Polar (Book 1): Polar Night (23 page)

Chapter 5
9

Amanda paced back and forth in
her living room, waiting for Danny’s phone to go to his voice mail. She’d already called 15 times, so it was a fairly safe bet that he wasn’t going to answer this time, either. She snapped the phone closed when she heard his recorded greeting. 14 messages begging him to call her were probably enough.

She took a deep breath and fiddled with the silver cross around her neck as she tried to figure out what to do. She knew exactly where Danny was, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get somebody to help her get to Coldfoot and find him. Shouldn’t be, anyway. But in reality, she remembered what Danny had told her about his police captain forcing him to take time off. She didn’t know what kind of reception she’d get from Danny’s colleagues if she went asking for help now.

Regardless, she had to give it a shot, as she knew without a doubt that Danny’s life depended on it. She picked up her phone again, and dialed the number for the police station. Amanda knew Danny had been working with another detective on the Maria Treibel case. If she was lucky, she would be able to get through to that detective.

“Fairbanks Police,” a man’s voice said.

“Hello,” Amanda said. “Could I please speak with the detective working on the missing woman case?”

“What case?”

“The woman who went missing around the Solstice party. I think I might have a lead on where she is.”

Amanda could imagine the policeman rolling his eyes, sure she was some nutter trying to get involved in an investigation. She knew all about how cops treated people they thought were crazy.

“That would be Detective Washington,” the policeman finally replied. “Let me check and see if she’s available.”

A few seconds later, the man came back on the line. “I’ll transfer you,” he said.

Amanda breathed a sigh of relief. One step closer.

“This is Detective Washington. How can I help you?”

“Hello, Detective. My name is Amanda Fiske. I’m a friend of Danny Fitzpatrick’s.”

Tessa leaned back in her chair. “Oh? Is this about the woman who went missing, Maria Treibel?”

“Sort of,” Amanda paused. “But not really. It’s about Danny. He’s in trouble, and I need your help.”

Tessa sat up straight. “What do you mean he’s in trouble?”

“He went after the guy he thinks kidnapped Maria Treibel.”

“What?? He’s supposed to be taking a break.”

“Yeah, I know. But he’s not. He went up to Coldfoot by himself and he told me he was going to take him down.”

“Oh my God. He went after Aleksei Nechayev? Up there? Alone???” Tessa’s voice rose with each question.

“Yes to all three.”

Momentarily speechless, Tessa stared out at the falling snow that had returned with a vengeance. “Oh, Danny,” she finally said.

“We need to get up there and help him.”

“What do you mean, we? How do you know about all this anyway?”

“I told you, Danny’s my friend. And…”

“And what?”

“And I’ve been helping him research Nechayev.”

“God in heaven. What the hell has he been doing?”

“He knows Nechayev’s guilty and he’s right. I know it too. Aleksei’s very dangerous.”

Tessa shook her head. “Listen, I don’t even want to know what you two have been up to. If you’re telling me Danny is up there in Coldfoot by himself I need to get him some back-up. What the hell was he thinking? He didn’t say a word to me about this!”

“He couldn’t after the Captain had ordered him to go on leave.”

“He sure as hell could have. He just knew I would have talked some sense into his thick head.”

“Listen, I know you think we’re crazy and I don’t blame you. But please believe me when I tell you Danny is in huge trouble. I’ve tried calling him so many times, and he’s not answering his phone. I’m so scared we might already be too late.”

“What do you mean, too late?”

“I mean I’m afraid Aleksei killed him.” Amanda took a deep breath. “I met Danny because I was one of Aleksei’s victims. One who got away. I know what a monster he is, and I know Danny is exactly right about him. Please, you have to believe me.”

Tessa rubbed her eyes. “I need to help Danny. Whatever else is going on can wait. I’ll get some reinforcements and charter a plane up there.”

“I need to go with you.”

“Like hell you do.”

“Please, I have to. I’ll stay out of your way, I promise. I just need to go.”

Tessa sighed. “Listen Miss… what did you say your name was again?”

“Fiske. Amanda Fiske. I can help you with Aleksei. I know things about him you can’t possibly know. Please.”

“Alright, listen. I know you and Danny are friends and you want to help him. And I appreciate you calling in and letting us know what he’s been up to. But this is where your involvement ends, Ms. Fiske. This is a police matter now and we’ll take it from here.”

