Polar (Book 1): Polar Night (21 page)

Chapter 52

“How can you just dismiss this?”
Danny asked, trying unsuccessfully to keep his voice calm.

Captain Jack Meyer stared at him, trying to remain calm himself. He was no more successful than Danny.

“Danny, didn’t I tell you to take a break?”

“I did!”

“By going to Seattle and sticking your nose in one of their cases?”

“No, god-dammit, I told you I didn’t go to Seattle. I was in Sitka and got a phone call from an old FBI contact. He told me about the Seattle case. Have you been listening to me at all?”

Meyer waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “I’ve been listening to as much as I can stand.”

“What the hell is the problem?”

“The problem? I don’t know; where do you want me to start? How about with the fact that I helped you get a warrant to search this Snow Creek place you’re so obsessed with, and you couldn’t find a damn thing. Or, how about that I’ve got enough cases of my own to deal with without worrying about a missing Seattle teenager. If that’s not enough for you, you’re really stretching to try and tie this Seattle kid to your missing women here. And while we’re at it, it would have been nice of you to let me know you’d involved the FBI in our cases. Why the hell did you call the FBI anyway?”

Danny scowled. If he told Meyer he had been looking at cases from nearly 100 years ago, he’d surely lose his badge and be sent to the psych unit before the day was over. “I just asked him to run a check to see if he could find any cases that were similar to Maria and Anna.” He decided to go on the offensive. “I’d call that good police work. Didn’t think you’d have a problem with it.”

Meyer refused to take the bait. “The problem I have is that you didn’t tell me you’d involved the FBI. Makes me wonder what the hell else you’ve been up to that you haven’t bothered to share. But really, that’s the least of our issues. How can you possibly justify meddling in a Seattle case?”

“Because I know it’s connected to ours.”

“Right. Because a teenager in Seattle is obviously connected to two women in Alaska. Are you going to track down every case of missing blond women and girls in the whole country and try to pin them all on this guy in Coldfoot? Why stop there? Surely there must be some missing blonds in Europe you can search for too?”

“How can you ignore the fact that all three of them were at Snow Creek before they disappeared?”

“I’m not ignoring it. I supported you when you got the warrant to go up there. But you didn’t find anything, Danny. How can YOU just keep ignoring that fact?”

“Because I know Nechayev is guilty.”

Meyer shook his head. “Jesus Christ.”

“He just got Katie Bailey. I need to go to Snow Creek again. Last time, he had plenty of time to hide Maria or do God knows what with her. Now, he’d be caught off guard.”

“You know as well as I do that you can’t harass this guy again. We’ve got nothing on him. And, by all accounts, he hasn’t bothered a soul in Coldfoot or anywhere else up there, and has been nothing but a responsible business owner.”

“He’s a hell of a lot more than a business owner. He’s a kidnapper and, most likely, a murderer too.”

“Because you say so.”

“Because I know so.”

The Captain circled around his desk to his chair, where he sat down with a sigh. “Danny, I know your record back in Chicago. I know you were a good detective. One of the best. So how about your take yourself back there and think about this from the perspective of the cop you were then. What would that guy think about this situation?”

“I can’t tell you that, Captain. That guy doesn’t exist anymore.”

“This is exactly why I told you I wanted you to take a break.”

“And I told you, I did.”

“I’d say you need to take another one. And this time, don’t fuck it up by digging around trying to find something to pin on Aleksei Nechayev. Take a break and clear your head. I mean it.”

“You’re willing to just let this guy walk because you’re pissed at me?”

“I’m not pissed at you, you jackass! I’m trying to help you. You’re going off the rails and you need to get yourself under control. I told you before, I know all about your history. I think you’re transferring too much personal baggage onto these missing women. The fact is, we don’t even know if they were kidnapped.”

“We don’t? Are you kidding me?”

“You think teenage girls don’t run away from home? You think people don’t walk away from their lives? You did, for crap’s sake!”

The Captain continued before Danny could respond. “How many times do you read about people presumed dead and turning up years later in some California beach town or in Mexico or wherever? What about those guys in the news recently who were supposedly victims of John Wayne Gacy? Turns out, both of them were alive and well and living in other parts of the country. They just didn’t want to be found. And in every case, family and friends say they never dreamed the missing person would choose to disappear. It happens all the time, and you know it.”

