Thin Ice Read online

  But then Viola surprised me and sighed in resignation before she sat back hard in her chair. “As of a few minutes ago, they have not been found.”

  “Did the police find anything from Detroit?”

  “I know nothing new. Gril might, but he’s not in a sharing kind of mood.”

  “Right. Have you asked Trinity and Loretta about Willa?”

  “Yes, in fact I have. They had nothing new to tell me, though I think Trinity was lying.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I get lied to all the time, Beth Rivers.”

  I nodded. “Right.”

  “Yes.”

  I thought some more. I could just leave or sit in silent support, but something had been simmering under my skin too; something based on my gut sensing something was off with Trinity. I cleared my throat but didn’t expect her to agree. “Can you call Loretta in, and then Trinity, one at a time? Can I ask them some questions? Is that against the rules?”

  “Yes, yes, and yes, but I’ll let you break the rules if it helps us find George and Willa.”

  “I’ll try.”

  I thought maybe she’d just yell or pick up a phone to summon Loretta, but she stood and made her way out of the office, returning less than a minute later with Loretta in tow. She closed her office door, found a stool against the wall, unfolded it, and pointed. “Sit.”

  “Hey,” Loretta said. “What’s up?”

  She didn’t look good. With a messy ponytail and no makeup, I saw her age more. It didn’t matter, but I also knew that Loretta didn’t get as much sleep as she should.

  “Viola, will you do something for me?” I said.

  “Depends on what it is.”

  “I need you to promise not to hold anything that Loretta says in this meeting against her.”

  Viola frowned and shook her head slowly. “You all are up to something.”

  “Not really. It’s not bad, but I want Loretta to be honest. You have to promise,” I said. “It might help.”

  Viola shook her head again. “All right. Go.”

  I nodded. “Loretta, the first morning I was here, I was walking into the dining room and I overhead you and Willa talking. You accused her of blackmailing you.”

  Loretta laughed. “I don’t remember that exact conversation, but I’m not surprised. Willa is always trying to work a deal, always trying to get money for something. If Trinity or I sneeze wrong, Willa is there, asking for money not to tell Viola.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Viola asked.

  It was Loretta’s turn to frown. “Because we aren’t tattlers. Besides, we would have had to tell you what we were doing wrong. Trinity and I can handle Willa. She’s … I don’t know, somehow small-time. She acts tough, but she’s not. If she really is a thief, she’s probably been caught more than Trinity and me combined. There’s not one slick thing about her.”

  It felt like it was too soon to get to the question I really wanted to ask so I said, “Any chance you can remember something she wanted to blackmail you about? Remember, Viola is forgiving everything in this meeting.”

  I looked at Loretta. She knew what I was getting at and, at first, she was angry, but it passed.

  “You mean my middle-of-the-night walks?” Loretta said.

  “What?” Viola said.

  “I think you might have heard Loretta the night you heard someone in the dumpster,” I said to Viola. “She doesn’t do anything out there. It’s her freedom and you said you wouldn’t hold that against her.”

  Viola nodded once, but didn’t smile.

  I turned to Loretta. “Was that you the night Viola heard someone?”

  Loretta rolled her eyes. “Why you need to know this, I don’t know, but, yes, it was me. I was throwing away a candy bar wrapper. From a candy bar I purchased, let me add. I didn’t steal it. I don’t know a thing about snowshoes. Nothing.”

  “Okay,” I said. What I also didn’t say was that one reason for asking the question was to ease my mind. I didn’t truly think Levi Brooks had been rummaging through the dumpster, but it was good to confirm it. “I think it’s important that Viola knows it wasn’t Willa.”

  “Okay. Sure.” Loretta nodded and pulled her sweater tighter.

  “Loretta, why do you think Willa threw away the wallet?” I put up my hand to stop her from shrugging her shoulders. “Think about it a minute. If Trinity stole it, like seems possible, why did Willa throw it away?”

  “Ah. I see. You think there was some blackmail or some bargain there?” Loretta said.

