As Sox jumped up to attend to an itch on his paw by biting it with a ferocity that made Danny cringe, Danny glanced around for Tessa. He smiled as he saw her heading towards their chairs along the right field fence just in time for the playing of the National Anthem.
“Lord that line was something else,” Tessa said as she handed Danny his Coke and Frito pie. “You’re going up there next time if we decide to get anything else.”
“I’ll make sure to make my pie last then,” Danny said. “I don’t want any part of all those screaming kids. Especially not in this heat.” He shuddered as he took another look back at the line, which had only continued to grow.
Danny took a bite of his pie and set his Coke on the ground before he and Tessa stood up for the National Anthem. He knew better than to set his pie down, as Sox would down it before the first line of the song was complete.
The park erupted in cheers as the anthem completed and the umpire yelled out the customary, “Play ball!” Danny and Tessa settled back into their chairs and returned to eating their Frito pies.
“Too bad Maya didn’t come with us,” Danny said. “Sox would like the company.”
Maya was Tessa’s Siberian Husky and Sox’s best canine friend. The two dogs had immediately bonded after Danny adopted Sox and the group regularly walked together at Griffin Park.
“I told you, she hates the crowds,” Tessa said between bites of her pie. “When I brought her last year I had to leave before the third inning. And she’d never make it in this heat. She hates heat as much as you do.”
“I don’t hate heat.”
“You’ve whined about the heat wave every day this month.”
“Well it is odd, isn’t it? Having temperatures this high in Fairbanks?”
“It is. But I haven’t heard anyone else complaining. Come to think of it, I seem to remember you complaining non-stop about the cold during the winter too.”
Danny ignored his partner and finished off his pie in spite of his plan to make it last throughout the game. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and rolled up the wrapper and napkin into a ball in his lap, which immediately fell to the ground when he and Tessa and everyone else in the park stood up to cheer the Goldpanners’ first home run of the game.
Before sitting back down Danny picked up the garbage and strolled over to the nearest garbage can, causing Sox to bark and pull on his leash, which was attached to Danny’s chair.
He laughed and scratched the dog’s ears as he returned to his seat. “I was gone two seconds, buddy,” he said.
Danny tried to focus on the game in front of him, cheering once again as the Goldpanners hit another home run and took a 2-0 lead, but he found his mind wandering. Tessa was right when she said he was distracted. But not by the murder-suicide they had investigated that morning, which was as close to an open-and-shut case as any cop could expect to receive. He hadn't been thinking about that at all. Instead, he had been thinking about the thing that had occupied his mind for months now. Aleksei Nechayev.
And make no mistake; he knew without a doubt that the Nechayev who remained at large and was wanted for numerous homicides was a thing and not a person. The Russian-born vampire who had nearly killed him back in December never left Danny's thoughts for long.
It wasn't just the vampire himself who had managed to take up residence in Danny's psyche. It was the very idea that he existed. Danny had refused to believe in that possibility when Amanda, a near victim of Nechayev, had confided in him about her theories. But he'd been forced to admit she was right when he'd come face to face with Aleksei's fangs and monstrous persona himself.
Now, he was sure he saw vampires on every corner. He wondered how many others were out there and felt immense relief to be in the season of near constant daylight in Alaska. He glanced up at the sun, grateful that no vampires could possibly be on hand at tonight's game.
Danny dreaded the return of winter and the darkness that Aleksei had taught him was a vampire's best friend. But it wasn't only the vampires who played with Danny's fears. Now that he knew they existed, he knew there was a good chance that other supposedly mythological creatures existed as well. Every howling dog became a werewolf in Danny's mind. Every creak in his apartment was a ghost.
In the six months since Danny had been rescued from certain death in Aleksei's haunted asylum he had spent most of his time combing through old case files to look for unexplained events that could point to supernatural causes. Even when he had left cold cases behind for his current position in homicide he had haunted the office during the nights and weekends and searched through endless case files for signs of the paranormal.
