Free The Bone Seeker by M. J. McGrath

trouble.
    â€˜When did you begin to get worried about her?’ Edie said.
    â€˜Not till Monday. We figured she’d forgotten. But I told you all this when I came to the school.’
    Edie pressed him. ‘Did Martha often forget things?’
    â€˜She’s eighteen.’ There was a pause. Beside him, Alice began to sigh and tremble. He went on, ‘This time of year, she sometimes likes to go collecting eggs, so that’s what we thought.’
    Edie pulled the photo from her pocket. ‘We found this in her room. Do you know who took it?’ Charlie peered at the image. Alice blinked. ‘No,’ he said, catching Alice’s eye. His wife shook her head.
    â€˜Was there someone she went out on the land with regularly? Fishing or egg collecting, say.’
    A light sheen had appeared on the elder’s face. ‘Only family and friends.’
    â€˜Who
were
her friends?’ Derek cut in. ‘Any misfits among them? Someone unstable, with a record maybe?’
    The family looked at each other. Lizzie spoke first. ‘Lisa Tuliq?’
    They waited for the young woman to elaborate, but when she didn’t Edie took a breath and went on, conscious that she was about to say something Charlie wouldn’t like. ‘Did Martha have a boyfriend?’
    Charlie’s eyes sharpened. ‘We don’t allow the girls to date.’ He glanced at his wife, who looked away. Something there, she thought. She repeated her question, directing herself this time to Lizzie. At the young woman’s shrug Edie made a mental note to speak to her alone sometime after the main interview had finished.
    â€˜Could Martha have been seeing someone in secret?’ Derek asked. Edie saw Charlie Salliaq bristle.
    â€˜You don’t know my daughter. She wouldn’t do anything like that.’
    â€˜We need to find out if anyone might have wanted to hurt Martha. Some boy she rejected, maybe?’ Edie said.
    Charlie shifted on his seat. ‘My daughter is
tariaksuit.
It’s dangerous to talk about her like this.’
    â€˜We appreciate this is hard,’ Derek said. ‘I’m Inuk myself.’
    â€˜Half Inuk,’ Charlie added drily.
    Derek’s mouth tightened. Edie threw him a warning look. Whatever he and Charlie thought about each other, there was no sense inprovoking the old Inuk now. She waited for her boss to rearrange his features then went on.
    â€˜Was there anything in Martha’s behaviour over the last week that seemed uncharacteristic? Anything at all?’
    â€˜All these questions,’ Charlie Salliaq said. ‘I’ve already told you the answers. Martha was focused on her studies. She didn’t have many friends. There was no boyfriend, nothing like that.’
    No one said anything. The atmosphere in the room thickened. Then, all of a sudden, Charlie seemed to fold inwards, as though he’d finally absorbed something of the horror of what had happened to his daughter, and when he looked up again his face was drained of any life. Edie saw Sonia Gutierrez gently reach out a hand but he shrugged her off, unwilling to be comforted. For a while he simply stared ahead, his eyes ablaze, then, when he could no longer keep the horror in, he curled and grasped his head and tears began rolling down his face. Picking up on his distress, Lizzie began to sob too. Alice turned to look at her, a dazed expression on her face. Shock, Edie thought. It could do that to you.
    â€˜We’ll need you all to give us DNA and fingerprint samples. For elimination purposes,’ Derek said. Addressing himself to Gutierrez, he added, ‘Markoosie too.’
    The lawyer jotted something in her notebook. ‘Do you have any suspects?’
    â€˜Not at this stage, no. Right now we’re not ruling anything out,’ he added firmly.
    Charlie Salliaq had gathered himself now and wiped away his tears. Turning back to him, Edie said, ‘If you could go on