On a roll, the Captain went on. “I wouldn’t be surprised if 10 years from now someone finds Anna Alexander soaking up the sun in the fucking Florida Keys. Hell I’d be willing to bet on it.”

“If I were you I wouldn’t put too much money on that bet.”

“When you never find a body, there’s no way you can be sure. That’s the simple truth, and you know it as well as I do.”

“So your philosophy is that when someone goes missing, if they don’t turn up dead, our best course of action is to assume they moved to Florida?”

“Don’t try to make me sound like an idiot. You’re on thin ice as it is.”

“Alright. So what now, Captain?”

“What now? I already told you. Take a god-damn break. And get a handle on your drinking.”

“My drinking has nothing to do with this situation.”

“I’m not convinced of that.”

“Oh for Christ’s sake. I haven’t even had much to drink lately. Don’t try to use that as an excuse to fuck me over and ignore this case.”

The Captain’s already red cheeks turned scarlet. “I’m trying really hard to hold my temper, Fitzpatrick, but you don’t make it easy. You’re officially on leave, and I don’t want to see your face in here for two weeks.”

Danny stood up and gave a mocking salute. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

He turned on his heel with military precision and left the office.

Chapter 53

Danny immediately regretted leaving
the station without buttoning up his parka when he got outside. The temperature had fallen to a frigid -40, and he ran to his car to avoid turning to ice. Inside the car was not much of an improvement, but at least he could button up and get his thick driving mittens on. He needed insulated pants if he was going to stay in this hellhole though. This cold was more than even a born and bred Chicagoan could take.

He held his breath as he turned the key in the ignition, praying that the car would start. It was a crap-shoot in temperatures like this, even with the engine heaters, and Danny let out a sigh of relief when he heard the ignition turn over. He sat in the car and shivered as he waited for the heater to make the inside of the car bearable. If he was being honest, he had to admit he was also shaking from anger. He knew he was right about Aleksei Nechayev and he didn’t appreciate being taken for a drunken, crazy fool. Even if he couldn’t particularly blame anyone who came to that conclusion about him.

If there was a bright side to the cold, at least the snow was no longer falling. Of course, with snow packed on the ground since October, it hardly made much difference. Danny wondered if it was in fact now too cold to snow. He’d always wondered if that was possible. If it was, surely this temperature fit the bill.

Instead of the snow, the air was now filled with ice fog, a phenomenon Danny had never heard of until this morning. Apparently, when the temperatures were this cold, car exhaust, steam from buildings, and even the air people breathed turned to ice crystals that hung suspended in the air. The more cold days in a row, the thicker the ice fog would get.

According to a guy he was listening to on the radio when he was driving to the office, the native tribes had called the ice fog “white death,” because they believed that the crystals would invade their lungs and kill them. As Danny looked around him, noticing the crystals blanketing everything in sight and making the buildings around him nearly invisible, he could understand their fear. The whole thing was just plain creepy.

Danny fumbled for his phone, and called Amanda. As was her way, she answered almost immediately.

“Danny?” she said.

“Hello to you, too.”

“What’s up? Did you talk to your Captain about Katie Bailey?”

“Yeah, I talked to him. Didn’t do me much good though.”

“Why? What happened?”

“He told me I needed to vacate the premises for two weeks and get myself under control.”

“Oh.”

“He also said he thought I was bringing my personal baggage into this case, and was on some sort of crazy crusade against Aleksei.”

“He knows about Caroline?”

“He knows about why I left Chicago. I’ve never talked to him about Caroline, but he knows enough.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I don’t give a shit what he thinks. I know we’re right about Nechayev.”

“I did find another picture of him today.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, from before the War this time. It looked like he was from one of the wealthier families in Russia at the time. I’m actually surprised he ended up in the army. The Nechayevs weren’t peasants, that was clear.”

“Well no wonder he acts like such a stuck-up asshole now then. How’d you find this, anyway?”

“I was just looking through a photo album of the Russian bourgeoisie in St. Petersburg around the time of the War. His face jumped out at me, just like with the military picture.”

Danny stared out at the icicles hanging on the gutters of the police station. “That’s interesting, but it still doesn’t help me with this case.”