“But, you don’t understand, please…”

Tessa cut Amanda off. “I don’t have time to talk any more. I don’t know what the hell Danny’s got himself into, but I know it can’t be good. We can’t have civilians involved in this. Now I need to get going. Goodbye, Ms. Fiske.”

Tessa hung up her phone without listening to whatever Amanda said next. She blew out a breath and stared out her window again at the heavy snow. “Danny, you god-damn idiot,” she muttered to herself. “What have you done?”

Chapter 60

Tessa knocked on Captain Jack
Meyer’s door, and entered his office as he motioned for her to come in. He finished whatever call he was on and hung up his phone just as Tessa closed the office door behind her.

“God-damn that Fitzpatrick,” Meyer said.

“Danny? What about him? He’s why I was coming to talk to you.”

“I just got off the phone with the Seattle detective he was working with while he was supposed to be on break. Her name’s Lauren Cooper and she’s on her way here to get information on her missing kid. She’s in a god-damn plane right now.”

“She’s not going to be able to land here. Not with this snow.”

“She already knows that. Her plane is circling the city as we speak.” Meyer ran a beefy hand through his nearly non-existent hair. “God-damn it all. We don’t have enough to do here? Now we gotta deal with some Seattle cop on a wild goose chase?”

“I’m afraid there’s more than that, Sir,” Tessa said.

“What do you mean?”

“I just got off the phone with a friend of Danny’s. I think he’s in big trouble.”

“Yeah well, I’m not so sure that bothers me.”

“I’m serious. This friend of his said he’s gone up to Cold Foot to confront Aleksei Nechayev himself.”

“What?! Are you kidding me?”

“I wish I was. But his friend has been unable to reach him, and he hasn’t answered my calls either. He told this woman he was heading up to Cold Foot so he could find Katie Bailey before it was too late.”

“Oh my God. Is he fucking nuts?”

“He’s obviously not thinking clearly. We need to get up there.”

Meyer stared out the window. “You got any ideas how we can do that? No planes will take off in this weather.”

“Maybe we can get the National Guard involved.”

“Jesus Christ. You think the National Guard’s gonna get involved because one lunatic cop went off the rails? This is our problem to solve. And frankly, I’m not sure I think we all need to risk our own necks because that idiot went off half-cocked and didn’t think about the fact he could freeze to death up there.”

“It’s not just the weather. This friend of Danny’s, Amanda, she insists that Danny is right about Aleksei Nechayev. She said he attacked her and she got away from him, that’s how she met Danny in the first place. She swears Nechayev really is dangerous.”

“And Fitzpatrick knew all this and still went up to the Arctic by himself to chase after him?”

“To be fair, he did try to get you involved.”

“And I suppose you think I was wrong to not get wrapped up in his Seattle craziness?”

“I don’t think that, no. Really all I’m thinking now is I want to find Danny. I think he’s right about Nechayev too, I have all along. I think he’s in big trouble, Sir.”

Meyer let out a deep breath. “Let’s see what we can do about finding him, Detective. But I can’t promise I won’t kick his ass all the way back to Chicago when we do.”

Chapter 61

Danny struggled to open his
eyes and orient himself to his surroundings as he slowly regained consciousness. His head pounded with a pain that was worse than any hangover he’d ever had, and his hands were stiff and cramped behind his back. Worse, his neck throbbed and his throat felt as if it had been slowly constricted by a snake. In fact, this wasn’t far from the truth.

He shifted his head, and realized he was sitting up against the column of a four poster bed, and his hands were bound tightly to the bed’s leg by a thick braided rope. To his surprise, his legs and feet were unbound. He had been left in a cross-legged position, with his feet under the weight of his legs. As a result, his feet and calves were now hopelessly numb.

Danny moved to unknot his legs and feet, and immediately winced as pain shot through them. He slowly stretched his legs out in front of him on the plush ivory carpet he was sitting on, and waited for the feeling to fully return and the numbness to subside.

He leaned his head back on the wooden column of the bed and forced himself to take stock of his situation. He was cold, and realized that Aleksei must have removed his parka before tying him to the bed. The parka was hung neatly on the doorknob of the closet across from him. Like his gun and phone, which were on top of the dresser next to the closet, the coat was tantalizingly out of reach. Aleksei apparently enjoyed taunting his prey.

