Polar (Book 1): Polar Night (13 page)

Chapter 29

Aleksei sat upright in his
leather chair and listened to the sound of water running as Maria took her shower. She certainly was taking her sweet time about it. But at least she ought to be clean when she finally knocked on the door and indicated she was ready for him to let her out of the bathroom.

At long last, he heard the sound of the shower being shut off. It shouldn’t take her too long now to towel off and dry her hair. He rubbed his hands along the arm of his chair and tried to calm his nerves. His irritability annoyed him. No, more than annoyed. It pissed him off.

He knew it was that damn cop who had ruffled his normally calm demeanor. He should just find the man, get rid of him, and forget he had ever darkened his doorstep. But he didn’t want to risk sending other cops in his direction.

And, if he was being honest, he knew it wasn’t just Danny Fitzpatrick who had set his nerves on edge. It was also his guest. He had to admit, he didn’t think she was going to work out. He was starting to wonder why he had ever chosen her. She had the right look, but he hadn’t paid enough attention when he had discovered her over the Thanksgiving holiday. He hadn’t realized that she was too old for his Natasha. Too worn.

Or maybe he was just tiring of his ritual. So many years, and so many women, and he’d never found one who could really replace Natasha. Every year he was certain he had found the one. Every year he ended up disappointed.

Not for the first time, he considered making a permanent companion for himself. He hadn’t wanted to deal with the baggage involved before, but maybe now was the time.

If he did go that route, he definitely needed to think younger. Maria Treibel was certainly too old and too sour. The woman’s personality was severely lacking. He needed someone fresh and full of life. Someone like Natasha.

He listened to the sound of the hair dryer coming from the bathroom and knew Maria would be knocking for him soon. He’d give her a chance at least, and see how she managed his holiday plans.

But he was fairly sure he would be moving on to his backup plan. His mind drifted to Katie Bailey, the teenager who had visited Snow Creek with her family a few days earlier. She may just be the perfect choice. Young and beautiful, she was much more like Natasha than Maria would ever be.

He tried imagining how it would feel to turn her and make her his permanent companion. He felt exhilarated at the thought, and excited about the prospect of teaching Katie how to act like an adult. He would start by discarding her juvenile name and calling her Katerina.

Lost in thought, he jumped when he heard Maria knocking on the bathroom door. He stood up and ran his hand through his blond hair to smooth it, then headed down the hallway. He forced himself to put Katie out of his mind and focus on the guest at hand.

Aleksei opened the bathroom door and found it much easier to forget about Katie than he expected. He looked Maria up and down, taking in her long, thin frame under the thick white robe he had given her. Her hair was thick and shiny, and fell past her shoulders. With her face scrubbed and clean, she was indeed beautiful. In spite of the bruises and the split lip his manners lessons had given her.

He reached out to touch Maria’s cheek, and she instantly flinched away from him. He frowned and grabbed her arm.

“I take it your shower met your needs?” he asked.

“It did, yes.”

“Then I would expect some courtesy from you.”

He pulled Maria down the hall before she could respond, and pushed her into a large windowless bedroom. In the center of the room was a large mahogany sleigh bed, covered with a plush lavender comforter, ivory sheets, and an assortment of ivory and lavender pillows. A matching mahogany nightstand and dresser, both adorned with old fashioned gaslights, completed the room. Maria’s slippered feet sunk into the soft ivory carpet.

“This is your room,” Aleksei said.

“It’s nice,” Maria said.

Aleksei opened a walk-in closet and pulled out a long grey flannel skirt and a matching tailored jacket. He tossed both on the bed, and reached into the closet again to bring out a long-sleeved white blouse. He walked to the dresser and pulled out a pair of grey tights, putting both the tights and the blouse on the bed next to the skirt and jacket. Finally, he returned to the closet and reached down to pick up a pair of black kitten heel shoes with a t-strap and buckle. He set the shoes on the floor next to the bed and returned to stand beside Maria.

“There you go,” he said. “Get dressed.”

Maria clutched onto her robe and made no move towards the bed.

Aleksei ignored her and walked towards the bedroom door. “I’ll give you your privacy while you change. But I expect you to be quick about it. I want you presentable for dinner.”

Maria walked to the bed and ran her fingers over the clothing. The clothes were beautiful, but looked straight out of the early 1900s.

