Alaskan Christmas Cold Case
Sarah Varland
Christmas Under Fire…The Ice Maiden Killer is back. For years, a serial killer has eluded authorities—and he’s set Alaska state trooper Erynn Cooper in his sights. Erynn's only chance at survival is to trust Moose Haven police chief Noah Dawson with her life and the truth about her past. But with Christmas quickly approaching, Erynn and Noah are running out of time to catch the murderer…before Erynn becomes the next victim.
Christmas Under Fire...
The Ice Maiden Killer is back.
For years, a serial killer has eluded authorities—and he’s set Alaska state trooper Erynn Cooper in his sights. Erynn’s only chance at survival is to trust Moose Haven police chief Noah Dawson with her life and the truth about her past. But with Christmas quickly approaching, Erynn and Noah are running out of time to catch the murderer…before Erynn becomes the next victim.
SARAH VARLAND lives in Alaska with her husband, John, their two boys and their dogs. Her passion for books comes from her mom; her love for suspense comes from her dad, who has spent a career in law enforcement. When she’s not writing, she’s often found dog mushing, hiking, reading, kayaking, drinking coffee or enjoying other Alaskan adventures with her family.
Also By Sarah Varland (#u8b7dfd64-67d6-53ec-a6c0-e9471aa2c314)
Treasure Point Secrets
Tundra Threat
Cold Case Witness
Silent Night Shadows
Perilous Homecoming
Mountain Refuge
Alaskan Hideout
Alaskan Ambush
Alaskan Christmas Cold Case
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
Alaskan Christmas Cold Case
Sarah Varland
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09761-1
ALASKAN CHRISTMAS COLD CASE
© 2019 Sarah Varland
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Note to Readers (#u8b7dfd64-67d6-53ec-a6c0-e9471aa2c314)
This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:
Change of font size and line height
Change of background and font colours
Change of font
Change justification
Text to speech
“Erynn, get down!”
Noah’s shoulder slammed against Erynn as she heard the gunshot. Pain exploded in her wrist, which she’d fallen on. Noah was shielding her with his body.
Willing to die so she wouldn’t have to. Just like her dad.
A sob choked Erynn’s throat, but she was powerless to move. “Where is he?”
“On top of one of the buildings.”
Another shot, this one close enough that the broken sidewalk sprayed pieces of concrete in her direction, hitting her on the arm.
“We’ve got to move. You can’t get shot because of me.” He just couldn’t.
“We need to run. See the bushes to the right?” They’d known each other long enough, Erynn guessed, that their minds were in sync enough that they moved as one toward cover.
He’d almost gotten killed. Because of her. Grief pressed in, suffocated her with its weight.
To think she’d been close to hoping maybe she and Noah could talk about what they’d avoided discussing or confronting about their feelings for so many years.
She couldn’t now.
Couldn’t ever.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
—1 John 4:18
To my family. I’m so thankful for all of you.
Contents
Cover (#ua2bf36f7-0e05-5752-9702-370dbb171ebd)
Back Cover Text (#u3488bdbf-7192-51c2-9415-f5f02bf170a8)
About the Author (#u0ed271a7-d463-53ae-9e4b-c217e3bddba6)
Booklist (#ucf45dc58-d6bb-5d26-9980-5e92e1326456)
Title Page (#ufd6ccf8c-7a09-567d-8121-a068bfb61404)
Copyright (#uc532fc44-2502-5b07-bb1a-319208b2ac90)
Note to Readers
Introduction (#ud702bff3-2205-59eb-a344-3dc43b27d383)
Bible Verse (#u5975c70c-8dc1-542e-8776-5f09e146e256)
Dedication (#uffc1da55-cadc-5fc0-b954-acae3dd2593a)
ONE (#uf467eb7b-43d7-5b03-ad80-12e7f988992f)
TWO (#u0492e7ec-0f58-531c-94b9-440d4230c7fa)
THREE (#u71a70acb-b465-57d5-b9f1-3724c9caf05d)
FOUR (#u4773a2da-2193-5c8e-a7a1-340cfc325986)
FIVE (#u3418d748-bf55-5fd5-8b28-731797dbb881)
SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
ONE (#u8b7dfd64-67d6-53ec-a6c0-e9471aa2c314)
Someone had been watching her. All morning, maybe even for the last few days. Goose bumps would run down Erynn Cooper’s arms at the oddest time. In the grocery store, while she was walking from her truck in the parking lot to the trooper building in the mornings...
And she was afraid she knew who. He—or she—had been responsible for five deaths already, six counting her father’s.
She’d always known he would come for her.
Erynn closed the door behind her, debated locking it, but knew that wasn’t why she was in town. She was not running; she was simply trying to live her life, fill her dad’s shoes in any way she could by bringing criminals to justice, helping people feel safe. And keep her ears out for any leads on the cold case that had led to her dad’s death.
Most days she felt like she could barely fill half of one of Mack Cooper’s shoes. Why had he been the one to die so young?
And what would her life have been like if he hadn’t? She wouldn’t have become a trooper, Erynn didn’t think, but what would she have been?
She’d never had the chance to consider it, not really.
She sat at her desk, shoved aside the little Christmas tree her partner had apparently added while she’d been home sleeping, and poured herself a cup of coffee. She had already told him she wasn’t big on Christmas decorations. Apparently he didn’t care. Every day this week it had been something new. First twinkling lights, then snowman stickers on the windows. Now the tree. Erynn shook her head and took a sip of coffee, startling as her phone chimed the arrival of a text message.
Noah.
You weren’t at the diner last night. Everything okay?
Almost every Saturday night the two of them, along with some friends, played board games at the diner while drinking bad coffee and talking about their weeks. She hadn’t wanted to go last night since yesterday had been odd and she’d felt out of place all day, like something was wrong.
It hadn’t been until this morning that she’d pinpointed the feeling: she was prey and someone was hunting her, or at the very least watching her. But she hadn’t wanted to face Noah when she hadn’t felt her best. Despite her efforts, the man knew her too well. And she didn’t want him getting any closer to her, prying into her life any more.
It would only make things more dangerous for both of them. Her life. His career.
She took a deep breath then a sip of coffee. She had a job to do, and she needed to focus and do it.
Hours passed uneventfully. Erynn glanced at her watch. Less than an hour until she was done for the day. Then what? Go home and hide in her apartment again? Or see if she could find who was watching her? She had her training on her side, wouldn’t be caught off guard.
Then again, her dad had probably thought the same. Pain stabbed her heart and she shook her head. If only this feeling would shake off so easily.
The door creaked open.
In stepped her past in the form of Janie Davis. Erynn felt her jaw tense and a headache start at the corners of her temples. She blinked, but Janie was still standing there. Back from the dead, or so it appeared. And, with her appearance, the heaviness that had crowded Erynn’s high school years, like clouds hanging low over the ocean on a stormy day, also returned.
She’d known Janie from their time in foster care years ago. Erynn couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. Seeing her past find her here, in her office, at work, would have shaken her enough...but Janie Davis had died three years ago, her body having been found near Moose Haven, on a glacier. Erynn had been one of the officers who had worked the case, along with Noah Dawson and the rest of the Moose Haven Police Department. Except clearly she hadn’t died. Because here she was in the Moose Haven Trooper Station.
Would she ever escape her past?
“What are you doing here?” Erynn shook her head, stood and moved to the windows, pulled the blinds and then looked back at her unexpected visitor. “Never mind. Don’t answer yet. I need another set of ears here.” She hated to do it; it went against every ounce of energy she’d spent this week, keeping him at a distance. But Noah’s was the best law enforcement mind for miles around, besides hers. And his team was good, too. She trusted them and she needed help, preferably from another agency, because if she was right about why Janie was there...this was about to blow up in their faces and they’d all need to work together.
She slid her cell phone from her pocket, deciding texting was the fastest way to get Noah’s attention.
S.O.S. I need you at the Trooper station.
He took only seconds to text back.
You’re safe?
Erynn glanced up at the blonde, whose gaze hadn’t left her.
