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“Really?” Kate said. “How an earth did that happen?”
Erland allowed rage to darken his eyes, just enough to be convincing. “I don’t know, but I’m going to make it my business to find out.”
“If anyone can do that, Erland, you can,” Kate said.
The waiter served their entrees, and afterward they talked of other things-local politics, the cost of a week’s worth of groceries for a family of four now compared to ten years ago, the problems of shipping to Bush communities, Oliver’s most recent case (Erland wincing at the thought of the family’s only child of that generation in the business of turning criminals loose on the streets again, then saying, “But I have high hopes of enticing him into Dwyer, Watson, an estate-pla
For her part, Kate kept her lips parted in a constant gasp of wonder and admiration. She didn’t know how much of it Erland bought, but like all great men, he had an ego that was there to be stroked, and, needs must when the devil drives, Kate could stroke a male ego with the best of them.
She permitted him to walk her to the car, where they took fond leave of one another.
On the way home, she wondered if it had worked, if he was as smart as she thought he was. Lacking his resources, all she could do was lure him out of hiding, encourage him to show his hand in some way.
“You’re provoking him to attack, Kate,” Jim had said earlier, and she had replied, “I know. At this point, it’s all I can do.”
“You’re going to get yourself killed, goddamm it!”
His anger was enough to have her cruise past the town house once, checking for suspicious vehicles or activity, before she pulled into the driveway.
She lowered the garage door and went into the house. “Mutt?” she said. There was a muted, unidentifiable noise from the postage stamp-size piece of lawn that served as a backyard. Her skin prickled, and she slid along the wall to the window and looked out.
Kevin and Jordan had erected a tent and were currently occupying it with Mutt.
She opened the door. “Hey, guys.”
“Hey, Kate.”
“Your mom know you’re over here?”
“Sure,” Jordan said.
“Sure,” Kevin said.
“Wuff,” Mutt said.
Right. “Okay, but in the morning, we really have to talk. You got enough to eat?”
“Yes.”
“Want more blankets?”
“We’re using the sleeping bags from the garage.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Kate?”
“What?”
“Thanks.”
Don’t thank me, she thought.
She went into the kitchen and poured herself a Diet Sprite by the light of the refrigerator. When she closed the door again, Jim was standing there. Kate nearly jumped out of her skin.
“So?” he said. “How’d it go?”
“I didn’t know you were here. I didn’t see your car outside.”
“The guy I borrowed it from needed it back. How’d it go?”
Kate rolled her head, and he surprised her by turning her around to put his hands on her shoulders, whereupon he began to knead them.
“Oh yeah,” she said on a quiet exhalation.
“How’d it go?” he said for the third time.
“He’s pretty slick, is old Erland Ba
“How long are you going to stick around waiting to find out?”
“I don’t know that, either.” She gave the ghost of a laugh.
“What?”
“It turns out there is such a thing as too much information, and I’ve got it all. I just don’t know what the hell to do with any of it, and I still don’t know who burned down that house and killed that kid.”
“Even the governor stopped short of saying Victoria was i
“Oh God, yes,”“ she said, ”right there.“ She was silent for a moment. ”Then why kill Charlotte? There’s no point to her death if I wasn’t looking for who really killed William Muravieff. There’s no point to the murder of Eugene Muravieff and the attempted murder of Kurt Pletnikoff. Killing them was supposed to put me out of a job.“
“Those two goons were waiting to kill you, too.”
“Yeah, mat would be another way of discouraging me. Someone is tying up lose ends all over town. And Erland Ba
“Is what?”
“He’s just so damned smug.”
“I don’t think you can arrest someone for aggravated smugness, Kate.”
“His whole attitude is-it’s like he’s got all his exits covered, and he knows it, and he’s making sure I know it, so that there is nothing left for me to do but go home or…”
“Or?”
She thought of the party at Erland’s house. “Or stay here and join his herd.”
“”His herd‘?“
“You should have seen the people at his party. Talk about suck-ups, brow
His hands paused. “You turning this into some kind of class warfare, Kate?”
“What?” she said, her head whipping around. “No! What the hell are you talking about?”
“The Ba
It was so ridiculous, she laughed out loud. “No. That is not what this is about.”
Jim resisted an urge to cover his balls. “Well, then, how about race warfare?”
“What?”
“You heard me,” Jim said steadily, still kneading her shoulders. “Is there possibly a little bit of ‘us versus them’ going on here? The residue of three hundred years of white power?”
“You think this can be reduced to skin color?” Kate said hotly.
“No,” Jim said. “I don’t.”
There was another, longer silence. “Okay,” Kate said. “I heard you.”
Jim remained silent.
Kate glared at him. “Why are you still here, anyway?”
“I told you.” He mustered up a lazy grin. “I got your back on this one, Shugak.”
Never happy on the defensive, she was delighted to switch on the siren. “You sure that’s all it is?” she said, mimicking him. She leaned back against him, and smiled when she felt his erection settle into the crack of her ass.
He didn’t move away, but he said, “This has nothing to do with us.”
“Oh.” The gluteus maximus, properly employed, was a well-muscled instrument of torture.
He caught his breath. “Because there is no us.”
“No?”
“No. This is about you pissing off one of the most powerful men in Alaska, Kate, a man with his fingers tied to every Alaskan string there is. It won’t be long before he starts pulling those strings. If you’re determined to carry on with this, you’re going to need backup. I’d do the same for any friend in this situation.”
Kate smiled.
“I’ve got to pee,” Jim said.
“I ca
She followed him up the stairs, unbuttoning the glittering red jacket. He came out of the bathroom as she walked into the bedroom.
“You know,” Kate said, “from the begi
Her skin was firm and smooth and a pale brown that had turned its usual gold after a summer spent outdoors, but it was thirty-five-year-old skin, no getting around it, with at least the hint of squint lines at the corners of her eyes and laugh lines at the corners of her mouth. Her eyes were the sort of indeterminate hazel that could seem anything from gray to green, depending on where she was and what she was wearing. She examined her temples. Still black as an October night, but it wouldn’t be long. She raised her chin and looked at her throat. Nope, she would never be mistaken for sixteen again.