“Chief?”
“Sergeant?”
“Could you ask your people to keep this on the down low?”
She looked at him. “Those bones have been there a long time, Sergeant.”
“Still.”
She sighed and nodded. “I’ll try.”
“Thanks. By any chance, do you know where Erik Berglund lived?”
“Not a clue,” she said.
They exchanged somber nods and she left him standing there, staring at the bag. It looked almost empty.
His phone dinged.
Delivery complete. Departing in five.
He looked from the screen back to the body bag.
Can you do a quick turnaround?
A beat.
You have another body you need transporting?
Well, she’d always been pretty quick.
The rest of the skeleton. The local fire chief and her crew helped me get it out.
You’re sure it’s human then.
Unfortunately. I think it’s a kid.
Be there in an hour, home again before dinnertime.
This time he responded with a gif that had Jim Carrey as The Mask with his heart beating up out of his chest—he’d been saving it up—and she returned a winky face with a kiss.
He found a food cart out on the Spit with excellent fish tacos, although a handmade sign warned him they were closing as soon as they’d emptied out the freezer. “We don’t serve freezer-burnt fish,” the proprietor informed him, “so we don’t close until everything we bought this year is sold.”
In that case he went back for seconds. Satisfied in both body and spirit he pulled through the gate at the airport at the exact moment Wy landed. She taxied to the tie-down, killed the engine, and stepped down from the cabin and into his arms. She felt good there. She felt necessary.
“It’ll be okay, Liam,” she said, snuggling into his chest. “You’ll find out who they were and restore them to their family. There can’t be anything worse than losing a kid.” She went still. “I’m sorry, I—”
“Stop it. I knew what you meant and you couldn’t be more right anyway.” He put a hand beneath her chin to raise up her face and kissed her. After a moment she relaxed into it, and as always that longing that was never very far off simmer anyway came to its usual instantaneous boil.
She smiled against his mouth. “Hold that thought, Campbell.”
“Text me when you’re fifteen minutes out.”
She saluted and did a quick walk-around to make sure nothing had fallen off the plane in between the time she took off from Anchorage and landed in Blewestown while he loaded the body bag into the plane. She climbed back in the Cessna and he closed the door behind her, watching through the window as she donned the headset and picked up the checklist. He stepped back and after a few moments the engine fired and the prop began to turn. She smiled at him and he stood there watching until she had lifted off again into the sky, as always making it look graceful and effortless.
Flying always looked so much better from the ground.
He got in his truck and drove back into town. When he turned onto Alder the first thing he saw was Sybilla Karlsen, making her way down the hill. At least this time she had her clothes on. He sighed, put the truck into park, and got out. “Hello again, Mrs. Karlsen.” He doffed his cap.
With the erratic memory of someone who has lived a very long time, she knew him at once. “Sergeant Campbell.” She patted her hair. “How nice to see you again. What brings you out on this beautiful day?”
He refrained from pointing to either the post half a block up the hill from where they were standing or the cloudy sky overhead, and said, “Just taking in the sights, ma’am. Yourself?”
For the first time she looked a little uncertain. “I was on my way home.”
He indicated his truck with a sweep of his hand. “May I offer you a lift?”
She fluttered a little as her cheeks went pink. “Why, how kind, Sergeant. It’s just up the hill from here.”
“I remember, ma’am.” He gave her a discreet boost into the passenger seat, whereupon she fluttered some more, and got back into the pickup and put it in gear. When they passed the post she said, “Oh yes, you have that nice young Sally Petroff working for you, don’t you? Such a sweet girl. Pity about the tragedy. I always felt so sorry for Kimberley.”
Liam stopped at the stop sign at Sourdough, waited for traffic, and proceeded across the intersection. “Tragedy, ma’am?”
“Young men can be so thoughtless, don’t you agree?”
“I do,” Liam said. They drew up in front of Sunset Heights, to meet an attendant coming out of the door who looked relieved when she saw Sybilla. “Sybilla, you had us worried.” She smiled at Liam over Sybilla’s head. “Thank you…”
“Sergeant Liam Campbell, Alaska State Troopers. I met Mrs. Karlsen on the road and offered her a ride.”
Sybilla fluttered her eyelashes and deepened her dimples. “Indeed, young man, you can give me a ride anytime.”
The attendant and Liam grinned at each other over her head, and Liam drove back down to the post. Ms. Petroff was at her station, because of course she was. “Good morning, Ms. Petroff.”
“You gave me to understand that you wouldn’t be into the office again until Monday, sir.”
It felt like a reprimand. Manfully, Liam shrugged it off. “What do you know of Erik Berglund, Ms. Petroff?”
There was an almost infinitesimal pause. “The archeologist, sir?”
He had the baseless feeling that she was buying time. He couldn’t imagine why and dismissed the suspicion. “Yes.”
She folded her hands on the desk, and then refolded
