Alaska Twilight Part 10

Augusta put her hands over Fannie's. "You seem upset. Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine, fine." She pulled her hands away.

"I met Ned Bundle the other day," Haley said.

Fannie's head jerked up. "The biggest loser to ever walk the earth." She curled her lip. "He was always following your mother around, complimenting her, annoying her. She was scared of him. After the fire, Ned took over the dig as if it had been his project all the time. He took credit for the work your dad did." Spots of color stained her cheeks, and her voice rose.

"He didn't seem that type at all!" Haley realized she'd raised her voice and lowered it again. "He was polite and gentlemanly. Very pa.s.sionate about his work."

"Looks like he's pulled the wool over your eyes. Ask Joy about him. She doesn't think the fire was an accident either. Tread carefully around him, honey. He'll pounce when you least expect it. Your father was blackmailing someone. I think it might have been Ned. Maybe he got tired of it."

"Are you saying this man may have set the fire? You and Joy both believe that?" Augusta asked. "But why? Just to get control of the dig? That hardly seems a motive to kill someone. And how do you know he was blackmailing someone?"

"Maggie told me, but she wouldn't say who it was. Fannie went back to tearing the paper napkin. "Maggie didn't trust Ned-that's why I think it might have been him. And she suspected he might be selling artifacts from the dig."

"Did my mother tell my father?"

"Not that I know of. She was afraid of Ned."

The mother Haley remembered feared nothing. "Did you tell all this to Chet Gillespie?" Haley asked slowly.

"Yes, but there was no proof. They didn't find enough of the bodies to do an autopsy, so we had to go with the fire."

Haley winced at the look on her grandmother's face. Did Fannie have to be quite so blunt? "Did they check to see if it was arson? Can't they tell how the fire started?"

"This is Stalwart. We don't have arson investigators and such. Trooper Gillespie is a good man, but he's overworked from all the shenanigans the men pull in this town. He declared it an accident and left it at that. But maybe you can get him to reopen the investigation."

"On what grounds? This Ned Bundle isn't going to admit anything to me."

"He might." Fannie thrust out her jaw in a stubborn pose. "I just hate to see him get away with this. Don't you want to find out what happened to your parents?"

"Did you date him or something?" Haley asked.

A tide of red swept up Fannie's face, and she looked down. "That has nothing to do with anything."

Her instincts had been right. "I realize you don't like Ned Bundle, but a half-forgotten dig of doubtful value is hardly enough to kill over."

"I hoped you had more s.p.u.n.k than to ignore this,"

Fannie said. "I heard how you loved to explore. Isn't that how your sister died?"

Haley wasn't going to talk about Chloe. Not anymore. "My parents' deaths are for the law, not for me. I don't have the expertise to delve into something like this."

"I might ask some questions," Augusta said thoughtfully. "This whole thing makes me uneasy."

"Stay out of it, Augusta! I don't want anything to happen to you."

Fannie smiled. "Honey, if you're so sure I'm all wet, why would you think your grandma might get hurt?"

"The truth? I don't care. If that sounds harsh, maybe it is. For me, my parents died a long time ago. They exited my life and never looked back." She expected Fannie to try to make excuses for her parents, and she didn't want to hear them.

The older woman nodded. "I talked to your mother about you several times. She was hard, clear to the end.

It made no sense to blame an eight-year-old. You were too young to understand."

Haley didn't look at Augusta or Fannie. "Oh, I understood. I knew what I did was wrong, and that I'd killed my sister. My parents never blamed me more than I blamed myself. If I could have taken Chloe's place, I would have."

"Don't say that, Haley." Augusta put her hand over Haley's restless fingers. "It was the Lord's will. We have to accept what happened."

Haley clapped her hands over her ears. "I don't want to hear any more about the Lord's will. If he's that gruesome, how can you love him?"

Augusta yanked Haley's hands down. "G.o.d promises he'll work all things out for our good, Haley. All things, not just the ones we like. This is an evil world, but G.o.d is good."

"I see no evidence of that," Haley said stubbornly. She glanced at her watch. "I'm going back to my room." She stood and dropped some money on the table. "Thanks for the information, Fannie. If we hear anything, we'll let you know." She grabbed her crutches and fled the cafe.