  “I do,” I said. “Do you know what it was?”

  “No,” she said. “I really don’t. What I do know”—she paused and looked back and forth between Viola and me—“is that Willa is always trying to work a deal, and … Trinity isn’t mousey at all. I don’t know what went on between them, but neither of them are what they seem. I’m pretty sure.”

  “Do you know if Willa knew Linda Rafferty before she got here?” I asked.

  “No idea. Truly.”

  I looked at Viola. “Any more questions for Loretta?”

  “Not at the moment,” Viola said. “Head on back to your room and send Trinity in.”

  Loretta nodded and hurried out of the room.

  Viola looked at me. “You know, I knew what Loretta was up to. I just let it slide. No harm, no foul.”

  I was genuinely surprised. “That’s nice of you.”

  “I’m not nice, Beth. I’m fair. I didn’t find any snowshoes either. I’d just bought that pair, but I knew you had too. I thought I could shake out … something, maybe scare Loretta into stopping her excursions.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell her?”

  “Because I would have had to fill out paperwork, harm her chances at freedom. Don’t think I’m being nice though. I believe Loretta deserves a fair chance, that’s all.”

  I nodded.

  Trinity came through the door and seemed small, rat-like, nervous and suspicious. Back in my days of police secretary-ing, I hadn’t been the one to ask questions of suspects, but I’d been around a few interrogations.

  As a writer of thrillers though, I’d asked lots of questions. I’d even been given the opportunity to interview a serial killer. It had been a mistake, and something that I hadn’t been able to shake for a long time. But now I had my time with Levi, and a serial killer had nothing on those nightmares.

  As Viola leaned back in her chair, I knew I would have to exude some confidence even if I didn’t feel any. I looked at the cowering girl as she sat on the stool.

  “Trinity, when we were standing outside, watching Gril search through the garbage can, you behaved differently.”

  It was only the smallest of twitches, but I saw it in her cheekbone.

  “I don’t remember,” she said.

  “Sure, you do. It was just last night. Let me refresh your memory. You didn’t seem like shy, quiet Trinity. Well, you did at first but then you changed.” My words were full of a confidence I didn’t feel, but I knew if I shied away from her, she’d think she’d won and would continue to lie.

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Viola laughed. “Good God, girly, your acting is getting worse and worse. Cut the crap.”

  “You know who Willa really is, don’t you?” I asked.

  Her eyebrows lifted high. “What? Willa is Willa.”

  “And you told her you would share her secret if she didn’t get rid of the wallet for you, didn’t you?” I persisted. “I mean, it was only fair, considering all the things she wanted to blackmail you about.”

  I was swinging for the fences as well and swinging in the wind. I hoped I was close to something, but I wasn’t sure at all.

  “What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Trinity,” I said sternly.

  “Trinity!” Viola said with doubled-up stern.

  Trinity startled and looked at Viola. The jig was up. The second she looked at the woman in charge of her freedom, she let
down her guard, let down that mousy, rat-like quiver. For an instant, she tried to put the disguise back into place, but she was smart enough to understand not to try too hard. Viola was the smartest person Trinity or I had ever met. Or so she said.

  “Yeah, yeah, I figured it out pretty quickly,” Trinity said.

  I wondered if Viola would say something that would stroke Trinity’s ego and the fact that she’d figured out what Viola should have immediately. She didn’t. I didn’t either. We both just waited and looked at her.

  “She wasn’t right, you know. She wasn’t acting angry enough and every time Loretta and I talked to her about what she did, the story was never straight. I know an act when I see one.” Trinity looked at Viola. “Her first name is Willa though. That part’s correct.”

  “All right, what else?” Viola said. She didn’t reach for the gun, but I could imagine her doing so.

