Part 2 (1/2)
”You need to get married and have some kids of your own.” He winced inwardly at his faux pas. It was a touchy subject. Her fiance had not been happy when she came up here. He broke off the engagement.
She looked away. ”There's time for that later. I'm not ready to settle down yet.” She stood and looked out the window. ”Hey, Chet is here.”
”Brooke, Grandpa's here,” Tank said.
”Gramps?” His daughter dropped her crayon and slipped down from her chair. She ran toward the door and tugged at the doork.n.o.b. He joined her and opened the door.
Trooper Chet Gillespie lumbered toward the steps like a genial moose. Dressed in his blue uniform, his belly hung over his gun and holster. His smile broadened when he saw his granddaughter. ”Hi, munchkin. Come give your old Gramps a hug.” He stopped and caught Brooke when she launched herself into his arms.
She wrapped chubby arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. ”You're not old, Gramps. You're vintage. Aunt Libby says vintage means cla.s.sy and worthy instead of old and decrepit.”
Chet laughed. ”Vintage, huh? I'll go for that. You're too precocious, Brooke.” He nodded at Tank. ”What a week.”
”Trouble in town?” Tank stepped back to allow his father-in-law to enter with Brooke in his arms.
”Just busy. The town is swarming with search-and-rescue workers and their dogs in for a training exercise. They'll be in town for several weeks. And a couple of youngsters broke into the mine by the Walsh archeology dig. Said they were looking for the lost gold.” He grinned.
”The boys should talk to Mort. He'd tell them he's already combed every inch of land out here.” Alaska was steeped in legend-some of it true, but much of it not. The legend of the lost Russian gold mine was one of the myths that wouldn't die, in spite of the lack of proof.
Chet grinned but didn't look at Tank.
Tank's senses went on alert. He took Brooke from Chet's arms. ”Hey, sweetheart, why don't you and Aunt Libby go get me and Grandpa some coffee and cookies? Grandpa looks hungry.”
Libby frowned, then looked from Tank to Chet. ”I could do with a cookie myself. How about you, Brooke?”
”Mommy said sweets are bad for my teeth. But I'll get you one.” Brooke took her aunt's hand, and Libby guided her to the kitchen where they couldn't overhear.
Chet wore a pained expression. ”She looks so much like Leigh. I was afraid she'd forget about her.”
”If anything, she talks about her mom even more now. I don't think this is a social call, Chet. What's up?”
Chet slowly reached into the pocket of his jacket and brought out an envelope. It looked official, and Tank's gut tightened. He didn't need any more blows. Losing his wife a year ago had grieved him enough for a lifetime.
Chet extended the envelope, but Tank didn't reach out to take it. ”I'm sorry, Tank,” Chet said. He laid it on the table. ”Marley is suing you for custody of Brooke.”
”What?” While Tank hadn't known what to expect from the official-looking doc.u.ment, this possibility had never crossed his mind. He balled up his fists. ”Can't you stop her? And what lawyer would take a case like this? She doesn't stand a chance.”
Chet pressed his lips together so hard they turned white. ”I tried to talk her out of this, but she was beyond listening. She and Leigh were so close-twins usually are-and losing her seems to have changed Marley in ways I can't do anything about. If her mother were still alive, maybe she could get through to her. Her lawyer is a sorority friend from college. She's always catered to Marley.”
Tank couldn't seem to get his mind around it. ”It's not like I neglect Brooke or anything.” His sister-in-law had been vocal in her opinion that it was dangerous for Brooke to be raised out here. He and Leigh used to roll their eyes at Marley's overprotectiveness.
”She blames the wilderness for killing Leigh and doesn't want the same thing to happen to Brooke.”
There was more Chet wasn't telling him. Tank could feel it. ”What else?”
Chet sighed and rubbed his forehead. ”She intends to move outside once she has custody. To New York.”
”She can't do that! I'm Brooke's father. She needs to be with me.” He remembered the moment he first held Brooke. Her small face was red, and her mouth was screwed up into a little bow. A tuft of dark fuzz stuck out from the top of the yellow quilt Leigh's mother had made. She'd been as light as a handful of cottonwood seeds when the midwife placed Brooke in his arms, and a wave of protective love had nearly choked him. His daughter was totally dependent on him and Leigh. Now Brooke was all he had left. They were a family. What was Marley thinking?
”I'll have to talk her into dropping the case. She can't take Brooke away from me.” He would be lost without his daughter. She was the glue that held him together. He wanted his daughter to grow up to love G.o.d and have more original thoughts than new shoes and designer handbags. Marley had no interest in spiritual things.
Chet's head wagged like he was trying to clear it. ”Good luck. She seems set on her course.”