Not sure.
He should be there within minutes. The two law enforcement offices were separated by two blocks and Erynn was all too aware that when it came to Noah and her... Well, it was complicated. Not something she had space in her life for. But she knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to her if he could help it.
“I can’t believe you aren’t happy to see me.” Janie’s voice was much the same as it had been when they were kids living in the same group home, but more grown-up now, a little husky.
“You’ve been missing. We thought you were dead. Found a body and it matched your description...”
“I’m not dead. And I wasn’t missing. I was hiding. There’s a difference.”
Someone knocked on the door.
“Would have been nice if you’d clarified that with law enforcement.” Erynn moved to the door, slid one of the blind slats wider with her fingers to confirm it was Noah, then let him in. They had butted heads more times than she could count in the years she’d been working Moose Haven and he’d been the police chief. But she had his back, knew he had hers.
Today they needed to work together more than they ever had.
Because if the weighty sense of foreboding that sat on Erynn’s shoulders right now had any bearing on reality...they were all in trouble.
And she and Janie were in danger.
“Is this...?” Noah trailed off, glancing at Janie then at Erynn. She knew he’d seen the missing person’s posters and the photos they’d passed around during the search. He also knew about the eventual discovery of the remains they’d assumed were hers in a crevasse in Harding Icefield, the ice field that connected Moose Haven’s Raven Glacier to Seward’s more well-known Exit Glacier.
But he hadn’t known Janie in person the way Erynn had. And, maybe worse, he hadn’t known about Erynn’s relationship to her, either. She hadn’t known how to admit that the case had edged toward personal for her, had danced toward the line of her possibly having to not be on the case.
Because it hadn’t seemed necessary.
Because they’d needed her.
Because she’d cared too much about it to let it out of her hands.
In all the years he’d known Erynn, Noah had never seen her like this. She was the one in control of situations, sure of herself and bossy to a fault. The woman in front of him right now? He didn’t know what could have made her so upset.
However, the fact that someone they’d both thought was dead was standing in the trooper station? It wasn’t a good sign. Scratch that—it had been Noah who had thought they should stop looking at the case, and the rest of the Moose Haven Police Department and the troopers had agreed with him. The case had gone cold; everything had pointed to the possibility it could have been an accident. Erynn’s assertions that they should look more closely at the situation had been ignored.
He was wishing he’d listened to her now.
“This is Janie Davis.” Erynn’s voice was steady but not as steely as usual. Noah waited, not wanting to step into what was technically her case at the moment since Janie had come to her. But Erynn just stood there. Staring. Her face had paled and he watched as she swallowed hard.
There would be time for her to argue with him about this later, but for now he was going to handle things.
“Janie, I’m Noah Dawson, the Moose Haven Police Chief. Can we sit down? We have some questions for you, as you might have assumed, and I’m hoping your presence here means you intend to answer them.”
She shook her head. “I want to talk to Erynn.”
Erynn. Why did she use her first name? Most people would have said “Trooper Cooper.”
Noah looked at his friend. At the woman who had been tying his insides in knots for years—both professionally and personally, whether she knew it or not.
“Since Chief Dawson and I work together on cases often, he needs to be here, too.” Erynn spoke up. “Let’s go into my office.” She looked at Noah, met his eyes, but he couldn’t tell what, if anything, she was trying to convey.
He followed her down the short hallway, into her office, mentally pulling up everything he’d known about the case. They had initially referred to the woman in the glacier crevasse outside Seward as “The Ice Maiden” before linking that case to the disappearance of a woman in Anchorage named Janie Davis. She had matched the description—even though they’d never been able to recover the body. It had been deemed too dangerous, something that was not rare in the Alaskan backcountry.
Maybe he should have pushed for that, told Erynn’s superiors who had flown out that leaving a body left questions unanswered and was unacceptable. People went missing in Alaska, died in accidents all the time. With no solid evidence that the Ice Maiden had been murdered, they’d been forced—or so Noah had felt, anyway—to draw the conclusion that the death had been accidental.
He was questioning that now.
Realistically, Noah wasn’t sure what he could have done, pushing to keep a case open that the troopers had thought was closed. The working relationship between the Moose Haven Police Department and the state troopers could have been compromised.
Noah had regrets but didn’t know if he’d change anything, even if he could go back. They’d done the best they could.
Except he wished he had some power to take away the haunted look in Erynn’s eyes. Who was this woman to her? She’d known her before. He was almost sure of that now.
But how did Janie fit?
“We could arrest you for obstruction of justice, are you aware of that?” Erynn took the lead and did it well. She had been shaken earlier but she’d recovered. Noah should have known she would have. She’d taken a seat behind her desk and sat there now, leaned back, arms crossed. He felt his own shoulders relax. She could handle this.
“Wouldn’t just be me being arrested.” Janie met Erynn’s eyes.
Noah didn’t like what he saw there.
Erynn said nothing.
Noah tried to meet her eyes. Decided to step in, maybe rile up Janie enough so Erynn could get hold of herself again.
“What are you implying, Miss Davis?”
“I think you both know.”
“Trooper Cooper is an outstanding officer and has worked too hard on every case she’s ever had. She takes her job seriously and I won’t listen to you saying otherwise. Are you ready to leave now? Because I can show you out the door.”
A sideways glance told him Erynn didn’t look relieved. If anything, she’d paled even more. She shook her head. “You can’t let her leave.”
He knew that already. Didn’t have to like it, but he knew it. If Janie had been hiding and her disappearance from society had something to do with the Ice Maiden’s body...then it likely wasn’t a typical case of someone disappearing in the backcountry. The troopers and police forces would need to reopen the case, see if it could have been a homicide. Which meant that Janie was an important witness in a case that had gone cold years ago. However, what he didn’t know was why she showed so much familiarity with Erynn.
Noah had known Erynn for five years. Trusted her more than he did anyone else, except maybe his brother and Clay, his second-in-command at the PD. Between them, though, it was a tie. And Noah didn’t give his trust easily. It just wasn’t in his nature.
He looked at Erynn. Waited. But she didn’t meet his eyes. Wouldn’t.
He’d have to handle this himself. Talk to Erynn later.
“Let’s start with right now and work backward. You aren’t dead.”
“That’s correct.”
“Are you aware that you’ve been declared so?”
The body they’d found in the crevasse had matched Janie Davis’s description. The woman had gone missing at the same time. They’d interviewed witnesses, tracked her movements up until she’d come to Seward, a town near Moose Haven, and disappeared.
It hadn’t been shoddy police work that had made the case go cold. Or that had led them to believe the death could have been accidental. Someone had known what they were doing, had intended for them to think Janie Davis was dead.
But she wasn’t.
So who was she?
“I was aware,” Janie was saying, her facial expression still so cocky that it made Noah immediately suspicious. He wasn’t willing to discount the possibility that she was involved in a way that did make her a criminal.
“So you’ve come to turn yourself in.”
“It’s not like that.”
“No?” Noah asked.
“I’ve been hiding to protect myself.”
Yeah, because he’d never heard that before. “For three years.” It was a statement, not a question.
“You wouldn’t understand.” Janie looked at Erynn.
Erynn met her gaze.
And not his? How well did she know this person? They didn’t strike him as friends. Someone from far back in her past?
“Why did you come here?” Noah asked.
“Because I’m tired of knowing that he’s still out there, that he could get away with more crimes. I’m tired of looking over my shoulder, of wondering if I’m going to cost anyone else their life.”
“Are you saying the woman in the glacier is dead because of you?” Noah spoke up again, glanced at Erynn, who had stayed quiet. She’d turned into an observer.
Janie shook her head. “No. But I may end up dead because of her. And I’m worried that if I do...Erynn will end up dead because of me. I needed to come here, needed to make sure she had all the information so she could find him, make him stop.”
“No one’s going to let you be killed,” Noah said.
“It’s not a promise you can make, I’m afraid.”
“Why don’t you tell us what you came to say and then let us do our best?”
