Nothing gold can stay (4 page)

“What, they were stuck?

“You could say that, Prince said, considering the matter with judicial impartiality. “Seems theyd had a little too much to drink last night at a party at Tatiana Anayuks. You know about the permanent party at Tatianas, dont you?

“Been invited a time or two.

“Yeah, me, too, said Prince, whod only been assigned to Newenham two months before, but appeared to be integrating into the local population without strain. “Anyway, Art and Dave decide theyre both in love with Elizabeth and fight a duel to see who gets her. Tatianawho was not happy to be woken up at ten this morning, and from whom you may receive a complaint later todaysays nobody won, and after that she closed the party down.

“What time?

“About four a.m., she said. Art and Dave staggered off, she thought down to their boat in the harbor.

“But no, Liam said.

“But no, Prince agreed. She was a tall, lithe woman with deep blue eyes and short dark curls. She was slim enough to look good in a uniform, and on duty, at least, had a crisp, formal manner that did little to conceal her enthusiasm for the job. Fresh out of the academy, she was ready, willing and eager to serve and to protect, preferably at gunpoint.

Shed also had a thing going with Liams father during Charles visit to Newenham in July, but that was something Liam preferred not to think about if he could possibly avoid it, which he couldnt. It was hell when your fathers sex life was better than your own. Although that wasnt the case now, he thought, and had to repress that grin again. “How did they wind up stuck in Elizabeths window?

“Near as they can remember, they thought it would be a dandy idea to serenade her. When she didnt come out, understandable as she was stocking shelves at AC at the time, they decided to crawl in. They made it halfway, and passed out cold.

Liam didnt bother to hide the grin this time. “Must be a little window.

“Nah. Both Art and Dave could stand to lose a little weight.

“Why didnt the local police respond to it?

“Roger Raymos in Anchorage testifying at trial, and Cliff Berg just pulled a thirty-six-hour shift and his wife says hes in bed and staying there.

“Where have you got them?

“Over to the city jail.

“You going to arrest them?

She looked surprised. “Of course. Drunk and disorderly, breaking and entering, resisting arrest.

“Art Inga resisted arrest?

Prince grinned. “Well, I dont think he would have if Dave hadnt shoved him so hard he fell backwards out of the window when I woke them up. He did come up swinging, though.

Liam hung up his hat. “Is Elizabeth pressing charges?

“She was kind of lukewarm about it at first, but then Art tried to kiss her, and since hed thrown up at some point during the night on the floor beneath her window, she wasnt pleased. She saved the file and hit the print button. He motioned her up and out of his chair and took her place. The printer coughed into awareness and he reached over to turn it off before it began to print.

“Sir?

Liam sat back. “Theres the letter of the law, Prince, and theres the spirit. Art Inga and Dave Iverson have been in love with Elizabeth Katelnikoff since all three of them were in high school together.

“So?

“So she cant make up her mind, she goes out with one and then the other and then switches back and then switches back again.

“Whats that got to do with them breaking into her house? Prince demanded. “They did break into her house. Sir.

“Yes, they did, but this charge will never make it to trial. Elizabeth will never testify against them, and besides, you wont get an arrest warrant out of Bill because shell laugh you out of her bar first.

A short silence. “Drunk and disorderly? she said, almost pleadingly.

“Sorry. Liam shook his head, and deleted Princes report. “Unless Tatiana made a complaint?

Reluctantly, she shook her head.

Liam cocked an interrogatory eyebrow.

There was a brief pause.

“Hell, Prince said.

“Relax, Liam said dryly, “you had eight solved murders on your record before youd been in town a week.

“I know, she said glumly.

“Even somebody named for Wonder Woman ought to be happy with that.

“Up yours, she said, still glum.

He grinned at her. “Well try to scare up another one for you sometime soon.

Later, he would remember saying those words, and curse himself for a fool. Now he said, “Anything else?

“Yeah, the phone was ringing when I walked in the door. Some guy, name of Montgomery, looking for

“Lyle Montgomery, looking for his daughter, Liam said with a sigh, and glanced at the calendar. First of September, first of the month. Right on schedule.

“You know him?