“I know, I’m sorry…”

Danny cut her off. “Don’t be, nothing to be sorry about. In fact, I don’t think I’m going to just sit here and feel sorry for myself, either.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was thinking about just going to Rex’s Tavern and drinking myself into a stupor. But, that’s exactly what Meyer would expect me to do. I’d basically just be proving him right.”

“That’s true.”

“I don’t need him, though. I’m spent most of my adult life as a homicide detective in one of the biggest cities in the world. What the fuck do I need from these yahoos in Fairbanks?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that I can deal with this on my own. I know Aleksei has Katie and I know where he is. I can charter a plane myself and deal with him on my own.”

“Oh my God, Danny, no you can’t!”

“Why not?”

“Why not? Because he’ll kill you, that’s why. You know what he is. You can’t handle him yourself.”

“Bullshit. I’ve dealt with plenty of monsters in my time. He’s no different just because he’s 100 fucking years old.”

“He is different and you know it. Please, think rationally.”

“That’s not really my strong suit anymore, sweetheart.”

“Danny, please!”

“Listen, I need to go. There’s nothing for you to worry about, though. I’m not going to do anything stupid; I just need to figure out my next move. I’ll talk to you soon.”

Danny ended the call, cutting off Amanda’s pleas for him to go home and stay in Fairbanks. He shifted his car into gear and drove out of the police station lot. He called the airport and made arrangements for chartering a plane that would be waiting for him when he got there. He wasn’t going to bother to go home first. He didn’t have any time to waste.

Chapter 54

“I’m surprised to see you
again, Detective,” Doug Matheson said as Danny climbed into his 4X4. “I thought you were finished with your business with Aleksei.”

“I just need to talk to him again.”

“Strange that you’d come all the way up here instead of just calling him on the phone.”

Danny nodded. “I’ve always been a little strange.”

He hoped this ended Doug Matheson’s chit-chat, but he wasn’t optimistic. He couldn’t blame the man for being curious. But Danny was much more interested in thinking about what he was going to do when he got to Snow Creek than he was in talking. And, he wondered how he was ever going to pay off the credit card he had used to charter a plane. It was a hell of a lot easier to fly places as a cop. Between his last minute trip to Sitka and his $400 per hour adventure now, he’d be filing for bankruptcy any day. Assuming he survived his meeting with Aleksei.

Fortunately, Doug Matheson was apparently tired of talking and it was clear he thought Danny was a basket case anyway. They spent the rest of the drive to Snow Creek in silence. Danny felt his heart leap in his chest when Matheson pulled onto the Snow Creek drive. He stopped a good 15 yards from the front of the building.

“I can’t take you any farther,” Matheson said. “Aleksei’s the worst about keeping his drive plowed when Snow Creek is closed. Even my truck can’t get through that.”

Danny stared at the drive and knew the man was correct. He was going to have a long walk.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Matheson asked. “That’s a hell of a long walk in this kind of weather,” he said, echoing Danny’s thoughts.

“I can drive you back to the airport,” he continued. “Hell, you can use my phone and call Aleksei from there if you want, I’m always able to get service there.”

“Thank you, Mr. Matheson. I appreciate the offer. But I really need to talk to Mr. Nechayev in person. I stopped at the camping store on my way to the airport and got some brand new snow pants and boots for this trip, plus snow shoes, so I'll be fine. I'm finally learning to dress like a real Alaskan," he said, attempting to lighten the mood.

“I think most Alaskans stay indoors when it’s this cold. It’s gotta be 15 below out there.”

“That's warmer than it is in Fairbanks right now.”

“Still damn cold.”

Danny nodded and pulled his ski mask over his face before zippering his parka up around his neck. He pulled the hood up, and clasped it around his chin. He turned towards Matheson with only his eyes visible under the layers of winter clothing, and gave him a thumbs-up with his mittened hand.

“I’m prepared,” he said, his voice muffled. “Thank you for driving me.”

“I’ll wait out here for you.”

Danny waved the idea away. “No, no, that’s not necessary. I’ll call for a ride as soon as I’m done with Mr. Nechayev. I wouldn’t want you to freeze sitting out here.”

“I think you’re certifiable, Detective.”

“You’re not the first one to think so, believe me.”

With that, Danny lumbered out of the car and waved goodbye to Doug Matheson. As he watched the tail lights of the 4X4 disappear and felt the frigid wind whipping around him, he decided Matheson was right. He was indeed certifiable. But, there was no turning back now.