Face Off

by Brenda Novak

  “So she was able to get off work?”

  “Yeah. Apparently, she has quite a few vacation days. She’ll be here a full week.”

  “Won’t she need those vacation days for her honeymoon?”

  “I’m guessing she might have some bad news about that.”

  “Don’t tell me they broke up!”

  “She didn’t say for sure, but I got that impression.”

  “My folks were really looking forward to the wedding and having some grandchildren in their future.”

  She knew he’d be happy to give them both, but he didn’t say anything because she wouldn’t even meet his eyes. “When will she arrive?”

  “Tomorrow at three. You’ll need to pick her up in Anchorage alone if I’m not available to go with you.” He wished Brianne were coming tonight. He didn’t like the idea of leaving Evelyn on her own, and yet he had to do his job.

  “I wasn’t expecting her to come so quickly,” she said. “The airfare must’ve cost a fortune on such late notice.”

  “Don’t worry about the airfare. I paid for it.”

  She frowned. “You shouldn’t have to do that. I’ll take care of it.”

  “I’m happy to do it. Having her with you at night will give me some peace of mind.”

  She’d grabbed a handful of peanuts from the bowl set out on the bar but hesitated before popping them in her mouth. “The fact that you’re so worried is more proof that you believe Jasper’s here.”

  “Something’s going on. I’m not positive it’s Jasper, but I don’t have another answer at the moment.” He took a long pull on his beer. “I’m hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.”

  She ate the nuts before quickly clearing a spot so Shorty could deliver her soup. “What are you going to tell Leland?” she asked once Shorty left to take another order.

  “The truth.”

  “That his sister is likely dead?”

  “That I don’t know. Because I don’t.”

  She frowned again. “I can’t believe you didn’t find her body in that field. Where else could Easy have come up with her hair?”

  Amarok finished the last of his corn bread. “Who can say? He’s only owned that vehicle for a week, and he insists he hasn’t gone anywhere other than work.”

  “Maybe Sierra was there for a brief time, but someone moved her.”

  “It could also be that what we’re assuming is part of Sierra’s remains isn’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The hair was so matted and muddy, I couldn’t even tell what color it was. We have a missing woman, and we have part of a body. I assumed they had to go together.”

  “But…”

  “When I finished probing that field and stopped by my post to drop off the snowmobile and call you, I got a message from the coroner’s office.”

  “What’d they have to say?”

  “They told me the hair is blond.”

  “And Sierra has long brown hair.…”

  He pulled her photograph from his back pocket. “I need to confirm with Leland, but he never mentioned if she dyed it.”

  Evelyn took the picture so she could study it. “When was this taken?”

  “While they were at the cabin. You don’t recognize the background?”

  “Now that you point it out, I do.”

  “Leland e-mailed it to me the night she went missing. He’d just taken it on his cell the day before.”

  “How’d he send it to you? There’s no cell service here.”

  “He used the Internet at the hotel.”

  “So how do we account for the difference in hair color?”

  He finished his beer. “We could be looking at two victims, right?”

  Her eyes widened. “No.…”

  “Do you have a better explanation?”

  What little color she had left in her face drained away as she shook her head. “This just keeps getting worse and worse.”

  * * *

  Brianne Talbot set the charging cord she’d purchased for her mother’s phone on the counter. Anytime her parents needed anything that dealt with technology, they called on her. But she couldn’t stick around to visit, as they were probably hoping. She had to be at the airport by six in the morning and still had to pack.

  “I can’t believe you’re dropping everything and flying off to Alaska tomorrow,” Lara, her mother, said. “Who’ll run the hospital?” Grant, her father, sat in his recliner with the remote, watching sports highlights, but Brianne knew he was listening far more attentively than it appeared.

  “The trip’s a bit last-minute,” she admitted. “But it’s also the first vacation I’ve taken since I became administrator at Valley Regional. I deserve some time off.”

  Lara fussed about the kitchen, cleaning this and that. “So who’ll take care of things while you’re gone?” she asked again.