“Hes got a daughter missing. Name of Cheryl. Liam opened one of the desk drawers and rummaged through it, producing a file. “She was canoeing alone through the Wood-Tikchik State Park. Finn Grant dropped her off at the Four Lakes Ranger Station. She had a full load of supplies, plus the canoe. The rangers gave her a map and the standard warnings. She left around noon of that day, with the stated intention of camping her way up to Outuchiwenet Mountain Lodge. She had scheduled a fly-out from there with Grant at noon two weeks from the day he put her down.

“And she didnt show?

“No.

“When was that?

“August.

“Just last month?

“No, thats the problem. August 1997.

“Oh. Prince was silent for a moment. “And her fathers been calling ever since?

“Hes called the first of the month every month since I got here. I assume he had been doing so before. Corcoran didnt stick around long enough after I showed up to fill me in.

“Doesnt it say in the file?

He took a last look at the photograph stapled inside the folder. She was a looker, Cheryl Montgomery, a long fall of straight fair hair, large blue eyes with ridiculously long lashes, a dimple in her right cheek. Born in Juneau, a graduate of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, she had been a wildlife biologist working for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Anchorage. Twenty-six years old. A daughter who at the very least deserved a phone call once a month.

Just another overconfident backpacker swallowed up by the Alaskan wilderness. He closed the file and tossed it to Prince. “Corcoran wasnt into keeping up with the paperwork. I talked to John Barton about it, and he said the family was all over the Wood-Tikchik for four months. They fought us suspending the search. And they fought the presumptive death hearing.

“And now her father calls us the first of every month, checking to see if weve found her.

“Yeah.

Prince closed the file and tossed it back. “Okay, you can be boss.

“Gee, thanks, Liam said, but he knew what she meant. Next to domestic disputes, reporting deaths to surviving family and friends was the law officers least favorite job.

The phone rang and they were called out to a shooting at a home eleven miles up the road to Icky, which turned out to be an accidental discharge by a thirty-six-year-old man who shot himself in the hand with a.401 shotgun while taking it down from an overcrowded gun rack. His five-year-old daughter had been standing next to him at the time, and had caught some buckshot in her shoulder. Joe Gould, Newenhams local and it would seem only paramedic, judging from the many crime scenes where Liam had encountered him, was already there, soothing the girl with a cherry Tootsie Roll Pop as he picked pellets out of her shoulder with surgical tweezers. She was sitting on her mothers lap. The mother would occasionally glare over her shoulder at the father, who sat in a corner, largely ignored, weeping and wailing over a hand that would never pull the trigger on a weapon again.

Prince got the story out of the man (between sobs) and observed to Liam, “Id call this a violation of basic safety rules, wouldnt you, sir?

“I would, and Id arrest him for it, too, Liam said, so they did and brought him before Bill for arraignment. Bill flayed what skin the guy had left with a blistering indictment of his lack of judgment, and they delivered him into the tender hands of Mamie Hagemeister at the local jail, who turned out to be a bosom buddy of the guys wife and godmother to his daughter. They found out later that she didnt feed him for two days.

Meanwhile, back at the post, the door opened and a woman walked in. She was short, with the thick-waisted build of the Bay Yupik. Her eyes were dark and narrow, her expression wary. She was dressed in shabby slacks and a windbreaker, wore no makeup, and her long black hair was clean and neatly combed.

Prince strode forward, every inch the trooper. “Yes, maam? How may we help you?

The woman pulled a piece of paper from her windbreaker pocket. “I have this court order, she said. “From Anchorage.

“Whats your name, maam? Prince said, and took the paper.

“Natalie Gosuk, the woman replied, and Liam stopped lounging back in his chair and sat up straight. “That paper says I get to see my son.

Prince finished reading the order. “Yes, it does, she said, and passed it off to Liam.

He scanned it briefly. Judge Renee Legere had signed the order. It was legal, all right. He folded the order and handed it back to Natalie Gosuk, taking his first real look at the woman. She wasnt saying much, letting the court order speak for her. She kept her eyes lowered, but the curve of her mouth was set and resentful.