“Where did you get these clothes?” she asked.

“Why do you want to know?”

“They look so old-fashioned. Like something you’d see on tv.”

“Maybe they are. You’ve heard of costume shops?”

Maria turned back towards Aleksei. “But why?”

“Because they’re what I want. I can’t stomach the way women dress today. So classless and revealing. And I’ve never seen a worse trend than women wearing trousers.”

“How old are you?”

“Your rudeness never ceases to astound me.”

Maria’s face turned white. “I’m sorry, I just…”

“Never mind. Let’s just say I’m older than I look. Now hurry up and get dressed.”

Aleksei walked to the bedroom door and stopped as he put his hand on the knob. He turned back towards Maria.

“What’s your name again?”

Maria’s face registered surprise. He didn’t remember? “My name’s Maria.”

Aleksei gripped the door handle and tried to stifle his rage. “I’ll ask you again. What is your name? And I warn you, you don’t want to make me ask a third time.”

Maria stared at him as her hands started to tremble. She tried to think of what he wanted, but she found herself completely unable to think. Her name??

“Natasha,” she blurted out, suddenly remembering Aleksei’s previous instructions. “My name is Natasha.”

“Natasha what?”

Maria
shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m sorry, I don’t remember.”

Aleksei
scowled. “Koslova. Natasha Koslova. You got it now?”

Maria nodded.

“I know I haven’t discussed this with you yet, but you’re a nurse. You help wounded soldiers. Like me.”

“Like you? I don’t understand..”

“Get dressed,” Aleksei said. “I’ll be back soon to get you.”

He walked out of the room and slammed the door behind him. Maria looked at the door, already knowing what she would see. Or more accurately, what she wouldn’t see. There was no knob on her side of the door.

Chapter 30

“You are a good cook,” Danny said. He took another forkful of lasagna and smiled across the table at Amanda.

“Thanks. But lasagna really isn’t hard to make.”

“It is for me. Frankly, this salad would be a bit much for me to handle.”

Amanda laughed and took a sip of red wine. “My grandmother taught me how to cook when I was a young girl. But, she only taught me Norwegian recipes. It pains her now that my favorite cooking is Italian.”

“That’s your background? Norwegian?”

“Yeah. On my Dad’s side, anyway. My mother’s family came to Alaska from Russia.”

“Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever had Norwegian cooking.”

“Well, if you like salmon or herring, you’d probably like it. The problem for me was that I hated fish. I still hate fish.”

Danny laughed. “I like everything, really. I don’t care what it is. I’ll eat anything.”

“I kind of figured that when you said your main diet consists of Pop-Tarts.”

“What’s wrong with Pop-Tarts? The blueberry pastries are especially excellent.”

“I like Pop-Tarts. I just wouldn’t want to live on them.”

Danny took a drink of wine. “Well, I add beer, too.”

“Oh, well, no problem then.”

“Right, I’ve got it covered.”

Amanda finished her glass of wine and debated whether to pour another. The debate didn’t last long, as she grabbed the bottle and poured another glass. She leaned back in her chair and stared at Danny as he finished the last of his salad.

“So now that we’ve had a chance to eat, tell me about what happened when you met my would-be kidnapper.”

Danny gulped the last of his wine and, following Amanda’s lead, quickly re-filled his glass. “What do you want to know?”

“I guess a good start would be telling me his name. You didn’t mention that. Who is he?”

“I know I didn’t mention that. And there’s a good reason for that. I shouldn’t be talking about suspects with you.”

“Oh, give me a break, would you? You’ve already broken your so-called rules. You said yourself, you don’t care what this does to your career.”

“Maybe I’m having second thoughts now.”

“Bullshit.”

“Alright, fine. But before I tell you anything more, I need you to make me a promise.”

“What?”

“That you won’t run up to the Arctic half-cocked, gunning for this guy. You won’t go anywhere near him. And you won’t talk to anyone but me about this case.”

“That’s more than one promise.”

“Do you agree, or not?”

“What do you think? Of course I do. How crazy would I have to be to run after him? He almost got me once, that was more than enough for me. And I’ve been having nightmares about him every night for a decade. You think I want to see him? All I want is for someone to stop him.”