He watched the woman consider. Waited.
And wondered why someone would be after Erynn.
TWO (#u8b7dfd64-67d6-53ec-a6c0-e9471aa2c314)
If she could go back, if she could undo the last near decade of silence, Erynn would do it. But she’d always believed life should be lived looking forward, not backward.
Too bad that’s not how you’ve been living.
She listened to Noah question Janie, listened to Janie’s explanations, while she ran through the list of possible suspects in her mind, knowing her chances of landing on one that stuck weren’t good since the Anchorage Police Department and the State Troopers had tried back then.
Come up empty.
And then her father had been killed. An Anchorage police officer, he’d been investigating the Foster Kid Murders...the killings they’d thought had claimed the lives of three other victims at the time. Five total. Erynn had worried the murderer had claimed Janie’s life, as well.
Erynn blinked, tried to focus on the present and the conversation, reminded herself that she wasn’t to blame for her father’s death. Mack Cooper had been investigating the case even before he’d adopted her, which was why the Anchorage Police Department hadn’t considered his involvement a conflict of interest. He’d adopted her later, and had told her that were it not for the serial killer case, he and his wife might never have looked into adopting from foster care. They’d wanted her, they’d both emphasized that over and over, and in her heart, Erynn knew that her dad wouldn’t have gone back and changed a thing. Still, guilt stabbed deep. He had given his life to protect her, for those like her. It packed a punch, even this many years later.
And Erynn missed him.
She listened to their voices, tried to distract herself from the flood of emotions threatening to wash over her. They’d gone quiet after Noah had asked Janie what she’d come to tell them. Waited as Janie considered whether she was ready to.
“I was living in Kenai three years ago when I got a message from a friend in Anchorage. Michelle Holt.”
Erynn knew who she meant. She’d known Michelle even less than she’d known Janie, but she remembered the two of them being close back in high school.
She glanced at Noah, feeling for once that his eyes weren’t on her. He had been looking at her strangely since he’d come in; she guessed she didn’t blame him. She was far from her usual self today. Right now, though, his gaze was on Janie and he was waiting for her to continue, not asking anything.
A smart move. She’d have done the same in his shoes. He was handling this well. She should have known he would.
Well, up until he found out the full truth about Erynn. No one knew how he’d handle that.
“The message said she was in danger. She’d been working in Seward for the summer and I knew she needed my help. I went to Seward, found her before he did.”
“He?”
“I’m getting there. Please don’t interrupt.
“I managed to find her first and we talked. She told me he was after her, that he’d left her messages, talked about finding the rest of the kids from his list—though we were adults by that time—and finishing what he’d started.”
Erynn could have thrown up. Probably would have if there had been a trash can within reach. Instead she took a deep breath and willed her stomach and the rest of her to hold it together. She’d known what it probably meant when Janie had walked in. But she hadn’t been sure.
Turned out knowing in this case was much, much worse than not knowing.
“What list?” Noah asked. Erynn felt every muscle tense, tried to do one of the breathing exercises she’d learned years back.
Erynn felt Janie’s eyes on her. Refused to meet her look as Janie continued, “Someone was killing foster kids.”
“When?”
“Years ago,” Janie continued. “Then he stopped. Went silent and I guess we let our guard down. That’s when he came after me and Michelle. I never heard from her, after she warned me. I suspect she’s the one the media referred to as the Ice Maiden. The one you thought was me.”
Noah was nodding, a quick glance at him confirmed. Erynn looked away before he could see her staring.
Janie continued. “I told her we should call the police, but she reminded me that it would just put them in danger. At least one officer was killed investigating the case when it was making news and hot. I’m not sure if the police ever said his death was related, but those of us the Foster Kid Killer was after, we knew.”
Her dad. Erynn stood. Left the room to be sick. She could not hear Janie’s words from where she was in the bathroom. She’d have more questions from Noah to answer. But she’d not be able to help it.
Her forehead was hot and her heartbeat pounded in her ears. Breathe in, breathe out, she reminded herself as she’d had to do in the days after her father’s death when it had all seemed like too much. She reached for the sink knob, turned on the cold water and splashed her face.
Breathed in. Breathed out. And walked back into the lobby, not sure she was ready to hear anything else. But knowing she couldn’t hide forever.
This had proven that.
“What else can you tell me about the killer?”
“He...” Janie trailed off. “There’s not much I know, to be honest, just suspicions. Speculations. I always wondered if he’d met us personally. Maybe it always feels personal when someone is after you and your friends. But I wondered.”
“Have you seen him? Anything you know, we could use as a solid lead.”
“No.”
“We’ll need to put you in protective custody,” Noah was saying even as Janie shook her head.
Erynn had known she would. That’s the kind of woman Janie was. Once her mind was made up, there’d be no changing it.
“I’m going back home now. I just thought you should know.”
Could they keep her? Charge her with something that would allow them to keep her safe? Even as the thoughts surfaced, Erynn shrugged them off. It was still a free country and if Janie didn’t want protection, they didn’t need to give it to her.
Noah spoke again. “Then we’re officially charging you with obstruction of justice and you can come with me to the Moose Haven jail.”
If she’d been able to feel even a smidgen more lighthearted, Erynn would have laughed. The Moose Haven jail was no more than two cells in the back of the police department, Wild West style, that the department had gotten built cheap.
Still, it would work for what they needed, would do the job.
“Are you arresting Erynn, also?”
Erynn looked at Noah, met his eyes. Knew she owed him answers.
“Not at this time.”
She needed to talk to him tonight.
“For now, come with me, please.”
Noah had left over half an hour ago, had practically growled at her to “stay put.” She had, quite literally, and hadn’t moved from her desk.
Janie.
Her dad.
This couldn’t be happening.
Erynn laid her head in her hands, snapped it up again as she realized all the implications. They had Janie in custody because it was dangerous for her otherwise. What Erynn had realized but not fully felt the weight of until now was that if someone was after her old acquaintance...had killed another one of her former friends, if Janie was right and Michelle was the Ice Maiden...
She wasn’t safe, either.
She stood and walked to the window, put a hand on the flimsy mini-blinds as she looked out at the town of Moose Haven. She’d thought the assignment here years ago had worked out well. It was close enough to civilization to suit her—she wasn’t a “live in the Alaskan bush” kind of girl, but it was far enough from Anchorage to make her believe she could get away from the demons, both real and imagined, chasing her.
But she hadn’t gotten away. Not really. Erynn closed the blinds, moved back to the hallway and headed toward the front to close the other blinds. And lock the door. Noah could call or knock when he got there. She checked her watch. Her shift was over in ten minutes. Trooper Miller, a new transfer fresh out of the academy, should be in to relieve her at any minute.
The door opened just then and Miller walked in. “Whoa, you don’t look so good.”
The kid had barely met the minimum age requirement for the troopers—at least, that was Erynn’s guess. He made her feel light-years old and, at just barely thirty, she didn’t appreciate it.
“Not feeling so great, to be honest.”
“Go ahead and head out. I’ve got this.”
“I’ll wait till it’s officially time.” Miller was a decent kid so far, and Erynn trusted him, but he wasn’t the stickler for protocol that older officers she’d worked with had been. Good for some situations, not that she’d admit that on the record, but bad for others.
Noah still hadn’t showed by the time she was ready to head home. Erynn hesitated half a second at the door then shook her head and went outside. She’d been a State Trooper for years. She’d taken self-defense courses, had a sidearm on her right side concealed under her windbreaker right now.
She wasn’t technically in any more danger than she had been for years. She had known she’d never truly be safe.
Not until the Ice Maiden Killer—who, it seemed, was also the Foster Kid Killer—was in custody.
“What are you doing?”
Noah’s voice was hard as she came around the corner of the building and almost ran into him.
“I can’t stay here all night.” Not that she’d sleep at home. Maybe she should stay here, sleep on the office couch, but it would invite too many questions. Her job was one of the only things she had left, was the most important part of her life. She couldn’t lose it, too.
“I told you to stay put.”
