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· August 28 ·
DEADHORSE, PRUDHOE BAY
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ACTIVE FOUND JOSH MCCARRAN at a two-seat corner table in the cafeteria at North Slope Environmental. He was at work on a plate piled with salmon filets, white bread, and baked beans topped with bacon slices. He didn’t look up until Active settled into a chair with one short leg that made it rock when he shifted his weight.
“Jesus,” McCarran said. “You working up here now?
“Nope, just wanted to have another chat if we could.”
McCarran gave a resigned roll of the eyes. “Want something?” he said around a mouthful of the beans. “Coffee?”
“No thanks.”
The cafeteria was set up like most, with bins of steaming entrees, salad and dessert sections, and a beverage dispenser at the end of a long stainless-steel rail. But on the Slope the entrees included filets of king salmon, slabs of beef brisket and rib-eye steak, potatoes cooked every way they could be, and cakes that looked like they came out of a gourmet pastry shop.
Active had heard from Slope workers that the food was one of the perks that helped make up for the isolation and brutal climate. Most of them seemed to end up with big bellies to match their big beards. McCarran had the beard but not the belly. Maybe he just hadn’t been at it long enough.
Two young Native men hunched over their meals at one of the square, wooden tables. Four older white guys worked their way down the serving line, talking, belly-laughing, and swearing as they loaded up.
“So what’s this about?” McCarran said. “I told you what I knew last time. You talked to my roommate in Anchorage, right?”
“Correct. But we still need to fill in some gaps.”
“Gaps?” McCarran had scarfed up half of the food on his tray. He wiped his lips with a balled-up napkin and dabbed at the tips of his mustache. “Sure, anything you need.”
“The last time we talked you said Shalene texted you she was on her way to the airport and when she didn’t show up, you went by Kim’s house. You banged on the door and left after Kim threatened to call the cops.”
McCarran nodded and mopped up bean broth with a chunk of bread.
“Then, according to our last talk, you walked around town for a couple of hours before the plane left for Anchorage.”
“Right.” McCarran stuffed the soaked bread into his mouth. “I needed to clear my head.”
“Where did you walk?”
“I told you that already.”
“Tell me again. I want to make sure I have it right.”
“Well, down past the airport like I said, around - - what did you call it, Tent City?”
“Uh-huh. You see anybody down there, talk to anybody?”
“No. There might have been a couple people around, but I kept my distance.” McCarran finished his plate and pushed the tray to the center of the table. “You know, strange white guy in a Native village, you don’t walk up on people.”
“You go inside any of the camps and shacks out there? Maybe explore some of them?”
“No. I wasn’t exactly in the mood for exploring.”
“Where did you go after Tent City?”
“Back to the airport and caught the plane to Anchorage.”
“How much time did you spend in Tent City? Two hours you said?”
“Uh, not that long. Maybe an hour or less. Forty-five minutes at the most. I was worried about getting back to the airport in case they got the computers fixed quicker than they said.”
“Are you sure you didn’t hang around Tent City longer than forty-five minutes?”
Active concentrated on his notes again and let McCarran stew. The Sloper’s foot started to tap under the table.
“No. I had already burned up some time going to Kim’s and trying to see Shay. I didn’t want to miss my flight.”
Active arched an eyebrow. “Come on, Josh.”
“What?”
“Stop yanking my chain. You never went to Kim’s house.”
“Of course I did, I told you already. Shalene didn’t come to the airport, so I went up there - -”
McCarran stumbled to a halt as Active pulled out his phone, brought up the text to Kim, and slowly rotated the screen to face him.
“That’s not what Shalene said.” Active waited as McCarran scanned the text. “At the airport, she said. With you. You see that?”
“That’s bullshit! She never came to the airport!”
Heads turned and the Slopers in the cafeteria stared at the two of them, then turned away at the sight of Active’s uniform.
Active gave McCarran a moment, then continued. “And a half hour after that, she tells you she’s decided to go back to Kim and three months later we find her body in Tent City. Where you admit going. You can see how it looks.”
“I don’t care how it looks, she never came to the damned airport. They must have video in the terminal, did you check that? That’ll show she was never there!”