“And you’ll keep quiet about all this?”

“Who would I tell? You already know how it’s turned out every time I’ve tried.”

“Will you keep quiet? Yes or no.”

“Yes. Obviously.”

“Alright then, his name is Aleksei Nechayev. He lives north of here, in Coldfoot.”

Amanda felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up at the sound of Aleksei’s name. Her mouth was suddenly bone dry. After all these years, the monster finally had a name.

Danny noticed the color draining from her face. “You okay?”

Amanda reached for her wine and gulped down what remained in her glass. She forced her hand to remain steady as she set the glass back on the table. “I’m fine. I’ve heard of Coldfoot. It’s on the Dalton Highway, right?”

“Right. He runs a weird tourist attraction up there. It’s an old asylum that people say is haunted. And after visiting there, I think they’re right. Creepiest fucking place I’ve ever set foot in. Nechayev gives tours, and people stay overnight at his hotel on their way to the Arctic.”

“I want to see him.”

“You just swore you didn’t!”

“That was before you told me this. He still didn’t seem real then. Now, I need to see him.”

Danny finished his wine and slammed the glass on the table. “God-dammit, no. I told you flat out, in no uncertain terms, no. You’re not going anywhere near this psychopath.”

“I just want to identify him, that’s all.”

“I’m going to try to find a picture of him for you to do that.”

“He’s a vampire. You’re not going to find pictures of him.”

Danny got up from the table, nearly knocking over his chair as he stood up. He paced back and forth through Amanda’s dining room and adjoining kitchen.

“Listen,” he said. “I told you I believe you. I don’t think this guy is human. But I really can’t handle this vampire shit.”

“Well I think you need to learn to handle it, because that’s what he is,” Amanda said, her voice sharp.

“How can you be so sure? Just because of your cross? What if that was just a coincidence?”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “I’ve done research ever since I got attacked. There are actually a lot of vampire stories out there if you pay attention. I’m not the only person who’s encountered one of them. And when you read the stories, it all adds up. He’s a vampire, there’s no doubt in my mind about that.”

Danny continued to pace.

“I’ll be honest,” Amanda said. “I don’t want to keep having this same argument. You just need to accept the truth, so we can move forward. Otherwise, it’s a waste of my time. I’m not interested in helping you disprove what I know is true. And frankly, you’re wasting the latest victim’s time, too. If she still has time left, that is.”

Danny dropped back down into his chair and ran his hand through his hair. “You’re right, I admit it. I actually did some research myself and read quite a few stories about possible vampire sightings. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I know it’s still all very hard to digest. And I’ve had ten years to do it.”

“It’s more than hard. It’s fucking impossible. But if there’s a chance of Maria being found alive, I need to get over it.”

Amanda got up from the table and headed for her kitchen, where she removed a second bottle of wine from the rack above her stove. She grabbed her glass as well as Danny’s and walked into her living room, beckoning for Danny to join her.

She sat down on her cream colored sofa and put the wine and glasses on the coffee table in front of her. Danny joined her on the couch as she opened the new bottle and filled both of their glasses with wine.

“What are we having now?” Danny asked.

“Bordeaux. It’s what I like when I need to relax.”

Danny took his glass of wine and leaned back, making himself comfortable on the plush couch cushions.

“You can put your feet up on the coffee table if you want,” Amanda said.

“I can?”

Amanda nodded and kicked off her own black heels. “I am,” she said, doing just that.

Danny smiled and removed his loafers. He stretched out his legs on the coffee table and took a sip of wine. “This is the life.”

“Can we get back to Aleksei now?”

“Yeah, I guess we better.”

“Why can’t you take me up to his hotel?”

Danny stared out the window at the snow, which was now even with Amanda’s window, and still falling. “How do you expect to get there? You think we can just hop in the car and drive up the Dalton Highway in a blizzard?”

“First off, this isn’t a blizzard. Second, no, I don’t think we can just hop in the car. But obviously you got up there last night, so however you went, that’s what I want to do, too.”

“I chartered a plane through the police department.”

“So we’ll do that again.”

“I can’t go back up there without any evidence. I don’t have anything on this guy, I told you. We searched the whole damn place and couldn’t find anything.”

“Maybe I’ll just charter a plane myself.”

