Better to rest (6 page)

Hidden until shed been drawn to the berries, hidden almost completely behind a pile of ice-encrusted gravel overgrown with diamond willow, was a large patch of gray. As she approached, it resolved itself into a fragment of airplane fuselage. The edges were ragged and worn, the gray paint streaked and faded.

“No tail numbers, Wy said out loud. It wasnt much more than a foot across and she lifted it easily. “Ill be go to hell.

His footsteps came to a halt behind her and she felt him look over her shoulder. “What is it?

“World War Two, she said.

“What about it? He caught on. “Oh, you think

“I could be wrong, Liam, but I think this is a piece off an old C-47.

“Whats a C-47?

“Its the cargo equivalent of a DC-3. When he continued to look blank, she said, “Liam, I cant believe how little you know about flying and still manage to live in Alaska. The DC-3 was the first economically successful commercial airliner. The C-47 was the military application, a cargo and troop transport. Parachuters bailed out of them during the invasion of Normandy, for crying out loud. Mudhole Smith built Cordova Airlines around them. At the end of World War Two, when we knew we had the war won, the plant in Georgia started converting the cargo plane into the passenger plane, and Alaska Airlines puddle-jumped one all the way across the continent to Anchorage in May 1945 and started flying passengers. She looked at him and said incredulously, “Do you mean to say youve never been in one?

“I dont know, he said, trying hard not to sound defensive. “I never pay any attention to the plane Im in, Wy; you know that. All I care about is that they stay up in the air long enough to get me where Im going.

She shook her head. “Man.

“Besides, thats just a little piece. How can you be so sure itswell, it was a DC-3?

“A C-47, she said. “It was a military plane. The color alone tells us that.

“How longs it been here? When did it crash?

“We need to find something with numbers on it. Wy began foraging, climbing over boulders, pulling brush to one side only to have it pull free and slap her in the face. “Ouch. Damn it.

“John said they found the arm next to a big chunk of quartz. He walked upslope, crunching through a surface trickle of water frozen into a thin, rapidly melting crust. It had spent the summer running off the end of a slab of ice the size of Wys house, with man-high holes melted through it. “There. He clambered over the ice, pieces of it collapsing beneath his weight as he went.

“Be careful! she said as a big chunk fell with a loud
thunk!
Liam disappeared and for a moment she thought he had fallen through. His voice came to her a moment later. “Here it is, Wy. Walk around, though; dont climb overthe ice is rotten right through.

“Imagine my surprise. She walked around the slab, a scramble of smallish boulders in her way, and found him standing between the slab of ice he had negotiated and the face of the glacier itself, a wall of prismed white with shadowed blue highlights creating narrow, unexpected windows into an inconsistent past. Another dark cave yawned at its base, curving high and large behind the ice. The ground here was a gray mixture of sand and gravel, more textbook moraine. Water was trickling down somewhere, but not much and not in a hurry about it. Winter was coming on fast.

“Kinda spooky. Liams voice echoed hollowly back at him from the cave.

“Kinda, Wy said, her voice short.

Liam looked at her. “Whats wrong?

“I dont like being this close to the face of a glacier. Glaciers calve. Where do you think that slab you just hauled your butt over came from?

He squinted up at the face. “Think one might fall on us? he said, sounding interested.

Her shadow lengthened on the ice in front of her, and the sun, well up over the horizon by now, felt warm on her back. “Thats what glaciers do. Wheres that quartz? She followed his pointing finger. “I dont see Oh.

He followed her, watched as she extricated a piece of plastic from the sandy gravel. “Whats that?

She turned it between her hands. “Transparent, convex. Part of a window, probably, or the windshield.

He repressed a shudder, his all-too-active imagination actively pursuing a picture of what the last few moments in the air had been like. Had they known they were going in, those unknown men in the cockpit of this unknown aircraft? He hoped not. He hoped it with fervor.

Two hours later, their total was three shards of metal that had been twisted like corkscrewsproving to Liam once again just how insubstantial were the craft to which he trusted himself in the airand Wys piece of plastic. Other, more macabre findings included the cuff of a dark blue shirtsleeve, and a tattered dark blue sock containing what appeared to be some small bones held together by what appeared to be sinewy cartilage.