“We are checking but they only have it at the TSA station. So her not showing up on it wouldn’t necessarily mean she was never in the terminal.”
Active paused and waited. McCarran didn’t speak. He just stared at the text.
“Or maybe she never went in,” Active said. “Maybe you meet her outside when she shows up on Kim’s four-wheeler, she sends that text to Kim, and then the two of you take a walk together or maybe a ride on the four-wheeler. So you’re down in Tent City, like you said, she changes her mind, you have a fight, she starts back to town by herself and sends you that text saying to leave her alone. And you lose it. You can’t stand the idea she’d rather have a woman in her bed than you. So you chase her down and kill her.”
McCarran shook his head and slapped the table. “This is total bullshit, dammit! All I know is, she went to Kim’s house and I never saw her again, at the airport or anywhere else. I did go to Tent City, but I went alone and I didn’t go in any old shacks and I didn’t kill anybody.”
“Look. She sent you and Kim basically identical texts saying she was leaving each of you for the other. What the hell was going on?”
“How the fuck do I know? Maybe there was someone else she was, I don’t know, involved with that I didn’t know about?”
“You expect me to believe she was playing both of you for someone else altogether? And this mystery lover killed her? Come on.”
“She was a woman,” McCarran said. “They...well, you know. You can never be sure of anything with a woman.”
“All right,” Active said. “Just one more thing.”
McCarran stood up with his empty tray. “I gotta get back to my shift,” he said. “I don’t want to lose my job.”
“Did Shalene give you back the ring?”
McCarran recoiled. “How do you know about the ring?”
“I’m a cop is how. You might want to keep that in mind.”
McCarran shook his head, as if to clear it. “No, I didn’t get the ring back because I didn’t see her, like I told you.”
“Describe that ring for me, please.”
“It was a plain silver band. I was going to get her something fancier when things moved farther along. I didn’t want to crowd her. Why you asking me this? Wasn’t it on her when you found her?”
“No.” Active locked his eyes onto McCarran’s. “But I expect it’ll turn up.” Active watched for a tell. McCarran didn’t flinch.
“All I know is, it was on her finger when she went up to Kim’s. Maybe if she was gonna stay, she took it off.”
McCarran turned and walked out of the cafeteria.
Active watched him go as he unmuted his phone and checked for traffic. No texts or voicemails, only a missed call from Kavik a few minutes earlier. Kavik, he decided, could wait. He had half an hour before the flight back to Chukchi, just enough time to swing by Fred Sullivan’s office.
He recognized the Inupiat woman at the reception desk. She was the one who’d brought in the employee files on his last trip to Deadhorse. The human resources specialist, that was it.
“Molly, right?”
“Chief Active.” She smiled and nodded. “Is there something else you needed?”
“Is Mr. Sullivan in?”
“No. He’s out in the field until late this afternoon. Could I help you?”
“Maybe you can. I’m aware that Shalene Harvey filed a complaint against Larry Hayden a few months ago.”
“Yes, we investigated that.”
Active nodded. “Did Shalene file any complaints against anyone else?”
“Do you think she was killed because of a complaint?”
“We’re not ruling anything out at this point.”
Molly paused, shifted in her chair and arched her back.
“Are you all right?” Active asked.
“Baby’s kicking.” She grimaced, then relaxed. “You’d have to talk to Mr. Sullivan about employee complaints.”
“Aren’t you in HR? Wouldn’t those come to you?”
“I don’t want to say anything inappropriate. Mr. Sullivan would be the person to talk to.” She looked down and began shuffling through a stack papers with what struck Active as feigned urgency. “I have to get these timesheets done, so...”
Push her on it, or hit on Sullivan again to find out what she was covering up?
He was about to assure her it was always appropriate to talk to the police when his cell phone buzzed and Kavik’s ID came up. “Hey, Danny, sorry for not getting back to you, I’m still - -“
“We’ve finished processing the body site,” Kavik said.
“Find anything interesting?”
“Depends.”
Active listened as Kavik described the discovery.
“Jesus, that doesn’t make any sense. Take photos but leave them where you found them. And put an officer on the site till I get there.”