“It’s on the other side of the river.” She inhaled and nodded. “But yes. Fairly close.”
“So, if he took the body on the boat—”
“Like we thought, the body would’ve likely been discovered on a bank nearby by now. With the low water levels in places, something would’ve snagged it.”
“Let’s explore the theory that this is about the gold claims,” Sean said. “The ad indicates there would be proof of mined gold.”
“Olivia—I mean, Francine—could’ve stolen the gold for him.” Ivy’s eyes widened. “Maybe she double-crossed him and decided to run off with the gold instead of letting him use it to swindle some buyers.”
“You think he was planning to pass off the stolen gold as gold recently found, even though the claims are actually dry.” Helena tapped her finger on her chin. “If our suspect thinks he can scam someone out of two million dollars, that’s motive for murder and reason enough to stick around until a sale,” she said. “Let’s keep working this angle.”
Sean paced the space in front of the door, with Grace by his side. He often had his best ideas while moving around. “What if the body was buried somewhere on the land he currently owns?”
“He doesn’t own the land, though. Only the claims.” Ivy shrugged. “But it’s not like anyone is living on the land, so it would be deserted.”
Hope rose and quickly crashed. “If he’s strategic about where he buried the body, it’s possible it could never be discovered.”
“Perhaps. But if he doesn’t know the area well enough, then the body will be discovered on its own during the summer.”
“What?” Sean stopped pacing and tried to decipher what she’d just said. He remembered the way the food kept cold underneath the bunker. “Permafrost?”
“Exactly. You can only dig about two feet before hitting rock-hard permafrost. Even the cemetery in town has to use an excavator. If it’s not buried deep enough when the warm months hit the top layer, some frost melts and the waterlogged soil lifts up...” She shrugged. “Well, let’s just say they’ve learned how deep they need to dig to prevent unpleasant surprises.”
Sean didn’t want to imagine that scenario. “But the riverbank has trees, so the soil there must be softer.”
“Except the river surges every spring.” Ivy tapped the map. “Ice chunks float toward the sea but get caught up all the time. Flooding is inevitable. Unless the murderer was fine with risking the body appearing after winter—”
“Which he wouldn’t be if there was a way to trace him after the sale of the gold claims,” Helena said. “If he had shown up with the jar of gold and sold the claims, there’d be no way to prove he scammed the buyers out of their money. Gold dredges flop all the time. It’s a known risk.”
Ivy gasped. “I should’ve realized.”
“What?”
“On the opposite side of the river is the abandoned townsite I told you about. Even though it’s not recommended, a number of foolhardy tourists try to drive across. Nome keeps an excavator over there specifically to help pull stuck tourists out. The gold claim intersects close to where they keep the excavator.”
“Is it possible the suspect is hiding out somewhere on the thousand acres?” Helena asked. “The ad mentioned a camp.”
Sean joined Ivy at the map. “I need to get Grace there. Time to be foolhardy and try to get across that river, too.”
Ivy glanced at him. “Good thing you used to be married to an expert.”
* * *
Ivy reversed and maneuvered the SUV for a third time. Grace grumbled a warbly commentary. “I don’t need back-seat drivers, Grace.”
“Welcome to my world,” Sean said, laughing.
“It’s imperative to get the best entry and exit points of the river for a crossing. Put Helena on the radio and make sure she follows my exact wheel movements as she follows us.” Ivy geared up right to the edge of the gravel and thought through her technique. She’d already disconnected the fan belts in both vehicles and checked the air intake to ensure water wouldn’t flood the engines.
The river’s water levels were constantly fluctuating as well as the currents, developing class one and two rapids at various times of the year. At the moment, the waterway seemed calm with ripples over the rocks. “I think the murderer knows the area well.”
“Something new convince you?”
“All of this is happening after September fifteenth, when fishing is no longer allowed. You won’t see locals from nearby villages rafting down here anymore.” She accelerated and felt the give in the steering wheel as she moved slow and steady through the waters, watching the bow wave move from front to back. “Tell Helena to take a sharp turn left after the rock on the right.” They swayed side to side with the movement, driving over rocks below the surface.