It was clear to Danny that he was in one of Aleksei’s guest rooms, where tourists stayed when they visited the asylum. He remembered touring this and similar rooms himself when he had first come to Snow Creek with a search warrant and Terry Yazzie to accompany him. It was his own fool fault he didn’t have that accompaniment now, he thought bitterly. He could imagine Tessa shaking her head at him and giving him one of her patented looks of disapproval.

He deserved it, and now that he was in this predicament, he realized he wasn’t as keen on dying as he had previously thought. A suicide mission to save a damsel in distress had seemed quite gallant when he had ridden through the snow and cold with Doug Matheson but, at this moment; it merely seemed like the height of stupidity.

While he couldn’t deny this fact, he also couldn’t deny that self-pity wasn’t going to get him anywhere now. He struggled to loosen the ropes that held his hands, realizing quickly that it was a futile gesture. Aleksei wasn’t stupid and he was also stronger than any person or thing that Danny had ever encountered. The knots he had made would only be broken by a knife and, even then, Danny wasn’t sure how easy it would be to undo them.

If he was going to survive, he would have to use his wits and somehow convince Aleksei to untie him. But, he wasn’t arrogant enough to think he had such superior wit or intelligence. His current situation would suggest that he wasn’t likely to outwit anyone at this point. Perhaps his mother really had been right about alcohol and his brain.

His only consolation was that Aleksei had kept him alive and had merely rendered him unconscious instead of killing him immediately. Danny knew this could simply be because Aleksei enjoyed teasing his prey, or perhaps he had grander plans for Danny before he killed him but for now, it was all Danny had to work with.

Before he could ponder the issue further, the door of the room opened and Aleksei walked inside. He had changed clothes since the last time Danny had seen him, and now wore a gray suit with a white dress shirt, but his face held the same arrogant smirk. Aleksei knew he had won and he had every intention of reveling in that fact.

“Glad to see you’re awake, Detective,” he said. “I trust your accommodations are satisfactory?”

“They’re great,” Danny said.

“I’m so glad. I was hoping you’d be awake by now, as I have a friend I want to introduce to you.”

“I’m not sure that I’m up to having company. I’m not really at my best.”

Aleksei chuckled. “It’s not really up to you, I’m afraid. And, I’m only giving you what you said you wanted, anyway.”

“What was that? My memory’s a little fuzzy.”

“You came trudging through the snowy night to storm into my office and demand to see Katie Bailey. Does that ring a bell?”

Danny felt a pang of alarm. “It does, yeah,” he said.

“Great.” Aleksei held the guest room door open and stuck his head into the hallway. “Come in, darling,” he said.

Danny watched as Katie Bailey walked into the room. She wore a black velvet dress that barely covered her hips and looked as if the fabric had been torn away to expose her legs. On her feet, she wore black buckled heels that looked straight out of the Edwardian era. In spite of her strange clothing, Danny knew from the picture he had seen in the police report that it was Katie. But at the same time, it wasn’t.

“Katerina, allow me to introduce you to Detective Danny Fitzpatrick. He’s been so concerned for your safety he came all the way here from Fairbanks. Isn’t that something? Quite noble, don’t you think?”

Katerina didn’t answer, but looked at Danny with a mixture of amusement and contempt. Danny looked into her eyes and felt his heart sink.

“As you can see, Detective, Katerina is fine. More than fine, actually. Show him, Katya.”

Katerina opened her mouth in a wicked smile, and displayed the fangs protruding from her gums. “So nice to meet you, Detective,” she said.

Danny looked away, unable to stand the sight of the new monster in front of him. “Oh my God,” he said. “What did you do to this kid?”

“I should think it would be obvious. You know so much about me, I assumed you’d figure this out, too.” Aleksei showed his fangs in a smile that matched Katerina’s. “She and I are one now. And Katerina is anything but a kid.”

“So is this why you kept me alive?” Danny asked, his throat as dry as the Sahara. “Are the two of you going to kill me now?”

“No, no, don’t be silly,” Aleksei said.

He turned to Katerina. “Can you leave us alone now, darling? I need to talk to the Detective for a moment before we go.”

Katerina nodded and left the room without giving Danny so much as a glance.