He had found plenty to arouse his suspicions, but had nowhere to take his concerns. Not ready to become the Fox Mulder of the Fairbanks police department, Danny had not shared his late night detective work with anyone except Amanda. He already knew that no one else would believe him. Worse, he knew that divulging his new-found convictions would likely lead to a stint in a psychiatric facility.
The raucous sounds of cheering around him interrupted Danny’s thoughts. He glanced around to see that he was the only person who remained seated. The Goldpanners’ first baseman had hit a grand slam and the fans were ecstatic as the players ran around the bases. Danny stood up and joined in the cheering, which caused Sox to bark excitedly and jump at his waist.
Tessa gave him a sideways glance. “About time you joined us. Can you even try to pay attention to the game?”
“We’re cheering, aren’t we?” Danny let out a whoop, picked up Sox, and patted the dog’s paws together to simulate claps.
Tessa rolled her eyes as the cheers subsided and the two returned to their seats. Sox hopped down from Danny’s lap and returned to sniffing the grass around their chairs.
“I know you love baseball,” she said. “I thought this game would finally help you stop obsessing about our cases.”
“I wasn’t obsessing about our cases,” Danny said truthfully. “I was obsessing about other things. But I’m back in the moment now and ready to cheer on our Goldpanners to victory. So why don’t we both just focus on the game?”
Tessa happily agreed and the two cheered as the Goldpanners notched another home run and then groaned as the Chinooks drove in some runs of their own and tightened up the score. As the game progressed and the clock struck midnight, the fans all stood up from their seats in the bleachers or their chairs along the lawn.
“What’s going on?” Danny asked.
“It’s midnight. That means it’s time to sing ‘Alaska’s Flag’.”
Tessa laughed at the clueless look on Danny’s face. “It’s the state song,” she said as she started to sing.
Eight stars of gold on a field of blue,
Alaska's flag, may it mean to you…
Danny had never heard the song in his life and didn’t know a single word of it, but he stood up gamely and tried to pretend he was following along. Sox stood alert with his ears cocked and let out a howl in an attempt to join the singing.
The song came to a rousing conclusion and everyone applauded before returning to their seats for the resumption of the game. Danny watched as a teenage boy and girl walked hand in hand towards the large group of trees that lined the outfield. It didn’t take any detective work to figure out what they had planned. He smiled as he thought of his own teenage years and his numerous trips to Comiskey every summer. While he had brought plenty of girls to baseball games, he’d never considered leaving the game to screw around with any of them. When he was at Comiskey, he was there to watch the White Sox. And if the girl he was with didn’t like that, he knew he wouldn’t be spending much more time with her.
The teenagers disappeared and Danny’s attention turned to a gray-haired male jogger who was circling the field on the Growden Park running track. Danny felt a flutter of jealousy as he watched the man run. He was obviously athletic and fit; something Danny had once been before he had decided to drown the pain out of his life with alcohol and cigarettes. Now he doubt
ed he could run even half the length of the track without wheezing and gasping for air. He needed to do something to start getting back in shape.
Danny’s jealousy turned to surprise when the jogger stopped suddenly on the track. Danny caught a glimpse of something in front of the man, what looked to be a shadow of a figure, but whatever it was immediately disappeared. Perhaps it had just been a trick of the light from the soon to be setting sun. But it looked to Danny as if the man had run into something. The man tried to start running again, only to again appear to run right into something in front of him. This time, Danny could see nothing there. He nudged Tessa.
“What do you think is wrong with that guy?” he asked, pointing towards the jogger.
Before Tessa could respond, the man suddenly grabbed at this throat. He stumbled backwards, clearly struggling to maintain his balance.
“I think he’s choking,” Tessa said. “We need to get over there and help him.”
