Deep in the Alaskan Woods

by Karen Harper

  “They’ll love you!” Alex said.

  “I’d like to think I’m instantly lovable.” He winked at her. “That show booking means we’re flying pretty high. Even Ginger’s excited about it. I’ll leave tomorrow and do the show the next day, be gone two days. Next it’ll be 60 Minutes, then the world—ha.”

  It was good to see Quinn animated and joking. But it seemed a terrible time to be away. Hopefully the media would have cleared out when he got back, even if other reporters straggled in, because she would not keep staying at the compound. She almost wished he’d offered to take her with him to New York.

  Funny, but she thought of the old, embroidered sampler her grandmother had hanging in her house the short years she knew her. It was of a heart surrounding the Bible words Whither thou goest, I will go. Grandma always said it was what she and Grandpa had promised each other when they were married. Her mother had that sampler now, though it was probably in storage since they’d traveled pretty light to England. And that memory made her empathize with Mary more, for she had lost her grandmother in a tragedy, one that seemed to hover in the air just above the water of Falls Lake.

  But now, as she said goodbye to Suze at the door, she thought of her lost twin, Allison, again. Whither thou goest, I will go. Yes, that fit the way Allie seemed to be always with her, part of her. Like Mary—maybe like all women—there were just some things, some loved ones, you could never quite let go.

  * * *

  Quinn set a fast pace through the forest toward the lake and waterfall. Alex walked in the middle of the single-file group and Josh brought up the rear. Back in the compound, the students had signed a thank-you card for Mary and Sam. Alex felt better herself since she’d let Suze take Spenser back to the lodge for the day. She’d hated the idea of leaving him alone in a deserted camp, and she’d meet Suze in the lodge parking lot tonight to get him back.

  Quinn encouraged people to point out anything they found interesting. He especially commented on things students mentioned that they never would have noticed before this week. They stopped briefly while he showed them moose tracks, and they followed them, noting where the animal had stopped to eat and rest and then where it had met up with three other animals. Alex could see several of the students beam with pride at the fact that they could follow those tracks.

  They emerged at the stony lakeshore from yet another forest opening where Alex had not been. The lake looked crystalline today, but she made an observation. “I’ve noticed, however clear the surface looks, just below, the water is a little murky.”

  “The falls grind through rock to make a sort of silt water,” Quinn told everyone. “It never seems to settle but keeps being stirred up.”

  Like events around here lately, Alex thought, but didn’t say so.

  They hiked around the far side of the lake where she had not been, past the water that covered the old pioneer village. The cedar trees were thicker here, making a skirt around the mountain that loomed above and beyond.

  “Rather not see a bear today. Moose tracks and beavers will do for sure,” she heard Herman say as he lifted his camera’s lens to pan to the top of the mountain.

  Their feet crunched stones along the lake. The muted whisper of the falls grew louder. Soon they had to shout to be heard unless speaking to a close person.

  “What do you see ahead?” Quinn called back to them.

  “A bunch of humps in the water,” Joyce, one of the women from Denver, shouted.

  “Those are beaver houses near a dam they’ve made!” Josh told them, coming up to join their little crowd. “Beavers are night animals.”

  “Nocturnal,” Alex heard someone say. “He means nocturnal.”

  Josh frowned and hunched his shoulders, but they all plunged on. Beaver territory was easy to spot, not only with their dams and lodges of woven sticks and mud half in the water but by trees along the bank partially chewed through.

  Quinn stopped them near the beaver dam where the animals had made a second little lake. The falls were so close now that he had to nearly shout. “Sorry Sam and Mary aren’t here to give you better details,” he told the cluster of people while Herman continued to film, “but here are a few points they would share if they were.”

  He climbed a three-foot-high rock to be better heard. Numerous boulders of all sizes were nearby, probably the same ones that had tumbled down with the falls that drowned the villages decades ago.