Twelve.

What are you doing out of your room?" Tank scooped up Oscar, who was racing up and down the hotel hallway. His yipping would soon bring irate hunters out of their rooms in droves. The little dog wriggled in his arms and licked his chin. He strode down the hall to Haley's room and rapped on the door.

When no one answered, he rapped again, harder, and the door eased open. Suns.h.i.+ne flooded the room from the open curtains. "Haley?" He felt a stirring of unease. "Is everything okay?"

A rhythmic thump came from the hallway to his left. He turned to see Haley coming toward him on the crutches he'd made her. Turning toward her so she could see the dog in his arms, he smiled. "We have an escapee."

"How did he get out?" Her skin was flooded with high color, and a sheen of perspiration beaded her forehead.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded and pushed the door to her room open wider. "Just exhausted. I'd forgotten how tiring crutches are. I need to go to the store and get some moisturizer for my hands. They're sore."

"I'll get it for you. Rest a while. I'll be right back." He followed her inside, where she dropped her backpack and half fell into the chair.

She held out her arms for the dog. "I'd better get it myself. I'm a little picky about the brand."

"Are you always this independent, or only with me?" He plopped Oscar in her arms. Were those tears in her eyes? "Whoa, I didn't mean it. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She dashed the tears from her cheeks with an angry jerk. "It's nothing."

"Looks like it," he observed. "Nothing always makes me look like I'm about to explode. It's good to do nothing and get the blood pumping."

Her angry expression eased, and she sniffled, then smiled, though it seemed a little forced. "I don't want to talk about it." She heaved herself to her feet.

"I'll go with you. What do we do with the mutt?"

"Leave him here."

"He was outside in the hallway."

She paused. "For real?"

"How else do you think I got him? I didn't break into your room."

"I was too mad to think." Her smile was shamefaced. Her gaze wandered the room. "I'm sure I left the door locked. Positive. It was unlocked?"

"And not latched." He shrugged. "Maybe the maid didn't lock back up."

"Why would the maid be here? We haven't even slept in the beds yet." She swung on her crutches toward the bathroom and peered into the tiny room. "It doesn't look like anything is disturbed."

Tank went to the door and knelt to look at the latch. The doorframe had numerous scratches and gouges, but the latch and tongue seemed intact. The screws were firmly attached and tight. "Has your grandmother been back?"

Haley shook her head. "She's been with me. We went for lunch. Augusta is still at the cafe talking to an old friend of my mother's."

She looked away and didn't meet his questioning gaze. Bingo. Whatever had happened at lunch had upset her. Every time someone brought up her parents, she became tight-lipped. He'd liked the Walshes, but he was beginning to wonder if he ever really knew them.

Haley picked up her backpack. "Let's go."

"I'll carry that." He took her backpack and slung it over one shoulder, then held the door open for her.

Haley thought her heart was going to pump out of her chest by the time she got to the shop. She was woefully out of shape, and she promised herself to start an exercise program the minute she got back to Phoenix. She'd see about ordering a prosthesis for running.

"I'll be glad when I can throw these away."

He grinned. "You never know. You might take it in your head to whack an intruder again like a female Rambo. They might come in handy."

She giggled. Nervous jitters again. Why did he affect her that way? She was usually able to handle male attention with dignity. Not that he was interested in her, she hastened to a.s.sure herself. They were as dissimilar as Oscar and Miki. She browsed through the toiletries aisle and found a surprising number of familiar items, though the prices made her gasp. She finally selected a medicated lotion. She paid for her purchase, and Tank tucked it into her backpack.

He followed her out the door onto the sidewalk.

"Now what?"

"You don't have to follow me around all afternoon."

"I don't have anything better to do," he said cheerfully. "I called to check on Libby and Brooke earlier to see if they wanted to come to town. Libby wants to finish the laundry, so they'll arrive about three. I'm yours until then."

Hers. The thought made her stop, and he barreled into her. His big hands caught her before she could topple into the mud. "Thanks," she muttered. A giggle fought to rise through her throat, but she stuffed it back down.