Liam bagged and tagged everything they found.

“Nothing with numbers on it, though, Wy said with a sigh.

“Is there enough here to tell you what kind of a plane it was?

Wy shrugged. “Military, for sure, with that paint job.

“When?

“Not lately. She stared up at the face of the glacier.

“What?

“Its just... you dont expect to see a glacier giving up an airplane when it calves. A T. Rex, yeah, but a plane? Glaciers have been around a lot longer than planes. Takes a long time, centuries, millennia for a glacier to give up a secret. The face of a glacier, man, its thousands of years old. Its She cocked her head. The prickle at the back of her neck was back.

“What? he said.

“Shhh. She held up a hand. “I thought I heard

There was a distant, cracking sound, and the next thing Liam knew Wy had him in a low tackle that rolled the both of them over the blueberry bushes and beneath the high-standing lip of the chunk of ice he had climbed over. There was a
BOOM!
that caused chunks of ice to fall from the roof of their shelter, one of which hit Wys head and another of which struck Liam smack in the left eye. “Ouch! What the

There was an extended rending sound, deafening in decibel level, so that he couldnt hear himself speak, let alone talk. The ground shook beneath them. Earthquake? Wy buried her face in his shoulder and he held on. There was a split second of pure, clear silence. The light outside their shelter altered, shifted somehow, and then there was a
CRASH!
as something immense fell heavily to the ground, and a lingering series of cracks and thumps and bumps as it splintered into pieces and slithered down the gravel moraine.

He didnt know how long it took for the ringing in his ears to stop. “Wy? he croaked. She was unmoving against him. “Wy! Are you all right?

He could feel the jolt that went through her. “What? Liam?

“Are you all right?

He felt her come alive all along the length of her body. “I... yes, Im all right. You?

“I think so. Can we get out?

She raised her head and peered over her shoulder at the way they had come. “I think so. She eeled backward, just enough room for her wriggle over onto her back. She kicked, and something shifted.

“Wy!

“Its all right. Im just clearing a path. Follow me out.

She didnt have to ask him twice. He barely remembered to hang on to the evidence bags.

When they were well clear of the ice and a safe distance from the face of the glacier, they stopped to take stock. Wy winced a little when she stretched. “Something got me in the shoulder. She looked at him. “Youre going to have a shiner.

He touched the swelling surrounding his left eye. “Ouch.

Her lips twitched. “And your uniforms kind of changed color on you. Well, maybe not changed, exactly, but its sure bluer than it was.

“What? He looked down to find his dark blue jacket and pants embedded with multiple squashed blueberries. “Oh, hell. She was looking over his shoulder at the face of the glacier. He looked up and her expression made him straighten. “Wy?

“Liam, Wy breathed, and raised one shaking forefinger.

The skeleton of the plane was impressed into the face of the glacier like a gigantic fossil, the ribs of the fuselage curving up and around, one wing folded like paper, the tail miraculously upright. The nose was gone and the cockpit with it, but there was a barred white star on the side close to the tail, and small letters or numbers in the same white paint on the upright portion of the tail.

“Liam, Wy said again, closing her eyes and opening them again. “Do you see?

“Of course I see, he said.

She swallowed. “Good. For a minute there, I

“What? When she didnt answer he said, “Lets get the binoculars from the plane.

SIX

Diana Prince was waiting for them when they taxied up to Wys tie-down. “Did you find it?

“Yeah, we found it.

“Damn, she said. “I figured it was just another one of Teddy and Johns big stories. A pretty good one, I admit, but still.

“Me, too, Liam said. “But its there, all right.

“What is it? She looked at Wy.

“A C-47, Wy said. “World War Two vintage, if I had to guess.

Prince whistled. “Wow. On its way to the Aleutians, maybe?

“Maybe. Thats how Elmendorf got built, because of the traffic between Anchorage and the Aleutians after the Japanese invaded.

“What kind of shape is it in?

“We couldnt get close to it. Its sort of stuck in the face of the glacier.

“Youre kidding.