“You promised me you wouldn’t go there, remember? Do we need to get into another shouting match?”

Amanda stared into her wine, shifting her hand so that the liquid rolled in its glass.

“Listen,” Danny said. “I was so far out of line when I got you involved in this, I would be fired tomorrow if it got out. But that’s not even the issue. If you go up there and confront this asshole and get yourself hurt or killed, I don’t think I could live with myself. In fact, I know I couldn’t.”

Amanda pursed her lips and remained silent.

“Please don’t do it,” Danny said.

Amanda sighed and let out a deep breath. “Alright, I won’t. For now, at least.”

Danny shook his head. “Okay, for now. I’m not sure how long now will last, so I’m going to have to nail this bastard before we get to that.”

“Fair enough. How are you planning on nailing him?”

“That’s the problem. I don’t know.” Danny downed his wine and put the glass on a coaster on the table. “I need to find something that connects him to these girls. I just need to find out more about him. Not so much what he is, but who he is. What’s his background? How did he get here? And how long as he been at this game of his?”

Amanda polished off her glass of wine and refilled both her glass and Danny’s. “You said his last name is Nechayev, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So he’s Russian.” Amanda mulled an idea over as she drank more wine. “Like I told you before, he attacked me in Sitka, that’s where I’m from originally. Sitka has a strong Russian heritage. It actually used to be ruled by the Russians before the United States bought Alaska, it was the capital of Russian America. It still has heavy Russian influences.”

Danny reached out and picked up his newly-filled glass of wine. “I know that,” he said, thinking of his conversation with Rex the bartender. “You think he’s from there?”

“I don’t know. But I know the library there has the best Russian collection you’re going to find outside of Russia. Primary sources, history, memoirs…”

“So you’re hoping you can find something about Aleksei in there?”

“It’s worth a shot. I can’t really speak Russian, but I can read it. I studied the language in school. I have some time o
ff now until after New Year’s. I’m planning on leaving for Sitka tomorrow anyway to visit my parents. I’ll go to the library and the historical society and see if I can find anything.”

“That sounds like a plan. Maybe I’ll go with you.”

“You think I can’t do research on my own? I’m a librarian, remember?”

“I’m not saying you can’t do it, but maybe I could find something there.” Danny took another gulp of wine. “God knows I’m at loose ends here.”

“I think I’d be better off going on my own. You should stick with your files here. Maybe there’s something you’ve missed.”

“I wish I had more connections here. I knew everyone who was anyone in Chicago and I could find dirt on anyone, no matter how much they had it hidden. Here, I’m flying blind.” He shrugged and put his glass of wine on the table in front of him. “But, I do need to follow up on those old cases I got. See if I can connect them to Nechayev somehow. Plus, I need to figure out what to do with him when I do nail him.”

“What do you mean?”

“How the hell do I get rid of him? If he is a vampire, just arresting him isn’t going to work too well, is it? So what the fuck am I supposed to do with him?”

“Kill him.”

“Sure. Just call me Dirty Harry.”

“I’d kill him in a heartbeat.”

“Okay. I’ll call you Annie Oakley, then. Although I guess she wasn’t a killer was she, just a sharp shooter.”

Amanda ignored Danny’s rambling. “Do you know how to kill him? A gun isn’t going to do it, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know all the bullshit about staking him through the heart. I did some research and watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That girl could kick some serious vampire ass.”

Amanda couldn’t help but laugh. “This isn’t funny.”

“You’re laughing.”

“I know, but this isn’t a joke. You can’t treat it that way. It’s not going to be easy to get rid of him.”

Danny let out a deep breath. “I know that. But all I can do is the only thing I’ve ever done. I’m a cop going after a killer, that’s what I know how to do. The rest, I’ll have to figure out as I go along.”

Amanda stared at the blank screen of the television across from her couch. “You mentioned Chicago before,” she said, wanting to talk about something besides the vampire who haunted her dreams. “That’s where you’re from?”

“Yeah.”

“How’d you end up here?”

“I wanted to get out of there.”

“Okay. So where else to go but Fairbanks, right?”

“Something like that. I wanted to get as far away as I could. This seemed as good a place as any.”

“Why did you want to get so far away? Was there a reason?”

Danny bit his lip. “There was. But I’d rather not talk about it.”