Free Polar (Book 2): Polar Day by Julie Flanders

connected to the fire at the baseball game.”
    Danny’s stomach tightened. “A letter, huh? I have a feeling I know what it says.”
    “I’ve hardly touched it. I’ve got it here on my desk and I thought you guys would want to come get it.”
    “We do. And we’ll be there shortly.”
    ****

Chapter 15
    Tessa and Danny headed to the home of Max Fugate’s parents while the forensics team investigated the letter that had been sent to Jennifer Higgins.
    They drove up to a tidy ranch home on Chestnut Street and pulled into the driveway next to a Toyota Corolla.
    “I wonder if this is the Fugate’s car or if someone else is here,” Danny said as he got out of Tessa’s Subaru.
    “Maybe it’s their daughter,” Tessa said. “I hope it is. Hope they have someone here with them for support.”
    “Yeah,” Danny said. “Might be easier for us to talk to the sister too. I didn’t check on the ages of the parents but they have to be in bad shape. What a nightmare for these people.”
    Tessa nodded and walked to the porch where she knocked on the Fugate’s front door. She and Danny both flashed their badges at a middle-aged woman who answered the knock.
    Danny introduced himself and Tessa as homicide detectives as the woman opened the door to let them inside.
    “I’m Cassie Jenkins,” she said. “Max is…” she paused and cleared her throat. “Max was my brother.”
    “We’re very sorry for your loss,” Tessa said. “Could we talk to you a bit about your brother? We’re trying to learn more about him so we can figure out who might have done this to him.”
    Tears fell from Cassie’s eyes and dropped on the beige carpet at her feet. “We’ve tried to hold out hope that Max would turn up,” she said. “We kept thinking there was just some terrible misunderstanding and we’d hear from Max any day now. But even though I knew it wasn’t realistic to think he was still alive no matter how much we hoped he was, I never could have imagined anything like this. Not even in my worst nightmares.”
    “It was a terrible thing,” Danny said. “We truly are sorry.”
    Cassie grabbed a tissue from her pocket and wiped tears from her face. “Do you need to talk to my parents? They’re both upstairs lying down. After the officers came to tell us Max was dead they just couldn’t….” Cassie’s words dissolved into tears.
    Tessa put her hand on the crying woman’s arm. “It’s okay. We don’t need to disturb them just now. If we could talk to you that would help us a great deal.”
    Cassie nodded and ushered the two detectives into the dining room. She motioned for them to join her at the mahogany table at the room’s center.
    “Of course,” she said. “Whatever I can help you with, just let me know.”
    “What can you tell us about your brother?” Danny asked. “We know he worked at the hospital.”
    “Right. He was a surgeon. Max wanted to be a doctor from the time we were kids. He loved that game Operation. I think he was the only kid who ever took it seriously. He would actually get mad if he touched the sides and caused the buzzer to go off.”
    Tessa smiled. “How long had he been at Fairbanks General?”
    “Since he was in medical school. Max never had any interest in living anywhere but Fairbanks. He loved it here.”
    “Were the two of you close?”
    “Yes,” Cassie said, her voice cracking. “Very.”
    “Had Max mentioned any problems he was having to you recently? Anyone he may have had some sort of altercation or disagreement with?”
    “No. Max was generally easy-going. He wouldn’t tolerate any nonsense at work but otherwise he was never interested in confrontation.”
    “What about relationship problems? Did he have a girlfriend?”
    Cassie chuckled. “No, no girlfriend. Not since he took Jocelyn Dominick to his 8th grade dance. But he did have a new boyfriend. Max was gay.”
    Danny immediately flashed back to the call from Nick Torrance’s partner. “Was he out?” he