Maybe it was the coldness in his voice. Maybe it was the fact that the day had had more surprises than she could handle on the amount of sleep she was running on currently, but she’d lost all her patience.
“You aren’t in charge of me, Noah. I’m an adult and make my own decisions.”
“I want to hear more about why she’d say you’d obstructed justice. And why you didn’t deny a word of it.”
She turned to him, mouth open, but nothing came out. She didn’t know what she wanted to say anyway, just couldn’t believe he was looking at her that way.
Like she was guilty of something.
Her shoulders fell. At the very least, she could assure him that wasn’t the case—though, yes, it would have been better for her to have spoken up three years ago when the Ice Maiden case had come across their desks. She could have told him that she’d worried that Janie’s “death” had been the work of the Foster Kid Killer, as Janie dying accidentally when so many people she’d known had been killed had seemed too coincidental to her. But when the other officers had ruled it an accidental death, something far too common in the Alaskan wilderness, she’d hoped it was true. Thought maybe she was paranoid. Hadn’t wanted to believe they were all wrong and she was right.
It had been murder.
But she hadn’t obstructed justice. She’d just...stayed quiet. Erynn rubbed a hand across her forehead, winced against the throbbing of her building headache. She’d wanted so badly to be free from the fear, that entire chapter of her life, that she’d ignored the coincidence it would have been that a former foster kid she’d known had ended up dead.
She exhaled. “Okay. Where do you want to go?”
“My house.”
She nodded. “I’ll follow you there.”
“No. You can ride with me.”
She didn’t have the energy to argue.
Noah did not have anything to say on their drive. What was there to say? “Hi, I’m Noah Dawson. Who are you really?” He’d known the woman for five years and she’d never once mentioned a connection to a serial killer case in Anchorage, or the fact that her life was ever in danger at all. She’d acted like a Moose Haven native, hanging out at the diner, doing the polar plunge into the bay in January, but she had secrets.
He’d never even imagined that. Maybe that’s why it hurt so much.
He turned down the gravel drive to his place, stealing a glance at Erynn as he parked the car.
She was just looking out the window. Silent and more serious than he’d ever seen her. Wasn’t she the one always telling him to loosen up? Calm down? She’d been a steadying influence more than once, but now he felt like he didn’t even know this woman next to him.
“Erynn?” He finally broke the silence after they’d been sitting for a full minute and she still hadn’t moved.
“I’m sorry.” She unbuckled, turned to him when he didn’t move. “Are you ready?”
Was he? He didn’t know. “Just waiting for you.”
True in more ways than she knew.
She pushed her door open. He did the same, stood to follow her to his front door, eyes open and scanning—he didn’t think she faced danger but better safe than—
Erynn stopped.
Noah did the same. Seeing nothing. “What is it?”
“On your porch. What’s that on the table?”
He squinted. The sun was still high in the sky even at this time of evening, due to Alaska’s midnight sun, and the rays were in his eyes. He didn’t see what had her so riled.
Noah stepped forward. There it was. A piece of paper?
Part of him rebelled against the idea that she could be spooked by pieces of paper. That wasn’t the woman he knew. And this was Moose Haven. He’d worked quite a few crimes here, but the town as a whole was still sort of an Alaskan coastal Mayberry. It felt wrong for her to be so on edge here.
Still, before his brother, Tyler, had gotten married, someone had been after his future wife, Emma. Tyler had been able to reassure Emma that she was safe and Emma had trusted him.
Erynn knew too much to be that easily reassured. A threat could come out of nowhere. And if she was acting like this, there was a reason.
God, help me listen when she’s ready to talk. And help me know what to do. He prayed in his head, even as he started toward Erynn. He wasn’t going to be able to do this on his own. “Stay with me. We’ll go check it out together.”
She swallowed hard but offered him a small smile. At least he’d said the right thing this time.
He fought the urge to reach for her hand, settling instead for a hand on her back as he guided her along. Perfectly platonic. Not at all over the firm boundaries of their friendship and history as coworkers.
Again, nothing like his brother had been through. Or his sisters, for that matter. His siblings had found love amid danger, but Noah had long since given up on that for himself.
Because the only woman he was interested in had walls around her heart a mile high and he’d long ago realized that if he wanted to keep her as a friend he needed to respect those restrictions.
“It’s a note,” he said as they got closer to the table.
She reached for it.
“Don’t.”
She stopped at the sound of his voice, speared him with a look. “What are we going to do, call the police? We are the police, Noah.”
“I am. You’re a trooper. I believe you’ve been pretty clear about that a few times.” He couldn’t resist teasing her. Moose Haven treated its police officers well, but Alaska state troopers were proud of their title, their elite standing in the law enforcement world.
She made a face and, despite the tension in the air, despite the fact that Noah was looking over his shoulder—their shoulders—every few seconds, it felt good to know that whatever else was going on now, they still had a friendship. Or he thought they did.
Erynn reached for the paper, paused and looked at him.
“Same paper.”
“As what?”
She shook her head.
“I’m going to need the pieces I’m missing, Erynn, or I can’t help.”
He watched her face as emotions chased across it. She had never been good at hiding her feelings, except in work circumstances, and then she’d managed.
Erynn said, “It’s the same paper the serial killer Janie mentioned left with all of his victims. Thick, cream stationery. The blue ink is nothing special, your general economy pens available at any store. The paper comes from a special company, but they went out of business fifty years ago. Someone’s got a stockpile of the stuff and it’s impossible to trace.”
She paused. His mind spun in circles, trying to think through everything she’d just said.
After a moment Erynn reached forward again, picked up the stationery.
She’s mine. You’re next. And then it’s over.
Noah managed to read the words before she dropped the paper, watched as it fluttered to the table. She was back to looking pale again. He needed to get her inside, to feed her, to hear what was going on so he didn’t feel like he was always a couple of steps behind.
Wait. He grabbed up the note. “‘She’s mine’? He’s talking about—”
“Janie.” Erynn ran back to the car. “We have to get Janie out of the jail.” Noah followed her.
“She’s there to keep her safe, Erynn. There are officers in the building. She’s fine.”
“She’s not fine, Noah, trust me.”
She’d asked him to trust her once. To keep the Ice Maiden case open, against the advice of every other law enforcement officer involved.
He hadn’t done it.
“Let’s go.”
They backed out of the driveway, note carefully put inside a notebook on the back seat. They would process it for prints or any other trace evidence, though if this guy had been terrorizing and killing people for longer than a decade, Noah held out little hope it would hold anything useful.
“So much I didn’t say to her...” Erynn muttered. “I didn’t thank her for coming. Didn’t tell her I was sorry I didn’t figure it out sooner...”
“You figured out more than we did about that case, it seems like. More than anyone else.”
Erynn shook her head. “Not really. I had a hunch, that was all, but you can’t take a hunch to court. Can’t keep a case open for one.”
“You can tell her everything you want when we get there.”
She just shook her head again. “You don’t understand how he works.”
“Then tell me, Erynn. Tell me everything.”
“I’ve known him to take people from their beds while they were sleeping, with no one in the house disturbed, all the doors firmly locked when he left. He’s gotten people who were under police protection. Got an officer...”
“Janie told me you knew the officer who was killed.”
Erynn looked at him like she was asking him a question, asking his eyes, but didn’t say anything.
“She’ll be okay.” He believed it or he wouldn’t say it.
“She won’t.”
They drove on. His phone rang half a mile from Moose Haven.
Janie Davis was dead.
THREE (#u8b7dfd64-67d6-53ec-a6c0-e9471aa2c314)
Erynn could not remember the last time she’d cried, but she knew it had been years, likely connected to this case. But she wanted to now. If only she could make the tears come, relieve the pressure building in her face and forehead...
She’d been too late. Again.
Beside her, Noah’s body language was another worry to contend with. The man was past worked up, more so than she’d ever seen him. On most of the cases they’d worked together, Erynn would have taken it upon herself to help him calm down, to bring some perspective.
Today she had nothing to give him. Wasn’t sure she had much left to give herself.
