A fine and bitter snow by Dana Stabenow Page A
Authors: Dana Stabenow
Tags: Fiction, General, detective, Suspense, Mystery & Detective, American Mystery & Suspense Fiction, Women Sleuths, Mystery, Detective and Mystery Stories, Mystery Fiction, Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths, Women Private Investigators, Fiction - Mystery, Crime & mystery, alaska, Mystery & Detective - Series, Crime thriller, Detective and Mystery Stories; American, Shugak; Kate (Fictitious character), Shugak; Kate (Fictitious chara, Women private investigators - Alaska - Fiction., Alaska - Fiction., Shugak; Kate (Fictitious character) - Fiction., Women private investigators - Alaska, Nature conservation
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school notebook. Collected in a black three-ring binder so old that the plastic cover was peeling away from itself, they were as foreign to Johnny as Bach was to Kate. She got the binder down and opened it on the coffee table, motioning Johnny to her side.
"Well," Ethan said with a lightness that was obviously forced, "I'm heading for home. See you back at the house, Johnny."
"Yeah," Johnny said.
"Or he can sack out here on the couch," Kate said. "Our Jane DEW line hasn't gone off in a while, so it should be safe." Jane was Johnny's mother and Jack's ex-wife, and a roaring bitch into the bargain. The good news was that she hated Kate with every part and fiber of her being. The bad news was she was trying to find her son in Kate's keeping so she could charge Kate with kidnapping.
All this stemmed from Johnny's father's death the previous year. Jane had taken Johnny to Arizona to live with her mother, who was seventy-three and lived in a retirement community. Johnny had hated Arizona, hated the retirement community, and had nothing in common with his grandmother, who was into golf in a major way and who had considered her child-rearing days over once she got Jane out of the house. One morning, he'd put a couple of peanut butter sandwiches, a liter bottle of Coke, and a copy of Between Planets into his knapsack, swiped forty bucks out of his grandmother's purse, and hitched a ride on a semi loaded with lettuce. A Volkswagen van full of antiglobalization activists took him as far as Eugene, where he hooked up with a defrocked cop who was moving to Coeur d'Alene and who dropped him in Spokane. He walked across the border under the noses of Canadian immigration, hitched a ride on a U-Haul van full of furniture belonging to a family whose man was transferring from RPetCo Lima to RPetCo Prudhoe Bay, the driver of which was looking for a free ride to Alaska and didn't mind having company to keep him awake during the thousand-mile-plus journey. He dropped Johnny at the entrance to the Park on his way down the Glenn Highway to Anchorage. Johnny walked the rest of the way, appearing on Kate's doorstep tired, angry, and determined to stay.
Kate, who had weaseled the story out of him one leg at a time, was surprised that her hair hadn't turned white in the telling. Before she had time to formulate a plan, Jane had showed up in the Park, looking for Johnny. A Park rat who had no love for Kate had pointed Jane toward Kate's homestead, and Jane had materialized on the doorstep, breathing fire and smoke. Mutt had gotten rid of her for the moment, but she had legal custody of Johnny, and now she knew where Kate lived. She didn't know Ethan, however, nor did she know where he lived, and since Ethan's wife had walked out on him and he had room and practice as a father of two, Kate had worked out an arrangement whereby Johnny lived for the most part on Ethan's homestead, safely out of Jane's reach, for the time being at least. This arrangement had the tacit, if not overt, sanction of the law, in the form of Trooper Jim Chopin. Ergo, Johnny was currently on the lam and the entire Park was in on the conspiracy to keep him that way until he was of age and could legally tell Jane to take a flying leap.
"Whatever," Johnny said, turning the pages of the notebook.
Not that he seemed overly worried about it.
He squinted at Stephan's writing. "Who's Woody Guthrie, Kate?"
Kate didn't want to look up, but she felt it would be cowardly not to. Ethan nodded at the door, his mouth set in a determined line. "I'll be right back," she said to Johnny.
"Yeah," he said again. He picked up the guitar, leaving fingerprints in the dust. He sneezed once, and a second time, and got up to dampen a dishcloth in the sink.
She shrugged into her parka and followed Ethan outdoors. His snow machine was parked to one side of the clearing, next to Johnny's. "How long is this going to go on, Kate?"
She gave a craven thought
"Well," Ethan said with a lightness that was obviously forced, "I'm heading for home. See you back at the house, Johnny."
"Yeah," Johnny said.
"Or he can sack out here on the couch," Kate said. "Our Jane DEW line hasn't gone off in a while, so it should be safe." Jane was Johnny's mother and Jack's ex-wife, and a roaring bitch into the bargain. The good news was that she hated Kate with every part and fiber of her being. The bad news was she was trying to find her son in Kate's keeping so she could charge Kate with kidnapping.
All this stemmed from Johnny's father's death the previous year. Jane had taken Johnny to Arizona to live with her mother, who was seventy-three and lived in a retirement community. Johnny had hated Arizona, hated the retirement community, and had nothing in common with his grandmother, who was into golf in a major way and who had considered her child-rearing days over once she got Jane out of the house. One morning, he'd put a couple of peanut butter sandwiches, a liter bottle of Coke, and a copy of Between Planets into his knapsack, swiped forty bucks out of his grandmother's purse, and hitched a ride on a semi loaded with lettuce. A Volkswagen van full of antiglobalization activists took him as far as Eugene, where he hooked up with a defrocked cop who was moving to Coeur d'Alene and who dropped him in Spokane. He walked across the border under the noses of Canadian immigration, hitched a ride on a U-Haul van full of furniture belonging to a family whose man was transferring from RPetCo Lima to RPetCo Prudhoe Bay, the driver of which was looking for a free ride to Alaska and didn't mind having company to keep him awake during the thousand-mile-plus journey. He dropped Johnny at the entrance to the Park on his way down the Glenn Highway to Anchorage. Johnny walked the rest of the way, appearing on Kate's doorstep tired, angry, and determined to stay.
Kate, who had weaseled the story out of him one leg at a time, was surprised that her hair hadn't turned white in the telling. Before she had time to formulate a plan, Jane had showed up in the Park, looking for Johnny. A Park rat who had no love for Kate had pointed Jane toward Kate's homestead, and Jane had materialized on the doorstep, breathing fire and smoke. Mutt had gotten rid of her for the moment, but she had legal custody of Johnny, and now she knew where Kate lived. She didn't know Ethan, however, nor did she know where he lived, and since Ethan's wife had walked out on him and he had room and practice as a father of two, Kate had worked out an arrangement whereby Johnny lived for the most part on Ethan's homestead, safely out of Jane's reach, for the time being at least. This arrangement had the tacit, if not overt, sanction of the law, in the form of Trooper Jim Chopin. Ergo, Johnny was currently on the lam and the entire Park was in on the conspiracy to keep him that way until he was of age and could legally tell Jane to take a flying leap.
"Whatever," Johnny said, turning the pages of the notebook.
Not that he seemed overly worried about it.
He squinted at Stephan's writing. "Who's Woody Guthrie, Kate?"
Kate didn't want to look up, but she felt it would be cowardly not to. Ethan nodded at the door, his mouth set in a determined line. "I'll be right back," she said to Johnny.
"Yeah," he said again. He picked up the guitar, leaving fingerprints in the dust. He sneezed once, and a second time, and got up to dampen a dishcloth in the sink.
She shrugged into her parka and followed Ethan outdoors. His snow machine was parked to one side of the clearing, next to Johnny's. "How long is this going to go on, Kate?"
She gave a craven thought
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