Page 59 of Snow River

“Throw in a king and we have a deal.”

Salmon.They were negotiating with salmon.Only in Firelight Ridge, thought Lila affectionately.

They shook on it, then Gunnar led Lila into the shop, where the smell of diesel and old rubber enveloped her.

“Quick question,” she asked as he led the way past a Subaru up on a lift, toward the small office in the back corner.“Is there any way to mess with a truck’s steering so it would work at first, then stop working later on?”

“Power steering?”

She was pretty sure the F-250 had power steering, but trucks were not her forte.“Yes?”

“There could be a leak in the hydraulic line that starts small and gets bigger.If enough drains out, your steering could fail.”He pushed open the door and went right to a banker’s box.“I was literally just thinking I should put all this crap in a burn barrel and be done with it.”

“I’m glad you waited.These are practically historical records.”

“I’m sure the FBI has all of this shit.”He sorted through the papers in the box, looking for the one that had snagged his memory.“I always laughed at these drawings because how could anyone recognize someone when you have a million ways to change your appearance?But that drawing…it’s more the expression that seems the same.Here it is.”

He pulled one page free and presented it to her.As she stared at it, a sense of certainty came over her.Gunnar was right.Something about the tilt of the man’s head, the arrogance captured in Paulina’s sketch, rang very true from one sketch to the other.

“Donald Jenner,” she read aloud.“Wanted for Murder.”

Even saying it out loud made her shudder.

Gunnar read the rest of it.“Suspected in the fatal shooting of Charles Greenley, a candidate for U.S.Senate in the state of Alaska on October 5, 1986.If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the local FBI bureau.He is considered armed and dangerous.”

27

“The thingabout winter in Alaska is that it seems like everything stops.It’s frozen, right?Only a few birds stick around.The bears go into hibernation.Nothing grows.”Martha took a sip of her favorite new drink, coffee with a splash of brandy.“Everything stands still and you feel like you can breathe.I love winter.”

Bear grunted, wondering where this was going.He’d asked about thrift stores.She’d told him about a clothing exchange held on the last Saturday of every month—weather permitting.That was when she’d segued into this philosophical meditation on winter in Alaska.

“But the truth is that nothing stops completely.It’s more like…what’s the term…like when things are just on pause…suspended animation.”

“Okay.”He glanced around the bar, checking for other customers who might need his attention.But Martha wasn’t done yet.

“Like the river.Snow River freezes over in deep winter, but only on the surface.Underneath the ice, it’s still flowing, you just can’t see it.And all that snow melts come spring anyway.”

“Makes a damn mess every year.”

“Yes.That’s my point.”Apparently lost in thought, she cradled her mug in her weathered hands.She’d added her own special touch to her mug—a cozy knitted from her own sheeps’ wool.“People think they can hide things out here in the wilderness.They think no one will ever find it.Or they think the snow will hide it.Maybe sometimes they get away with it.But secrets have a way of surfacing even when they’ve been buried deep.”

He narrowed his eyes at her.Did she know something relevant?“Are you thinking of something specific?”

Her expression shifted, as if she’d just remembered where she was.“Oh, just the dead bodies that turn up every spring.That sort of thing.”

“Are you thinking of the woman who drowned in Snow River?”

“She wasn’t there all winter, was she?”

“No.But?—”

Martha’s eyes lit up at the prospect of fresh gossip.“But what?Do you know something, Bear?You always have the best inside information.”

“I don’t know anything.The police are handling it.”

“Like we’ve seen any of them around here.Cromwell came once and none of us have seen hide or hair of him since.”

She had a point there.The case seemed to have dropped off Cromwell’s radar completely.In Bear’s view, the less he saw of Cromwell, the better, but it must be frustrating for Rita Casey’s family.It was also possibly that huge progress was being made, and no one thought it important to share with anyone in Firelight Ridge, especially Bear.

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