Polar (Book 2): Polar Day

by Julie Flanders

  “Max Fugate,” he said.

  “What?”

  “A guy named Max Fugate was reported missing on May 24 after he didn’t show up for work at the Fairbanks hospital. He was a doctor so a lot of people noticed when he didn’t show. His sister went to his home and all of his belongings were there but he wasn’t. No one could get in touch with him on his cell. The last known contact with him was with his neighbor who said he told her on the night of the 23rd that he was going jogging in Griffin Park.”

  “Oh my,” Tessa said. “Sounds like our guy, doesn’t it?”

  “Sure does. Poor guy.”

  “Well if he was a doctor he’ll have fingerprints on file at the hospital. Maybe they’ll be able to get prints from the body and identify him that way.”

  “Maybe. I wonder if his hands were balled up the way Anthony mentioned this morning.”

  “Yeah, what did he call that, the fighter’s stance? Never heard of that before.”

  “I hadn’t either. Wish I still hadn’t heard of it.”

  “Agree with you there,” Tessa said.

  She pulled into the police station lot and found a spot near the front entrance. The two detectives squinted in the blazing sun as they got out of the car.

  “Jesus I wish we could stay in the car in the air conditioning,” Danny said.

  Tessa wiped beads of sweat from her forehead. “Agree with you again. This heat has to let up soon.”

  “I feel like we’ve been saying that for weeks.”

  “In all these years I’ve never felt heat like this in Alaska before. Never anything close.”

  Danny walked to the door and held it open for his partner to walk inside.

  “You’re such a gentleman, Danny,” Tessa said, smiling in spite of the uncomfortable heat.

  “My mother taught me well.”

  Tessa laughed. “Something tells me your mother would shudder to see most of what you get yourself up to.”

  “Something tells me you're right. Now let’s head into our furnace of an office and see if we can match Mr. Fugate with that corpse in the park.”

  ****

  Chapter 10

  “I read about the fire up there at the baseball game,” Amanda said. “Is that your case?”

  “Yes it is,” Danny said. “Tessa and I were both there and saw the whole thing.”

  “Oh my God. I can't imagine it.”

  “No, I doubt you can. Consider yourself fortunate.”

  Danny plopped onto his couch and opened a beer as he cradled his phone between his shoulder and his ear. Sox jumped up next to him and turned in a circle three times before settling down with his head in Danny's lap. Danny set his beer on the end table next to him and scratched the dog's ears.

  “So how's your mom?” he asked.

  Amanda had been in her hometown of Sitka for the past few weeks helping to care for her mother, who had suffered a devastating heart attack. Danny had alternated between missing her company and feeling relief that he was on his own. He cared for Amanda, but didn't see the relationship progressing to anything beyond friendship. While they'd never discussed it, he was fairly certain that Amanda felt the same way.

  Still, the two shared a bond that would never go away, as Amanda was the only person besides Danny who knew the truth about Aleksei Nechayev. As the only known person to survive an attack by Aleksei prior to Maria Treibel, Amanda had been the one to convince Danny of Aleksei's true nature early on in the Nechayev case. She had also saved his life by convincing his colleagues of the need to rescue him from Aleksei's clutches following his decision to venture into the Arctic and confront Nechayev on his own.

  “She's getting a little better,” Amanda said. “Still a long way to go though. I can't believe how weak and frail she is.”

  “I'm sure she and your dad are both glad you're there with them.”

  “Yeah, I think so. Maybe this is a chance for us to be close again.”

  Amanda's relationship with her family had become strained following Aleksei's attack and her insistence that he was not human. Her parents didn't believe her, a fact that had caused Amanda to leave Sitka for Fairbanks. She had never forgiven her parents for their doubts about her sanity, in spite of the fact that she understood how crazy her vampire assertions had seemed.

  “I hope so,” Danny said.

  “I’m considering staying here through the summer. Between my vacation time and the family medical leave I can swing it at work. My boss doesn't have a problem with it.”