Tank had never gotten along well with Marley. She thought him too far beneath her sister. Her dreams for Leigh hadn't included living in a cabin with no electricity and only a hand pump for water. Her att.i.tude had added to Leigh's discontent with their marriage once the stars wore off. Maybe he even blamed Marley a bit for Leigh's death. His wife's dissatisfaction had caused the restlessness that drove her to the lake.
He'd rather face a mother bear than his sister-in-law's contempt, but it had to be done. ”Do you know where she is? I'll go talk to her now,” he told Chet.
”You can't. She flew to Seattle this morning. She won't be back in Anchorage until next week. In the meantime, you'd better find a lawyer.” He shuffled and looked away. ”For more than just the custody thing.”
”What do you mean?”
”She's got connections at the department. She talked Ed Bixby into taking another look at Leigh's death. Sorry, buddy.” He blinked moist eyes.
The Alaska Department of Public Safety was Alaska's primary law enforcement and public safety organization. It comprised four divisions: the Division of Alaska State Troopers, the Division of Fire Prevention, the Division of Statewide Services, and the Division of Administrative Services. In towns too small for a police department or in rural areas, the Alaska State Troopers held jurisdiction, and unlike most states, there was no sheriff 's department. Tank had thought the DPS probe was behind him. Trooper Ed Bixby, sent to Stalwart from Anchorage to investigate Leigh's death, had been loud and vocal in his opinion that Tank murdered Leigh, but most people knew it for the sour grapes it was: Leigh had broken off her engagement to Ed when Tank moved to Stalwart. Bixby took a post in Anchorage shortly after. He'd managed to get her body exhumed two months ago for an autopsy, though the results weren't back yet. With Marley pus.h.i.+ng him, he was apt to get louder still.
”When is Ed coming?”
”Probably tomorrow. He'll be wanting to take a fresh statement from you.”
”I have nothing to hide.”
”You don't have to defend yourself to me.”
Was Chet's staunch a.s.surance too hearty? Tank examined his father-in-law's face and found nothing but unswerving faith. Tank wished he could be as certain that he was blameless in the unhappiness that led to Leigh's death. ”Marley's attorney will be formidable. Even though she's an old school chum, Marley doesn't settle for second best. I'll have to run up to Anchorage and see who I can find.”
”I'd recommend Garth Jagger. He's pretty good. Young and full of pa.s.sion.”
Tank took a notepad off the counter and jotted down the name. ”Thanks. I'll give him a call.” Could this day get any worse? He had to babysit Pretty Boy Nowak, and now this. But no one was taking his baby girl from him. If he had to disappear into the bush, that's what he'd do.
Chet nodded. ”Check with the office. We probably have his number on file.” He hesitated. ”You haven't seen Joe around, have you?”
Dr. Joe Wooten was the town doctor. Tank shook his head. ”Not since I stopped by the office last week and asked him about the sleeping pills Libby found under the area rug.Why?” Libby had found a brown, unmarked packet of pills under the large rug when she was moving the bedroom furniture. Dr. Wooten had identified them as a common sleeping pill. It raised questions among them all that maybe Leigh killed herself, that she deliberately took sleeping pills and then walked into the water. He didn't want to believe that. Neither did Chet.
Chet frowned. ”His wife says he's been gone for two days. She expected him back from a fis.h.i.+ng trip late last night. He never showed up. What did he say about the pills?”
Tank shrugged. ”That he never gave them to Leigh, and that he didn't believe she was in a state of mind to hurt herself. He suggested maybe they dropped out of her mom's purse one day when she was here.” Queenie had died of a heart attack while taking a bath three months before Leigh died.
”Yeah, that's probably it. Queenie took them occasionally when she had trouble sleeping. Well, if you see the doc, tell him his wife is gunning for him.” Chet grinned.
Tank nodded, only half listening. He could hear a commotion outside-birds squawking, the sound of metal falling. He went to the door and threw it open. A brown bear nosed the bear-proof trash bin at the end of the driveway. Tank recognized the notch on the bear's ear. Miki. He hadn't seen the bear he'd raised from a cub since last fall. Miki's fur was mottled and scruffy from hibernation, and he was thin. Tank was tempted to find the bear some food, but that wasn't the best thing for Miki. This was the bear's second summer on his own, and he needed to learn to be wild.
He grabbed an old garbage-can lid he kept handy to scare the bears off and banged on it with his fist. ”Get out of here, Miki!”
Miki's head swung around. Black flies hung around the bear's head, but he didn't seem to notice. He lumbered toward Tank as if the noise didn't bother him. Tank backed away. Miki had never shown any sign of viciousness, but he was still a wild animal. Tank had been careful not to try to domesticate the bear, but Miki was a lovable beast. The bear continued on, and Tank gave up the fight and stepped into the cabin.
”He still doesn't get it that he's a bear and you're a man,” Chet observed. ”I hope it doesn't get him in trouble at the park. The first time he charges a tourist, the rangers will shoot him.”