Breakup. Part 19

His smile was merry and totally lacking in remorse. "Yes, I did. And you handled it well."

"Thanks," Kate said, giving up for the moment any attempt to bring Billy to recognition of his bad behavior. "I think."

"No. It needed saying. The clinic's a good idea. I've been thinking a little along those lines myself. That's why I okayed subsidizing our people's EMT training in Ahtna out of the discretionary fund. Yes, we have one, your grandmother saw to that. I figured once the EMTs got back and showed their stuff, the board would be more receptive to the idea of a clinic." He saw Kate's look and smiled again, a movement that creased his moon face in two and 184 made him look like a billiken. "I know, I know, it didn't sound like I thought so." His eyes were lit with mischief. "Let you in on a little secret, Kate. Sometimes I have to be against, to make everybody else for, just to get the job done." She looked at him, surprised, and he nodded, smile widening. "You helped the process along this evening, and for that I thank you." His smile faded. "Come a time, I'll want more. We all will."

"Come a time," she said promptly, "you'll whistle down the wind for it."

He didn't believe her, and smiled.

She didn't believe herself, and didn't.

He drained his beer and departed, leaving her with the uncomfortable suspicion that Billy Mike was much more than the part- time clown she'd always seen him as.

Of course, he was Emaa's handpicked choice to succeed her as chair. Kate would do well to remember that.

185.

Kate was still staring after him when Auntie Vi spread her notebook out on the bar, finished off her notes, and dated and signed them with a flourish. "Well. That was one of our more interesting board meetings.

You do know how to liven things up, Katya."

"It wasn't me, Auntie, it was Old Sam. He pretty much rolled right over the whole bunch of them."

"He did, didn't he?" Auntie Vi grinned. "It was fun to watch."

Kate had to laugh. "That it was, Auntie."

"Ekaterina-" Auntie Vi hesitated, and glanced at her great- niece.

Kate smiled faintly. "It wasn't the way Emaa would have done it, no, but she wouldn't have cared, so long as it got the results she wanted."

"Whatever works," Auntie Vi said, nodding. "Thank you, Katya."

186 "What for? Like I said, it was all Old Sam."

"No, Katya," Auntie Vi said firmly. "It was you. You set up the meeting because I asked you to talk to Harvey. Thank you. Now say, You're welcome."

"You're welcome, Auntie," Kate said obediently.

Old Sam was back at his original table, yelling, "Free throws win ball games!" as Michael Jordan bounced one off the rim. Kate looked across the room at him, watching as Jordan went up after his own missed foul shot and slammed the ball home for two. Old Sam pounded his approval on the table, upsetting several drinks in the process. Who would have thought that Old Sam, cantankerous old reprobate that he was, would step forward into Emaa's place so aptly, so ably, so opportunely? A sense of relief swept over Kate, and she turned back to Auntie Vi with a lighter heart. "How have you been lately, Auntie? I didn't get a chance to visit with you yesterday. I haven't seen you since-when?"

"Since you came in for starring at Russian Orthodox Christmas," Auntie Vi said.

"That's right, January," Kate said. It had been a crisp, clear night, and she had stood with her aunt at her aunt's front step to welcome and pa.s.s out treats to the carolers as they went singing from door to door.

She'd ridden her snow machine in that afternoon, she remembered, which naturally led her to wonder now if she was going to be able to patch the gas tank on it. She hoped so. In spite of her new truck, the dwindling wad of cash in the Darigold b.u.t.ter can wasn't going to go far if she had to repair or replace all of her vehicles. So far the Earlybird settlement was just talk. Maybe she could work out a trade for the Great White Hunters' four-wheelers, both of which were still sitting in her front yard. Kate had no wish to learn how to mush dogs this late in life, and she'd never liked four-wheelers. It was a problem. She frowned, and then, when she felt Auntie Vi looking at her, shrugged off her woes. "You making good money off the feds, Auntie?"

187 "I made out okay," Auntie Vi said, which Kate took to mean she had made out like a bandit.

Chopper Jim was down at the other end of the bar, talking to Demetri.

They'd both done time in Europe with the armed forces, and bored everyone very much with Cold War stories whenever they got the chance.

Mark Stewart was sitting at a table against the wall, brooding over a bottle of beer. He was brooding so well that both Jackie Webber and Tina Moonin were trying to minister to his grief. He wasn't exactly beating them off with a stick.

"Auntie, did you know they were going up to the mine?"

"Who?"

Kate nodded imperceptibly toward Stewart. "The woman who died, and her husband. You said they were staying with you. Did you know they were going up to the mine?"

"Of course. I packed a lunch for them."

"Did Mark Stewart have a rifle or a pistol with him?"

Auntie Vi pursed her lips, and shook her head. "I didn't see one."

"What did their luggage look like?"

"I know what a rifle case looks like, Katya," Auntie Vi said tartly.

"I know you do, Auntie. But sometimes people put rifles in suitcases or duffel bags."

"Those ones had packs," Auntie Vi said firmly.

But you can break a rifle down, Kate thought. All it takes is a screwdriver to rea.s.semble. Half the time the pieces will even pa.s.s through an airport security check.

"Why do you ask all these questions, Katya? He didn't have a rifle." She thought, and added, "He had a fancy knife, though. Had a screwdriver on it. He fixed the hinge on the door to their room." She grinned. "Good thing, too. They make lot of noise, and they were booked for all week."

She saw Kate's expression. "What? What is it, Katya? Why you look like that?"

Kate's hand closed over the Swiss Army knife she had absentmindedly put in her pocket after Billy dropped it in the slush. The 188 one Cindy had found up at the mine in her mad chase after her errant husband. She pulled it out and gave it to Auntie Vi. "Like this one?"

