Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Christian shifted his shoulders. Hank had always been big on purpose. What was Christian’s? He’d needed to get his head on right after leaving the service, and he’d wandered the mountains enough to do that. He hadn’t given much thought to employment, but being an elusive AWT fit better than anything else. “Are you offering me a job?”
Dutch cracked his neck. “Close enough. You missed the application deadline for the fall session of the Alaska Law Enforcement Training, but I can get that waived once you fill out the public safety written test. Then you can shadow me, work as a consultant, until you have to attend ALET in the fall. The training is for only sixteen weeks, and you’ll ace it all, Christian. But you gotta do it to wear the badge.”
Great. More training. “When?”
“Mid-July to September. It’s worth it. Then I can turn the territory over to you.” Dutch rolled his shoulders. “I’m eighty-two. The cold digs deep into my bones these days, and I’d like to retire on a beach somewhere. One with sun and not wind.”
Christian narrowed his gaze. “Bullshit.”
Dutch grinned, wide and unapologetic, flashing the gap beside his right molars. “All right, maybe not. But it’d sure be nice to work with you until I can’t move any longer. I really could use some help. Starting with the recent explosion in Knife’s Edge. The state sent me in, and there are Alaska state troopers on the way as well. I don’t want to piss off Brock, but I don’t have a choice. Sure could use another set of eyes, especially if they see a lot better than my old ones do.”
The explosion and fire that had almost harmed Amka. “I would like to investigate that with you. The note sent with the lighter fluid promised more fires or attacks.” Christian intended to be involved. He noted the sound of birds in the distance. Maybe eagles.
“Great. I’ve got that and the dead body your brother found that disappeared in December. We still got nothin’ on that one.” Dutch lifted his head as if also looking for the birds.
Ah. The body. Brock and Ophelia had found a dead male, probably in his fifties, wearing a sweatshirt with EVE embroidered on it. His eyes had been brutally scratched out. Then the body had disappeared, and the folks at EVE had no clue as to the identity of the victim. “Brock is still trying to figure that one out as well.”
“The FBI agent in town. Is she gonna be a nuisance?”
Christian smiled. Slowly. “Probably.”
“Huh. Why is she still here, anyway? The office in Anchorage told me to liaise with her, whatever the hell that means. I know the body was found on federal land, but still, shouldn’t she be gone by now?”
“You haven’t heard.” Christian shook his head. “She’s with Brock. In for the long haul.”
Now both of Dutch’s eyebrows rose. Bushy and full. “No kidding? I always figured Ace would be the first to fall.”
“Oh, he’s fallin’ lately,” Christian muttered. “Drinkin’ too much. I’ve given him enough time to get his head on right.” There were probably two people outside of his brothers that he’d share such information with, and Dutch was one of them. Maybe the only one.
“I saw him in January and he seemed okay,” Dutch noted.
Christian had thought so, too. “Yeah, he got his act together for a couple months, but the closer we got to spring season and decent flying weather, the more he started drinking again.” Ace had crashed an F/A-18 Super Hornet before being honorably discharged, and he hadn’t been up in the air since. Hadn’t even flown commercial to get home.
Dutch turned his head and coughed several times, the sound wet.
Christian studied him. “You good?”
“Yeah. Just old.”
“Where are you staying in town? Flossy’s B&B has to be full up.”
Dutch wiped off his mouth with the back of his gnarled hand. “I thought I’d hit up Brock since he built that nice cabin, but not if he has a female there. Even if she is FBI, I don’t want to be around a couple of lovebirds. Makes me lonely.” He brightened. “Amka will take pity on me and let me stay in the room at the tavern. That way I’ll get fed while I’m here.”
Christian shook his head. Amka had a back room where drunks often slept it off. He’d slept there a few times during the years, in fact. Best sleep of his life. The entire room smelled like her. “You’re a smart one, Dutch.”
“Yeah, I am. I’ve stayed with her before, and it’s the best. For now, you takin’ the job?”
Christian studied the man he’d known his entire life. “I guess I am.”
Dutch held out a hand and they shook. Hard. “Good. Because it’s not one murder and missing body up in the mountains.”