Both Danny and Tessa quickly stood up but the man tumbled to the grass next to the track before either of them could move. To their horror, orange flames began to crawl up the man’s arms and legs. His anguished screams permeated the park, causing even the baseball players to stop their play and turn towards the sound.
Danny and Tessa sprinted towards the man, with Danny calling 911 and reporting a person on fire as they did. Before they even reached the burning man they could hear the sirens of the Fairbanks fire trucks making their way towards the park.
The man was completely engulfed in fire by the time Danny and Tessa arrived at the track, and the flames had turned from orange to a scorching yellow color with shards of white. It crossed Danny’s mind that somewhere he had learned that white flames were the hottest. Another scream of agony from the man pushed the idea from Danny’s mind.
Tessa leaned forward and tossed the beach blanket she had grabbed from her chair onto the man’s body in an attempt to smother the fire. The blanket had little to no effect as it was immediately swallowed up in the flames. She jumped backwards and fell into Danny as the heat of the fire singed the hair on her arms.
“Are you okay?” he yelled.
“I'm fine,” Tessa answered, holding a hand to her face to shield it. “I didn't get burned.”
The concession stand workers came up behind Danny and Tessa, moving their way through the crowd of spectators who had gathered and now stared at the burning man in horror.
“We’ve got a fire extinguisher,” the woman in charge of the concession stand yelled as she ran up behind the two detectives.
Danny grabbed the extinguisher and sprayed the foam solution onto the flames. The solution barely made a dent before it was swallowed up as quickly as Tessa’s blanket.
“What the hell is going on?” Danny yelled.
The heat from the flames became unbearable and all of the would-be rescuers were forced to step back. Sox barked and yelped as the fire continued to burn and the flames shot higher towards the sky.
To everyone’s relief, fire engines pulled onto the grounds and firefighters spilled towards the dying man.
“Clear the area, folks,” the fire chief yelled.
The group complied and stood transfixed as the firefighters extinguished the flames. The man had long since stopped screaming, and his body no longer writhed in agony on the grass. Danny felt certain he was already dead. Danny glanced down at Sox, who had continued to bark and whimper. He picked the dog up into his arms, shushing him and scratching his ears to keep him quiet.
While no one spoke, all watched in horror as the firefighters’ hoses snuffed out the flames, leaving a charred, blackened figure where the jogger had once been.
The fire chief stepped forward and took charge of the crowd. “Folks, we’re going to need all of you to stay here. The arson investigators and the police are on their way and we’ll need to talk with all of you to see if we can figure out what happened here.” He scanned the crowd, stopping when he saw Tessa.
“Detective Washington?” he said.
Tessa managed a feeble smile and stepped forward. “Sure is, Chief. It’s been a long time.”
“I’m glad to see you here,” the chief said. “I have a feeling our team may be requiring your assistance.”
Tessa motioned towards Danny. “This is my partner, Detective Fitzpatrick. You’ve got two homicide detectives at your service.”
The chief shook Danny’s offered hand and patted Sox’s nose. “Fitzpatrick, huh? I don’t think we’ve met.”
“I haven’t lived in Fairbanks long,” Danny said. “I’m sure we haven’t.”
The arrival of police cars and the arson investigation team interrupted the conversation.
“Listen chief, Tessa and I are in for the duration on this. But as you can see I’ve got a friend with me,” Danny said, gesturing with his free hand toward Sox. “I need to take him home before I can work this.” He turned to Tessa. “Do you mind getting started without me?”
“Not at all.” She reached out and nuzzled Sox. “Will you stop and feed Maya before you come back? I wasn’t planning to be here all night.”
“Sure. I’ll put a call in to the captain on my way home too. He’s probably already been alerted but I’ll let him know we were right here the whole time.”
Danny put Sox back on the ground and hastily walked to his car. If he hadn’t known it, he never would have guessed that a baseball game and a cherished annual tradition had been going on barely thirty minutes earlier. The stench of burning flesh and the horror of the fiery death had chased all sense of frivolity and celebration from the park.