  “I have a great staff. They can manage for a while.” Brianne got out her keys and held them in her hand. She really had to go. “I don’t want to miss the chance to see Evelyn. I miss her.”

  “We miss her, too, and yet she hasn’t come to see us since she left.”

  Brianne could hear the hurt in her mother’s voice. “She has a lot of responsibilities in Hilltop, Mom. Hanover House is the first facility of its kind. It’s difficult for her to get away.” And from the beginning of her career, Lara and Grant had put so much pressure on her to quit her job and start a private practice dealing with damaged kids or something so she could back off from the dangerous men she studied. The constant barrage had to be overwhelming, which was why Brianne tried not to do the same thing. It wasn’t easy. She believed as her parents did—that if Evelyn didn’t stop what she was doing, she’d eventually wind up dead.

  They’d been through so much angst and pain with her already; they couldn’t take any more.

  “But she expects you to leave your job at a moment’s notice, to risk getting fired, so you can go up there?”

  “That’s a little dramatic, Mom. My job isn’t at risk. Besides, Evelyn doesn’t expect anything. She’d just like to see me.” Although Brianne didn’t let on, she needed to see Evelyn, too. She’d been so sure Jeff Creery was the man of her dreams, she’d finally let down her guard and fallen in love—hadn’t even been worried about birth control, since they were getting married. And now that he’d moved on, she was coping with the fact that she was pregnant. Since she’d received Amarok’s call only a short time after learning that the wedding was off, that she wouldn’t even be seeing Jeff anymore, she’d welcomed the chance to get away. Maybe Evelyn would be able to help her overcome the rejection that threatened to immobilize her. She wasn’t about to confide in her parents. Not yet.

  Lara wiped the counter for the second time since Brianne had been standing there. “Why doesn’t she want to see us?”

  Brianne wished she could pull her mother into her arms and simply hug her. But Lara had so much pride. She often pushed away the very thing she needed most. “She does want to see you. She’s just busy. It was actually Amarok who called and invited me.”

  “The man she’s living with.”

  Hearing the disapproval in Lara’s voice, Brianne frowned. “You know who Amarok is. What are you trying to say—that you don’t like him?”

  “I’ve never even met him! She’s never brought him home to introduce us!”

  Maybe Evelyn wasn’t ready. Brianne had made the mistake of bringing Jeff home, and her folks now cared about him. How was she going to tell them the wedding was off? That he would no longer be part of their lives and yet she was carrying his baby?

  Suddenly unable to meet her mother’s eyes, Brianne picked at her cuticles. “She’s under a lot of pressure. She feels she can’t leave Hanover House or something might go wrong.”

  “Because things go wrong even when she’s there! She was almost killed again last winter, and she still won’t quit. I don’t know what else has to happen before she realizes that whatever she’s hoping t
o achieve isn’t worth her life.”

  Even more had happened in Hilltop than Grant and Lara knew—probably more than they all knew. Evelyn kept what she could from them. Lara was on antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. Evelyn didn’t want to make their mother’s condition any worse. “Someone has to take a stand, do something to fight back.”

  “That’s ridiculous!” Lara carefully folded the washrag over the edge of the sink. Obsessive as she was, everything had to be just so. “All the studies show that psychopaths can’t be rehabilitated.”

  “Understanding how their minds work might help us find a way,” Brianne said, but she wasn’t sure why she was defending Evelyn. After all Evelyn had been through—after all the family had been through, starting with Evelyn’s abduction twenty-two years ago—Brianne felt Evelyn should leave that battle to someone else. She wanted theirs to be a regular family, wanted to have her only sibling back in Boston, partly because she missed her but also because she was tired of being the one who had to look out for their parents. She hated that she sometimes resented the sacrifices she had to make so Evelyn could stay in Alaska. Although their father was steady and easygoing, Lara was so needy. Jasper and what he’d done to Evelyn had broken Lara; she was too sensitive to withstand the anger, the loss, the lack of justice and resolution, and the constant worry.