“Although Id say, from the looks of it, and from the most recent evidence of calving, that a big chunk is due off any time now. Wy remembered the sheer terror of those few moments when she had thought they were both about to be crushed in the fall of ice, and looked at Liam to see him reliving it, too. “All we can do is wait. We got the tail numbers, though.

“Great, well be able to trace it.

“What are you doing here, Prince? Liam said. “I thought you were going to check on that shooting out in the road last night. The one old Abe called in.

“Yeah, I was. Prince looked uncomfortable.

“Something else come up?

Only one answer to that. For a state trooper, something else always came up. “Yeah.

Suddenly Liam didnt like the look on her face. “Im not going to like this, am I.

“No.

Prince looked at Wy, who could take a hint of official police business when her nose was rubbed in it. Curiosity was not a trait that was encouraged to flourish in the significant other of a state trooper. She finished tying down the Cub. “Ive got to pick up the mail for Kagati Lake. See you later. She included them both in a vague salute and climbed into her truck. Liam saw her watching them in the rearview as she drove off.

He shook his head once, firmly, and turned to Prince. “Whats up?

She took a deep breath. “Youre really not going to like it.

She was right.

Death was careless of dignity. Sometimes Liam thought that that was what he hated most about murder scenes, and this one was no exception. Her flowered housedress was above her knees, revealing the legs he had admired the night before all the way up to the thighs. Her right foot was twisted so that one perfectly polished brown loafer had fallen off. The neat, shining cap of black hair was matted with blood. Her bowels had emptied themselves and the stink of urine and excrement fouled the air.

Her big brown eyes were open, looking at the ceiling with an expression of vague astonishment, as if she had tried and failed to understand how she came to be there and in that position.

She never would, now.

“You got pictures?

Prince nodded.

Liam stepped forward, avoiding the blood, and closed the staring eyes, and then pulled the skirt down to a more decorous level. He turned to Joe Gould, a thin, intense man in his early thirties with a face by Giotto and hair as long and as black as the deceaseds. Gould, Newenhams sole physicians assistant, operator of the local ambulance and the nearest thing the town had to a medical examiner, stripped the plastic gloves from his hands. “My guess is death was caused by a blow to the head incurred during a fight. Bruising on the face, knuckles, defensive marks on both arms.

“Anything under her fingernails?

Gould picked up the corpses left hand and displayed it. “She kept her fingernails short and filed smooth. I did scrapings, but I doubt there will be much there.

The house was silent, except for the sound of soft weeping and muted whispers coming from the living room. The three of them stared down at the body.

Mrs. Lydia Tompkins, a seventy-four-year-old housewife, mother of four, grandmother of two, would never again come to the defense of private property with a jar of sun-dried tomatoes.

“God damn it to hell, Liam said.

Prince tried not to flinch away from the rage in his voice and on his face. Gould, impassive as ever, picked up the chair that had been lying on its side and set it at the table. He nodded at the counter and, following his gaze, Liam saw two mugs, both bearing the KAKM Anchorage public television logo, sitting next to the stove. The kettle was full, and cold to the touch. The mugs were empty. A canister of tea bags stood next to them, along with a sugar bowl and a spoon.

Gould nodded when Liam looked back. “Id say she was making tea for two and never got the chance.

“So she knew him.

Gould shrugged. “Doesnt narrow it down by much. Who doesnt know everyone else in this town?

The kitchen, a large room with windows overlooking the river and a table big enough to seat eight, had last been remodeled before Alaska was a state. The refrigerator was small, round-shouldered and noisy, a sea of white enamel surrounded the propane-fired stove burners, there was no microwave, and the coffeepot was a silver percolator with a black plastic lid. The overhead light was fluorescent behind a translucent, rectangular plastic lens. Yellow flowers bloomed on the wallpaper, matching the yellow and white squares of the shabby linoleum. The narrow cabinets were metal painted white, with chrome handles that looked like theyd come off a 57 Chevy. The phone was an old black rotary dial, mounted on the wall with a bulletin board beside it. Among the usual kids pictures, grocery lists and plumbers phone numbers was a tattered Peanuts cartoon, a color one out of the Sunday paper, with Snoopy on his doghouse thinking about the time hed tried to go over the fence of the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. “No matter where you are, youre still in the world, was his conclusion.