"No problem." He seemed reluctant to let go of her.

She was in no hurry to move away either. His huge hands covered nearly all of her forearms, and their warmth seeped through her sweater. She could smell his musky scent, and a tremble started in her knees and moved to the pit of her stomach. She quickly turned her head so Tank wouldn't see and ask what she was thinking about. "Do you know where Joy lives?"

"Sure." He eyed her. "You want to go see her?"

The uncertainty in his face irritated her. "Do you think she should be warned first?"

"No, it's not that. It's just you are already upset, and I wasn't sure you were up to a confrontation."

"Is it going to be a confrontation? She doesn't even know me."

"And you don't know her, but I could feel the p.r.i.c.kles coming off you in waves when you just mentioned her name. What do you have against her?"

"Nothing." Haley looked away.

"Well good, because she's a great kid. Mature for her age and so sweet."

She was tired of hearing about how perfect Joy was. She punched her finger in his chest. "Okay, you want to know? How would you feel if your parents disowned you for something you did when you were eight and you saw them only once or twice in a twenty-year span? Now I find out they had another daughter they never told me about, and loved her like they should have loved me. They put Joy in my sister Chloe's place as if Chloe never existed. You think that would make you a little hostile?"

He backed up as she shouted and continued to jam her finger into his breastbone. If she hadn't been so angry, she might have laughed at the dismayed expression on his face.

"Whoa," he said. He caught her hand and held on when she tried to jerk it away. "No wonder you have a hide as thick as a buffalo's. Calm down."

"I'm perfectly calm," she said through gritted teeth. "Or I would be if you'd let go of my hand."

He released her and held up his hands. "If you want to hit me again, go ahead. Maybe you'll feel better."

Her anger ran off like melting snow. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't Joy's fault either. She was as bad as her parents. She pa.s.sed her hand over her forehead and eyes. "Sorry to take it out on you." She leaned on her crutches and pulled her camera to her face, then stared at him through the viewfinder. That was better. She snapped a couple of pictures.

He took the camera from her hands and dropped it to let it hang on its strap. "Don't hide behind your camera. If you will face this, Haley, it will fail to have any power over you. Let's go see your sister. Maybe you're ready now."

"She's my half sister," she said automatically. She swung along beside Tank.

"Half is as good as full. She's a sweet girl. I think you'll like her."

Haley didn't answer. She didn't want to like her. It might make her own faults seem more glaring. They moved in silence past clapboard and log homes that lined the narrow streets of Stalwart. A few had well-kept yards where phlox grew in profusion, lifting their faces to the Alaskan spring sky. The fragrance of the flowers filled her head and siphoned off her feelings of inadequacy. Okay, so she was out of her element here. She'd had years of practice in faking it.

Tank paused in front of a low-slung clapboard house.

"This is it."

The front door had claw marks from a dog on the lower half of the wood, the curtains at the windows were a soft faded-out blue, and moss grew on the s.h.i.+ngles. The front yard looked like it hadn't been mown in a month. Haley felt a stirring of something that felt like pity. Her half sister lived in his hovel? Why? What kind of family did she belong to?

Tank stepped to the door and rapped hard. From inside, Haley could hear a child squalling and the blare of a television soap opera. "Shut up!" a woman yelled. Moments later, the door swung open. The woman's low-rise jeans were topped by a light-blue sweater. A blue bandana held back her dyed red hair.

Struggling to maintain her smile, Haley stepped in front of Tank. "h.e.l.lo, I was wondering if I could see Joy."

"Who are you, some new sales drone?" The woman took out her cigarette and tossed it to the concrete step, where she crushed it under what Haley called Barbie-doll shoes, slip-on high-heeled mules with no back. It joined a pile of other cigarette b.u.t.ts.

"I'm Haley Walsh."

The woman blinked. "Walsh. You related?" A crafty expression crossed her face, and she smiled. "We're so glad to have her with us. I know her mother would approve. Our little boy adores her."

The child's wailing from somewhere in the house was beginning to grate on Haley. She strengthened her flagging smile. "Is Joy here?"