  “I think that's a good idea. Your mom's what's important right now.”

  Danny took a swig of beer and switched to scratching Sox’s chin instead of his ears. The dog protested and burrowed his head into Danny’s leg in an effort to force him to leave his chin alone and return to his ears. The dog quickly won and Danny relented.

  “How are you doing, Danny? Still having the dreams?”

  “Sometimes. I had one the other night. It was the same thing – the woman in the snow, Aleksei standing over me with his fangs out...”

  “Have you had any more contact from him?”

  “No, thankfully.”

  Danny had confided in Amanda about the postcard he had received from Nechayev back in March. At that time, the vampire and his companion Katerina were in St. Petersburg, Russia. Danny had alerted the St. Petersburg police about the possibility of a dangerous fugitive in their city and immediately felt guilty about doing so. Sending them into Nechayev's clutches surely endangered their own lives, and there was little hope that they could end Nechayev’s. Danny could hardly convince the police that they needed wooden stakes instead of guns to apprehend Aleksei.

  While he knew it was cowardly, Danny had purposefully avoided any news of St. Petersburg following his call to their police. If there had been a bloody massacre of police officers in the time following his call he didn’t want to know about it. And he had kept silent about the postcard except with Amanda. His guilt increased as the FBI continued their search for Nechayev in the Alaskan Arctic, but Danny didn't dare tell anyone the reason he knew their efforts were in vain. He knew no one would believe him and he couldn't afford to lose his job over what would surely be considered mental illness if he pressed the issue.

  “This new case has me on edge though,” he continued. “I can't help thinking if it's something else that isn't quite of this world.”

  “You mean the fire?”

  “Yeah. I saw something right before the guy started burning. It was like a shadow in front of him. Some nearby kids saw it too. And they heard chanting but couldn't see anyone around who could be doing it.”

  “Chanting? So you think there might be some kind of magic involved?”

  Danny downed his beer and stood up to walk to his kitchen for another bottle. Sox grumbled his disapproval but remained on the couch, ready for his scratching to resume as soon as Danny returned.

  “Christ I don't know. I hate even thinking it. But Rizzo, the arson investigator, said he couldn't find a damn thing on the remains or at the scene that could have started the fire in the usual ways. No accelerant, nothing combustible...”

  He returned to the couch and drank nearly half the bottle before sitting back down. He had brought a third one that he set on the table. A case like this made him forget his vow to cut back on his drinking.

  “Then today we found another burned body,” he said. “You probably haven't seen anything about that yet. They're trying to keep it away from the media.”

  “No, I hadn't.”

  “Well you will soon enough. According to the M.E. the guy was probably killed about a month ago and covered up with sticks and branches so he wouldn’t be found. Whoever's responsible for this dug him up so we'd find him now after the baseball game fire.”

  “Oh my goodness.”

  Danny let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah. It's a real mess.” He took another swallow of beer. “So since you're the monster expert...”

  “I'm not an expert. Just because I kn
ew what Aleksei was...”

  “You're the closest thing I know to an expert, okay? Do you think there are fire monsters of some kind? Demonic creatures that go around setting people on fire like Aleksei and his kind drain them of their blood?”

  “I've never heard of anything like that. But...” Amanda paused.

  “But what?”

  “But like I asked before when you mentioned the chanting the kids heard at the game. Could it be some kind of magic?”

  “What, like spells? Witchcraft?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Oh my God.”

  “I don't know. I don't know anything about magic. It just came to my mind when you said those kids heard chanting.”

  Danny could picture Amanda as she talked, her fingers nervously clutching the silver crucifix she always wore around her neck.

  “Well you were right last time about the vampire so I wouldn't be surprised if you're right now, too,” he said. “But I really hope you're not. God almighty. How the hell am I supposed to work this?”

  “I'm sure I'm wrong. The arson guy will find a rational explanation for what's happened. Just give it some time.”

