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· August 26 ·
DEADHORSE, PRUDHOE BAY
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ACTIVE PICKED UP HIS file copies and the list of Chukchi employees from the North Slope Environmental Services offices, then walked the hundred yards to the maintenance shop where he’d been advised he would find Josh McCarran.
A big-bearded, big-bellied supervisor led Active to a man in greasy Carhartts, head buried under the hood of a yellow Chevy flatbed. “Hey, McCarran, cop here wants to talk to you.”
McCarran pulled his head out of the flatbed’s engine compartment. He had a muscular torso, square jaw, curly black hair, a thick beard, gray-green eyes, and a ready smile. Ruggedly handsome, Active supposed women would call him. It was easy to imagine him sweeping a village girl off her feet.
They moved to a break room away from the shop noise and took a table in the corner. Active introduced himself and told McCarran the purpose of the visit. His easy smile faded.
“Shay’s dead? What the hell!” McCarran turned away and wiped his eyes with the corner of a red shop towel. “When? How?”
“When was the last time you saw her?” Active drew his notebook and pen from his shirt pocket.
“In May, when we both left for R&R. I remember it was around the middle of the month because we had just had the Cinco de Mayo party. She was perfectly fine.”
“How long did you have off?”
“Four weeks on, two weeks off, just like her.”
“Where did you go for your two off?”
“Home, to Anchorage.”
“What about Shalene?”
“She was gonna stay with me in Anchorage this time.”
“This time?”
“Shay had been staying in Chukchi on her time off. She had a, uh, a girlfriend there. Is that where she...where you found her?”
“You said she was going to stay in Anchorage. Why would she be in Chukchi?”
“We left the Slope together for Anchorage. But she wanted to go up to Chukchi to get her stuff from the girlfriend and make a clean break. I went with her. I wanted to be there if she needed me.”
“Girlfriend as in - -”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“So, you went along to make sure she didn’t change her mind?”
“Well, sure. But she let that dyke wildlife hazer talk her into staying, otherwise maybe she would still be...” McCarran’s voice trailed off and he wiped his eyes again.
“Wildlife hazer?”
“Yeah, you know. They keep caribou off the runway, polar bears away from the work crews, that kind of thing. They use rubber slugs, noise deterrent rounds.”
“And Shalene was involved with this particular hazer?”
“Right. Kim. She was kind of controlling and Shay just went along. They had been together for a while. But Shay was no dyke. She was just confused is all. Like a lot of these village girls, they...”
“I know,” Active said. “I went to her mom’s place in Nome. Not a lot of love in that house. But it sounds like you had a real problem with this Kim ... what’s her last name?”
“Tulimaq.”
Active added it to his notes. “Maybe you were jealous?”
“A little bit, of course. But mostly I just knew Shay didn’t need to be around that, to be taken advantage of like that.”
“You must have been pretty close to her to know what she needed.”
“We were getting there. We talked a lot, about her family, how she grew up in Nome, how she felt about things.”
“So this R&R in Anchorage was more than just a one-time thing?”
McCarran twisted the grease rag in his hand, pocketed it, then took it out again. “We dated for a couple of months when she and Kim were kind of on the outs. Like I said, we were getting there.”
“But you were into her more than she was you?”
“Not exactly. We were good if Kim wasn’t around, really good. I thought maybe we could make it work if I could get Shay away from her for a couple of weeks.”
“So what happened?”
“I’m not sure. All I know is, she decided to stay with Kim. I was waiting at the airport while she picked up her stuff at Kim’s. We were going out on the same plane we came in on at twelve-forty, I think it was. She was taking longer than she should have, and then around noon, they announced the TSA computers were down, and our flight was gonna be delayed for at least four hours. So, I texted her to let her know about the delay and asked her what was taking her so long.
“Did she text back?”
“Yeah, ‘OMW.’”
“On my way.”
McCarran nodded.
“She was on her way,” Active said. “So she meets you at the airport and breaks up with you for the wildlife hazer?”
“No, I mean, she never arrived at the airport. She texted back later that she was working it out with Kim, and she wanted me to stay away. She didn’t want to see me.”
“You never know with a woman, do you? Do you still have those texts?”
“I think so. Let me check.” McCarran pulled his phone out of a pocket and scrolled with his thumb. “This’ll take a minute.”
“Some of your coworkers say you two were getting pretty thick, practically joined at the hip. And then she dumps you by text? That didn’t piss you off?”
McCarran stopped scrolling and shifted his weight on the seat.
“Sure, I was upset, but I figured you can’t make somebody feel what they don’t feel. She was a sweet girl and a lot of fun, I thought we really clicked. I was even gonna take her to meet my family when we were in Anchorage. I wasn’t pissed, I just knew when to stop pushing. My plan was to stay away from her like she asked.”
“And that’s why you asked to change your shift rotation after your May R&R.”
“Yeah. I thought it would be kind of a problem to keep running into her at work, you know? I didn’t want to stress her out.”