  Quinn raised his voice to tell them, “Beavers were almost hunted to extinction when beaver hats and muffs were fashionable, but they are a prolific breed and not endangered today.”

  Endangered—the word snagged in Alex’s mind. Val had obviously been in danger. Was she in danger, too, since those bear marks had appeared outside her room at the lodge? And had Val’s killer scratched up the wall outside the woodpile to threaten Mary? Or had she, in her nighttime delirium, done all of that? They were going to have to ask Sam if they knew their house had been defaced, to tell Trooper Kurtz, too. But would that cast suspicion on Mary or help exonerate her?

  Her mind snapped back to Quinn’s explanation. “Believe it or not, both sexes of adult beavers have a little enzyme sac inside them that produces something called castoreum. That is used by both perfumers and cigarette makers because of its smoky smell and taste. But the product I think is really far out that uses castoreum is schnapps from Sweden.”

  Quinn led them even closer to the falls where the mist from it reached them. “Be careful,” he shouted. “Remember what we first taught you—pick up your feet. It’s slippery here.”

  He sat on a damp rock, so the others did, too, gazing up at the powerful spill of water. He motioned Alex over beside him, and put a piece of plastic he pulled from his backpack for her to sit on. Together they looked up. However many times Quinn must have been here, seen this, he looked awed, too.

  The tower of churning white water entranced her. The white pillar of spume and foam was outlined by the dark cliff above and behind the water. She could hardly imagine it dammed up by boulders for decades, building a higher lake above, then letting loose to drown the small settlement and make a new lake where one had been before.

  Herman was filming the falls up and down. Everyone looked transfixed. She wondered if this beauty and power would calm Josh. She turned her head both ways but didn’t see him. Surely he had not been so embarrassed by not using the word nocturnal that he’d headed back. Or maybe he’d just gone behind a tree for private business, because all this pounding and churning made her wish for a bathroom. She’d have to make do out here, as would everyone else who wasn’t a camel!

  But right then Quinn put a big hand on her knee and squeezed it. Blinking in the mist, she smiled at him.

  He leaned close to say in her ear, “The other end of the lake would be a great place for a proposal or a wedding. Not here, because no one would be able to hear the vows.”

  She smiled and nodded. Her eyes misted, and not just because of the fine spray from the waterfall.

  “Was that a yes already,” he asked with a grin, “or just a nod you heard me?”

  Not sure what to say, surprised at what he’d said, she took his hand in hers and held on tight as if they were on a tossing ship in a rocky sea.

  Several people were digging into the sandwiches Josh had made. A few students had slipped away, no doubt for the same reason Alex needed to.

  “Did you see Josh leave?” she asked Quinn.

  “He probably took a bathroom break. You know, I can’t tell if he misses Sam or is glad he—and Mary—are gone.”

  “He’s hard to read. His moods change really fast. I’m sure he wouldn’t just head back.”

  “No way. I’ll go see if I can spot him, but not until the bathroom-breakers from Denver get back.”

  “Actually, I’m going behind those bushes or a large rock for a sec, too.”

  He put her ba
ckpack under the plastic on their rock and stayed put.

  She found the perfect spot behind a boulder. But as she tugged her shirt out of her pants, a shadow flitted past her. She looked behind her, all around. Nothing. Then a tiny shower of pebbles skittered down the rock face.

  She moved back from the rock and looked up. The top was not high. She could see a side where it could be climbed that was completely hidden from everyone. What if an animal was up there and could spring? No one would hear a scream for help with the noise of the falls.

  Remembering to pick up her feet, she shaded her eyes with her hand and looked up, just in time to see Josh, on the boulder above, heave something into the churning foam at the foot of the falls. He didn’t see her, was looking away.

  Had he thrown a rock to see how far it would go? Something to vent his anger, thinking he’d looked stupid earlier?

  In the shadow of the boulder, she shifted closer to see what he had thrown. It floated on the white-water waves a moment before it was sucked under.

