The Singing of the Dead (16 page)

Darlene flushed.

Someone thumped on the other side of the wall at the head of Kate's bed. “Hey, keep it down in there, will you? I'm trying to get some sleep here, crissake!”

“Woof,”Mutt said, distributing the effect between the thumper and Darlene. Like Kate, Mutt didn't care for a lot of loud noise about her person.

Darlene looked at Mutt and lowered her voice. “It's insane to think the writer is one of us.”

Who are you trying to convince? Kate thought. Out loud, she said, “I hope you're right. Let's find out.”

Anne and Doug Gordaoff, sharing a room. Darlene Shelikof, a room to herself. Anne's son, Tom, a room to himself, although after what she'd seen in the bar Kate was sure he wouldn't be sleeping alone. Anne's daughter, Erin, a room to herself. Tracy Huffman. Kate herself. That made eight, nine if you counted Mutt, and Kate never made the mistake of not counting Mutt.

“And then there's Paula,”Darlene said thoughtfully.

“Who's Paula?”Kate looked again at the list. “She's not on here.”

“Paula Pawlowski. She's the researcher I told you about,” Darlene said. “She's been in Fairbanks, looking up stuff in the library there. She just flew in today, but she's not staying in the hotel. She lives in Ahtna. You wanted everyone working for the campaign. That's it. I'm going to go talk to Anne.”

“Wait,”Kate said.

“No, Kate. We are not hammering on her door in the middle of the night with a uniformed cop in tow. She'll think somebody else died.”

“Darlene, I don't want anyone to know about this until I can watch the expressions on their faces. Don't—”

Darlene made as if to go nose-to-nose with Kate, and Kate saw the moment in her eyes when she remembered what had happened the last time she had done that. Darlene made a visible effort, and this time when her voice came out, it was low and dead even. “No dogs or Natives allowed,”she said.

Kate blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“No dogs or Natives allowed,”Darlene repeated. “That's what the signs said in the grocery store windows before and sometimes even after statehood, in the shop windows, on the door into bars, in towns all over the territory. No dogs or Natives allowed. Have you forgotten the stories your grandmother told you?”A fine edge of contempt sharpened Darlene's voice. “Or maybe you didn't bother listening when she told them.”

Kate's eyes narrowed. “My grandmother has nothing whatever to do with you warning Anne Gordaoff before I have a chance to question her about this letter.”

“The hell it doesn't!”Darlene's words caused another thump on the wall from the room next door, another protest from Mutt. “I have a good chance of seeing Anne Gordaoff elected to the state legislature, Kate. A woman. A Native woman. One of our own.”

“Anne isn't exactly the second coming of Christ here, Darlene. There are two Native women in the legislature now.”

“Two out of sixty,”Darlene said. “That's not enough. That's not near enough. Let me make myself plain: I will do anything, I will say anything, to get Anne to that swearing-in ceremony in Juneau in January. You—”she said, stabbing at Kate's chest with a forefinger “—you are not going to get in the way of my accomplishing that.”

Kate made a massive effort and refrained from breaking Darlene's finger off at the knuckle.

Darlene glared at her. “Do you understand me?”

“Perfectly.”

Darlene walked out, and Kate nearly followed her, but at that precise moment the name of Darlene's researcher sunk in.

Paula Pawlowski.

Paula.

The woman who had shared her table for dinner the previous evening. The writer doing the research. Her writing habit underwritten by a job researching a candidate for political office for that candidate's opposition, what could be more natural.

A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. It was Kenny, with Darlene, her drying hair frizzing up to make her look like an ambulatory ball of steel wool, coming up behind him.

“Kate.”

“Kenny. Kenny Hazen, Darlene Shelikof. Kenny's the Ahtna chief of police, Darlene. Darlene's Anne Gordaoff's campaign manager, Kenny. She's the one who brought me on board to work security for the campaign.”

“You have the letters?”

Kate handed them to him, along with the newest one, handling it carefully by the corners, not that that was going to do much good as it probably already had Anne and Darlene's prints all over it. Doug's too, no doubt.

The small upright chair in front of the tacky desk creaked when Kenny sat down in it. He turned on the desk lamp and read through the letters, frowning. “This last one's a little different. None of the others are asking, they're warning.”

“Yeah.”