“You were looking out for her?”
McCarran rubbed the back of his neck. “Kinda. She took a lot of ribbing about her personal life. I didn’t want to make it worse.”
“Why do you think she got hassled?”
“Well, she was a young pretty girl working on the Slope, kind of quiet and...well, a village girl, not tough and hard like you have to be up here. Some of these guys, they feel like this is man country. Maybe they thought if they hassled her enough, she’d quit.
McCarran pulled at his beard.
“And lot of ’em wanted to get in her pants, of course, and they didn’t like being told ‘no.’ And then, her being a lesbian, or at least with one, that didn’t help.”
“Anyone in particular bothering her?”
“This one old guy, Larry. I had to straighten him out once.”
“You hit him?”
“Son of a bitch had it coming.”
“You punch a guy out for hassling her but you don’t fight to take her away from another woman?”
McCarran squared his jaw and set down his phone. “What’re you trying to say? I could’ve made a big deal about it, but what good was that going to do? I figured if she could go back to Kim that easy, she was never all in with me in the first place.”
“I guess you’ll never know, right?”
McCarran hung his head and shuddered. Active thought he might start sobbing, but he collected himself.
“I still can’t believe that she’s...it’s crazy that she’s...Was it a robbery? Or, no, not a rape?”
“It was a brutal killing, too violent to be anything but personal.”
“Personal? That doesn’t make sense. Who would want to kill Shay?”
“You tell me, Josh. You wanted her to meet your family. Sounds like you invested your heart in her. And then she goes running back to Kim and dumps you by text.”
“You think I did it? Me?” Sweat sheened his brow. “No way. After she called it quits, I never saw her again. As far as I knew, she was with Kim until she rotated back to the Slope. Why don’t you ask that bitch what happened to her after I left?”
“For Anchorage?”
“Yes. I was there my whole two weeks. You can check with my roommate down there.” McCarran picked up his phone and tapped up a contact. “He’s a plumber. Here’s his number.”
Active took it down. “But, just to be clear, you went with Shalene to Chukchi, she went to Kim’s, and you never saw her again?”
“Like I said, I waited for her at the airport but she never showed up. Then finally, she texted me to stay away and that’s what I did.”
“And you didn’t text her again to ask why?”
“No.”
He scrolled again on his phone, then tapped the screen with his thumb. “Here, see?”
He passed over the phone and Active studied the screen. The “OMW” text was followed by a two-part message:
i’m sorry, josh. i didnt mean for it to happen like this. kim and i talked and I realize that shes the one i really love. I know I hurt you, but I CAN’T LIVE A...
...LIE. I hope that one day you can forgive me. PLEASE DO NOT contact me or try to see me
“I need photos of those,” Active said.
“No problem.”
Active took the shots with his phone, then noted down the times. “So you read that message, you get on the plane, and you leave? Just like that?”
“I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I waited for TSA to fix their computers and the flight and left for Anchorage around 4:45.”
“Did you think about trying to find her, ask her to her face why she decided to stay with Kim?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t. I couldn’t.”
“Why is that?”
“Because she was with Kim. I didn’t want to get into a confrontation. And I figured it’d be pointless anyway.”
Active scribbled on his notebook, tapped it a couple of times like he was thinking, putting the pieces together, and let the silence build.
“Okay, I did think about it, but I didn’t know where Kim lived,” McCarran said.
Active raised an eyebrow. McCarran had introduced his lack of information about Kim’s address without being asked. People did that when they had something to hide, explaining an issue before it came up, trying to head off the cop. Sometimes it was a false tell. But usually not.
“Come on, Josh. I think you knew exactly where Kim lived. I think Shalene told you before she took off to pick up her things.”
“No.” McCarran’s voice was less emphatic now. His eyes rabbited around the room like he was chasing down his next words.
Active glanced at his notes and tapped the pad with his pen. “Shalene texted ‘OMW’ at 12:07. Her text telling you she was staying with Kim didn’t come in until 1:16. I think within that hour of her not showing up, you got more and more pissed off, and instead of texting her again about where she was, I think you went to Kim’s house and tried to talk to Shalene, to give her hell about keeping you waiting.”
“Okay,” McCarran said in a lower voice. “You’re right. Shay did tell me where Kim’s house was. I did go up there. I banged on the door and asked to see her. Kim wouldn’t let me in. And then I got the text from Shay saying she was staying with Kim.”
“That must have really set you off.”
“I couldn’t believe it at first, I read it over a couple of times. And, yeah, I was really pissed then. I started pounding on the door, cursing and yelling for Shay to come out.”
“Did she answer?”
“No. Kim said Shay didn’t want to talk to me, and if I didn’t leave, they’d call the cops.”
“That scared you off?”
“Yeah, it did. I was kind of acting like a crazy person, so yeah.” McCarran ran his hand over his eyes. “I got into some trouble when I was in high school. My girl and I got into a beef and I was charged with assault. That’s why I gave up and left. I didn’t want to get caught up in anything like that again.”