Sean parroted her instructions on the radio as she reached the other side of the river. “You want to tell her anything else?”
“Gas up slow and steady up the incline. Stop immediately once out of the water.”
Ivy parked at a diagonal, ensuring Helena had space to get past the mud, and hopped out. Rivulets poured out from the wheelbases like mini waterfalls. Stopping so soon helped prevent erosion of the exit point. She reattached both the fan belts and made quick work to get them driving again. Once again, the day was moving faster than anticipated.
Her thoughts drifted to her little boy. Even with an unmarked patrol car keeping an eye on the house where Minnie watched Dylan, none of it settled her nerves. She fought to keep her focus on what was right in front of her because Sean would be leaving tomorrow. Except he didn’t know that she knew. She’d always teased him that he didn’t know how to properly whisper, and it seemed Helena shared the same affliction.
He was being ordered home.
She’d be alone. Again. And Dylan wouldn’t have Sean to pick him up and smile at him and play his harmonica...
She swallowed against the tightness in her throat. With his departure, her chances of being able to keep Dylan while a crazed man was still after her would dwindle. Her nose began to burn. Helena said the other troopers would take over her case, but they wouldn’t spend every waking minute making sure Ivy and Dylan were safe. The least she could do was adopt that husky. Then Dylan would have a dog and a live security system.
She pulled up to the side of the abandoned warehouse where the excavator was parked.
“Stay in the vehicle, please. I’ll only be a moment.” Sean leaned forward as if to give her a quick peck goodbye and froze, inches from her lips. His eyes widened and he reached his hand out to tap the steering wheel. “Uh, I guess I don’t need the keys. Be right back.” He jumped out of the vehicle and released Grace to run by his side.
Ivy sat stunned. He had been about to kiss her. As if they were married again, like part of a daily routine to kiss his wife every time he said hi and goodbye. Ivy’s pulse hammered against her chest. Her imagination could be exaggerating. She flicked the key ignition to roll down the driver’s-side window for some air.
“Look at the control panel.” Helena’s voice carried. “I’d guess someone hot-wired this recently.”
Grace trotted to the portion with the claw and bucket. The dog sat down and stared at Sean. “She alerted,” Ivy whispered aloud.
Sean and Helena ran back to the vehicles, their dogs beside them. He stopped at the door. “I’d like to drive now. Grace has the scent and she pointed north.”
“To the mining claims.” Ivy ran around to the passenger door, and within seconds, Sean gunned the SUV down a gravel path, past several buildings. A glimpse of something red caught her peripheral vision, and she twisted to find an ATV with a helmeted driver sitting, watching them. “Sean...there!”
He glanced in his mirror and slammed on his brakes. The ATV revved and turned due north on a gravel road, kicking up mud as it vaulted up and over a hill. Sean
hit the radio button. “It might just be a joyride coincidence, but it’s too suspicious not to at least ask a few questions.”
He flipped on his sirens, but the ATV made no signs of stopping. After half a mile, the path abruptly stopped. Sean hit his palm against the dash. “Is this really another dead end?”
Ivy strained to look out the window. “No. Tracks in the tundra due northwest.” She hesitated a second to get her bearings and confirm they were where she thought. “He’s heading directly to that set of mining claims.”
Sean gunned the vehicle northwest. The radio squawked. “I’m calling for backup,” Helena said. “Let’s hope we have some off-road support available to join us.”
Ivy tensed, gripping the handle on the ceiling of the SUV, as they bounced over a particularly rocky terrain. “Sean, there are so many creeks in the area the ground is unreliable. It can be rocky, then covered in brush, then suddenly go sof—”
“Got it.”
She wasn’t so sure he really understood the unique natures of tundra. While much drier than the spring, there were still marshes and bogs. Her teeth chattered at the speed he was navigating, following the ATV’s path. They rounded a foothill and the ATV was in their sights.
