Part 8 (1/2)
EIGHT.
Liam rousted every one of Lydia Tompkins neighbors within a ten-mile radius, starting with the one right next door, hiz-zoner Jim Earl, the mayor of Newenham.
”Lydias dead? Well, s.h.i.+t, was Jim Earls response. ”Son of a b.i.t.c.h, that was one feisty old broad. There were some tourists camping out on the river below her house last summer, making a lot of noise and mess, and she took her twelve gauge down the bluff and ran them off. And made them take their garbage with em, too. h.e.l.l. Jim Earl, who was about Lydias age, scratched a bristly chin. ”What a flirt.
”She flirted with you?
Jim Earl grinned. ”Lydia flirted with everybody. She liked men and she made no bones about it. Didnt matter if they were young or old or fat or skinny, she liked em all. Drove her kids nuts after Stan Sr. died.
Liam remembered the overly elaborate crossing and recrossing of Lydias legs at the post the night shed decked Harvey with the sun-dried tomatoes. ”Did she have a boyfriend?
”Wasnt for lack of trying it wasnt me.
”Arent you married?
”Not sos youd notice.
Liam waited but Jim did not feel the need to explain further. ”Did you see her with anyone else?
”Nah. Theres a lot of coming and going down this road; its the only road along the river. Kids drive down to the end and park at Peters Point; theres a lot of traffic from that.
”Did you see anybody on the road on your way to work?
”Well, s.h.i.+t, sure, everybody else on their way to work. Everybody whos got a job. Murdered, you say? Lydia? Man, that just plain makes no sense at all.
The story was the same all up and down the road. The good news was, fis.h.i.+ng season was over, so everyone who lived year-round in Newenham was home. The bad news was, the smallest house sat on at least an acre, and most of that acre was thickly forested, deliberately so. People lived in the Alaskan Bush because they liked their privacy. Usually the only view was east and south, overlooking the river, the opposite bank, and the beginnings of Bristol Bay.
He woke Elizabeth Katelnikoff, a nights.h.i.+ft worker at AC, from a sound sleep. She was not pleased with him, but when he told her why he was there her irritation quickly changed to distress. Shed gone to school with Karen Tompkins, and had eaten her share of Lydia Tompkins fry bread on afternoons after school. ”No, I didnt see anyone. Or not anyone I dont know. Jim Earl pa.s.sed me going to work. So did Dave Lorenz, and Sarah Aguilar, and Mike Engebretsen. I didnt see Eric Mollberg, but his truck was in the driveway, parked kind of crooked. Probably sleeping it off. She paused, and frowned.
”What? Liam said. ”Anything, Elizabeth. I dont care how silly you think it sounds.
”There was this white pickup ahead of me when I turned off on the River Road.
”Whose?
”I dont know.
”Alaska plates?
”Probably. She thought. ”No, definitely Alaska plates. I would have paid more attention if they werent, especially at this time of year.
”The gold and blue, or the Chilkoot? A vets, maybe, the one with the purple heart? The University of Alaska plate?
She closed her eyes, her face scrunched up in thought, and opened them again. ”Nope. I just dont have a clue, Liam. Im sorry.
”I want you to look up every white pickup registered in Newenham, he told Prince back at the post.
”What make?
”I dont know.
”What year?
”I dont know.
”That narrows things down. She caught his look and became very professional. ”Magistrate Billington called. She wants to know how long shes going to have to keep that G.o.dd.a.m.n arm in her freezer. Prince cleared her throat. ”Er, thats a direct quote. Says its scaring Dottie.
It took a moment for him to place the arm Bill was talking about. ”Tell her well get to it once we find out who killed Lydia Tompkins. He picked up the phone, forestalling further comment, and called Mamie Hagemeister. ”Mamie? Liam Campbell, down to the trooper post. Can you get hold of Cliff Berg or Roger Raymo and tell them I need some help canva.s.sing a neighborhood?
There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone.
”Mamie?
There was a long sigh. ”Liam, Roger moved back to California to join the state troopers there. He and his wife left Newenham last week.
”What?
”And Cliff Berg went to work for Alyeska Pipeline last month. Good job in the safety department, at about three times what Jim Earl was paying him. And you know his wife never has liked Newenham; shes been chomping at the bit to get back to Anchorage ever since they moved here.
For a moment Liam was completely at a loss. Not only did he not know Mrs. Berg, hed never actually managed to speak to Cliff face-to-face. Come to that, hed only ever talked to Roger Raymo on the phone. Hed been in Newenham since the previous May, almost six months. In that time he had managed to miss connecting with the two remaining local law-enforcement officers who, besides Mamie and her night-s.h.i.+ft counterpart down at the lockup, const.i.tuted what was left of the Newenham Police Department. And now, when he needed them most, theyd run out on him to better-paying jobs in Anchorage and Outside. It was difficult not to feel ill-used.
He rallied. ”Who did Jim Earl hire to replace them? Silence. ”Mamie?
”n.o.body yet, she said.
”But hes got someone in mind.
”He doesnt consult with me about who hes going to hire and fire, Liam, Mamie said testily.
”Hes not going to hire anybody, is he, Liam said with a sudden flash of inspiration. ”What, the troopers are supposed to do it all, in town and out of it?
She hung up without answering.
He wondered if her irritation was because she wanted one of the officer jobs. He hoped she got it, but Jim Earl was the cheapest b.a.s.t.a.r.d who ever lived, and if it were legally possible not to fill those officers positions he wouldnt, not so long as the complaints on response time didnt pick up. They were going into winter, after two bad fis.h.i.+ng seasons. Everyone was broke, and with the stocks of just about any creature in the Bering Sea with fins and claws so far down as to be in the toilet, people were scared. A lot of people, when they got scared, got drunk. When they got drunk, they got into trouble.
When they got into trouble, the cops got into it.
Only now there werent any cops. Just him and Prince.
Everything inside the Newenham city limits was, ostensibly, the province of the now nonexistent NPD. Everything outside of it, from Anchorage to Togiak and including every unincorporated town and village between, was within the province of the Alaska state troopers. So it wasnt like they didnt already have enough to do.
He saw Diana Prince give him a curious look and realized his knuckles were white on the handset of the phone. He sat down and replaced it with elaborate care.
He knew he was emotionally too close to the Lydia Tompkins murder. Hed fallen hard for her when shed marched into the post, carrying her artillery in with her in two double-bagged brown paper grocery bags. She was so proud to have apprehended Harvey in the act of breaking into her car, so pleased with her own initiative. And the great legs hadnt hurt. He couldnt help but adore her, her character, her spirit, her courage.
And he couldnt help but hate her killer with every part and fiber of his being. He wanted to find him and break him in half. And after that he wanted to hurt him.
He almost wished he hadnt met her. He wished like h.e.l.l he hadnt had to respond to the scene of her murder. If shed lived closer to town, and had there been any cops in that town, the troopers wouldnt have responded to the call reporting her death. Everyone on River Road was outside the munic.i.p.al boundaries of Newenham. The upside was they didnt have to pay munic.i.p.al taxes. The downside was they couldnt vote in munic.i.p.al elections. When Jim Earl scored a federal grant large enough to build a new city hall, he made sure that the second floor was made of apartments, of which he made equally sure the largest was rented to him before the last doork.n.o.b was installed. The apartment was his legal address, but the house on the bluff was where he lived. It was a polite fiction everyone was willing to maintain, since n.o.body else wanted to be mayor.