  “Yeah, she’s from Detroit, Michigan, and her name is Willa Clanston, not Fitzgerald. She came here on purpose, but she never told me why. I guessed it was for Linda, ’cause I saw them chatting a lot. She’s always playing the tattletale, or at least threatening to tell on me or ’Retta. She’s a pain. When I saw her and Linda together, I saw an opportunity to maybe use something against her, get her to shut the hell up about things. I kyped Linda’s wallet just to see if I could figure out if there was a connection.” Trinity shrugged and smiled crookedly at us. “Plus those sorts of things keep my skills sharp.” Neither Viola nor I smiled back. “I couldn’t find any connection, but I got her to tell me her name. I told her I was going to tell you,” she looked at Viola, “that she took the wallet. I wasn’t ready for what she did. She took it out of my hands and marched it outside to the garbage. She came in, not afraid at all, and told me to go to hell. First time I respected her.”

  “Why not just return it or turn it in, no questions asked?” I said.

  “Nope. Too much of a chance to be blamed for something, anything. Things get piled on, you know,” Trinity said.

  Viola said, “Do you know if she has a record?”

  “No idea,” Trinity said.

  “Why did you care so much?” Viola asked. “Why in the world didn’t you just mind your own business?”

  Trinity sent Viola a sour look. “I have never been so bored in my life. This place has absolutely nothing going on. I just wanted something to keep my mind occupied. Teachers used to tell my mother—God rest her evil soul—that I was too smart for my own good, that I got bored easily, and that when I got bored, I got in trouble. I was trying to not be bored.”

  Viola and I shared a glance that verged on tandem eye-rolls.

  “Let’s call Gril,” Viola said as she reached for her phone.

  “Hang on,” I said. “I saw Willa reading something at the front desk, some sort of tri-folded letter. She seemed upset. Can we go into her room and search?”

  Viola’s mouth pinched. “As much as I’d like to, let’s let Gril do it. If Willa isn’t technically a parolee, I don’t know what rights I have over her room.”

  I nodded.

  But before Viola could dial, her phone rang. She looked at the screen and answered, “Yo, we need to talk. Hang on.” She pulled the phone away from her face and looked at us. “It’s Gril. Wait out in the lobby for me.” She looked pointedly at Trinity. “If you run, I will make sure you are never a free woman again. Would be a shame, Trinity. You’re just a petty thief; I can make the rest of your days worse than you would deserve. Stay in the lobby and wait for me.”

  Trinity swallowed hard and blinked slowly. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Where could she run anyway?

  Thirty

  The lobby hadn’t been made for easy conversation. There was no cozy corner, no chairs even. Trinity and I stood. I leaned on the front counter and Trinity leaned against the opposite wall.

  “Why are you staying here? I mean, Viola said there were no other places available when you called, but why are you here, in this godforsaken part of the world?” Trinity asked.

  “Bucket list, remember?”

  “Whatever. Why are you really here?”

  All mousey was now gone. It had been a pretty convincing act, but this one suited her better, was authentic. I hadn’t backed down but she hadn’t either. She’d only become a tougher version of herself, but it didn’t take a secretary or an author to know that only the biggest bullies act the toughest.

  “I needed to get away. Life sometimes gets dicey, you know,” I said.

  “I got that part, but why, Beth, why did you have to get away?” She pointed at her head. “Was it because you got so hurt? Did some guy do that to your head?”

  “No, believe it or not, this came from falling off a horse. My story is long and, like everyone else’s, complicated. I wanted and needed to get away.”

  She nodded but her eyes still squinted suspiciously.

  “Why are you a thief?” I asked. “You’re not stupid. You could make a living doing something.”

  She huffed a laugh. “Define ‘living.’ I’m smart, yeah, but I’m also a high school dropout. There aren’t many people opening their doors for me. The jobs I can get are stupid. I’d rather steal. I’d rather go to jail.”

  “You’re young. You could advance your education.”

  “Aren’t you the hoity-toity one? Advance my education. Whatever.”

  I looked at her a long beat. She had a point. “Sorry.”

  Her eyes jetted to me. She was ready to be angry, but her hackles relaxed when she saw I was sincere.

