by Edie Claire
She answered a few more of her mother’s questions mechanically, packing clothes into her suitcase as she talked. But one question stopped her.
“I just don’t know what we’re going to do about Tim,” Michelle lamented. “Do you have any ideas?”
Visions of last night’s insanity rushed back into Haley’s head. “Mom, there is nothing we can do. There is nothing we should do. Tim is a good guy. They’ll work it out themselves.”
“How can you be so sure?” Michelle asked. “I have to wonder how well any of us really know him. After what he said about… Well, you know. How can Micah ever forgive something like that?”
Haley rubbed her face in her hands. The inappropriateness of the situation wasn’t entirely her mother’s fault. When it came to personal matters, Micah had always been overeager to share. It was Micah, after all, who demanded that both Haley and their mother gather in the couple’s apartment while they awaited the early results from the amniocentesis. The tension between Micah and Tim had been unbearable, both before and after the results came in. The drama that unfolded was so bitter that, despite what she’d just told her mother, Haley had indeed begun to question whether the couple’s marriage could survive the strain.
“He’s hard on her, you know,” Michelle commented.
“She’s hard on him, Mom,” Haley countered, regretting the words even as she said them. She could not allow herself to be sucked any further into her sister’s woes. The mere thought of it brought up images of drowning in quicksand.
“Haley!” her mother chastised. “You’re not seriously taking his side? How could you?”
“Of course I’m not taking his side,” Haley said quickly, knowing every word she said would be transmitted back to Micah within the hour. “I’m not taking sides, period. I’m just saying that I think we should stay out of it. Okay?”
“I’m only trying to be supportive of your sister,” Michelle responded with a sulk. “Is that so wrong?”
Haley shut her suitcase. She picked up the phone. “I know you love Micah, Mom. So do I. But I have to go, now. I’ll let you know when I get to Anchorage, all right?”
There was a pause. “So, how are you getting to the airport?”
“Tim offered to drop me off.”
“He’s in favor of your taking this trip?”
“He doesn’t seem to object, no.”
Michelle harrumphed. “Well, he wouldn’t, would he?”
Haley stifled another urge to scream. “I really have to go now, Mom. Love you. Bye!”
She waited long enough to hear an answering farewell, then shut off her phone altogether.
Just one more day, she told herself, fighting back the dark feelings that had been clawing at the edges of her psyche for weeks now. She had done it. She was going to escape.
She was going to feel better soon.
She had to.
***
“You want me to help you with that?” Tim asked uncertainly as Haley reached into his trunk to pull out her bag. She stopped, then straightened and looked at him. Her brother-in-law was an inch shorter than she was and weighed about the same. Ordinarily, she would not think twice about hefting her own suitcase around, even if it did weigh close to fifty pounds. But she wasn’t supposed to be doing that sort of thing anymore, was she? Not when she was four months’ pregnant.
“Sure,” she replied awkwardly.
Tim smiled at her and pulled out the suitcase. Then he dragged it up over the curb and extended its handle toward her. The sound of a jet taking off blasted over their heads.
“Thanks for the ride,” Haley said once the noise quieted. “And thanks for… well, you know.”
Tim’s lips twisted with chagrin. When Micah had freaked out about Haley’s leaving once again just this morning, Tim had immediately come to his sister-in-law’s defense — a selfless act he would undoubtedly pay for later. “You deserve some time away, Haley,” he said softly. “Micah knows that. She just can’t help the worrying. In her finer moments, she really does want you to relax and have a good time. We both do.”
“Thank you,” Haley said sincerely. She liked her brother-in-law. He was sweet, unassuming, and on the timid side, which set him in sharp contrast to the sea of aggressive lawyers and business moguls she generally associated with. More important, he was hopelessly, desperately in love with her sister.
God help him.
“We owe you more than we could ever say,” Tim continued earnestly. “I know Micah expects you back in a week, but as far as I’m concerned, you should stay as long as you need to. I know that—” he broke off with a guilty look. “I know that she hasn’t been making this easy for you. And lately, neither have I.” His face bore a tortured expression. “I’m sorry, Haley. About everything.”
Haley felt a twist in her gut. He and her sister should be in a good place right now. They were expecting a baby. Finally. After so many years of trying. When Haley had conceived, they’d been over the moon. Then came the prenatal testing.
“It’s not your fault,” Haley assured, meaning it. She might disagree with some of her brother-in-law’s opinions, but she didn’t fault him for being human. The results of the chorionic villus sampling they had received the month before had been devastating. The unexpected news had scared the hell out of Tim, and he had reacted accordingly. If her sister had only given him the time and space he needed to work through his emotions, things might have turned out differently. But there was no explaining that to Micah. Micah was inconsolable.
“Thanks for saying that,” he replied uncomfortably. He looked at his watch. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No,” Haley answered. “I’m good.”
“If you think of anything later, call me,” he insisted. “I mean it, Haley. Anything you need.”
He opened the door of his car and began to get in, but turned to say one more thing. The sound of another jet taking off drowned out his words, but she could read his lips. And his eyes. Enjoy yourself.