  “She’s been attacked so many times,” Lara was saying. “One day they’ll be sending her home in a box.”

  When Brianne’s keys cut into her fingers, she realized she was squeezing them too tight. She’d been trying hard to support her parents and her sister, to let them all lead their own lives and choose their own paths. She filled in wherever and whenever she could. But Lara needed Evelyn at home. And with a baby coming, Brianne had to have a break from the pressure she felt from their parents. She couldn’t continue to manage everything she’d managed in the past. “I’ll talk to her,” she said. “She’s already done so much for the sake of psychology. Now that Hanover House is up and running and the critics have calmed down a bit … maybe that’ll be enough for her.”

  Grant paused the TV. “If what happened last winter didn’t convince her, nothing will.”

  Perhaps. And yet something had changed. Amarok had told her that a woman had gone missing from one of the hunting cabins in the area and Evelyn was struggling with the memories that evoked.

  Brianne doubted he’d admit that or ask her to come to Alaska right away unless he was deeply concerned.

  Maybe, considering all the recent developments, she’d be able to talk Evelyn into coming home.

  * * *

  Jasper tried to pretend he wasn’t paying attention to Amarok or Evelyn, that he was only at the Moosehead to have a drink like everyone else. It was Saturday night and they hadn’t received the snow they’d been expecting, so the bar was crowded. There were a lot of women—more than usual—but no one interested him like Evelyn. It’d always been that way. Her presence acted like a high-powered magnet, drawing his gaze back to her again and again.

  He watched her smooth some hair off Amarok’s forehead before casually returning her hand to his thigh. Seeing them together, acting so familiar and demonstrative, bothered him. He hated Amarok, couldn’t bear the thought of Evelyn spreading her legs for him.

  Jasper took another sip of his whiskey. He’d been so patient. For almost two years he’d mapped out his revenge. He’d worked at Florence Prison in Arizona to establish the appropriate work history, managed to get hired at Hanover House and made the move to Alaska, where he’d painstakingly worked to create a particular image and become part of the community. But then Leland and his party had come to the area and rented the worst cabin possible, setting off the series of events that had caused all Jasper’s plans to unravel. Watching everything go to hell agitated him so much he couldn’t continue to deny himself.

  He needed a release, couldn’t wait any longer.

  “Have you heard about that woman who’s gone missing?”

  Jasper glanced over at the man sitting next to him. Terrell Hillerman, a fellow Hanover House employee, was also at the bar. Terrell was still in uniform, which suggested he’d just finished his shift and stopped in on his way home.

  Jasper hadn’t come from the prison. He’d driven over from Anchorage, even though he didn’t work today. He hadn’t been able to make himself stay away. He was too interested in the investigation, too curious about what Amarok was finding. “What woman?” he asked, playing dumb.

  “Don’t know her name. Came here from Louisiana as part of a hunting party.”

  Jasper had thought he might see Leland at the bar or at least Leland’s friends. There wasn’t anything else to do in this town. But they weren’t there. “Did she wander away from the group and freeze to death? Encounter a bear? What?” He took another careless drink, as if anything worse than a “natural” death weren’t really a consideration.

  “Hell if I know,” Terrell replied. “On my way to work, I saw the sergeant using an avalanche probe to search an area not far off the road, though. I’m guessing he thinks she’s dead.”

  Jasper felt a muscle twitch in his cheek. Easy remembered where he’d picked up that piece of scalp?

  That made Jasper feel as though he might have more to worry about than he cared to believe. The sergeant was only a step behind him. “Find anything?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  Because Jasper had made it back and removed the bodies, taken them on the other side of Anchorage, the northwest side, as he’d originally planned. “Sucks for the hunters she was with. Must’ve ruined their whole trip.”

  The look he received from Terrell told him he’d missed a cue of some sort. That happened occasionally, since he didn’t feel what most other people did. “Ruined their trip?” Terrell echoed. “One of the hunters was her brother. I can’t believe he gives a damn about bagging a moose at this point. He just wants to find his sister alive and well.”

