abreast of all Brittany’s grades, including progress reports. They talked on the phone at least once a week, and her daughter wanted to show Meghan how to use social media to keep up-to-date on all the trending topics. Meghan knew how to use social media; she chose to keep out of the spotlight.
“Hey Mom,” Brittany said when Meghan called after she arrived at the hotel. Alaska had its own time zone, four hours behind New York. It was after ten in New York, but on Saturday nights, Brittany was up late, usually with her friends. It was something that worried Meghan, but she knew her ex-husband as much as a lousy human being as he was, he was actively involved in his daughter’s life, and wouldn’t let her out past a curfew or hang out with people he didn’t know.
Her voice was musical to Meghan. There is nothing like the connection between mother and daughter, and even if she were a million miles away, those two little words would carry her.
“Sorry I didn’t call last Saturday,” Meghan said.
“That’s okay; me and Dad went to the movies.”
“That’s good. What are you doing now? It’s loud over there.”
“I’m at a friend’s house. We’re hanging out.”
“A boy?” Meghan wanted to be there for her daughter, no matter how far away, mothers and daughters show be able to talk about things that mattered to both of them. Unfortunately, either Brittany made sure she was never available for a full conversation with her mother, or her life was so full of other things, Meghan wasn’t a big part of anymore. Before she sunk into a depression that sapped her mental strength, something that Brittany seemed to pick up on, she made a joke.
“No, but we have male strippers coming over later.” She laughed, and her girlfriend nearby laughed loud enough for Meghan to hear through the phone. “What have you been doing? I bet it’s boring as shit over there.”
“Brittany, please don’t cuss.” She sighed. It was a show, Brittany’s swearing while talking with her mother was meant to impress a friend. It was the kind of thing Meghan did with her mother. “It’s been pretty boring. Same old thing,” she said, lying across the bed, staring at the ceiling in the hotel suite. If only her daughter knew what kind of a week she had, it might actually impress her. “So, we all set for you coming to see me when school lets out?”
“Yeah, but do I need to bring like a snowsuit or mittens and snow boots?”
“It’s not like that.” Brittany had passed on visiting her mother last year. The flight across the country as an unaccompanied minor bothered the girl too much. She was more self-determining now, freer to explore her surroundings. She was still considered a minor with the airlines, but Meghan had a few friends with the air marshals and would make Brittany’s trip memorable. “You’ll be able to wear fall gear around. It gets up to 60 or 70°F in the summer. The sun’s always up. Kids are out all night.”
Summer was busy; more people came to town from the villages. It wasn’t always lovely people that showed up to town. While she’d be active, there was still time for her daughter. That is if Meghan kept her job after the meeting with the emergency council tomorrow.
There was more noise on Brittany’s end. People were talking close to her ear. Someone said, “Hurry up,” and Meghan knew what came next.
“I got to get going, Mom.”
“I know. Enjoy your Saturday night. I’m watching your progress reports. You are going to get that social studies grade up before the school year ends.” It wasn’t a question, it was necessary.
“I will. It’s so boring.”
“I don’t see how a girl in today’s technology-dependent world doesn’t get easy A’s in social studies.”
Brittany growled in frustration. “Okay, Mom. I got to go.”
“I know. I love you.”
“I love you back. Bye.” The call ended.
Brittany went back to her busy teenage life, and Meghan made herself comfortable, flipping channels, taking advantage of a quiet night. She scooted under the covers and forgot about everything, left behind a crazy moment in her life that could have left Brittany without a mother.
It was the second time in Meghan’s life she’d faced an untimely death. She wasn’t carrying a gun, but the job turned out to be just as dangerous.
Chapter Thirty
There were five visible North Slope Borough Council members at the large table in an upstairs meeting room at one of the offices off C Street after nine in the morning on Sunday. Duane collected Meghan a half hour before the scheduled meeting. They checked out of the hotel and were expected to fly back to Kinguyakkii by three in the afternoon.
“Thank you for coming, Chief Sheppard.” They didn’t bother introducing themselves. Meghan recognized one of the women who were on the video conference call when she first was hired for the job but forgot names since most of the members didn’t live in Kinguyakkii. They looked at her as if she had a choice to come to the meeting.
There were a few different cameras on the table. There was a flat screen monitor on the wall behind the inquisition group facing Meghan, more board members sitting in o
n the meeting from the comfort of their homes, split into four different views from various locations, they leisurely sipped coffee or smoked cigarettes while watching Meghan.
“You’ve had a busy week. We’ve been kept up-to-date on what’s been going on in your little corner of the world.” The speaker was a woman who looked to be in her fifties. She was heavy-set with bifocals. There were copies of emails in front of her. Meghan suspected while she was investigating Nancy’s death, Duane was busy keeping tabs on her. Likely, that was one of the reasons he wanted access to her office.
Duane shifted in the seat he took at the beginning of the meeting. He joined the other board members facing Meghan while she sat alone opposite them.
“We all appreciate everything you do for us. This is an informal meeting. If it involved more than the administration, finance, and the mayor’s office, we would have convened a regular meeting. I hope you don’t mind.”
Meghan smiled, rolling her hair behind her ear. “You’re being so nice to me. I feel like if you have some bad news, you should tell me, like ripping off a band-aid.”
The council members exchanged glances. “You’re not in any trouble, Chief Sheppard. This isn’t a reprimand.” The woman glared at Duane as if he’d not made it clear to her why they had a meeting. “Mayor Warren should have explained to you that we wanted to address some ongoing budget issues within the Kinguyakkii Police Department.” She shuffled through the documents in front of her until she found a copy of the receipt from the FBI center in Quantico. Meghan recognized the letterhead. “When Duane sent this to me, I got a case of sticker shock. But when we discussed it, we realized that your department has been operating in a vacuum for more than a few years. We haven’t had someone in your position that frankly, many of us took seriously.”
Another council member spoke up immediately. “Let’s not hash out the past in front of the current police chief, okay Valerie?”
A Cold Day for Murder Page 13