Janie was dead.
Erynn couldn’t see how she was supposed to escape the same fate. Not when every single person this killer had ever come after was dead. He’d already found Noah’s house, realized their connection.
“I wanted to be able to look at you for this conversation, not driving, but I need to know now, Erynn. Who and what are we dealing with? What do you know?”
He had managed to say the last part with no accusation in his voice.
She might be a lot of things, but she’d never hinder progress, especially not in this case. Didn’t Noah get that? This was her life, not just her.
Erynn had lost everything that mattered to her before. And thanks to this killer, she’d already come close again.
She didn’t want that to happen. Didn’t want to die. She drew in a shaky breath. “It’s faster if you search for some of the details online—they’re all out there. Someone handed the press quite the lovely story.” Her first brush with how newspapers could destroy an investigation. Let one detail slip at the wrong time, let the criminal know you were on to something, and it all blew up in your face. In that case, a reporter had not just interviewed her dad and other officers about the case, they’d also employed less than ethical tactics and listened to their conversations, even recorded some. And had compromised their safety because of it. Those reporters had been prosecuted, but it didn’t bring Erynn’s dad back, or solve the case.
“Give me the bare bones,” Noah said as he turned onto the main highway that would take them back to Moose Haven proper.
“There was a serial killer in Anchorage about fifteen years ago.”
“The link between his victims? Do they know that?”
It had been what he was known for. Some had even dubbed him the “Foster Kid Killer,” though the nickname grated so much Erynn tried not to use it. Instead she just thought of the killer as him. The unseen presence that had haunted her life in one way or another for years.
“Yes. He was killing foster kids. Some still in high school, some as they aged out of the system.”
She felt Noah glance at her, could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. She’d managed to keep her past out of her life in Moose Haven, invent this new identity for herself, where all anyone knew about her past was that she was a trooper.
She’d succeeded. Most days she was proud of herself. Today she knew Noah well enough to understand what a slap in the face it would be to him to learn he hadn’t known her as well as he’d thought... She wasn’t proud.
She just hurt.
“And you...?”
Still, he asked her to clarify. Erynn took a deep breath. “Yes. I was in foster care for part of that time period. I was adopted the summer before my senior year of high school.”
“So you knew the people who were killed.”
“Yes.” Every single one. Erynn stared out the window, watched the spruce forest as they drove through it on the approach to town. The trees were thick and the woods looked almost like a shelter. If she was Noah’s sister Kate and good in the outdoors, maybe she could hide there, manage to survive. But she wasn’t Kate and it wasn’t an option. She had nowhere to hide and anywhere she ran would only provide temporary security.
The fact that he was in Moose Haven proved that.
“Which foster kids was he after specifically?”
Erynn shook her head. “They never...figured that out exactly. Both males and females were killed. No other obvious patterns. One officer had a hunch. But he didn’t keep his speculations about that case in a file at work, since they weren’t founded on fact, and I don’t know where they ended up.”
“So we go to Anchorage, ask him and—”
She was already shaking her head. “He’s dead, too. And the notes weren’t found in any of his personal belongings.”
She could feel the tension building, knew the questions were coming. Erynn took a deep breath. “I know because my adoptive mom and I looked. He was my adoptive father.”
Noah absorbed Erynn’s story, careful not to let his face flinch. She was better at reading him than anyone he knew, and this was one of the times he didn’t like that fact.
The killer they were after might have more than one reason to be tracking Erynn down—she wasn’t just another former foster kid who might have been in danger. She was the daughter of an investigating officer. Was she in danger because her dad had been killed? Janie had mentioned a police officer losing his life in the investigation, so that meant Erynn’s dad...
“He was law enforcement?”
“Yes.” She still wouldn’t look his way. He knew because he kept glancing over at her as he drove.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” Of course, he’d said the same thing to Janie earlier. He’d thought putting her in protective custody would be enough. He’d underestimated the man Erynn was so afraid of. He wouldn’t do that again.
“You can’t say that.”
He didn’t argue, knew it was better not to when Erynn was like this. But he meant it. If he had to stop sleeping, follow her around every day, armed, quit his job—
Noah almost jumped in his seat. The thought had come out of nowhere, and made no sense, not when his career gave him access to information that could help figure out who was behind the killings, and could help keep Erynn safe. Nevertheless, the fact that he’d even consider sacrificing the dream he’d always had if it would be enough to keep her safe...
It might be time to stop trying to deceive himself about his feelings for Erynn.
Those emotions were much different than Noah had ever had for any other coworker or any friend. He’d been half in love with Erynn for years and had just avoided it.
He didn’t see how he’d be able to entirely sidestep the feelings now. But he’d had to keep them hidden. He had always known there was more to Erynn, just hadn’t known exactly what. This was more than he’d expected. And it hurt to know she’d kept it from him.
But he understood. And was going to do everything in his power to make sure that sooner, rather than later, all of this would be in her past, the threat removed. That she could continue with her life, doing what she wanted to do with it without thinking of the implications her choices might have on the madman who was after her.
Noah pulled the car into the back lot at the station. Every vehicle in the department was there and he wished again he had a bigger police force. Not that Moose Haven saw an excess of crime, but if someone drove by and saw that all officers were at the station, it would be an ideal time to get into trouble elsewhere.
He pulled out his cell phone and dialed his brother, who acted as a reserve officer on occasion.
“Tyler, can you come by the station if you get a chance, get a car and just drive around town a bit?” It was more to reassure himself about preventing small crimes than to show the murderer how well equipped they were. Clearly they were not, if he’d been able to waltz into the jail.
Tyler agreed and Noah took a breath.
“Ready?” he asked her when he disconnected.
Erynn was looking out the window. He watched her as she inhaled, squared her shoulders and nodded once. “Ready as I can be.”
He stuck close to her as they walked inside, into the chaos. The police department was small but adequate for what they usually needed. Today it seemed crowded, the energy building in a way that made the air feel thick. Too tense. They were already playing defense when they should be on the offense.
He stopped, waited for Erynn at one point. She was still in her uniform and right now looked every inch the trooper she was. Any little chinks that might exist in her armor were not part of her reality in here. She was good at pulling herself together, he’d give her that.
“Where is the body?”
“In the cell. The ME is back there now, getting ready to transport her.”
“He can’t do that when we haven’t had a chance to sketch the scene, process it or anything.”
“Officer Hitchcock took care of that. He’s back at his desk now, writing it up.”
At least he knew that had been handled right. Clay Hitchcock had as many years of law enforcement experience as Noah himself, or at least close. He was also Noah’s brother-in-law, married to his sister Summer.
“Let’s go talk to Clay,” he said to Erynn, motioning with his head at the area with the officers’ desks.
Erynn shook her head. “I want to see the crime scene.”
“Erynn...”
There it was again. That ridiculous protective instinct toward her that was all too familiar. He had been fighting it for years. Some women liked it when a man wanted to protect them. At least, that was what Noah had gathered from the movies his sisters used to watch and the way he’d seen several of his siblings fall in love. His own personal experience with love was limited. Besides one or two girlfriends in high school that hadn’t been serious, he hadn’t dated much.
Because the only woman he was interested in dating saw him as a coworker and a friend. Nothing more.
Protective instincts toward her aside, she didn’t needed protecting. At least not from the crime scene. If they were going to catch the serial killer responsible, he’d need every good law enforcement mind in town working on the case. And Erynn was one of the best. He couldn’t just exclude her from the investigation, which he could only if it really was a conflict of interest for her to investigate a case directly tied to her past. But technically there had been no threat directly to Erynn—at least neither she nor Janie had made him aware of that. The fact that her father had been killed did make her involvement dance close to the line of ethics, but this wasn’t a city where police and law enforcement resources were unlimited. She was far enough from the case emotionally to still be involved.
His feelings were going to get in the way of keeping her safe if he wasn’t careful. Surely he could make it a few more weeks, till this guy was behind bars, no longer a threat.