Four times shed been accused of assaulting a minor child, and Judge Legere had allowed visitation anyway. It was so easy in Anchorage, looking at the perp across a room, a perp cleaned up and sobered up and scared into something approaching civil behavior, it was so easy to judge them human and worthy of the rights of other humans, of second, third, fourth, fifth chances, and besides, the jails were all full. So what if she smacked her kid around a little? She was rehabilitated, look at her standing there next to her lawyer, all neat and tidy and vowing repentance and an ache in her heart for the son lost to her.

Out here, where the human rubber met the road, there was a different view. Here one lived next to the victims, broken, bleeding, bloodied, terrified, most of them so intimidated they couldnt even be brought to testify.

Since it didnt look like he was going to say anything, Prince stepped in. “Was there a problem with the order, Ms. Gosuk?

“She wont let me see him.

“Who wont?

“The woman my son lives with. She wont let me in the door of the house. I want you to make her let me in.

Prince looked at Liam. When he said nothing, she asked the woman, “Have you shown her this document?

Natalie Gosuk hesitated. “Not yet.

“Show it to her, Prince advised. “If she wont let you see the boy, come to us.

“This paper says she has to, Natalie Gosuk insisted.

“Yes, Prince said. “It does. Limited, supervised visitation. It means you can see him but you cant take him out of the house and you cant see him alone.

The womans eyes shifted. “They told me.

“Call us if you have any trouble.

The door closed behind her with a soft sigh. Prince looked at Liam. “Domestic disputes, she said with loathing. “God, how I hate them. Give me an old-fashioned ax murder any day. He remained silent. “Whose kid was she talking about, do you know? Whos the she in she wont let me see him?

Liam looked at Prince. “Go on down to the jail and give Art and Dave a talking-to and turn them loose.

“We could leave them where they are until their twenty-four is up. Suspects had to be released after twenty-four hours if no arrest warrant had been sworn out against them.

He pointed a finger at her. “Better. He stood and reached for his hat. “Ive got a few errands to run. Ill take lunch and then come back and relieve you for yours. He paused at the door and grinned at her. “Monthly reports due today. She groaned, and he added, “Hey, Im the corporal, youre the trooper. Low man does the paperwork.

The answering smile on her face faded as soon as the door closed behind him, and Prince was left to wonder what had produced the lines of strain around her bosss eyes, lines that hadnt been there when he first walked in the door.

THREE

Nuklunek Bluff, September 1

John Kvichak and Teddy Engebretsen had been sworn companions since kindergarten. Theyd studied grammar together beneath the beady eye of Mrs. Johnson in the fourth grade, stood shoulder to shoulder against the bully boys in the seventh grade, theyd lusted after the same girls in high school and theyd graduated together attired beneath their caps and gowns in the same jeans and gray sweatshirts, ready to party as soon as the diplomas were given out and the caps tossed into the air. They fished salmon together, hunted caribou and moose together, trapped beaver together. When they reached legal age, they drank together. It was said in Newenham, their hometown, that they would never marry because they could never find a woman capable of putting up with both of them, and although the saying began as a joke, there was probably some truth to it.

They owned a drift netter together now, the
Isabella Rose,
named for both of their mothers. Isabella, Teddys mom, won the coin toss for whose name came first. Rose, Johns mom, took it well, frying up a panful of bread and bringing it down to the christening. Of course, it was all charred to a crisp. Isabella laughed and laughed, and made John and Teddy eat up every bite.

Each fall, after the fishing season was over and the
Isabella Rose
was hosed down and put into dry dock for the winter, John and Teddy would go hunting together in the Wood River Mountains. They concentrated on moose and caribou, but took time out on occasion to bring out the shotguns and go for geese, ptarmigan and spruce hens.

Neither one of them was a pilot, so they chartered Wy Chouinard to fly them into their preferred hunting area, the long, level plateau between the broad plain that sloped down into the Nushagak River in the east and the Wood River Mountains in the west, where a small but fecund herd of caribou fattened on lichen, where the occasional moose wandered up the narrow chasms and canyons. Birdlife was plentiful, and one year Teddy even brought down a brown bear with a beautiful coat, which now hung in a place of honor on his mothers living room wall.