  “Yeah, well, Rizzo doesn't exactly inspire confidence, believe me. He's retiring in a few months and I can tell this whole situation is killing him. He can't believe he's stuck with it when he thought he'd spend the summer counting the days until he walked out of the station for the last time. Not that I blame him. I'd feel the same way in his shoes.”

  Danny heard a man's voice on the other side of the line.

  “Is that your dad?” he asked.

  “Yeah. He needs some help getting Mom up.”

  “You go ahead then. I'll talk to you soon.”

  “You take care of yourself. Don't let this case get to you.”

  “Easier said than done.”

  “I know but please try. And say hi to Sox for me, okay?”

  “That part is easy. You take care of yourself too.”

  Danny set his phone down on the table and lifted Sox's snout to his face.

  “Amanda says hello.”

  The dog's ears perked up at Amanda's name and he checked around the room to make sure he had not missed her entrance.

  “No, she's not here. She said hello over the phone.”

  No longer recognizing the words, Sox plopped his face back down on Danny's legs.

  Danny chuckled and pushed the dog aside so he could get up from the couch. He walked to the kitchen and returned with two more bottles of beer. He grabbed the television remote before sitting back down on the couch.

  “What do you want to watch, Sox?”

  The dog thumped his tail against the couch cushion in response.

  Danny flipped through the channels, stopping when he came to a Seattle Mariners game that had gone in to extra innings. They were playing the White Sox in Chicago and Danny felt a slight tug at his heartstrings as the familiar sight of Cellular Field filled the flat screen television. The time difference made it difficult for him to catch Sox games live. It was a welcome surprise to find one that was lasting so long into the Chicago night that he could watch it live as it happened.

  It was dark in Chicago, but of course the sun was still high in the sky here in this strange frontier he had chosen as his new home. He squinted from the sun beaming through the window and cursed himself for not shutting the blinds before he sat back down. Next time he got up for a beer he would need to do that.

  Danny rested his hand on his dog's head as he finished one beer and started another, the bottles now lining up on the end table beside him. His eyes grew bleary as Sox's gentle snoring mingled with the sounds of the faraway baseball game. When yet another inning ended and the game went to a commercial, Danny closed his eyes and rested his head on the back of the couch.

  The noise of the television grew fainter as he slipped into sleep and his mind flashed images of fangs and bloodless bodies in an endless landscape of snow. As Danny drifted farther into unconsciousness, the snow was overtaken by fire.

  ****

  Chapter 11

  “You look like hell.”

  “Thank you, Tessa,” Danny said as he set his thermos of coffee on his desk. “I can always count on you to brighten my morning.”

  “Were you up drinking?”

  “No,” Danny lied. “I was watching a baseball game and fell asleep on the couch. If I look like hell it's likely because I've got a crick in my neck from sleeping upright all night.” He grabbed a tissue from Tessa's desk and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “And because it's hotter than hell in here.”

  Tessa sipped from a cup of ice water on her desk. “It is, can't argue with you there.”

  “Anything new on our guys?”

  “The body found yesterday was Max Fugate. They were able to get fingerprints that matched his file at the hospital. Nick Torrance was arrested on a DUI charge years ago in Anchorage, so his prints are on file too if they can get them from what remains of his hands. Apparently they're still working on that.”

  “What about the autopsy report? Was Fugate burned alive too?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Jesus Christ. Anything else was too much to hope for, wasn't it?”

  “I think so.”

  Danny sat down at his desk. “What else do we know about him?”

  “He's a Fairbanks native and his parents and sister also live here. He wasn't married and had no children.”

  “So I guess we start with the parents and the sister. Have they been notified?”

  Tessa shook her head. “No, the ID just came in. You and I are the lucky ones who get to do that.”

  “Goddammit.” Danny let out a breath. “I hate this shit.”

  “Who doesn't?”

  Tessa got up from her chair. “You driving or am I?”

