A Grave Denied

Joh

“Really. So why did Grant Glacier thrust forward?”

“No one knows why it happens. Last year all of a sudden Grant pushed forward, right over the top of Grant Lake, you know the lake at the edge of the glacier? Ms. Doogan said you couldn’t hardly see the lake at all.”

“When did it move forward?” Kate said.

“July.” Joh

“Dan O’Brian would,” Kate said. “When did it move back?”

“When did the glacier start receding again, you mean?” Joh

“Dan would know that, too,” Kate said.

Joh

Kate shrugged. “It’s a theory. A crevasse somewhere up on the surface would be better, but I’d guess humping the body of a full-grown man up on top of a glacier, no matter how small that glacier is, wouldn’t be all that easy. Or exactly inconspicuous. How big a deal was it when the glacier jumped forward? Did everybody know about it? Did people in the Park go up to gawk?”

“I don’t know.” Joh

“And you’re thinking that puts a date on when the body was left there,” Kate said.

“Why not?” Joh

“And you’re also thinking that the murderer wouldn’t have waited too long after he or she had killed Dreyer to dispose of the body.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So what you’re saying is, we could narrow down the time of death if we looked up the dates the glacier was moving forward.”

“It wouldn’t be exact,” Joh

“But it’s a place to start.” Kate sipped more coffee. “Not bad, Morgan. We’ll make a detective of you yet.”

He gri

“You’re welcome.” She was sorry to erase the grin from his face but there was no helping it. “So how long were you thinking of staying up here?”

And there went the grin, to be replaced by a straight, stubborn line with a chin very much in evidence. “As long as it takes.”

Kate nodded. “I see. Well, you’ll be eighteen in four years and no longer a minor, at which time you can tell your mother to take a hike.” She looked around at his camp. “I guess you could stay up here that long.”

He looked a

Kate laughed a little, and held up a hand when she saw his expression change again. “I’m not laughing at you, Joh

“She thinks you broke her and Dad up.”

“I didn’t.”

“I know that. She and Dad were way over when he brought you home that first time. You didn’t have anything to do with them. I know that, Kate. I don’t know why she doesn’t know it, too.”

They contemplated the fire together in silence for a moment. “She’s not a monster, Joh

“You mean she didn’t want him back until somebody else had him? But that’s so dumb!”

“Maybe. It’s human, though.” She looked at Joh

“But I want to be here!”

“That just rubs salt into the wound, Joh

“She’s no parent,” he said hotly. “She doesn’t care about what’s best for me, she never cared. I was just something to fight over with Dad. I was like… like… I was like Dad’s allowance.”

“Allowance?”

“Yeah, allowance. If I did all my chores at Dad’s, he’d give me my allowance. If he did everything she wanted him to, he got me.” He ducked his head, and his voice dropped to a mutter. “I heard them fighting about it one night, late, back when I was a kid. They thought I was asleep. She’d been out and she’d dropped me off at his house, and when she came to get me he wanted to know where she’d been and why she didn’t call if she knew she was going to be so late. She started yelling at him, saying she’d given him the kid he wanted, and if he thought she owed him anything else he was wrong.”

Kate listened in silence, her heart wrung for the boy. Her parents had given up hope she’d ever come along and when she had, they had loved her unconditionally. Even with Abel, as crusty and undemonstrative as he had been, she had known that he had cared.

“She never wanted me, Kate,” he said, his voice low. “She never cared. If she did, she’d have listened when I told her I didn’t want to go Outside. I could have stood it in Anchorage, so long as I got to visit you once in a while.” He paused. “Well, I think I could have. But she wouldn’t listen, she just put me on a plane.” He looked at her. “She doesn’t want me, and she doesn’t know me or what I want. I don’t owe her anything.”

Kate, who knew a lot more about the wrath Jane had visited upon Jack’s head than she was letting on, didn’t have an answer for him that wouldn’t make him feel worse. Whatever indifference he showed to the world, Jane was his mother. Kate’s mother had died when Kate was very young and Kate’s grandmother had been the dominant female figure in her life. Even now, two years after Emaa’s death, Kate still wondered if her grandmother had loved her for herself or because her grandmother saw her as someone with enough strength and ability to follow Emaa into the leadership of their tribe.

She said, “Joh

He bristled. “Why not? I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t. I said I didn’t want you to. I want you to come on back down to the cabin. Tomorrow we’ll lay out the foundation of yours.”

“Ifs better if I stay here. That way if she comes-”

“If she comes, we’ll deal with it. I don’t want you up here alone. I’d worry about you.”

“I’ve got your rifle.”

“You won’t when I leave.”

“I can shoot! Dad taught me!”

“I know, but I haven’t checked you out on this particular rifle myself yet. Not to mention which…” Kate took a deep breath. “Joh

“Huh?”

“I don’t want you to learn that ru