It wasn’t optional. Noah didn’t have a choice. Treating her like any other colleague was the only course of action that was going to work here. So he nodded. “Okay, let’s go to the crime scene.”
They made their way through the halls. Noah was careful to look for anything that seemed out of place, but nothing caught his attention.
“She was still locked in her cell,” one of his officers told him as they walked up to the scene. The man shook his head.
“Do we know how she died yet?”
“Elsie at the front desk mentioned that her lawyer came to see her. I’ll go get Clay, he probably knows the most.”
As he started to walk away, Noah took in the body on the floor of the cell. It never stopped striking him how once a person had died, they didn’t look like they had in life. The body truly ceased to be a person and became a shell, something his law enforcement mentor had taught him when he’d first started.
Janie was pale, her skin lacking the healthy appearance she’d had while alive. Her hair was spread out on the floor behind her, touching the puddle of blood pooled beneath her. She’d been shot in the chest, at very close range.
Noah looked around the cell. The chair was sitting upright. Nothing indicated there had been a struggle.
Was the killer someone she knew? Someone she’d expected to be there to help her?
His mind ran with that thread as he reviewed what the officer had just told him, and he asked, “Janie’s lawyer came?” She hadn’t been arrested long enough for any lawyer to arrive from Anchorage or even Kenai, whichever place she’d been living. While she could have called a local lawyer...Noah didn’t think she had.
The officer nodded.
If his guess was right that the “lawyer” hadn’t been one at all, that explained how the killer had gotten inside. Walking in in plain sight. It spoke of a level of overconfidence that could possibly work to their advantage if they could get a step ahead. At the moment it just scared the stupid out of him. “Thanks. Yes, get Hitchcock, please. And do we have video footage?” The cameras in the jail should tell them something, even if the killer had avoided showing his face.
Officer Smith shook his head. “Cameras cut out just before he came in. We’ve had so many issues with that old system lately that we thought it was a technological glitch.”
Noah felt anger stir inside. Not toward his officers. Moose Haven didn’t often see crime like this—he understood how they wouldn’t have been immediately suspicious—but he hated that evil had won this battle today.
Hated that it felt personal.
“She was sitting in this chair when she was shot, it looks like,” Erynn was saying as she moved closer to Janie, tilted her head like she did when she was focused. “See where her body is positioned in relation to the chair? And the blood splatter?”
“Is that significant with past cases or are you just walking through what you see?” Noah forced himself to sound professional, though at the moment he felt anything but. He didn’t want Erynn considering victims, blood splatter or anything but keeping herself safe.
But it wasn’t his place to keep her out of this. Not when she was already involved so deep her safety was at risk either way.
A second or two passed before she answered. “I think the second? But I’ll let you know.”
Clay walked into the room just then, his face as sober as Noah felt. They nodded at each other and Noah was as thankful as he had been in the past that Clay had come to Moose Haven. He would need all the help he could get on this one.
“What do we know, Hitchcock?”
The other man shook his head. “I’m trying to go slow, not make assumptions. The fact that someone was able to get into this building and kill someone in our custody... No one even heard a shot.”
“He used a suppressor?”
Clay nodded. “That’s the working theory.”
Noah understood. Hated how Janie’s death made him feel. Like he was powerless.
“Has the body been moved?” Noah hadn’t wanted to disturb the ME from where he knelt beside the body. The man wore a look of perpetual concern on his face, though Noah guessed if he looked at dead people for a living his face might get stuck like that, too.
“Not yet. Wanted to make sure you had a chance to see the scene if possible. I don’t want us to miss anything obvious.” Clay’s eyes moved to Erynn, who usually would have interrupted several times by now to remind them it was her case, too.
“You okay, Trooper Cooper?” Clay asked.
Erynn barely nodded. “Fine.”
Noah spoke at the same time. “She knew the deceased.”
Erynn’s eyes snapped to him and he saw what she’d tried to hide. She was close to broken by this, looked more fragile than he’d ever seen her. But what really surprised him was the expression of betrayal in her eyes. Because Noah had said she knew the victim? He wanted her on this case, but he couldn’t hide anything, couldn’t conceal the facts from his own officers.
Still, the way Erynn looked at him, silently begging for more time...
“How?” Clay asked Erynn, but Noah spoke up again.
“High school.”
Clay looked like he might ask something else, but the ME interrupted. “There’s something underneath her.”
All three of them turned as he slid a piece of paper out from beneath her.
“Same color. Same weight. Probably the same pen,” Erynn muttered under her breath.
Noah hadn’t been expecting the note, but now he remembered Erynn had said that one was always left.
“What does it say? Can you read it?” he asked the ME.
The man read it silently. Frowned. Looked up at them. “It says, ‘One more to go.’”
Erynn’s eyes widened and Noah couldn’t stop himself this time—he reached for her hand. Held it tight.
The man was driven and his goal was Erynn’s death. Something Noah refused to let happen.
FOUR (#u8b7dfd64-67d6-53ec-a6c0-e9471aa2c314)
Erynn did not remember walking from the crime scene to Noah’s office, but there she was. Sitting in a chair across from his desk, blinking.
She had precious little time to get her head back into the game if she was going to make a difference before she was taken off the case. Because as sure as she knew anything else, she knew her days working it were numbered. She had personal connections everywhere, and while she disagreed with protocol suggesting it would make her less effective on the case, it wasn’t worth arguing over.
Instead she just needed to work fast, find as many leads as possible to turn over to whomever was put on the case after she was relieved.
And then work the case on her own time, quietly. Because she owed her dad that.
“You’ve got to stop staring. Blink or something.”
She did, almost without thinking; her eyes were drier than she’d noticed and needed the moisture. She blinked again.
“Erynn...”
The way Noah’s voice trailed off was almost too much for her. Years, she had tried to stay on the edges of the tight-knit community of people who made up Moose Haven. Years, he’d fought her on it, pulled her not just into the town, but into the inner circle his family and friends occupied. She’d told herself it couldn’t hurt and yet here, at this moment, it seemed it could hurt a lot.
“Don’t, Noah.” It was enough to get her to look up, focus. “You can’t talk to me like that, okay?” Like she was a victim. Which she was, or might be at any moment, but right now she was still a law enforcement officer, wasn’t going to give up the responsibility that came with that until someone forcefully benched her.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
Yeah, the story of her life. She’d tired of the pity early on in her “career” as a foster kid, especially because that didn’t give her a home of her own, didn’t give her the stability that so many kids her age had and took for granted. Though she knew Noah didn’t mean it that way, he didn’t know what the words made her think of.
“We’re both about to go through a lot more and people in Moose Haven could suffer if we don’t get this case under control.”
“This case meaning the Ice Maiden case?”
Erynn shivered. She’d always hated that name, too, as much as she’d hated the “Foster Kid Killer” nickname for the serial killer who had terrorized and marked her teen years. Why did departments, the media, whoever did it, name killers, name cases? Criminals didn’t deserve the notoriety, and she disliked the way it glamorized them.
Still, she understood; how else were they going to refer to cases? So she just nodded, fought to get her emotions under control. “Yes, the Ice Maiden case. We need to go back and rework it. Because Janie coming out of hiding, telling us about that...”
“There was nothing there.”
“Clearly there was. Because the woman we thought had died hadn’t, but now has, and we don’t know who is up in that glacier crevasse. That could present another lead.”
He didn’t say anything, to his credit. But she heard the things he wasn’t saying. They’d had a team of people working with them when the case had been hot initially, and they still hadn’t been able to find many leads on who it could be.
Was it someone who was now local to Moose Haven? Someone who had tracked her here and decided to terrorize her more? Erynn knew from her profiling classes the way a serial killer’s mind worked. It wasn’t impossible to suggest that the killer had become fixated on her years ago.
Still, it was all just conjecture. She was tired of that. She needed facts.
“Okay. So you’re telling me you’re convinced that the Ice Maiden death wasn’t an accident, wasn’t a disappearance, but is instead connected to...” Noah trailed off, his voice fading away and giving Erynn the opportunity to explain out loud the suspicions she’d always had.