“Where'd you say it was found?”He looked at Darlene.

“Anne found it shoved underneath the door of her hotel room. We'd been out late, at a dinner given by the local Native association's board of directors. She and her husband, Doug, say they were in bed and asleep by midnight.”Darlene carefully did not look at Kate as she spoke. “She woke up after two and got up to go to the bathroom. On the way she stepped on the letter.”

“So it was left sometime between twelve and two.”

“Yes.”

Kenny looked at Kate. “Bar doesn't close till two.”

“No. I was in the restaurant until after eleven.”

“See anyone?”

She'd been trying to remember that since Darlene had knocked at her door. “A few people were leaving the bar at the same time I was. There were three drunks trying to figure out how to get in their truck. I took their keys away from them and gave them to Tony.”

“Good girl. Anybody else?”

She looked at Darlene, who was still avoiding her eye. “I saw Doug Gordaoff coming out of Darlene's room.”

“Yes,”Darlene said immediately. “Doug was dropping off the text of a speech Anne wanted me to run through.”

Whatever Kenny thought of that he didn't say and nothing showed on his face. “I noticed the door to the outside gives one hell of a bang when it closes.”

“Yeah, I noticed that, too,”Kate said. “Shakes the whole building.”

“Feel anything like that after you went to bed?”

She shook her head.

“Could mean nobody came in from outside to do the deed.”

Before Darlene said anything, Kate said, “It could also mean that whoever did it is familiar with the door and held it so it wouldn't bang. That damn door has been banging shut for years, and I bet everybody in the Park has stayed here at least once.”

He sighed. “You're right.”He looked at her. “How do you want to play this, Kate?”

“I want to question everybody in this trailer, and I want you to stand around looking mean while I do.”

He grinned, a tight, hard grin. “I can do that.”

First stop, Anne and Doug's room. Anne looked tense and exhausted, wrapped in a flannel robe, dark red with a black moose print. She was sitting beneath the covers of one bed, reading a book, or trying to. Kate got a look at the title. Stephen King. Doug was curled up motionless on the other bed, covers up to his chin, back to the door.

Clothes were hung neatly in the closet. Toiletries were laid out on the bathroom counter with almost military precision. Used towels were folded and hung over the shower rod.

Kate introduced Kenny and asked Anne to tell them what had happened. It didn't differ in any of the particulars from what Darlene had said. “No, I didn't see anyone. I didn't hear anyone, either. Whoever left the letter didn't make enough noise to wake me up. I got up to use the bathroom, which as you can see is right next to the door to the room. I stepped on the letter. When I turned on the light, I saw what it was, and I went to get Darlene.”She looked at Kate. “What does this mean, Kate? I'm not in any danger. Am I?”

“I don't know,”Kate said. She sensed Darlene stir in back of her, and repeated, “I don't know. I don't think so, and that's not just a gut instinct. I've got reasons. I'm going to talk to the rest of your people right now.”She exchanged a long, unsmiling look with Kenny. “For the moment, why don't you try to get some sleep? We'll be going up and down the hall for a while, see if we can find out if anyone in the building saw something.”

Anne's eyes went past Kate to Kenny Hazen. “Hello, Chief Hazen.”

“Hello, Ms. Gordaoff.”

“Mrs.,”came a voice from beneath the covers of the second bed. “It's Mrs. Gordaoff.”

“Mrs. Gordaoff,”Kenny corrected himself without a blink.

“Please, call me Anne.”She gave him a wan smile. “I expect Kate rousted you out of bed to come down here. I'm sorry about that.”

Kenny shook his head. “That's my job, Anne.”

Doug condescended to roll over and confirm that he'd dropped off a speech at Darlene's room at a little after eleven, that he hadn't been gone more than five minutes, and that he hadn't seen anyone in the hallway except Kate. Anne listened without expression.

The next room belonged to the son, Tom, who either wasn't answering the door or wasn't home. Kenny stepped up with a passkey. “I stopped at the front desk on the way in,”he said in answer to Kate's look.

A nylon duffel bag sat open on one bed, clothes were scattered everywhere but the closet, CDs spilled out of a case, nearly burying a portable CD player with earphones. A laptop computer was open on the desk, not running. A bottle of shampoo, three different kinds of designer hair mousse, dental floss, toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a box of Trojans sat on the dresser. Towels sat in a damp heap on the floor.