  Her med tech training kicked in as she watched it. She’d seen large digital pads above a larger palm pad from the underside, surrounded by fur and topped by claws—ursine. He had heaved away a cut-off bear paw.

  28

  With everyone around, Alex knew better than to try to tell Quinn what she’d seen. She hoped Josh hadn’t seen or sensed her presence. Trying to smile, to talk, to join in the camaraderie of this group, which would be leaving tomorrow, she hiked back, keeping an eye on Josh.

  He seemed normal, a bit moody, but he spoke if spoken to. Yet she wondered what he was thinking. Had he gotten rid of damning evidence that would tie him to defacing wooden buildings—and Val’s body? Even if she told Quinn, if they brought troopers to that exact spot, they’d never recover that evidence to match those claw marks.

  Back at the dining hall, everyone seemed to speak loudly with confidence. They were no doubt relieved the week’s beginner course was over. Now they had bragging rights, now they could say they knew Q-Man.

  “I don’t know about all of you!” Quinn finally quieted them. “But I’m beat. I want to thank Herman for stepping in with his camera to help out. And I apologize again that your week was interrupted by a terrible crime and loss of life. I’m sure you will see more details in papers and online than I could tell you even now. I hope the hosts of the TV show Gab Fest don’t bring up the murder when I’m a guest this coming Thursday. If you’re home by then, I hope you’ll watch.”

  Oohs and aahs about the show. Someone called out, “Autograph, please!” Josh frowned—so had he not known?

  Quinn went on. “Look for some clips from our classes on the show, though Herman’s work hasn’t been processed yet. And I want to thank Josh Spruce for going above and beyond the call of his usual duties, and, of course, for Alex’s help these last few days, filling in for Mary. Alex’s personal beauty and health products are on sale online and at the lodge gift shop down the road, and you can ask her about that.”

  People clapped for her, Josh and then big-time for Quinn.

  Eventually, as everyone trailed off to pack or sleep, Quinn asked Josh, “Are you staying at Sam’s or heading home tonight?”

  “Home. Still, I’ll guard the front gate till you guys go get Alex’s dog at the lodge. She said earlier she had to get him from Suzanne.”

  Josh and Quinn huddled, talking about details for getting everyone breakfast and then to the Anchorage airport tomorrow. Alex tried to calm herself. How kind and helpful Josh had been just now. But she had to tell Quinn what she’d seen, what it could mean. At least Josh hadn’t seen her watching, but he was going to know soon if she told Quinn or the troopers.

  Josh closed up the dining hall, while Quinn and Alex headed straight for his truck. “Like picking up our kid at the babysitter’s,” he teased.

  “I’ll phone her to bring him out to the parking lot. That’s what we decided.”

  She called Suze first. “On our way from the camp right now,” she told her. It was such a short distance. She’d tell Quinn what she saw as soon as she got him alone tonight.

  * * *

  But when they returned to Quinn’s house with Spenser, Quinn started getting phone calls from Geoff about coming to New York. His flights had been made for him, and the boarding pass was coming in on his phone. Geoff called him back with directions and guest information about Gab Fest.

  Nervous and anxious, Alex took a very fast, chilly shower, then groomed Spenser. If she lived here, a hot water tank would be a necessity. She changed her clothes into fresh jeans and a sweatshirt. She longed to get ready for bed, but those clothing options could be provocative.

  “How about I build us a little fire?” Quinn asked as he patted Spenser on the rug, then sat down beside her on the couch.

  She nodded, glad he didn’t tease, didn’t say more about another sort of building fire last night. How she hated to ruin the mood, but she had to say it.

  “Quinn, wait a sec. I have to tell you something.” She snagged his elbow to pull him back on the couch. “When I went to—to the forest bathroom today, I saw Josh throw something weird from a boulder into the white water around the foot of the falls, and I saw what it was before it sank.”

  “And it was...?” he asked when she hesitated.