  “There are two kinds of people, Beth. Those who can and those who can’t, and I can’t even,” she said. A smile pulled at the corner of her mouth, but she meant what she said.

  I nodded. “You’re from Anchorage?”

  “Well, not originally. I was born in a small town in Missouri. Washington. It’s outside St. Louis a ways.”

  A gasp made its way up my throat, but I stopped it before it reached the top. I’d been in Washington, Missouri, more times than I could count. It had been another town in my father’s sales territory, and the one he visited on the day before he died. In fact, I’d spent part of first grade there when my mother thought she found a trail of clues. Like all the other trails, this one had led nowhere important.

  Did Trinity mean anything to my past, or was this a strange coincidence? I couldn’t believe she and I were connected, but I didn’t have time to ponder it and she didn’t behave in any way that made me think she knew me.

  I said, “No, I haven’t heard of it. Did you like growing up in Missouri?”

  “I didn’t like growing up because of the people I was forced to grow up with, but the place was just a place. I like Alaska though because the people here are better; in other words, they aren’t the loser family I grew up with. I also like the cold and the darkness. Don’t know why but I do. Anchorage is a city. This place, I don’t like as much.”

  I saw a tiny spark in her eyes.

  “Why did you need to know what Linda and Willa were up to so badly?” I asked.

  “Like I said, something to do.”

  I mostly believed her. But I would never trust her.

  Viola opened her office door and marched out toward the lobby. The loaded holster was back around her hips. “Let’s go, ladies. We’re off to talk to Gril.”

  Trinity and I did as we were told.

  * * *

  Trinity had re-adopted her meeker personality when she first talked to Gril, and neither Viola nor I had patience for it.

  “Stop it,” Viola said to her. “Sit up and tell Gril the details you told us.”

  Trinity blinked as if she’d forgotten which person she was supposed to be and was surprised by which one she’d chosen. She sat up straighter, nodded, and told the story again.

  Gril took notes and grumbled along the way. “The last sighting we have of Willa and George is both of them getting into his truck and driving off toward his cabin, but that doesn’t mean much. Toward his cabin is t
oward a lot of things, and a lot of nothing. And it doesn’t appear they went to the cabin.”

  “Did whoever saw them say they were friendly to each other?” Viola asked.

  “He said they weren’t unfriendly, but they didn’t notice much. Randy’s the one who saw them, just down the road from downtown.”

  “You know Donner and I were at the cabin when George appeared from the woods?” I said.

  “Yeah,” Gril said.

  “Maybe there’s a place somewhere out there that George goes. Maybe there’s a shelter. George didn’t seem too worse for the wear, I mean, considering everything. He was dirty and needed a shave, but I remember thinking he didn’t look like he’d been out in the elements.”

  “He didn’t say there was a place, but we wondered about that too,” Gril said. “Maybe Donner knows more. I’ll see if I can reach him.” Gril picked up his phone and hit call. Before he spoke, the door to the small office swung open.

  “What’s up?” Donner said as he walked through. “I just got back from the lodge.”

  “What do you have?” Gril put the phone down.

  “Nothing new, I’m afraid. No one there had anything else to tell me about George or Willa. Nothing.”

  Gril told Trinity’s story yet again and we all looked at Donner hopefully.

  “Don’t know of any shelter. I’ll check it out though,” he said.

  “Can I go with you?” I stood.

  “No,” Donner said instantly.

  I wasn’t going to ask again, but Gril jumped in. “Take her along, Donner. She’ll stay out of the way.” He looked at me. “Just take a quick look inside maybe.”

  “I’ll stay out of the way,” I said to Donner. I knew Gril was telling me to look at the reality of what he’d shown me, the space where the measurements I’d studied had been taken. But he hadn’t told Donner about my input. Of course not. He hadn’t told anyone who I was. I was grateful for that, even if his wanting me to go along did seem weird.

  “Why?” Donner asked.

  To save Gril from having to lie or come up with a good reason, I jumped in. “A long time ago, I worked in a police department.”