“The Foster Kid Killer.”
“And you believe this because Janie was in the foster system?”
“Yes, and so was Michelle.”
“Michelle is the woman who warned Janie to be careful, right before Janie disappeared and we discovered the body in the glacier.”
Erynn nodded. Waited a minute. “We have to get to her, Noah. We have to know for sure if it’s Michelle or if chasing leads on the body in the glacier will just be pulling our attention away from an active serial killer.”
Noah’s brow furrowed, his face serious in consideration. “It’s December, Erynn. Accessing the body we left on the glacier is going to be even more impossible now. It’s buried under who knows how many layers of snow and the wind on the glacier at this time of year...”
“We have to try, Noah. Every single angle.”
She was right. She knew it and he did, too, but that didn’t make this any easier. That case had almost cost them so much, years ago. He hadn’t been sure either one of them would make it through, and now it was back, had never gone away.
If he was a runner, he’d leave town, build a career somewhere else, do something else. He had hated the Ice Maiden case with every fiber of his being because it was a nightmare come true—a woman went into the Alaskan wilderness and turned up dead. The news had overpublicized it, used it as a cautionary tale against backcountry hiking alone even once law enforcement had declared the death accidental, but doubts had niggled at Noah’s mind even then, and an oppressive heaviness had been present during the entire time they worked the case. Now that he knew it involved Erynn personally, he hated it more.
He glanced over at her again. What he should do was call her superiors at the trooper post, get her moved out of town and off this case. Protocol probably dictated it. But to what end? She’d be farther from him, where he had no choice but to let someone else try to keep her safe. And the idea of someone else failing...
Besides, much as he’d sparred with her over case-working strategies the last few years, as many times as they’d ribbed each other, they’d worked well as a team, and he needed her. Did not want to tackle this case again at all, much less without Erynn.
“Okay, you’re right.”
Her face was the brightest he’d seen it tonight, that look she got when he admitted she had a point. Still, she was too pale. Someone had threatened to kill her tonight, someone who might have been after her for well over a decade.
“I do like hearing you say that.” Her voice was lighter, like she was trying to make the best of a bad situation. While he appreciated her optimism, wanted her to relax a little, he wasn’t planning to follow suit.
Noah couldn’t relax anytime soon. Not if he wanted to keep Erynn alive.
“Most of the files for the Ice Maiden case were digitized, so it shouldn’t be too hard to pull up everything we had on it. The evidence is still in cold storage.” He opened his computer, glanced up when he saw movement, and watched as Erynn dragged a chair to the back of his desk. She paused just as she was about to sit. “May I? Sit here, I mean?”
He nodded. On all the cases they’d worked together, either he or Erynn had pursued a lead and it had been clear “whose” case it was. This was the first time they had sat on the same side of any desk. He nodded again, hoping she understood it was fine, but unable to say anything. Was this the closest he’d been to her physically? They’d ridden in patrol cars together, hers, his. But she was scooting her chair closer now, close enough he could sense her shampoo, which smelled like the beach. Coconut or something like it.
Years. He’d ignored this crush for years. Worked around it, denied it even to himself. He had to hang on for however long it took to put this guy behind bars. He owed it to Erynn.
“So where should we start? I’m assuming you have an opinion.”
Her behavior was almost back to normal and he was panicked at the idea that he could have lost her tonight.
He had to shake this insecurity, needed to be the man he usually was in this office. Capable. Confident.
“We need to start at square one. It’s going to give us more than if we just try to figure out where our mistakes were.”
“Of course. Because if those had been obvious, we’d have seen them the first time.”
The program loaded and Noah pulled up the files they needed. Decided to read out loud, not because Erynn couldn’t see over his shoulder, but they both were the type who talked things out.
“‘Jane Doe, discovered by hikers on the glacier three and a half years ago, on July 3. Initially it was assumed a hiker had misstepped and died as a result of her injuries, but the lack of gear observed near the hiker eventually turned it into a missing persons investigation with a suspicion she’d been murdered.’”
He stopped reading, looked over at Erynn, who was still closer than she’d ever been. But just as out of his reach. “That whole time, did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That she was a victim of the person...”
Erynn shook her head. “No, the body was reported. I knew only what you did, assumed the same things.”
“At what point did you suspect there was more to it than the rest of us knew?”
“Keep reading.”
“‘Trooper Erynn Cooper and Moose Haven Police Chief Noah Dawson investigated the scene and put out a missing persons report. Janie Davis, reported missing in the Kenai Peninsula area on July 1, was last seen in Seward, which also has a glacier that flows out of Harding Icefield, where the body was discovered—’”
“There.” Erynn broke in. “As soon as Janie’s name came up, I knew.”
“Did you assume the body was hers?”
“Yes.” She said it without hesitation and he believed her. She’d never given him a reason not to. It was becoming clearer to him that she hadn’t been generous in her details about her past. He understood now it had been intentional on her part. She had kept it from him, from all of them. To protect herself from a killer? From being ashamed of where she’d been?
Noah didn’t know and, if he didn’t know, he couldn’t fix it. He hated not being able to fix things.
“Do you want coffee?” He was exhausted. His mind felt fuzzy around the edges; hers had to, also. Bringing coffee was something he could do, and a quick trip to the break room would let him check in with some of his officers on anything they had discovered from the crime scene in the cell.
“Right now?” She glanced at her watch. “It’s past ten.”
“And you’re too young to have rules about when you drink caffeine.” He stood and walked to the door but stopped. “Unless you wanted to try to get some sleep? I can keep pulling up old details and you could catch a nap in the chairs, or maybe on the sofa.”
“Not happening.”
“Sleep might be good.” He could only manage a half-hearted attempt to convince her. He couldn’t imagine her sleeping anytime in the next few hours, at least not well. If he were her, he wouldn’t want to try.
Erynn bit her lip, a frown clouding her features. “You know exactly what I’ll see if I close my eyes. And you’d want me to try?”
“No.” This time he didn’t hesitate. “You need coffee.”
Noah opened the door, saw Tyler walking by. His brother had a job at the family’s lodge, running the place, but he’d humored Noah and gone to the trooper academy to become law enforcement certified so he could help out at the department when there were special circumstances. Tonight qualified.
“Tyler.” Noah nodded at his office. “Can you stay with Erynn while I get us some coffee?”
“Of course.” Tyler stepped up to the door, stopped to look at Noah and let the door shut between them and Erynn. “How is she?” He’d lowered his voice, which Noah appreciated, but he still wasn’t comfortable talking about Erynn like she wasn’t there, or worse, like she was some random victim who needed to be treated with kid gloves. Yeah, Erynn wouldn’t appreciate it at all.
“She’s fine. Considering. She’ll be better when I get her some coffee.” Noah blew out a breath, turned back to his brother. “Look, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, I get it. It’s hard.”
Noah raised his eyebrows. “You get it?”
“Does Emma showing up in town with someone after her ring a bell? I understand. I’ll make sure Erynn’s okay while you’re gone.” Tyler was implying...
“You aren’t saying I have the kind of feelings for Erynn that you have—”
“Just get the coffee. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
But it wasn’t like everyone with eyes didn’t know. Noah heard what Tyler wasn’t saying. His feelings for Erynn had been obvious to everyone but her for years. He’d never acted on them because Erynn was...she was too special to lose if she didn’t feel the same way. And he’d always felt her hesitation, the way she held people at arm’s length, and he had not wanted to make her uncomfortable by trying to get closer to her if that was not what she wanted. Now he wondered if he’d lost his chance with her altogether, if he should have been honest with her. But it was too late to change anything now, or to hide his feelings from the town. Noah did not bother to defend himself this time, did not bother to play dumb, just nodded and headed for the break room.
“So, what did you learn while you were gone?”
Erynn tried not to sound too interested, but every cell in her body was on high alert, ready to charge forward into battle against the killer. If only she had a face, a name, something to make him more substance than just a terror who haunted her dreams, killed her friends, her family.