She smiled back. “I intend to.”
Chapter 3
The view out the plane window took Haley’s breath away. She had flown over the dry, endlessly brown peaks and valleys of the West many times, and some of them had been capped with snow. But never had she seen mountains like these. Glistening white peaks reached high into the clouds, snow-covered from tip to foot, with ribbons of white flowing from their bases and curling down into the icy sea. No signs of human habitation, past or present, marred the forbidding landscape. Every aspect of the mountains’ cold white beauty declared a simple message: This is no place for humans.
Move along, and let us be.
Haley smiled. She was only too glad to heed that warning. She felt privileged even to see such splendor. She had no desire to conquer it.
She continued to gaze out the window as the plane began its descent toward Anchorage. Misty clouds rose up to shroud her view, and she realized her heart was thudding loudly. This was real. She was here.
What here looked like, however, she could only guess. Increasingly heavy clouds hugged the windows all the way to the tarmac, and as the plane taxied to its gate, large droplets of water streaked the Plexiglas and bounced off the wings and pavement below.
The woman beside Haley groaned and pulled on a jacket. “Well, I guess we can say goodbye to the sun for a while.” She shook her head and made an announcement to no one in particular. “Why anybody would live anywhere but California is a mystery to me!”
Haley smiled noncommittally and turned back to the window. Rain. She might not like it all the time, but right now, it looked pretty damn beautiful.
She took her time collecting her bag and moving through the terminal to the car rental desks, admiring the decor along the way. The airport was themed with native art and life-sized figures of wildlife, including bears and giant red fish she assumed must be salmon. Within an hour she was sitting behind the wheel of a rental car with the city of Anchorage spread out before her.
At least, she assumed the city was out there. The rain was coming down so hard she could barely see beyond the next stoplight, and the mountains she had longed to glimpse seemed to have disappeared entirely. Nevertheless, her spirits remained high as she plodded through the traffic with her carefully marked-up printout lying across her knees. Her first stop, as planned, would be her uncle’s boat dealership. Beyond that, she had no plans. She might make her way on to Seward tonight. She might not. For the first time in as long as she could remember, no one else was counting on her to do anything in particular.
Sweet.
She found her uncle’s boat shop in an industrial-looking area a block away from a small lake. Taku Lake Boat Sales, Inc. consisted of an older-looking square brick building fronting the street and a newer warehouse-type structure behind it. Both were attached by tall chain-link fences to a sprawling lot filled with various-sized boats, boat parts, and trailers. Haley pulled into the gravel area in front of the brick building, got out of her car, and ran to the door.
Heavy rain pelted her as she moved, quickly soaking through the lightweight jacket she now realized was useless as a raincoat. By the time she pulled open the door and hustled inside, her hair was plastered to her face and she could already feel the moisture soaking through her shirt.
“Coming down good out there, isn’t it?” a male voice boomed from behind the service desk.
Haley looked up to see a man in his late fifties step out and come toward her, smiling with amusement. He was tall and heavy-set, with a full head of bushy white hair and an impressive beer belly neatly enclosed in an oversized polo shirt.
“You could say that,” Haley responded, studying him. His voice sounded familiar. “Are you Ed Miller?”
His eyes lost a bit of their twinkle. “I am. You’re Randy’s niece?”
She nodded and extended a hand. “Haley Olson. It’s nice to meet you.”
Ed shook her hand, all signs of his previous jocularity now absent. “I’m sorry about your uncle.”
“I should tell you that I’m sorry,” Haley replied, feeling awkward. “I only met my uncle once that I can remember, and that was a lifetime ago.”
Ed gave a solemn nod. He gestured for her to follow, then led her back behind the service counter to a cluttered office area, where he motioned her to a chair. He opened a locked desk drawer and pulled out a ring of keys. “It’s going to take a while for everything to get through probate, like I said on the phone,” he explained solemnly. “But the sooner you and your sister decide whether you want to sell his place, the sooner I can get things moving. As for whatever personal property he has out there, if you don’t want to auction it off, you’ll have to decide how to split things between the two of you. I had an estate company look at what he left in the apartment upstairs, but they said there wasn’t enough value to cover an auction, so unless there’s something you want, I’ll be donating it to charity. I don’t really know what he’s got out at Seward. He used to have a four-wheeler, but last I heard, it was busted. His truck and his boats he didn’t own outright. They belong to the business.”
“I understand,” Haley replied.
Ed sat back in his chair and exhaled heavily. “I feel bad I haven’t gotten out there yet. I need to go, at least to pick up the truck. It’s just… well, I’ll be honest with you. The way he died…” he shuddered slightly. “I just haven’t been up to facing it.”
Haley sat up. “The way he died?” she repeated. As next of kin, she and her sister had been notified of their uncle’s death by the medical examiner’s office. But she hadn’t thought about where or how his heart attack might have occurred.
Ed lowered his eyes and squirmed. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought they would have told you.”
“Told me what?” Haley insisted. “He died of a heart attack, didn’t he?”