  “I'll drive.”

  “Excuse me, officers?”

  Danny and Tessa turned to see Mark Chambers, the desk sergeant, holding an envelope out to them.

  “Yeah?” Danny asked.

  “This just came in the mail. I'm not sure if I should give it to you or to Captain Meyer. It's addressed to homicide detectives.”

  Tessa took the envelope. “We've got it. Thanks, Mark.”

  She laid the envelope on her desk. There was no return address and the address of the police station was printed in pencil with a neat and precise penmanship. The postmark said Fairbanks and showed the letter had been mailed the day before.

  “I don't like this,” Tessa said.

  “I don't either.”

  Danny pulled some gloves from the drawer of his desk and picked up the envelope.

  “Let's bring it to the boss.”

  The two walked to Jack Meyer's office and knocked. The captain was talking on the phone but motioned for them to enter.

  Jack quickly hung up the phone and glanced up at the detectives. “What's up?”

  Danny held out the envelope and placed it on Meyer's desk. “We just received a strange envelope.”

  The captain looked at the letter and reached into his own desk drawer for gloves. He picked the envelope up and gingerly opened it with a letter opener. He turned the envelope upside down and let one sheet of paper fall onto the desk.

  The paper was plain white and the words “Who do you think is next?” were written at the top of the page in the same penmanship found on the envelope. An old image of the advertising mascot Smoky Bear standing in front of a raging fire was printed underneath the words.

  “Oh my God,” Tessa said.

  “It looks like someone wants to have some fun with us,” Danny said.

  The three stared at the paper in front of them, all momentarily speechless.

  “We need to get forensics on this,” Jack finally said. He picked up the phone and barked out some orders before slamming the receiver back down. “Were you two heading out to notify Fugate's next of kin?”

  “Yes,” Tessa said.

  “We'll get some uniforms to do it. We
need all of us on this now.” He rubbed his eyes and fell back into his chair, his eyes never leaving the paper on his desk. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

  “I'd say that about covers it,” Danny said.

  ****

  Chapter 12

  Jennifer Higgins sat at her desk at Fairbanks Channel 10 news and scrolled through the police alerts on her desktop looking for something interesting to cover for her Emmy award winning “Crime Stoppers” feature. Of course, the fire at the Midnight Sun baseball game was still foremost in everyone's mind, but Jennifer was trying to find something everyone else wasn't already covering. Or an angle on the fire that fit the same criteria.

  Like most of the city, she had been at the game and seen the horrifying spectacle with her own eyes. Despite years as a reporter and experience covering heinous crimes both here in Fairbanks and in her home town of Juneau, Jennifer had never seen anything as terrifying as the fire that had consumed the jogger at the baseball game. She hadn't been able to rein in her shock and regain her composure enough to view the scene as a reporter instead of as a bystander, something she was still angry at herself about. She might have been able to reel in another Emmy for her on the scene coverage if she had only acted like a professional instead of a shocked and frightened baseball fan.

  She couldn't change that though and there was no point in dwelling on it. And no one even knew if the fire had been the result of a crime or simply a freak accident, so it was possible it didn't even fit her crime beat anyway.

  Jennifer knew the police had been called to Griffin Park earlier in the day due to the discovery of a body there, but when she'd tried to go to the scene they'd had access completely blocked and neither she nor any of the rest of the media had been able to get anywhere near the area in question. Still, she'd figure out what happened soon enough. They couldn't block her access to the coroner's office or to the uniformed cops who were always willing to spill a few secrets about the ongoing cases of their superiors while they were hanging around one of the local bars after work. Jennifer was an old hand at cajoling secrets out of men who had enough alcohol in them to loosen their tongues.

  For now though she had nothing and worse yet could find nothing of interest to follow up on and cover. She supposed she would have no choice but to fall back on ongoing coverage of the baseball game fire for her segment that evening. It may be for the best as no one in town was talking about anything else anyway.