Auntie Vi took it, and after a few moments' fiddling, managed to open out the Phillips screwdriver. "Yeah, just like this one." She handed the knife back. "Why?"

"Did you warn them about the bear activity in the area?"

The old woman ruffled up. "Of course. Not my fault if they can't take a hint. I'm not their mother."

Kate turned away and caught a sly look in Auntie Vi's eye. "What?"

Auntie Vi took a ladylike sip from the gla.s.s of red wine that had replaced the mug of coffee with the council meeting's adjournment. "I see that woman before. That woman who died."

"Carol Stewart?"

Auntie Vi nodded.

Bobby and Dinah came in and were surrounded. Over the hubbub their entrance caused, Kate said, "Do you mean the Stewarts had been here before? When?"

"One year ago. Last spring. But that one was not with this husband."

Auntie Vi's smile spread slowly across her face, her eyelids drooping so that she looked like the Ches.h.i.+re cat. "But she make even more noise with him."

Kate stared at her, brows knit. "Wait a minute," she said slowly, "you were saying something like this last night when all the shooting started. Carol Stewart was in the Park last spring?"

"Yes."

"But not with Mark Stewart?"

"No."

"Auntie, I'm sorry, I have to get this straight. Carol Stewart stayed with you last spring, with a man who wasn't her husband?"

"Not this one. Maybe she change in the middle of the year." The old woman's eyes sparkled with mischief. Auntie Vi loved a good, nasty story, especially if it concerned no one she was related 189 to, one reason she was a huge soap opera fan. She had had a satellite dish installed just so she could watch The Young and the Restless every day instead of waiting for the d.a.m.n state to put it on Ratnet. In her presatellite days, she'd once had to wait two weeks to find out if Nicholas Newman had gone to jail for a murder he naturally had not committed. She was resolved never to let that happen again.

An argument broke out at Bobby's table. "Kate!" he roared. "Shugak, get your b.u.t.t over here, they're ganging up on me!"

"Auntie," Kate said urgently, "who was it? Who was the man Carol Stewart was with last spring?"

"Vi!" Auntie Joy called from the quilting bee. "We need help with this st.i.tch!"

Auntie Vi ripped her notes from the notebook, stuffed them into the hip pocket of her jeans for later transcribing to the a.s.sociation computer and drained her gla.s.s. "I don't know, I don't care who they are or what they're doing here as long as they got cash."

"Try, Auntie."

Auntie Joy called again, and Auntie Vi huffed out an impatient breath, running a hand through her corkscrew curls. "I don't know. It was a fish name, or something like that. Sardine?" She frowned. "No, that's not right. I just don't remember, Katya."

"What did he look like?"

"It was a year ago, Katya. Skinny guy, I remember thinking he weigh less than she did."

"Was he dark? Blond? How old was he?"

Auntie Vi shrugged. "Brown hair, maybe. About her age, I guess, maybe couple years older. Look, I have to go help those ones finish that quilt. If I don't, they sew it to their laps."

Kate watched her cross the room with her bouncy, birdlike step. She turned back to the bar to find Chopper Jim lying in wait. He'd taken his hat off, which meant he was available to talk other than business, his dark blond hair smooth and s.h.i.+ning. "I don't see any blood on the floor," he said with a grin.

190 "Where's your prisoner?" said Kate, who knew perfectly well where he was but didn't see any reason not to rag a little on Jim.

"He's not my prisoner.'7 "Why'd you bring him back?" she said bluntly.

"I told you, I wanted to walk over the ground with him."

"What did you find?"

"Nothing."

"Did Stewart show you which roof his wife was on?"

"He was a little confused," Jim drawled. He looked over her shoulder at Mark Stewart, and the blue eyes narrowed. "He couldn't remember which roof it was. Said he was in kind of a hurry at the time."

"There are a dozen houses back there," Kate said with acerbity. "Did he manage to narrow it down to two or three? Or maybe even just one, with a few scuff marks from the sole of a hiking boot or a few claw marks from a grizzly?"

"You noticed that, too," Jim said, satisfied. "Nope. He sure couldn't."

Dan O'Brian stamped inside. Kate saw him and waved vigorously. He looked right through her and joined the group around Bobby and Dinah.

"Still mad from this morning, I guess," Chopper Jim, a trained observer, said.

Kate set her gla.s.s down on the bar with a bang and stalked across the room to tap Dan on the shoulder. "O'Brian."

He sent her a cool look. "Shugak."

"You said you had a friend look up Mark Stewart on Motznik."

Dan almost sniffed. "I thought you weren't interested."

"I'm not. Did your friend happen to mention if Stewart has a pilot's license?"

Dan pushed back from the table and regarded her. "You're not interested, but you want to know if Stewart flies."

Kate felt the creep of warmth up the back of her neck. "There's no law says I have to be consistent," she snapped. "Does Stewart have a pilot's license or not?"

191 "No, he doesn't. I told you, when I saw him last fall the other guy was flying. Hooligan, or something like that. What's this all about, Kate?"

"Were he and Carol married in Alaska?"

"Yes, what-"

"Did you get the date on the marriage license?"

"Yes."

"Well? When? When did they marry?"

"Six years ago," Dan said. "Why the sudden interest?"

She stood still for a moment, frowning. "No reason," she said. "Excuse me."

Dan, sputtering, half rose to his feet to go after her. "G.o.ddam that Shugak! Who the h.e.l.l does she think she is! I oughta-"

"Don't," Bobby said. "I've seen her like this too many times. Don't bother."

Dan watched Kate halt in front of the trooper and start talking rapidly.

He settled back into his seat, fuming. "Women," he said, and the word was not complimentary.

"I hear you," Bobby said, one hand ma.s.saging the back of Dinah's neck.