Ed’s eyebrows lifted. “Really? A heart attack? Well, I… I guess that makes sense.”
Haley cheeks flushed with heat. What wasn’t he telling her? “The only information we received was the official cause of death. We were told the date it happened and we were given your name as the executor, and that’s it. Is there more we should know?”
Ed’s expression clouded. His body tensed. “Well… all I know is what the state troopers told me that night. Randy had driven up there planning to stay just two days, and when he didn’t come back to work on the third, I figured something must have happened. His phone was going straight to voice mail, but that didn’t mean anything. The reception up there’s next to worthless. I knew he had landlines in the cabins, though, so I looked in his desk and got the number for the one he’s got rented, and I called the tenant. That guy said he hadn’t seen him since the day before, but he’d go take a look. Next thing I know, the state patrol’s calling to tell me Randy’s dead.”
Ed’s voice didn’t waver, but the mistiness in his eyes made Haley sure that he’d been genuinely fond of his business partner. “When I asked what happened,” he continued, “the trooper said they didn’t know for sure. They found his body out by the back door of the house, lying on the ground. He’d been dead for a while. There was—”
His voice cracked.
Haley remained silent.
“They said the body had been mauled by something,” he continued after a moment, his voice grim. “So they called Fish and Game, and Fish and Game told them that Randy had just called them the day before complaining about a nuisance bear.”
Haley’s blood ran cold. The man could not be serious.
“Fish and Game was supposed to go check it out,” Ed said softly. “But I never heard what they found. I never heard any more about it. When I called the state patrol back they told me they didn’t know anything conclusive and that it was up to the medical examiner’s office to rule on cause of death.”
Haley sat still for a moment, stunned. “They told me it was a heart attack,” she repeated.
Ed nodded stiffly. “Well. That’s a comfort, then. Maybe it wasn’t—” He broke off and shook his head. “Just be careful out there, all right? Maybe give Fish and Game a call. If they think a particular bear’s a risk, you know, they’ll shoot it.” He stood up and extended the ring of keys toward Haley. As she rose with him and reached out to accept it, she realized her hand was shaking. She steadied it.
“Everything you need should be on there,” Ed continued. “That’s the ring he had on him at the house. The police brought it to me and I took off the boat keys and the ones to the business. I’m not sure what all else is on there. I’m assuming the house and the cabins. There’s one for the four-wheeler, and looks like a couple padlock keys.”
A bell dinged in the front room.
“When can I expect you back?” he asked.
Haley struggled to keep the current conversation in focus. “I’ll be in Alaska a week,” she managed. “I don’t know when I’ll be back in Anchorage. Can I call and let you know?”
He nodded and took a step toward the door. “That’s fine. You have my number. I need to check on this customer now, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” she agreed, moving with him back out into the front room. “I’ll be in touch.”
They exchanged a final thank you and goodbye, and Ed turned his attention to the two older men waiting for him at the service counter. Haley opened the door and stepped outside into the pouring rain.
Mauled.
She ran to her car, jumped in, and started the ignition.
“He died of a heart attack,” she told herself firmly, slipping out of her drenched jacket and cranking up the heat. Her uncle had not been mauled to death by a bear. If he had, why wouldn’t the medical examiner’s office have told her that? And wouldn’t such a story have been on the local news, where Ed would have heard it? It was nonsense. Her uncle had been found right behind his own house, after all, not hiking off in the bush somewhere.
She looked at her watch. She still had plenty of time to get to Seward.
If she w
anted to.
Her phone vibrated. She pulled it out of her bag with a growing dread.
Two more texts from Micah. Four from her mother.
I’m so glad you have reception! Micah chirped. Tell me everything!
Should we set up a schedule for when you’re going to check in? Her mother inquired. Maybe every couple hours? I just talked to a woman whose daughter went into labor at 22 weeks and the baby died! Did you remember to pack your vitamins?
Haley closed her eyes and breathed slowly for a minute. Then she stuffed her phone back into her bag and pulled out her maps of the Seward Highway.
Ed had said that her uncle’s house had no reception.
She would take her chances with the bear.
Chapter 4
The rain continued steadily as Haley made her way out of Anchorage and onto the Seward Highway. The wide, shallow waters of Cook Inlet spread out to her right, while to her left, steep rocky bluffs towered above the road. Snow-capped mountains almost certainly lurked in the distance behind the clouds, but she could catch only glimpses of them as she concentrated on driving safely down the snaking two-lane road.
An hour later the highway left the water and began to slope gently up into a green valley labeled as the Chugach Mountains. Haley’s mood lightened as the rain slowed to a trickle, permitting her first breathtaking views of lush forests, green peaks, and soaring white mountains beyond. The traffic thinned considerably as she drove, and for long moments she enjoyed a rare sensation of being the only human in sight. Almost too soon, she neared the outskirts of Seward.
She reached for the directions to her uncle’s cabin, then checked her watch. Blinking a double-take, she turned to stare out at the sky. Despite the clouds, it was still light out. She would have guessed it was late in the afternoon. But it was actually well into the evening.
