Meghan ordered a stack of pizzas for the law enforcement agents and a case of water. They dealt with the situation in a remote area of the peninsula. The community had to wait for the interagency results. Everyone, Meghan soon learned, remained tight-lipped about the search. One thing she knew for sure and confirmed by the look on Lester’s face, they would not recover Christine Tuktu’s body. Nonetheless, the possibility of her young soul added to the depth of the cold black sea was a distinct and very real possibility. Meghan stayed out of the search and hovered along the shore with the rest of the observers.
Wilcox looked like a man who carried his burdens in a travel case. He knew how to compartmentalize the various situations he faced. He had a lot on his plate. He looked cold and tired. Meghan added to his overflowing all-you-can-eat plate by assaulting one of the young men who Wilcox brought with him from Anchorage. They shared a look on the shore in the dark but did not talk about the incident. The military had several large canopy tents with portable generators and propane heaters. While the shifts on the ice got frosty, those waiting behind, got warm again.
Then there was Dana. The overzealous turncoat who had undermined all of Meghan’s authority and personally disrupted the status quo for the rest of the community remained diligent and active. It was as if finding Christine was the purpose of her visit to Alaska. She had something to prove, and Meghan knew it wasn’t Dana’s bitterness toward her. It had something to do with a harbored professional guilt or secret or something she carried with her everywhere. Her presence, Meghan saw, was distant, as if Wilcox isolated her from the rest of the search teams. It was as if Dana was a virus personified; anyone who came in contact with her left feeling beaten up and worn out.
***
It was never a good time to deal with the death of a child. The following hours, after retrieving the jacket from the floe, the military personnel, the state troopers, and the FBI field agents eventually came to a joint decision to wrap up operations after sunrise. Word didn’t leave the teams and seep into the general public, which surprised Meghan. She saw Calvin in his lime-green Ford Focus, waiting at the edge of the Air Force property for the rest of the crews to file through the gates and return to the police department.
When Meghan rode by him, Lester cold and exhausted riding on the back of the four-wheeler, he knew by her look that the next piece of news wasn’t hopeful. Meghan branched off from the other procession while Oliver drove a group in the Suburban back to the department. Meghan drove Lester home. She parked in front of his house.
Silvia heard the four-wheeler and stepped outside in her heavy robe and thermal pajamas. She stood at the top of the stairs leading into the arctic entry, watching her husband and Meghan.
“I need to finish my reports,” he said. It was a halfhearted attempt to stay with the rest of the group.
“I need you to go inside, get warm, and get some sleep. You’ve done more than enough. Thank you, Lester.”
He didn’t want kudos for not finding a lost child. Lester wasn’t a man who needed thanks for doing what was right. Meghan shook her head, looking up at Silvia. It was nonverbal communication that women shared and said more than words. Lester climbed off the four-wheeler like a drunkard. He’d spent hours and used up his energy stores for the sake of finding a child. Meghan, the pragmatic person, not one to shed tears or show emotion in public, had other ways of dealing with the haunting reality. Lester, a reformed alcoholic, needed a stoic support system that Silvia supplied him. After a hot shower and sleep, Lester could find a way to keep going without the need for another drink.
When Meghan returned to the police department, she saw Calvin standing beside his car. They shared a look, but he was patient enough to wait for the authorities to finish their work before he did his job. He wasn’t alone. Several people congregated outside the department, milling around in the muddy gravel.
Meghan saw Duane’s pick-up parked at City Hall in the ‘reserved’ spot. The only place in the entire city with designated parking, a mounted sign between the police contractor trailers and City Hall, Duane wanted to make a statement. It made sense, having the community come together for the terrible business, but it didn’t make it easier.
One thing that Meghan appreciated, in the darkest of times in the area, petty crimes dropped to nothing. The phone lines paused in reports from mischief and complaints. People banded together. It was a matter of drafting the report and communicating to everyone what took place. First, they had to deal with explaining the series of circumstances to the grieving mother and her boyfriend.
Meghan saw Joane and Earl waiting outside, among the others. Meghan saw Cecil standing beside his mother but looking around and a little detached. Bringing in the family allowed them separation from the others. Meghan motioned for the small family as Earl crushed a cigarette under his boot tip in the mud. Closure was a long process, and Meghan hated the grieving process.
Chapter Fourteen
A