“What time did you leave Kim’s place?”
McCarran stroked his beard. “I waited around at the airport for maybe twenty-five minutes after Shay said she was on her way, then I went to Kim’s to find her. It wasn’t much of a walk, but I took a wrong turn and had to backtrack a little. I didn’t stick around there long, so I must have left a few minutes after the second txt, I guess. Close to one-thirty.”
“You still had several hours before your flight. What did you do?”
“I walked around town for maybe a couple of hours, trying to get my head together.”
“By yourself?” Active asked.
“Yeah, I didn’t know anyone in Chukchi other than Shay. And Kim.”
“Where did you go?”
“Down along this road past the airport to a beach area,” McCarran said. “There were some tents and shacks down there like camps or something.”
“Yeah, Tent City, they call it. Chukchi people have fish camps down there, people come in from the villages upriver and stay part of the summer for the chum salmon run, that kind of thing.”
“Sounds right. I wouldn’t really know.”
“Right. You’re a big city guy.”
McCarran halfway grinned and shook his head. “Not all the time. I like the outdoors.”
“Are you a hunter?”
“Are you kidding? My grandfather is Dusty McCarran.”
“Dusty McCarran?”
“One of the most famous guides in Alaska? There are books about him, he’s in Boone and Crockett,” McCarran said. “I’ve gone hunting with Granddad since I was a kid. I could bring down a moose and field dress a caribou by the time I was eight.”
“Interesting.”
“You said Shay’s death was brutal. How was she killed?”
“Sorry, I can’t discuss that,” Active said. “I’ll be in touch.”
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IN THE AIRPORT SHUTTLE, Active looked over the paperwork the company had provided. Personnel files for Shalene Harvey and three employees from Chukchi—Kim Tulimaq and two men named Banks.
Something tugged at the corner of his mind. What had he forgotten? Maybe it would come to him after a decent night’s sleep.
Meantime, there was legwork to be done. He brought up Danny Kavik’s contact on his phone and tapped it.
“Danny, I need you to check out a few things. We need Shalene’s phone records, at least from May.” He read the number off her file. “And run a background check on Joshua P. McCarran. I’ve texted you his DOB and the contact info for his roommate in Anchorage. We need to verify his alibi for the last half of May, also the alibi for a guy named Larry Hayden. He was supposedly staying with his sister in Fairbanks from May second through the end of the month. I’ll text you her name and number, too.”
“On it,” Kavik said. “Anything else?”
“Yes. You know a Kim Tulimaq, or Randolph and Phillip Banks?”
“The Banks brothers, sure, I saw them just yesterday at E-Z Market. Pretty harmless, actually kinda nerdy by Chukchi standards—more into video games than hunting and fishing, as I recall. Kim Tulimaq I kinda knew in high school. She was a couple of grades behind me. She dressed like a boy, captain of the girls’ basketball team. We all figured she was gay but I never really knew.”
“If something jogs your memory, let me know. I need to talk to her when I get back.”
“Right, and when is that?”
“Maybe tonight, otherwise tomorrow. I just remembered one more loose end.”
He rang off and started negotiations with the shuttle driver for a quick detour back to the NES headquarters.
Fred Sullivan looked up from his desk in surprise when Active walked in.
“Chief Active. You’re back. Something else we can do for you?”
Active scanned the bank of photos behind Sullivan, the photos of employee get-togethers he had seen on his first visit, until he spotted the one that had been tugging at his memory.
“That right there.” Active pointed to a big photo of about thirty employees decked out in Mexican garb. “What is that?”
“This year’s Cinco de Mayo party.”
“When was it taken?”
“We have it as close to May fifth as we can, but at the shift rotation so the maximum number of employees can be here to enjoy it. This year it was May fourteenth. See, right there in the corner?”
Active looked closer and pointed at a woman near the center. She held a red rose between her teeth and wore a ruffled dress. “That’s Shalene Harvey.”
“Yep.”
“And that’s Josh McCarran.” He moved his finger to a figure in a green sombrero and a striped serape standing next to Shalene.
“Right.”
“And who’s this?” Active pointed to a young Native woman, three people down from McCarran, in a bright, flowered outfit. She was wiry, compact, and giving Josh and Shalene the side-eye.
“That’s Kim Tulimaq.”
Active waved his hand over the photo. “And these are all people who might have worked with Shalene the last time she was on the Slope?”
“Yes. Do you think the photo would help with your investigation?”
Active pulled out his phone and tapped the camera app to life. “Possibly. Mind if I get a picture of it?”
“I’ll go you one better.” Sullivan lifted the photo off the wall. “You can have it.”
“Thanks, Mr. Sullivan. Oh, and I’ll need Kim Tulimaq’s file, too.”
“You bet. Whatever we can do to help. I’m sure every single person in that picture would want justice for Shalene.”
“Maybe not every single one,” Active muttered to himself as he tucked the photo into his backpack.