  “A cut-off bear paw—with claws intact. I’m positive.”

  He looked like she’d slapped him. “Damn!”

  “I know. I could only think one thing.”

  “That he was getting rid of evidence?”

  She nodded. “Maybe it had blood and DNA on it—Val’s. He’s hard to know, but I can’t think of a motive for his killing her, can you? Maybe he just cares for all of you and was trying to keep the team intact by getting rid of Val.”

  “I’ll tell you who he does care for, though it’s nothing undercover or illicit—only, on his part, maybe regretful.”

  “Like what?” she asked, and put a hand on his shoulder as he put his head in his hands and stared at the floor.

  “He especially cares for Mary, though you say it was a bear claw and not her necklace?”

  “I’m not following.”

  “He’s the one who—well, who found Mary first, introduced her to Sam years ago. Josh and Mary weren’t an item but friends. Still, I think Sam and Mary’s strong love and marriage hurt Josh deeply, because he cared for her more than he knew at first. He’s never seemed that interested in other women, even when he’s had his chances.”

  “That’s so sad,” she said as he sat up again and quit frowning at the floor. “He cares for both of them, but is constantly reminded that she and Sam were meant to be together, reminded of what he lost and what could have been. At least he’s protective of them and not hostile. That really says something good about him.”

  “Let’s remember that bear claws are sometimes sold around here,” he said, taking her hand and holding it on her knee. “It’s not uncommon in Anchorage, for example, to see bear paws or bear rugs, things like that, though they would probably have purchased them, not killed the animals themselves to get them.”

  “Okay, so maybe Josh was just afraid of being asked if he had any bear claws, and that’s all. No motive connected with the murder, unless he thought Val was going to pull Ryker away and hurt the show.”

  “It would hurt the show, but we’d hire someone else and forge ahead. I really wish you wouldn’t have seen him toss that paw, because the troopers could be all over him, and I’d vouch for him.”

  She reached out to grasp Quinn’s wrist. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to tell Trooper Kurtz or for Josh to know I suspected him.”

  He heaved a huge sigh and sat up even straighter, propping his elbows on his knees. She put her hand on his back, muscular, tense. She stroked him there, hoping to help, to comfort. Quick as a big cat, he turned to her and swept them both down on the couch with her facing him,
and pressed her gently against the back of it.

  Since he was taller, she seldom faced him eye to eye. His heavy breathing heated her cheeks and lips. “Sweetheart, I can’t stand it if it was Ryker, but Mary—even Josh—would be worse than that. Our little team has been so good before, but now you’re with me for a little while at least, which is even better. One of those phone calls was Trooper Kurtz saying he’s bringing Ryker back tomorrow, not under arrest but still a person of interest because his bear claws are missing, too. He claims he doesn’t know where they went.”

  “No wonder he’s still a person of interest. Maybe Val took it, tossed it. Can you imagine her even touching something like that? And did what with it? Used it to claw my outside wall and Mary and Sam’s, too?”

  “I know, I know. But I couldn’t bear for it to be Josh and that would really crush Sam. But I think it’s Ryker, that he finally cracked trying to deal with Val, and did it with a lot of people nearby in the woods so it didn’t point right at him. I believe Trooper Kurtz suspects him, too. But whoever it is, he’ll be lying low, careful not to do anything else to look suspicious, including heaving a bear claw off a rock where someone could have seen him.”

  “Did see him,” she said, and heaved a sigh. “But you’ve convinced me about Josh.”

  Quinn raised a hand to cup her chin. “I just don’t want it to be my friends, my team,” he whispered. “It’s been tough lately, and maybe worse to come. But at least you’re here, at least you care.”

  “I do and...” was all she got out before his lips took hers. It quickly became an out of body experience, as feelings, longing and fear swept her in dizzy circles.

  She almost cried in disappointment when, his body close to hers, he tilted back a bit, holding her away, steadying her and himself.