Dana Stabenow - So Sure Of Death

A brief pause. “You're sure this guy did it?”

“The shooting and the assault, yes. I don't have his confession on the stabbing yet, but he was there, he had the murder weapon, he was fleeing the scene. And he was drunk. He looks pretty good to me.”

Another pause, while they both thought about what booze did in the Alaskan Bush to keep up the rates of child abuse, rape and murder every month. “There wasn't any other way to apprehend him?”

“No.” There might have been, but Liam had been the trooper on the spot, and it had been his decision to make. He wasn't going to back away from it.

Another pause. “All right.” A long sigh. “But, Jesus, Liam.”

Liam grinned at the calendar on the opposite wall. “Well, John, you know how I hate to fly.”

“Fine,” Barton said, “then just don't get on them in the first place. You don't have to jump out of them in midair.”

He didn't say and Liam didn't mention that if you were a trooper in the Bush, you flew.

Their minds must have been following the same track, because Barton said, “You ever think about learning to fly, Liam?”

“No,” Liam said for the second time that day.

“All right, all right,” Barton said, “never mind, it was just a suggestion. Who was this guy and what'd he do?”

Liam told him. Barton grunted. “Nice he returned to the scene of the crime.”

“You know what they say,” Liam said blandly. “That is your standard deviant sociopath's customary behavior.”

Barton made a rude suggestion as to what Liam could do with “they say.” “What about this boat thing?”

Liam's smile faded. He fished out the picture of the Malones in Hawaii. It was a little waterlogged but Molly's impact was undiminished. “Seven dead; father, mother, two kids, father's brother and two deckhands. Or so I gather, from talking with the locals and going through the father's business records. We'll have to wait for the M.E.'s ID to be sure.”

“Why?”

“There'd been a fire.”

“They die of smoke inhalation?”

Liam didn't hesitate. “I don't think so.”

Barton's voice sharpened. “Why not?”

Liam paused, putting things in order in his mind before he said the words out loud. He hated repeating himself, and he knew Barton hated listening to people repeat themselves. “Let me run it down for you. At approximately nine this morning, a couple of fishers spotted theMarybethia,drifting. At first they didn't think anything of it, but then they noticed she didn't have her nets out. When she got closer, they could see what looked like soot and scorch marks and nobody on deck. So they pulled their gear and took a look. Seven bodies and a boat that looked like it had been on fire. The fire was out by the time they got there. So they took her in tow, only she was down so much in the water they took another look around.”

Liam could hear the rat-a-tat of a pencil hitting Barton's desk. “And found what?”

“Do you know about drain plugs?”

Barton's chair creaked. “Yeah, the plugs in the stern. Usually rubber or plastic? You pull them when you pull the boat out of the water, to drain it. Also allows for snowmelt to drain when you've got it in dry dock over the winter.”

“Right. Well, someone pulled those plugs.”

Dead silence. “You don't say.”

“I do say. And not while they were in dry dock.”

“Interesting.”

“Very.”

“What else?”

“They towed theMarybethiato Kulukak, a little village on Kulukak Bay.”

The chair creaked and there was the sound of footsteps. “Where?”

“About forty-some miles east of Togiak.”

The sound of a finger tracing a map, mumbled curses. John had trouble distinguishing latitude from longitude. “Okay, got it.”

“Then they called me. I flew out with Prince-thanks for telling me she was coming, by the way-and boarded her.” Liam took a deep breath and said evenly, “It was a charnel house, John. All bodies burned beyond recognition. You could tell there'd been five adults and two kids by the difference in size, but that was about it.” He didn't mention the smell. He was doing his best to forget it.

Footsteps, creak of chair, thump as feet went on the desk, rata-tat of pencil. “So what makes you think this was anything more than a boat fire?”

“First, the plugs.”

“Yeah, but that happens, sometimes even to the most experienced fisherman. You hear about it all the time. Like the float planes on Lake Hood. Every other fall or so, somebody leaves taking off the floats until it's too late and the floats freeze in the ice. Or in the spring somebody forgets to take off the skis and put on the floats and the lake melts and their plane sinks. It happens. That all you got?”

“No. At least one of the adults was shot in the head.”

Creak of chair, thump of feet on the floor as Barton sat straight up. “Are you sure about that?” he said sharply.

“As sure as I can be without confirmation by autopsy. There is a wound in the left temple of one of the adult males that looks exactly like the entry wound of what I'd say was a nine-millimeter bullet.”

“Was there an exit wound?”

“I think so, but it's hard to tell for sure. The fire messed that side of him up pretty good.”

The pencil tapping resumed. Barton couldn't sit still at gunpoint. “You want me to fly an arson investigator out there?”

“The sooner the better. I had to leave the boat moored in the Kulukak small boat harbor. I've got one of the tribal council members watching it, but the Malones lived in Kulukak.”

Liam didn't have to say anything more. “I'll call the fire marshal tonight. He owes me a few. I'll have someone on the way first light tomorrow. When's the earliest flight into Newenham?”

“Nine, I think.”

“Okay, probably leaves Anchorage around six-thirty, seven. I'll have somebody on it.”

“Thanks.”

A pause. “Which came first, pulling the plugs or the fire?”

“Maybe he killed them and pulled the plugs to sink the evidence. Maybe she wouldn't go down and he set her on fire to cover up the evidence. I don't know, John. It's all just speculation at this point. Forensics will tell us more.”

“Did you find a gun on board?”

“Yes. A rifle, a thirty-ought-six. Couldn't tell if it had been fired. I sent it in with the bodies.”

“I'll call Bob down at the crime lab, make sure he gets right on it. Could be a murder-suicide thing, you know.”

“Could be.”

“But you don't think so.”

“No.”

Rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat. “How many people fishing in that area yesterday?”

“I don't know for sure. There was a tender taking on fish in Kulukak. The processor they work for operates out of Newenham. I'm going over to their office to talk to the superintendent.”

“You must have some kind of estimate on the number of boats in the area.”

Liam sighed. “The locals told me upwards of fifty.” Silence.

“What the hell, John,” Liam said wryly, “if it was easy, everybody'd be doing it.”

“You need help?”

“Not yet. I may. I'll let you know.”

“Prince working out all right?”

“She calls me sir.”

Barton grunted. “Good. She's working for you.”

It was Liam's turn to be quiet.

“Oh hell.” Barton blew out a breath. “You're back up to corporal.”

Liam waited, trying to sort this out. “I haven't been a trooper for four months.”

“Corcoran put the hoodoo on Newenham,” Barton said bluntly. Corcoran had been the trooper sergeant in charge previously assigned to Newenham. “No one wants to transfer there. Somebody needs to be boss. You've got the time in. You have management experience. You're it.”