“Can you tell if it’s him?” Sean asked, his focus never veering from the windshield, a challenge considering the increasing mud splatters. She squinted at the retreating form but had no way of knowing how tall a man was when he was sitting and bouncing over rough terrain. The black helmet covered all signs of his hair color, and they were too far away to notice his shoes.
“No,” she said. “I’m sorry.” They drove parallel with a creek on their left and a creek on their right, roughly six hundred feet apart. Worrisome. She wondered if Sean noticed as well, but as long as he was careful to stay on firm ground and the two creeks didn’t intersect anytime soon, they should be okay. The ATV driver twisted to see them and changed direction suddenly, veering up and over another hill and disappearing. Sean accelerated and mud spattered the side windows, obscuring their visibility.
“Sean, maybe we should wait for—” Gravity took hold, and they dropped several feet. A scream escaped her at the sudden plunge. Grace barked until the vehicle stilled.
Sean turned to her, white as a sheet. “What just happened?”
“I think the ground just gave way.” She pressed her forehead against the window and found the mud had already risen up to the middle of her door. “We’re stuck in a mud hole.”
Sean glanced in the rearview mirror. “We’ve lost Helena!” He grabbed the radio. “Helena? Are you okay?”
“Yes. Popped a tire before you rounded that last bend.”
“We’ve lost him, but we will need a tow truck.”
Ivy shook her head. “You need the dozer. It’s the only thing with enough power to pull us out, just like the tourists who get themselves in trouble. Ask for Max. He volunteers his time to do this.” She dropped her forehead in her hands. As soon as the locals got word she needed saving like this, she would never live it down.
Sean gritted out the request. They sat in awkward silence for a minute, though he was constantly twisting in his seat, presumably trying to come up with another solution.
“Dispatch said they had already called Max on standby when I asked for backup here,” Helena relayed through the radio. “Guess it’s common to get stuck.”
“I should have known better,” Ivy said with a groan. She’d worked so hard to get accepted as a true local instead of the transplant she’d first been considered. “ATVs are easier to get unstuck without calling in help. I shouldn’t have encouraged you to follow him.”
Sean tilted his chin to look straight up as if he could see into the sky. “It’s not your fault. I really thought we had him.”
“I know,” she said softly.
“This whole faith thing can get hard to keep up when I see so many bad things happening around me. I try to stop it and...” He leaned his head against the backrest. “I thought this whole relationship-with-God thing would mean life would go a little more in my favor.”
“I know.” Ivy sighed. “I pretty much complained the same sentiment to Minnie a couple months back.”
He raised his left eyebrow, always the left one when he was surprised. “Did she have any words of wisdom?”
The memory made her laugh. “She said as long as I’ve already made my requests known to Him, I try not to complain with the same mouth and lungs He created for me.” Ivy tapped her knee. “The rest I can’t quote verbatim. It was classic Minnie. Maybe I’m not mature enough in my faith, because it’s still pretty hard to remember that I’m not alone.”
The last word caused her voice to crack. Sean eyed her, as if suspicious of the cause.
“Sean, I should tell—”
“Ivy, there’s something—”
The use of each other’s names when they’d simultaneously spoken caused them both to stare at each other. “You first?” she asked.
A gunshot suddenly rang out and the impact hit the window. A white circular bit of plastic bulged inside, and the glass fractured around it like a spiderweb. Grace’s bark stung her eardrum. She flinched and pressed back into the seat. Then another bullet hit the windshield, and she sent a panicked look Sean’s way.
“Don’t worry. The windows are bulletproof.” He grabbed his radio. “Under fire! Need assistance. Now!”
Helena replied, but Ivy couldn’t make out anything she said because of Grace’s barking. Two more bullets impacted the shield. Nothing but white on the windshield now, and the plastic-looking layer warped inside.
Her insides shook involuntarily. She kept telling herself Sean was right. It was bulletproof, but it was hard to stop flinching.