She wanted a fair fight. She couldn’t have that if she didn’t know who he was.
“I got you coffee. That’s why I was gone.” He handed it to her and she took a sip. Strong, with just a tiny bit of half-and-half. She didn’t deserve to have a friend who knew her so well—especially when she usually drank it black. It was healthier that way, for one. For another, proving herself as a woman in a male-dominated profession dictated that she take every opportunity to show herself capable. Strong. She felt like black coffee made a statement, and had drunk it that way since she’d graduated from the trooper academy. But half-and-half was a guilty pleasure, one that felt like a treat.
And Noah always remembered. She was starting to realize he remembered everything about her, and that knowledge made her feel seen. It was either exhilarating or terrifying: Erynn didn’t know which. She had spent too much time hoping she’d blend in, just be normal. Average. She hadn’t even dated much because she hadn’t wanted to take the risk that being close to her would put someone else in danger. She’d never felt fully free from the threat that the Foster Kid Killer would return.
She wished her instincts had been wrong this time.
“We both know you didn’t just get coffee.” She took another sip. “Though thank you, this is really good.”
“I did talk to some of the other officers who were here, but I didn’t learn much. Everything they know is what we know.”
“He didn’t leave any evidence here, either.” She heard the flatness in her voice, couldn’t quite fix it. She’d wondered for years if the killer was law enforcement himself, but her dad hadn’t believed he was, hadn’t believed anyone he worked with in Anchorage would have done the things he’d done. Still, the murderer knew more than an average person about how the crime scene process worked. He was smart. Otherwise they’d have caught him by now.
The chances he was going to be stupid now, after a decade to learn more, plan more? They weren’t good. Erynn wished it wasn’t true, but she wasn’t going to delude herself into thinking positively for no reason.
“He didn’t, but we’re going to find him.”
She had been the sunshine on Noah’s shoulder before when he was having a hard time with a case, knew full well she’d helped keep him sane when his sisters had been through dangerous situations in the last year and a half. But having him try to cheer her up? She couldn’t handle it right now. She was only up for full reality, which wasn’t so sunny.
“I don’t see how we can.”
Noah turned to her, didn’t say anything. She dared him to, dared him to lie to her to try to make the whole thing sound more likely than it was.
He didn’t. Instead he just nodded. Turned back to the computer.
He might have confidence, but she had none. And he didn’t even mind.
Everything in her wished she could hang on to him and not let him go, make him promise they’d be friends forever, but she didn’t have much longer in Moose Haven. She’d already had a longer tenure here than she should have because of department changeover and how assignments shook out. But in a year or less she would be leaving Moose Haven for another posting.
She’d walk out of his life; he’d find someone else to make coffee for, to encourage, and she’d be alone, like she’d always been. It wasn’t fair. However, Erynn had learned at an early age that life wasn’t. Had had it reinforced for her often since.
“Here’s an angle we can work. As you said, we suspect now that Michelle Holt was the woman who was really killed on the glacier. Will working from there lead us to him?”
“I doubt it.”
“It was rhetorical. Maybe don’t answer if you don’t have something positive to say, okay?”
Erynn didn’t say anything. She just sipped her coffee, let Noah keep talking to her, or himself, or whomever he was talking to.
“We’re going to solve this, Erynn. I promise.”
Erynn swallowed hard. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard the words. The last time, she had known the person cared about her, known he’d meant them.
And then he’d ended up dead.
She couldn’t let that happen to Noah. Or to her.
FIVE (#u8b7dfd64-67d6-53ec-a6c0-e9471aa2c314)
Noah checked his phone. No message from Erynn in the last couple of hours. He checked his watch: 3:00 a.m. Well, that would explain why. They had wrapped up at the department not long after he’d brought the coffee in. Erynn had said she’d wanted to try to get some sleep. But Noah wouldn’t be surprised if she’d mostly wanted a break from him and his misplaced optimism. He could use one, also, but giving up was not an option.
You still okay? He typed out the words in a text message, made himself set the phone down rather than wait for a reply. His sister Summer, Clay’s wife, had called and insisted Erynn stay with them rather than return to her house. Noah had been planning to post one of his officers at her house, even though he didn’t have the manpower, but this option was better. He trusted Clay to keep both Erynn and Summer safe if anything went wrong, and Summer would keep him updated if anything changed. He’d walked her out to Clay and Summer’s car, the winter darkness weighing on him. The town’s holiday decorations hung on every streetlight—candles, holly, Christmas trees made of lights—and their joyfulness mocked him. This was supposed to be a season of happiness, wasn’t it?
Instead Erynn was afraid for her life. And Noah felt powerless to stop it.
It didn’t feel much like Christmas.
Logically, Noah knew sleep would help his mind-set. It wouldn’t erase the threat, but it might bring clarity. He should really get some rest.
She’s okay, right? He typed the text to Summer and sent it before he could let his good sense change his mind. This time he really did set the phone down and lie back on his pillow.
The phone buzzed.
He sat up to read the message from Erynn. I’m fine. Go to sleep, Noah.
He exhaled. God, help me. He had worked hundreds of cases in the years he’d been serving Moose Haven but nothing had touched him this closely. Not even when his sisters were in danger.
Erynn was different. He was different with her. And in all these years of working together, he’d never told her how much she meant to him. He couldn’t now, either. He had to stay focused, had to avoid giving her any reason to elude him because, while he had a case to solve, the fact was he didn’t trust anyone else to keep her safe the way he would. Wasn’t sure anyone cared the way he did.
He pulled the covers up, let himself nod off. He wouldn’t do either of them any good exhausted.
When he woke again it was past five in the morning. Late enough to start work.
He checked his phone to find two messages, one from Summer. She’s fine. Seriously, she’s going to know how you feel if you keep hovering.
Yeah, Erynn might not know about his feelings for her, but there was a good chance she was the only one in Moose Haven.
The next message was from Erynn. Sent five minutes ago, probably what had woken him. I’m going up to Harding Icefield. Are you coming?
Noah typed out a reply. Stay put. I’ll be right there.
He showered more quickly than usual, changed into fresh clothes and headed outside to his car, locking his front door as he did so and then pausing to look at the deck.
He’d forgotten to have someone process his front porch for evidence. Chances were slim the killer had left any evidence besides the note itself, which he had taken into the police department—it had come up clean, no prints or useful DNA samples. Still, he should look around.
The two rocking chairs on the porch looked relatively undisturbed, as did everything else.
He slid out his phone and texted Clay Hitchcock, the man on his team with the most crime scene training, and asked him to come by to see if there was any forensic evidence Noah wasn’t seeing.
Clay texted On my way and arrived in less than five minutes.
Noah debated staying with him.
“You look like you’re on edge.” Clay stated the obvious as he dusted the table for prints, sprinkling the deep black dust over the surface.
“Erynn’s threatening to investigate without me. She didn’t say anything to you?”
He shook his head. “Go. I’ll call you if I find anything.”
Noah did not need to be told twice. Indecision defeated, he hurried to his car and drove to Clay and Summer’s cabin on the edge of the family’s property about a five-minute drive away.
Her car was gone. Summer had sure better be with her. His sister was not trained in anything, but she was an athlete and she’d had a serial killer after her once. Anything was better than Erynn being alone.
Noah left his car running, knocked on the door just in case.
No one answered. As he’d expected.
Stubborn. She was pure stubbornness, that’s all there was to it, and if it got her killed...
Well, it just couldn’t. Because Noah didn’t know how he’d manage to keep living if anything happened to her. She’d leave that big a hole in his everyday life and she didn’t even know it. If she was okay, if he found her... He wasn’t going to be able to keep quiet for much longer. Bad timing or not.
He climbed back into the car and drove up to Harding Edge Road, which would take him to the base of the mountain, to Moose Haven’s Harding Icefield Trailhead. The parking lot had one car in it. Erynn’s.
A wave of hot anger washed over him and Noah gritted his teeth. He climbed out of his car, slammed the door and started toward the trailhead.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/pages/biblio_book/?art=48660534) на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.