ACTIVE, LONG AND Carnaby waited in pointed silence as Lucy made a production of bringing in a carafe of coffee and setting around cups and condiments for the three of them.
Finally, she looked at Carnaby and asked, “You take yours black, right?”
“Ahem,” Active said.
Lucy put on a look of mystified innocence. “What?”
“We can pour it ourselves, thank you.”
“Arii, I’m just trying to help.”
“Of course.”
“Humph.” She turned and waddled out.
“I called our village safety officer up in—” Long stopped at a look from Active.
“And shut the door,” Active said.
The door closed with an indignant ‘thunk’.
“And that’ll be all now.”
“I’m just waiting in case you need something,” came Lucy’s voice from outside.
“We’re fine, thanks.”
“Arii, I don’t know why I work so hard,” the voice said. Footsteps receded down the hallway.
“Maybe you should make her a detective.” Carnaby poured himself a cup of the coffee, which he left black. “Officer Brophy. It has a ring. Plus, she usually knows more than the rest of us put together.”
“Let’s try to focus here,” Active said. “To what do we owe the honor of this visit from the Alaska State Troopers?”
“I’m just here to listen and advise,” Carnaby said. “So far it’s a borough case, but you never know when we Troopers will get pulled in.”
“I don’t recall us doing any sit-ins when I worked for you,” Active said.
“Me, neither,” Long said. “The Troopers never came in on a city case unless we asked for it.”
Carnaby waved a dismissive hand. “No biggie. Something new the governor has asked us to do. Kind of facilitate local law enforcement, make sure you’ve got all the resources you need, partnership kind of thing. That’s good, right?”
Active frowned. “The governor asked you to sit in on this?”
“Posilutely, Helen Wheels herownself. I’m from the state of Alaska and I’m here to help! You know how she likes you.”
“But how does she even know about it? It can’t possibly be news in Juneau.”
Carnaby shrugged. “I dunno. From her family up here maybe?”
“Maybe,” Active said. “And now that I think of it, she said she streams Kay-Chuck. Maybe she heard Roger Kennelly’s story. Or our notice about the snowgo.”
“She streams Kay-Chuck? What is that?”
“Never mind. Just Internet technojabber.” Active studied the Trooper captain. “I guess we would have ended up bouncing it off you anyway.”
“And so…?” Carnaby turned up his palms.
“And so…what do we have? Alan? You check with the victim’s family in Walker?”
Long raised his eyebrows. “I called the village safety officer up there and he talked to them and they didn’t know anybody that would have had it in for Pete. But his mom said they never heard much from him once he moved down here to Chukchi for high school. Sounds like he was a real private guy.”
Active nodded.
“They think it was an accident probably.”
Active frowned. “You didn’t tell them what we found at the scene?”
Long stiffened a little. “Of course not.”
“You go to his house?”
“Yeah, it’s just a regular house,” Long said. “Everything was pretty normal. Place was locked, nothing broken, messed up, spilled, turned over inside, from what I could see through the windows. Nothing funny-looking outside. I put up some crime scene tape.”
“You didn’t go in?”
Long stiffened again. “Of course not. Not without a warrant.”
Active grunted. “Which we don’t have any basis for getting that I can see. Our patrol guys see a newly banged-up snowgo anywhere? Especially with blood on it?”
Long squinted the no.
Active looked at his notebook. “I checked with the hospital. They didn’t get anybody in the ER last night or this morning who looked to have been in a snowgo wreck. And Pete didn’t turn up in our computer. If he was ever in trouble, it apparently never crossed a police blotter.”
He turned his gaze on Carnaby. “You guys got any history with a Peter Aqpattuq Wise? I don’t remember anything but the alcoholism referrals when I was at the troopers.”
Carnaby shrugged. “Me neither. He was clean, far as I know.”
“There’s gotta be something somewhere,” Active said. “You can’t just kill somebody and vanish. Not around here.”
“Arii,” Long said. “What if we never figure it out?”
Carnaby shifted in his chair. “So what exactly did you find out there on the tundra?”
“A bloody mess, basically.” Active sketched the scene for him.
“Whew,” Carnaby said a few minutes later. “Skull split open, face ripped up, leg cut off, and nothing but snowgo tracks?”
Active frowned. “Yeah. It sucks.”
“Better you than us,” Carnaby said as he rose from his chair. “But seriously. Let me know if we can kick in on this one.”
Long and Active looked at each other as Carnaby slipped out the door.
“What now, boss?”
Active tented his fingers and looked across them at the sea ice beyond his window. Kay-Chuck had reported a temperature of five above a few minutes earlier. Why was he inside on a day like this? Why didn’t Arctic police work involve more riding around on snowgos or in Cessnas, as long as it wasn’t with Helen Mercer and the plane didn’t ice up and fall out of the sky?
He turned his gaze back to Long. “No reports of a stolen snowgo, right?”
Long squinted the no.
“Nothing from our Kay-Chuck message?”
Another no. Then, “Maybe we should offer a reward?”