“Grace, quiet!” The dog whined but obeyed Sean’s order. He clicked the side of the radio. “ETA?”
“Dispatch says five more minutes, and I’m changing my tire. Hang on,” Helena said.
The color in his face drained as he slowly put the radio back in its holder. The glass pinged with three more shots. He reached for Ivy’s hand.
She wrapped her fingers around his, and the tension around her gut eased slightly. “How many bullets can this withstand?”
He squeezed her fingers, then quickly released. “Five,” he whispered. He moved his hand to the gun on his holster.
“He’s already shot more than that!”
“Stay in the vehicle with Grace.” His voice sounded strangled.
“But you can’t even open the door.”
He nodded and pressed the button to roll down the window.
ELEVEN
Sean’s heart pounded in his chest. He should’ve never admitted to knowing how many bullets the window was certified to withstand. “It’s the minimum amount. Don’t worry.” He didn’t have time to see if she believed him. He was worrying enough for the both of them. The layers of glass and plastic that molded together to absorb the impact of each bullet made it impossible to see out the windshield. Add the mud splatters to the mix on the side windows, and he felt blind. The shooting had stopped, which meant there was a possibility the ATV driver was approaching. Sean couldn’t let that happen.
The driver’s-side window rolled down enough for the breeze to hit him fully in the face. He planted his elbow on the window seal and used it as a pivot point to launch up and out of the car, instantly training his weapon to the west, where he’d last seen the ATV. The sun reflected off the black shield of the helmet, the driver pointing his weapon in his direction. Sean didn’t hesitate. He shot three bullets. The driver twisted and dived off the ATV. Had he hit his mark?
Sirens reached his ears, but he couldn’t afford to look back and see how far away Helena was. He kept his weapon trained on the driver. He really needed to get out of the vehicle to get a better shot and approach.
“State Troopers,” Helena’s voic
e announced through the megaphone-speaker function of the SUV radio. “Put your weapon down!”
The driver popped up on one knee with his arm raised. He wasn’t surrendering. Sean fired two more shots. At this distance, no wonder he was missing. He could barely make out his form. The driver jumped up and hopped back on his ATV.
A car door slammed. Grace whined and scratched at the back door. The ATV engine revved and took off up and over a hill and vaulted over a creek. Luna took off like a shot, her legs extending and recoiling like a powerful spring. She was practically flying, but Sean knew in his gut that the driver was too far off for her to catch him.
A knock at Ivy’s window caused them both to flinch. He twisted enough, still hanging partly out of the window, to see Helena gesture on the other side of the hood. “I see now why some people call it mudding instead of four-wheeling.”
Ivy rolled down her window. Grace whined again. Taking pity on her, Sean lowered the back window. The K-9 immediately jumped out and nuzzled her nose underneath his neck, a sure sign she was worried. He rarely ever had to unholster his gun, as that, in and of itself, was considered a use of force. Discharging his weapon was something Grace had only seen him do at the ranges. Working discoveries typically meant the majority of the danger had passed already. Though, given the last few months with the number of traps and assignments he’d been sent on with the team, he was starting to feel there was no longer any normal.
He shimmied his entire body out the window. The wet mud seeped through his pants as he hopped up to standing. Luna was trotting back their way. Helena helped pull Ivy out of the vehicle without Ivy having to sit in the mud as he had. At least there was that. He’d made a bad call pursuing in that way on the unstable terrain. He’d been so desperate.
Why can’t You let me catch him? Don’t You want Ivy safe? What possible priority could You have that outweighs stopping this man, Lord? He blew out a breath and patted his K-9 partner’s head. “Good girl, Grace.” Eli had told him that when the job weighed him down, he had to remember to make his requests known but then acknowledge he wasn’t God and move on. That was basically what Minnie was trying to tell Ivy, wasn’t it? Just with different words. Saying it sure was easier than living it. Lord, please help someone—even if it’s not me—catch this guy.
Arctic Witness Page 13