“Hey, what the hell?”

They turned and saw Tom standing in the doorway.

“What the hell are you doing in my room?”

He was lean like his father and moved like a basketball player, putting his feet down lightly in anticipation of a midperiod shift of defense from zone to man-to-man.

“Where have you been?”Kate said.

“None of your goddamn business,”Tom said, unintimidated by the uniformed police officer looming at her back. “I asked you what the hell are you doing in my room?”

He had a point. Kate explained. “I don't know anything about that,”he said, when they showed him the most recent letter. “No, I didn't see anyone. All I did was shower and change after we got in from that dumb dinner Mom made us all go to. Me and a friend closed down the bar. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a date.”He reached past Kate and picked up the box of Trojans. He grinned down at her, thirteen years her junior and at least a foot taller. Everybody was always a foot taller than her, and she found it irritating in the extreme. “Forgot these.” He left.

“Well, now, he's real worried about the possible danger to his mother,”Kenny said.

Darlene said nothing.

Tracy Huffman's room was empty. They went in with the passkey, found clothes hung in the closet, toiletries on the dresser, a briefcase jammed with schedules and flyers and posters, and a DayTimer in which every single day forward until November 7th had two or more entries. It made Kate tired just to look at it. “What do you know about this one?”Kenny said.

Aware of Darlene listening, Kate said, “She was at UAF with Darlene and me.”

“She's probably in the sack with some guy,”Darlene said.

Kenny cocked an eyebrow at Kate. Kate shrugged. “She, ah, does make friends fast.”

“And you never introduced us. I may never forgive you.”

The next door down opened before they knocked. “What's going on?”Erin stood there, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

“I'm glad you're awake, Erin,”Kate said, stepping forward so as to crowd the younger woman backward. “We need to talk to you.”

Erin saw Kenny and her eyes widened. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing's wrong.”

The young woman's face lit up and for a moment she looked almost pretty. “Did you catch who killed Jeff? Is that it?”

“No, Ms. Gordaoff,”Kenny said, his voice gentle. “We haven't caught the person who killed your fiancé yet. We just need to talk to you for a few minutes.”

Erin's face crumpled. Kate hoped she wouldn't cry, and she didn't. “Can't it wait until morning?”Her voice, a high-pitched, sulky whine, was beginning to get on Kate's nerves.

“Can we come in, please?”

Erin gave way before her advance. “I suppose so. The dog can't come in, I'm allergic.”

“Stay,”Kate said, and Mutt made a face, sniffed suspiciously at the carpet outside the door, and sat down with her tail in a fastidious curl around her legs.

Erin sat primly on the edge of the one made-up bed. Kate showed her the letter. Erin's eyes widened. No, she hadn't seen anyone loitering outside Anne's room, or in the hallway of the trailer, or in the parking lot, or to and from the Ahtna high school gym. No, she had no idea who might be writing the letters. She couldn't imagine anyone doing anything so sick. Of course, now that she knew this crazy person was following Anne around, she would watch for anyone who looked suspicious. She was sorry she wasn't able to help this time. It was important to get her mother elected to office, but it was even more important to keep her safe. Erin understood that perfectly well.

They stood in the hallway, waiting for Erin's door to close. When it did, Kenny said softly, “Why didn't she just put in a tape?”

As they stood there, the three of them became aware of sounds coming from a room down the hall, a thumping of headboard against wall, at first gentle, then vigorous, then just plain loud. After a few moments it was accompanied by cries, female, and grunts, male. Everything got louder and speeded up.

“Let's get out of here,”Kate said. They retreated down the hall and were about to go into Kate's room when Tracy appeared, a dreamy look in her eye and whisker burns on her face. The dreamy look vanished when they told her about the new letter, and she readily gave the name of the man she had spent the past few hours with. He was someone Kenny knew when she described him, which was fortunate, because Tracy didn't know either his last name or his phone number.

“Man, I'm beat,”Tracy said, yawning. “Okay if I hit the sack?” Without waiting for a reply she winked at Kate and vanished into her room.

“I guess it's okay,”Kate said. She turned to Darlene. “Who's next?”

“That's it.”

“No, it isn't. What about you?”