Free a Night Too Dark (2010) by Dana Stabenow Page A

way,” Kate said under her breath. To Jim she said, “From what I saw there isn’t enough left of Gammons for his best friend to identify.”
“It is his truck.”
“That’s not enough.”
“There’s a personnel file, according to Truax, and everyone hired had to take a physical. There’s a blood type. There’s at least enough left of the body to make a match. It doesn’t take much these days.” He leaned back. “Want to take it on for me?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Come on, Kate, don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming. All I need is a positive ID on the body and case closed. Easy money for you.”
“Yeah, but I’d have to go out to the mine.”
He gave her a look. “You know you’re dying to see what’s happened out there since they started up work again this spring.”
“You gonna make me notify the next of kin?”
He winced. “No. That’s the trooper’s job. I’ll make the call. It’s just—”
“What?”
The lines at the corners of his mouth deepened. “When I was in Ahtna last week, testifying at that rape case? During those same two days Maggie fielded calls for a child sexual assault in Chistona, a domestic violence incident in Red Run, a gang rape in Slana, three break-ins of homesteads along the river, and a murder-suicide on a homestead somewhere between here and Ahtna that I never heard of before and neither one of us can find on a map.” He shook hishead. “On top of all that I got fifty wannabe Park rats running around after their shifts thinking up new ways to get into trouble. Where the hell they get all that energy after twelve hours of hard labor is beyond me. I’m up to my ears just trying to keep the peace in the Park. This Gammons is pretty rote, a by-the-book suicide by Alaska, and I’d sure appreciate it, Kate, if you’d dot the i’s and cross the t’s on this one.”
“Jesus, man,” Dan said, only half kidding, “don’t grovel.”
“I’m not groveling,” Jim said, patiently for him. “I’m just tired.”
There was a wealth of weary in his voice. Kate’s heart melted. “Sure. I’ll do it.”
Jim pulled the folder out of a capacious inner pocket and handed it over. “Thanks. I owe you.”
“You’ll pay me,” Kate said.
She was rewarded by what she felt was only a pale simulacrum of his trademark shark’s grin. “In legal tender, or you want to take it out in trade?”
She shook back feathered wisps of hair from her forehead and gave him a speculative glance from eyes that were momentarily more seductive green than innocent hazel.
What the hell, a tired shark still had teeth that could later be put to creative use. “How about both?”
Dan labored to produce an appropriately gagging sound, but what came out was only a long, drawn-out sigh of pure envy.
They stepped out the door and again had to leap out of the way of another four-wheeler, driven this time by a completely different young man, also a stranger to them, and this one with six friends hanging off the back.
Dan stared after them. “Either of you guys ever see a movie called Local Hero ?”
    Four
    Kate picked up Johnny at the school potluck, and was persuaded without difficulty to give Van a lift as well. As girlfriends went, in respect to the now sixteen-year-old male Kate had taken in tow three years before, Vanessa Cox ranked right up there. A slender, self-possessed brunette, she seemed far older than her years, which might have had something to do with her early orphaning and her later adoption by Park rat relatives who had turned out to be less than satisfactory guardians.
Absent any other living relatives, Kate and Jim had pulled all available state strings and custody of Vanessa had been granted to Billy and Annie Mike, who had raised six of their own and recently adopted a half Korean, half African-American baby from Seoul. There was always room for one more at the Mikes’ house. Vanessa, once she was sure she was wanted, had blossomed in Annie’s care from a tomboy in bib