  Jasper almost said it’d be funny if the moose had bagged the sister instead of the brother bagging the moose, almost chuckled at the image that presented in his mind. But he knew better than to actually make the joke. If Terrell was offended by what he’d said already, he wouldn’t think that was funny. “Of course. It’s a bummer all the way around.”

  Fortunately, Terrell seemed to shrug off the gaffe. So many unique individuals lived on the final frontier that people seemed to be less critical overall.

  “What’d the hunters do, go home?” Jasper wanted to keep Terrell talking, see if there was anything else he could learn.

  “No. From what I’ve heard, they’re still here, hoping for some word.”

  Would Amarok be able to give them that “word”? What did he have as far as evidence? Last night, Evelyn had mentioned he’d taken what he’d collected at the cabin to Anchorage to be evaluated. So he had something.

  Must be the blood, Jasper decided. Hard though Jasper had scrubbed, he couldn’t get it out of the mattress where he’d tied Kat to the bed. That was why he’d gone to the trouble of carrying the mattress up to the loft. He’d thought there’d be less chance of it being seen.

  Apparently, his extra work had been wasted.

  Was there anything else?

  He looked over, once again, at Evelyn. He didn’t have to worry about her or Amarok noticing him. They were too comfortable in their surroundings, too wrapped up in each other.

  But Amarok wouldn’t stay wrapped up in Evelyn for long. Because he was on a mission to bring Jasper down.

  Jasper felt his muscles tense. His mistakes were regrettable. Word of Leland’s sister was spreading, and with that piece of scalp now in Amarok’s hands, it wouldn’t be long before folks realized they were dealing with far more than a missing person. Everyone would soon be crying murder, which would send the whole area into a panic—exactly what he’d tried to avoid by killing Leland’s sister in the first place.

  Damn it. The people of Hilltop and everyone at the prison would be searching every
where for their bogeyman.

  But Jasper didn’t look like a bogeyman, and they knew him. Sometimes the best place to hide was in plain sight.

  “So what do you think happened?” he asked Terrell.

  “The way the sergeant’s acting? Must be another murder.”

  “No kidding! Why do you say that?”

  “You know who Phil Robbins is, right?”

  “Of course. He’s the Public Safety Officer who helps clear the roads during winter, sort of acts like a deputy to the sergeant.”

  “That’s him. Well, his wife—you know he got married just a few months ago—is a friend of my wife’s sister, and she said he found a lot of blood on one of the mattresses at the cabin where that woman was staying.”

  Jasper feigned concern. “Wow. But what’s the big mystery? It was probably one of the hunters who killed her.”

  “The investigation doesn’t seem to be going in that direction.”

  Forcing himself to pause for a drink, so he wouldn’t look too eager for the information Terrell was providing, Jasper embraced the hot burn of the whiskey as it rolled down his throat. “Why not?” he asked when he’d swallowed. “Do they have evidence to suggest it was someone else?”

  Terrell lowered his voice. “Phil told his wife that the sergeant believes it’s the bastard who slashed Evelyn’s neck when she was only sixteen. That he’s here now.”

  Jasper set his glass down so hard some of the liquor splashed out. Terrell rocked back, out of the way, but Jasper quickly covered for his reaction. “Whoops! That almost got away from me,” he said as he dried his hand with a napkin from a stack Shorty kept on the bar. “Anyway, I hope what you said about the guy who nearly killed her—that he’s here—isn’t true. That dude’s crazy.”

  “Not crazy. Twisted. A sicko. Like the other psychopaths at Hanover House. You work there, too. You know what they’re like. He’s a sadist, a serial killer. No one’ll be safe if he’s come to town.”

  Jasper had always known he was different, but he didn’t appreciate anyone talking about him in such derogatory terms. He’d rather be the hunter than the prey. “Even if that’s the case, I’m not convinced we should get too worried.”