As he got to his car and opened the back door for Sox to hop inside, he glanced back at the crowd milling around the now dead man. He thought again of the shadowy figure he had seen prior to the start of the fire. He no longer thought it had been the setting sun playing tricks on his eyes. He knew someone had been in the jogger’s path right before he died.
The identity of that someone, or something, wasn’t the only question Danny had as he drove away from the scene of the carnage. How could a man just burst into flames? And Danny had seen the man rolling in the grass in an attempt to smother the fire before it engulfed him. If anything, the movement had only caused the flames to intensify. How could fire become so hot and so intense so quickly?
****
Chapter 4
“What do we have so far?” Danny asked Tessa.
He had returned to the scene of the fire after dropping Sox off at home and checking in on her dog Maya as promised.
“Not much. Rizzo’s here now,” Tessa said, pointing towards a paunchy, pale man who was leaning over the still smoldering remains of the jogger.
Anthony Rizzo was the chief arson investigator in the Fairbanks police department and, as he had told everyone in the department more times than anyone could count, he was retiring in September. Danny could imagine how much he hated to have a case like this thrown at him when he only had a few months left on the job.
Danny wandered over to Rizzo and the fire chief, who were now talking to Danny’s boss, Captain Jack Meyer. The three turned and nodded a greeting to him as he approached.
“You want me to start canvassing?” Danny asked. “Have you started checking cell phones yet?”
“Tessa told us you two saw this poor devil before the fire started,” Meyer said, ignoring Danny’s questions.
“Yeah, I did. He was running along and it crossed my mind that I was jealous of how in shape he seemed. No sense at all that there was anything wrong with him. Next thing I know he stopped and I thought I saw something in front of him, like a shadow or something. I thought it was just a trick of the light. Then he grabbed his throat and stumbled like he couldn’t keep his balance. Tessa and I thought he was choking so we got up to run over and help him. You know what happened then.”
“Tessa didn’t mention seeing anything in front of the guy,” Meyer said.
“She didn’t. She wasn’t even looking in his direction until I pointe
d him out to her after I noticed he had stopped. I wouldn’t have seen him either if I hadn’t noticed two kids heading into the woods right before this happened.”
Meyer pointed at two frightened teenagers standing huddled together near the outfield fence. “Those two?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“From what we know they were the closest to the scene. Why don’t you go talk to them? We still need their statements.”
Danny walked over to the boy and girl he had watched walking into the woods earlier in the evening; before the baseball game had turned into a waking nightmare of fire and death. He noticed the kids covering their faces in futile attempts to block the still permeating smell of burning flesh.
“You two all right?” he asked.
The boy, who was dark-haired, thin and lanky, looked as if his torso had not caught up with a recent growth spurt, spoke first.
“We’re fine,” he said, clutching the girl’s hand protectively. The two of them looked no more than 15 years old.
The girl, her red hair pulled back into a ponytail, was as petite as the boy was tall.
“We didn’t see anything,” she said.
Danny made note of her defensiveness. “What were you doing in the woods?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“Nothing,” the girl replied.
“That’s not an answer,” Danny said. “You were obviously doing something.”
“We were just taking a walk, okay?” the girl said.
Danny held his hands up, palms facing the teens. “How about you just tell me your names? I think we got off on the wrong foot here and I’m not sure why.”
“I’m Will and she’s Melissa,” the boy said, still holding his girlfriend’s hand in what looked to Danny like a death grip.
“Okay Will and Melissa. I’m Detective Fitzpatrick. And I was sitting right over there,” Danny said, pointing to his and Tessa’s now abandoned lawn chairs, “when I saw you two go off into these woods right before the fire started.”
“So?” the boy asked.
“So it might seem a little weird, you two leaving the game and disappearing into the woods right before all hell breaks loose. It’s especially weird since you say you were doing ‘nothing.’”
Polar (Book 2): Polar Day Page 2
