staring that cut lesser men to the bone. His practiced glare came with the job, but being tall and athletic with broad shoulders, Dan Fitzgerald had slid into his late forties with plenty of good miles left. The only signs of his age were thinning dark hair and creases around his pale blue eyes. His seasoned face gave the trooper character and allowed him to readily flip a switch between harsh and merciful at his choosing.
But Joe came from the same cut of cloth. He squared off with Fitzgerald in his own simple way.
“Don’t tell me you’d sit back and twiddle your thumbs if this happened to one of your girls, ’cause I know better.”
Payton hung back and didn’t attempt to break the tension. Eventually, the trooper caved. He showed it in his eyes first, then lowered his chin and relaxed his shoulders.
“Look, don’t make me out to be the bad guy here, Joe. I’ll call you the minute I know something. Besides, Anchorage could be a wild goose chase.”
“It’s the only lead we got, and you know it.” Joe kept his voice steady and his eyes fixed on Fitzgerald. “I ain’t asking for much. If I got a marker left with you, I need it now, Fitz. Payton and I can observe from the next room. The teacher won’t even know we’re there. And who knows? We might even shed light on what she’s tellin’ you, knowing Nikki the way we do.”
The trooper stared at Joe, letting silence do his talking until Payton broke the stalemate.
“Look, Dan, you know how it is. We gotta do something. Nikki is out there…with strangers. Susannah is afraid some outsider off the Internet has taken her only kid. She’s sick with worry.”
He stepped forward, but kept his voice low and in control.
“Please…I promise. You won’t even know I’m there. And Joe is a trained investigator. Doesn’t it make sense to have another good man on this case? It would give Susannah peace of mind, something she hasn’t had much of lately.”
The trooper tightened his jaw and glared through ice blue eyes until his stern expression softened. He let out a sigh and tapped a finger to Payton’s chest.
“I’m gonna hold you to that promise, Archer. You’re gonna follow orders. No questions asked. You hear me?” After Payton nodded, the trooper shook his head and brushed by him, muttering, “Let’s get this traveling circus on the road.”
Anchorage
The late afternoon sun struggled to make an appearance, but lost its battle to a stubborn band of clouds and a steady mist. A dull gray cast its pallor on Payton’s already sullen mood. On the drive in from Talkeetna, dark thoughts about Nikki’s whereabouts crept through his mind on a continuous loop. And the gloomy day exacerbated the feeling that he might have already lost her for good. These days, he didn’t feel like a lucky man. His old cocky self was long gone, replaced by someone he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. And worse, he craved a drink so bad he actually smelled his favorite single malt scotch. The power of suggestion triggered a need he thought he had under control—until today.
When they got to Anchorage, Fitzgerald drove to the Alaska State Troopers’ headquarters on Tudor Road. Once in the building, Fitzgerald vouched for him and Joe Tanu, saying they’d merely observe the interview with the teacher. The assigned Anchorage trooper, Clive Stalworth, narrowed his eyes and exchanged a questioning look with his Talkeetna counterpart, but didn’t object since the missing person report had been initiated by Fitzgerald.
Stalworth informed them that the schoolteacher, Claire Hanson, had already been picked up and waited for them in Interview Room 5. The Anchorage trooper led them through a corridor to an adjoining room where he and Joe could observe through a two-way mirror. The only light came from next door, the room where the teacher sat alone.
Once he stepped into the room, Payton fixed his eyes on her, unable to look away.
Claire Hanson appeared to be a woman in her forties and was dressed in a floral skirt, white blouse, and navy blue cardigan. She wore glasses and looked unassuming with her straight dark hair pulled back in barrettes. Payton stared at her face, unsure what he had expected. Secretly, he hoped to find a subtle menace behind her eyes. It would have been easier to picture someone the troopers could badger for the truth and incarcerate if they found her guilty.
Yet even though the woman in the interview room didn’t appear to be malicious, something about her gave him a bad feeling that festered in the back of his mind.
“I’ll be conducting the initial interview, but Fitzgerald will remain here with you in case you have questions during the proceedings.” Trooper Stalworth stood by the doorway. “Can I get you any coffee before we get started?”
“No, thank you,” Joe replied, and waved a hand.
Payton shook his head, only half listening. After the trooper closed the door, he kept his eyes on the woman next door until he felt someone by his side. Fitzgerald must have been reading his mind.
“I know this schoolteacher doesn’t exactly fit the mold of a hardened criminal, but don’t worry. If she knows anything or is hidin’ somethin’, Stalworth’ll find it. And if she broke the law, it won’t matter if she’s Mother fuckin’ Teresa.”
“You always were a politically correct kind of guy, Fitz.” Joe Tanu smirked, but his expression grew more solemn as he turned toward his old friend. “We wanna thank you for doing this…regardless how it turns out.”
The last part of what Joe said struck Payton—a hard dose of reality, one he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear.
In the adjoining room, Stalworth had entered and greeted the woman sitting at the table. Their words were mute until Joe turned up the volume on the speaker system. Payton listened as the trooper started the interview by identifying Claire Hanson for the session recording and confirming details of her background. With each question, the schoolteacher grew more anxious.
“I still don’t understand why you’ve brought me here. What’s this about?” she asked.
Stalworth obliged her with an answer.
“We have witnesses who’ve placed you in Talkeetna early this morning, around one, picking up a young girl named Nikki Archer. We’d like to know where she is.”
The sudden change in direction took the woman by surprise, and it showed. Claire Hanson tried to recover, but it was too late. Her body language had given her away. Stalworth had stretched the truth about the number of witnesses. And he had lied about Claire being spotted. Payton knew that in the interview process, cops sometimes embellished the facts to get results. By law, they could do this. And judging by the look on Claire Hanson’s face, the trooper’s subterfuge had gotten her attention.
“Nikki Archer?” Even though the schoolteacher stalled with a question, Payton suspected the woman knew more than she wanted to admit.
“Don’t bother to deny it. We have witnesses who will put you at River Park with the missing girl. If you cooperate and help us to find her, a judge might go easier on you.”
Panic spread across Claire Hanson’s face. “Missing girl? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“That’s not how the District Attorney will see it.” The trooper glared, not giving an inch. “He tends to frown at kidnapping.”
The word kidnapping shocked her.
“Oh, my God, this can’t be happening.” She wrapped her arms across her waist and rocked in short erratic movements. “Do I need a lawyer?”
“Not if you haven’t done anything wrong, but you gotta help me out here.” Stalworth softened his tone. Switching from bad cop to good, the trooper leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. A look of sympathy replaced his stern authoritative expression.
“Look, Nikki’s mother is worried sick. We just want to get to the bottom of this and bring the girl home safely. Maybe you can help us.”
“I swear, that’s all I was doing, trying to help.” Claire Hanson began to cry. Red blotches spread across her cheeks and she swiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Oh God, I didn’t mean to…I thought I was helping.”
“Who were you trying to help, ma’am? You don’t look like the kind of woman who’d take the word of a kid without first checking with a parent.”
Payton stepped closer to the observation window, hands in his pockets. Claire Hanson hadn’t denied taking
