P. Parrish - Heart of Ice

XOXOXOX

Lily

Girlfriend. .

The sweater had been Joe’s idea. When they had gone shopping in the little stores in downtown Echo Bay to look for a Christmas present for Lily, Louis had headed straight for the bookstore and picked out a kid’s science book on the origin of horses. Joe had steered him next door to a yarn boutique where she found a nubby pink girl’s sweater with white lilies knitted down the front. And she had given him a warning.

Don’t even think about getting me a DustBuster.

He didn’t. The next day, while Joe was at work, he found a women’s boutique where he picked out a silver bracelet set with a Petoskey stone. Two months ago he hadn’t even known what a Petoskey stone was. But during one of their walks on the wintry beach Joe had told him she had been scouring the shoreline for one of the prehistoric fossils for months but had never been lucky enough to find one.

She had surprised the hell out of him by crying when he gave her the bracelet. She had worn it to the New Year’s Eve party hosted by Augie Toussaint, the Echo Bay Banner editor. But he had the feeling that he-not the bracelet-was the thing she was most proud to wear on her arm that night.

Girlfriend. .

When Joe had first introduced him to people at the party she had hesitated. Finally she had just said, “This is my friend Louis Kincaid.”

It made him feel strange, to be half of a couple. Once during the party, standing there with Joe’s arm entwined in his, he had felt that old urge to pull away. But he hadn’t. Because for the first time in his life he didn’t want to move away from people. For the first time in his life he wanted to move toward them.

“So how do I look?”

Louis turned.

Joe was standing in the doorway. She was wearing her dress uniform-double-breasted dark brown jacket and pants with a crisp white shirt. Gold buttons, gold braid on the left epaulette, gold bars on the jacket cuffs, and a gold six-pointed star on her left breast pocket.

Louis stared, dumbstruck. He had seen her in her usual uniform-plain shirt, slacks, and usually a Leelanau County Sheriff’s Department ball cap over her ponytailed hair. But he had never seen her looking like this.

“Well?” she pressed.

“You look-” He shook his head. “Impressive,” he said finally.

“I feel like George Patton in drag,” she said, heading toward the coffeepot.

Her hair was done in a neat braid. She carried white gloves and the stiff gold-braided garrison hat that he had seen wrapped in plastic at the top of her closet.

“How long will the mayor’s swearing-in take?” he asked.

“I don’t know. His wife is holding a lunch afterward. I can’t get out of it.”

He held up a hand.

“What are you going to do today?” she asked.

“I was thinking about doing the laundry.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry about leaving you alone so much.”

“Joe, don’t be ridiculous. You have a job to do.”

“I know, it’s just-”

The phone rang. Joe grabbed the receiver off the wall.

She listened for a moment. “Yes, he’s here,” she said, looking at Louis. She put a hand over the receiver. “It’s Rafsky.”

She handed him the receiver, then ducked beneath the coiled cord to put the cap on her coffee and wrap her doughnut.

Louis drew a breath, readying his words. A couple of days after he had arrived in Echo Bay, he had called Rafsky’s office, intending to tell him that he had ordered the second test-the paternity test-to compare Ross’s DNA to that of the fetal bones. But Rafsky had been on family leave, and Louis had no home phone number for him, which made it all too easy to forget about it.

“Hey, Rafsky,” he said.

“ ‘Hey’? That’s all you have to say to me-hey?”

Louis blew out a breath. “Look, I called your office, but you weren’t there and-”

“And you couldn’t be bothered to track me down?” Rafsky said.

Louis looked up at Joe. She was watching him quizzically.

“Ordering a test without telling me is bad enough. But telling them you were me ? That’s low, Kincaid, even for a fucking PI.”

“Cheap shot, Rafsky. Look, I know it wasn’t a smart thing to do-”

“Actually it was,” Rafsky said. “That’s why I’m letting you off the hook.” He paused. “The first test I ordered, the familial test, is still pending, thanks to you pushing it lower down the list. But I just got the results this morning on the paternity. Ross Chapman is the father.”

Louis leaned back in the chair.

Maisey had been right. Ross Chapman sexually assaulted and impregnated his own sister.

“Bastard,” Louis said softly.

“Listen,” Rafsky said. “This isn’t information we need out there right now. Not until we know if it had anything to do with her murder.”

“I understand.”

“So how quick can you get back to the island?” Rafsky asked.

Louis glanced at Joe. She was standing nearby, holding her travel mug and hat, obviously anxious to hear what Rafsky wanted.

He covered the receiver. “There’s been an unexpected development,” he said to her. “Rafsky wants me back on the island to help him finish the case.”

For a moment she said nothing, and he wondered what was behind the play of emotions on her face. Maybe a little jealousy that she wasn’t going to be part of it. Clearly disappointment that he was going to leave. But there was something else there, too, and he knew what it was because he was feeling it as well-uncertainty about where they as a couple were going to be after this case was over.

Joe stepped forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Go,” she said. “You have a job to do, too.”

When Louis got off the ferry the blast of wind hit him like a hard slap in the face. He set down his duffel and zipped up his down parka. The coat had been a Christmas gift from Joe, and he was damn glad to have it now. He spotted the Mackinac Island police SUV sitting on Main Street, its exhaust pluming in the icy air.

He was surprised to see Rafsky behind the wheel as he got in, tossing his duffel in the back.

“Where’s the chief?” he asked.

“He’s home,” Rafsky said. “He’s not a hundred percent yet. His ex-wife is still here taking care of him.”

Rafsky put the SUV in gear, and they started away from the docks. Main Street was snowed over and crisscrossed with snowmobile tracks. The lamplights blinked on, a concession to the gloom of the early January afternoon. Louis had forgotten how early darkness came in winter this far north.

They were headed away from town. “Where are we going?” Louis asked.

“The airport.”

“Why?”

“To intercept Ross Chapman,” Rafsky said. “His plane lands in thirty minutes.”

“How’d you get him to come up here?”

“I told him we found Julie’s skull and made a positive ID from the dental records. I told him he had to come up here and sign the papers to claim the remains.”

“You lied,” Louis said.

“I had to. I need to question him about Julie, and if he knew he was a suspect he’d never come.”

“You can’t get him on incest. The statute of limitations has run out. You’re going for murder?”

Rafsky nodded. “Why not? We’ve got Maisey, who said he was fucking his sister for years. She gets pregnant. Abortion is illegal. By December she starts showing. He’s a nineteen-year-old prince and now all he can see is his life going down the toilet. He does the only thing he can do.”

Louis didn’t say anything because this was exactly what he had been thinking about all night. It was why he hadn’t slept.