Active frowned. “Reward? What have we got for a reward?”
Long shrugged. “Free nights in jail, maybe?”
“Free nights in jail.”
Long raised his eyebrows.
“Who’d want to be in our jail if they didn’t have to?”
“We used to do it sometimes when Jim Silver was chief. You’d be surprised how popular it was.”
“Jim Silver did it?”
Another yes from Long.
Active frowned in sudden suspicion. “Your sister wants another conjugal visit with Clevis Trafford, doesn’t she?”
“They’re engaged. They need to be together. It’ll give Clevis a reason to straighten up when he gets out from the bootlegging charge.”
“Yeah, all right. If Edna can find that snowgo for us, I’ll authorize a conjugal visit.”
“Three nights?”
“A conjugal visit is one night.”
“Two nights maybe?” Long asked. “This is a big case, all right. And she hasn’t seen him in a while. She says they need to catch up.”
“All right, two nights. If she finds the snowgo.”
“How about one night before she finds it and one after?”
“None before and two after. That’s it.”
Long grinned. “I’ll tell her.”
Active studied the deputy, still suspicious. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance she already found it?”
“No, but she’s got really sharp eyes. And she knows lotta people, all right, especially the aanas. Them old ladies know everything and they always talk to each other about it.”
“In other words, Edna’s been bugging you to get her another conjugal visit and you’re using this to get her off your back.”
“Arii, I love my sister.”
“Sure you do.”
“So I should put the reward in our message?”
Active conducted a mental inventory of their jail population, which totaled three at the moment, counting Clevis. “Is there somebody else interested in spending a couple nights in our jail?”
“The competition might make Edna work harder. You never know.”
“You’re right, Alan. You never do know. I don’t, that’s for sure. So, yeah, two free nights in jail for whoever finds the snowgo.” He stood up and headed for the door.
“What you gonna do, boss?” Long asked.
“Talk to somebody who actually knows something,” Active said. “I hope.”
Lucy looked up in surprise and, Active thought, some apprehension as he knocked at the open door to her office. She made a quick movement with her computer mouse that he guessed was to close her Facebook page, on which she had attained some renown for the Eskimo recipes she posted in Inupiaq and English, and on which she spent a considerable part of her official workday at Chukchi Public Safety. Active had declined to take formal cognizance of this. It was his experience that knowing what not to notice was critical to success in any job, this one in particular. As long as she got her work done.
“You guys all done up there?” Lucy asked. “You want me to clean up your coffee stuff?”
“No hurry.”
Lucy relaxed a little.
“I was just wondering what you might have heard about Pete Wise, especially lately.”
“Oh, yeah, isn’t it awful?”
“You ever know him?”
“He was, let’s see, I think a couple years ahead of me in school, but he was already a senior when he moved down here, so we weren’t there at the same time much.”
“He ever have girlfriends? buddies? enemies?”
Lucy frowned over it for a few seconds. “Not that I heard of. He always keep to himself, seem like. He was a big basketball star and really cute, so of course there was always girls trying to, you know, but I never heard of him getting together with nobody.”
“Really. A basketball star? And he didn’t you-know?”
Lucy shook her head. “Some girls said it was a broken heart. Some of them said he maybe didn’t like girls at all.”
Active paused to think whether this would fit any square pegs into round holes. “Pete Wise was gay?”
“I probably shouldn’t have said that. All I know is, he never try with me!”
“Of course you should have told me. Whoever killed him…no matter why…So, he didn’t have any real buddies, either”
“Not that I ever heard of.
“If he was gay, that would make sense. I mean in a town this little, how many guys like that can there be?”
“I could go see Aana Pauline, maybe.”
“How is it I always end up having you talk to Aana Pauline?”
Lucy grinned. “Same like always. She’s an old lady. Them old ladies know everything that happens. I’ll call her.” She picked up her phone, then dropped it and pointed at the clock on the wall. “She’s over at the senior center playing snerts with them other old ladies. I bet she knows everything about Pete Wise already. You wanna go talk to her?”
Active shook his head.
“You’re still afraid of her, ah?”
“Of course not. I have other leads to pursue. And I think you could get more out of her. My Inupiaq’s still not very good.”
“Her English is.”
“I’m your boss and I’m directing you to go.”
“You’re afraid of Aana Pauline because you know she’ll say you should be with me instead of Gracie. That’s why you don’t want to go.”
Active was silent.
“Ah-hah.” Lucy paused a little longer to see if he would muster a rejoinder. He didn’t. “All right, I’ll talk to her, Mister Big Brave Chief of Public Safety. She’ll probably want a ride in your police truck if she has any information. If you’re not too scared to let her in the truck.”
“I’m not scared. I told you.”
“With the flasher and siren on.”
Active groaned. “Whatever she wants. If she can tell us something useful about Pete Wise.”
Lucy rose and pulled on her parka. “What you gonna do anyway? What other leads you pursuing?”
“I’m going to try to find somebody who actually knows something and won’t ask me for a ride or a night in jail.”