'I like you, Abby.' The bold confession surprised himself, and he was pleased at his own sudden boldness. 'I like you a lot. I'm attracted to you. And I'm lonely. I'm glad you came out here.'
She smiled wanly. 'Just don't take an ax to me and make me regret it.'
'You trusted me enough to come out here, right?'
'I guess.'
'And I have to trust you, right?'
She looked wary. 'I guess.'
He sat in a chair opposite her. 'If we're going to trust each other, we have to talk, I think. Too much has happened. You have to tell me about that photograph in Mickey's pocket.'
She squirmed. 'I don't know about that picture.'
'But you know something, right? I saw it upset you. Abby, I'm a damned murder suspect. I'm in exile. I need help. What in the hell is going on?'
'I don't know.' She looked away. 'It turns out it's a photo from my personnel file. I checked and it's missing from the stuff NSF sent down.'
'Mickey lifted it?'
'That's not what he said. Mickey brought it to me that night not long after the meteorite was stolen. He said he found it in Doctor Bob's room when you searched each other, that there was a wall panel with screws missing and it had been tucked in a slit there. He said that he didn't trust Norse, that he didn't like shrinks. He wanted to know what my photograph was doing there. He said if I was having a problem with Bob, he had authority enough to help me. He said he was prepared to be my friend.'
'Jesus. Doctor Bob?'
'That's what I thought. So…' She faltered a moment, summoning courage. 'So I went to Norse and told him I had some personal problems I wanted help with and needed to talk to him privately in his room. And then I went there, blabbering away, looking at the walls, and I didn't see anything like what Doctor Moss described. No screws missing, no gap in the panels. So I told Bob what Mickey had showed me and he suddenly got very concerned and agitated and warned me to stay away from the astronomer at all costs. I was just dumbfounded but he said there'd been past complaints from young women on the base about Moss coming on to them and worse, this old guy bullying and pawing them because of his power on station. That he invented excuses to get close to them; that he even researched the next group coming down, picking out the pretty ones. And that one reason Norse was sent down here was to check out those rumors. And that Moss probably suspected that and didn't like him because of it, and that possibly this whole meteorite thing was an attempt to distract attention.' She said it in a rush.
Lewis was skeptical. 'A geezer like Moss? Boy, I don't know. He was pretty regal. I can't imagine him coming on to anybody.'
'That's what I thought. But then Bob had these files. I couldn't read them because of the confidentiality but he showed me a packet of what he said were complaints that had been filed… it was horrible! I didn't know what to think! And then Mickey dies…'
'Suicide.'
'Yes.' She nodded miserably.
'He was afraid of exposure.'
'I think so. I think Norse is some kind of investigator.'
'Except Bob Norse told me he thought it could be murder. Or at least that's what NSF thinks, back in D.C. And for my own protection I'm sitting out here.'
'Don't you see? NSF wants a murder. Or an accident. Anything but a big sexual scandal like Tailhook that's going to throw a wrench in their plans to get congressional money to rebuild this base. Reconstruction is going to cost a hundred million dollars and they can't afford to have their star scientist exposed as a rogue after Clarence Thomas and Monica Lewinsky and all that. So Norse thinks you're in danger, Jed. You're not one of the fraternity. You're just this oil guy down to make a few bucks over the winter. They might try to pin something on you, to distract from any stories about Mickey. Nothing to file in court, because that would just make matters worse. Just enough suspicion and rumor to muddy the waters. To make you the fall guy, send you away under a cloud. Doctor Bob is trying to help you. That's why he encouraged me to come out here.'
'What about Harrison Adams?'
'His death is probably a coincidence, but who knows? Doctor Bob is as confused as we are.'
'This is too crazy…'
'Which is exactly why he's here.'
Lewis sighed, trying to think. Harrison Adams had been going through Moss's computer. Had he learned too much? Was there something incriminating he needed to discuss with Lewis? And if the deaths weren't back-to-back accidents, or a suicide-accident, then who was responsible? The only one he could see with a stake in the future of base reconstruction was Rod Cameron, who might be angling for a promotion in the NSF bureaucracy. But would Cameron kill to cover up a scandal? It was too far-fetched. You needed someone truly loony, or someone desperate for that meteorite.
He looked at her. 'What do you think? Of me?'
'My heart tells me you're just unlucky- in the wrong place at the wrong time. My brain tells me not to trust anyone. But I'm here, aren't I? Maybe all this is nothing. Moss decided to go exploring, slipped, and fell. Harrison got caught in a storm. It happens.'
He smiled ruefully. 'So you risk bringing me dinner.'
She looked away. 'I'm attracted to you, too, Jed,' she said.
The admission took him as much by surprise as his own.
'It's going to be a long winter. We both need a friend,' she amended.
Her words filled him with longing. The tundra had been liberating, when he walked away from his oil job, but the aftermath had been lonely. He'd had no place he belonged, no purpose to his life. And now, suddenly, there was this woman.
'Abby, I think I need to kiss you,' he decided.
She looked at him wryly.
'I'm going to go crazy if I can't kiss you right now,' he insisted.
'You are crazy. We're all crazy. We just decided that.'
'Yes. That's why it's all right to kiss you.'
She considered it cautiously. 'If we kiss, things change.'
'Yes, like an enzyme. I want to change things with you. I know there's that other guy but he's not here and we are. He's not in this and we are.'
'Then what happens?'
'I don't know. I just know it's important to do this now.'
She looked at him: amused, impatient, uncertain. 'I'm afraid I'll like it.'
He grinned. 'I'm afraid you won't.'
She hesitated, as judicious as if reviewing a contract, reviewing her own instincts about him. Then she made up her mind. 'Okay.'
He knelt next to her and lifted his face to hers, struck by the green hazel of her eyes and the dark curl of her hair on each cheek. She coolly waited as he cupped the nape of her neck, bending her to him, but when his lips gently touched hers she shivered and closed her eyes. He came away and her lips parted slightly, revealing a glimpse of the pearl of her teeth. He kissed her again, more deeply this time, and she started to respond. Then she turned her head, sighing, and his lips brushed her cheek and ear and followed the curve of her neck to the collar of her Thermax underwear…
'That's enough.' She stood up.
He remained kneeling, looking up at her. 'No, it isn't.'
'I like you, Jed, but too much is going on. I've got a lot to think about.' Her eyes were darting around the room, betraying her confusion.
'You think too much, you know.'
'Let's just leave it there for now.'
He stood as well, grinning, savoring his small triumph. He'd tasted her. She'd liked it. 'I want to get to know you.'
