Alaskan Courage: Silenced Part 11

Jake held the door. and Kayden stepped inside. Jason Gellar, a fellow free climber, was working the front desk as they approached.

Jason glanced up from his work, and his smile faded.

Great. She grimaced. "Hey, Jason."

"Back to grill Brody some more? Well, you're out of luck. He's off for the night."

Kayden rested her weight against the counter, making herself comfortable. "No matter. You can help us."

"And why would I want to go and do that?"

"Because a climber is dead."

"And you actually think Brody had something to do with that?"

"We never said that."

"No. You just came in here insinuating someone from our gym may have compromised Conrad's chalk. Please. I thought you knew us better than that."

Jake stepped forward. "It's our job to ask the questions."

Jason rolled his eyes.

"Don't you care that a climber from this gym is dead?"

"Of course I do. But I wouldn't go around accusing his friends."

"Sadly it had to be someone with access to Conrad's chalk, someone close enough to him to get the murder weapon mixed in his chalk."

"I have no idea who'd do something like that, but I can tell you, it wasn't anyone here. We're family. We watch each others' backs." He pinned his gaze on Kayden. "We don't stab each other in them."

Man, Brody must have painted an ugly picture of their earlier interaction.

Jake once again stepped forward to shield her from Jason's ire. "Look, we need to confirm what time Conrad was here the day before his death."

Jason crossed his arms. "You have a warrant?"

"Are you saying I need one?"

"That's an affirmative. Brody said not to talk to you or show you a thing without a warrant."

"Very well. If that's how he wants to proceed, we'll be back with a warrant."

Jason squared his shoulders. "See you then."

Jake tapped the counter. "Those time logs better be unaltered when we get back, or you'll be charged with obstruction of justice. Got it?"

"Have a safe trip home," Jason said with a smug smile that made Kayden really uncomfortable.

"What was that all about?" she said as they exited the gym and headed back for Natalie Adams' shop. "I thought I knew him, but he just gave me the creeps."

The night was cool, lower fifties, and clear. The walk would only take a few minutes, but Kayden was thankful for the fresh air. "I'm surprised how hostile they're being. Don't they understand it makes them look like they are hiding something?"

"Brody and, clearly, Jason have an att.i.tude."

"You don't mess with the climbing community." She understood the sentiment, but this was murder.

"Bingo."

"Don't they care that Conrad's dead?"

Jake rubbed his forehead. "I've seen this play out plenty of times. They believe things should be handled in a certain way."

"Hopefully, Natalie will continue to be helpful and we can find out what time Conrad was in her shop, then we can compare it with the gym logbooks when we come back with a warrant. I still can't believe Brody's insisting on one."

"Do you think he's hiding something or just trying to make a point?"

"I don't know. Everyone we've talked to seems suspect to me."

"That means you're doing it right."

"Because I'm ticking everyone off?"

Jake winked. "You got it, darling."

Natalie Adams' shop was closed for the night.

"That's odd." Kayden tapped the business-hours sign in the front window. "She isn't supposed to close until nine."

"Guess she decided to lock up early."

"Maybe our visit shook her up."

"She did seem awfully distracted after we took her chalk bag into evidence."

"You think she's trying to hide something?"

"She shouldn't have given me her bag if she was."

"But clearly she wouldn't have added the Dodecanol to her own chalk. That would be suicide. If anything, giving us her bag will make her look good. Her chalk, supposedly from the same batch, will come back clean, leading us to a.s.sume the Dodecanol was added later."

"Maybe it was, but it still could have been added by her. She could have split the chalk up, added the Dodecanol to Conrad's portion, and kept the clean portion for herself."

"But why kill Conrad? What would her motive be?"

"No idea. We'll have to dig a little deeper on Natalie Adams and her relationship with Conrad Humphries."

Jake's stomach growled. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"It's well past dinnertime. We should grab a bite before we head home."

"Got a place in mind?'

"Actually, I do."

The Roosting Nest was a restaurant and pub the climbers on Imnek frequented. A quaint establishment with fine-grain wood paneling and matching booths lining the perimeter, gold rails accenting the aged oak, and the walls covered with a series of gold-framed mirrors and photographs of locals climbing throughout the state.

Kayden entered first, Jake close behind her. The time spent with Jake, minus the subject matter, had been fabulous. She was sad their day was nearing an end.

"You've got to be kidding me."

She looked over to find Brody at a booth on their right. "Brody," she greeted him with a smile. No need to let him know his earlier words had stung. Stung, not because she cared what he thought, but because deep inside she feared what he'd said was true.

Brody slid out of the wooden booth and stood. "What are you doing here?"

Suddenly she felt everyone's gaze shift to her and Jake. He stepped closer.

"Grabbing a bite to eat," she said.

The scent of juicy hamburgers and crispy battered onion rings filled the room.

Brody linked his arms across his broad chest. "Right," he drawled.

How did she ever find this man attractive? "I can't believe you're insisting we get a warrant."

"And I can't believe you're interrogating your climbing family."

"Someone with knowledge only a climber would have is responsible for Conrad's death."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do."

"Then look at his climbing buddy from Anchorage, not your friends."

It'd been years since she and Brody had been friends, and that point was moot. Someone with access to Conrad's chalk had killed him. It was her and Jake's job to find that person, regardless of any ties she may have to them.

"You're being ridiculous, and you might want to consider that you're only making yourself look guiltier."

"Guiltier?" His voice rose. "So you really think I played a role in Conrad's death?"

A murmur spread through the patrons, looks of disgust on climbers' faces.

"I'm not saying that."

"Then what are you saying?"

"That if you're innocent, you sure aren't doing anything to help yourself."

"See," Brody said, addressing the crowd. "I told you she thinks one of us killed Conrad."

Jake stood behind Kayden, his hand now poised on her back as she continued. "It's almost a sure thing that someone with climbing knowledge killed Conrad. If you'd just cooperate, we could find his killer a lot faster."

Brody strode toward her and stopped just short of being in her face.

Jake stiffened behind her-his hand taut against her back.

Brody leaned in. "Go. Home."

She squared her shoulders. "I will-when we've caught Conrad's killer."

"You're no longer welcome here."

"Too bad, because I'm not going anywhere."

Brody glanced over at his buddies in the booth, chuckling.

Dinner had been tense, but Jake and Kayden had refused to leave the Roost until they'd eaten. Actually, tense fell short of describing the atmosphere, but Brody's intimidation seemed only to fuel Kayden's determination to find Conrad's killer.

Jake watched her hair flutter in the cool night breeze as they made their way down the pier to her Cessna floatplane. It'd been a long day, and he was ready to have Kayden out of Imnek for a while.

She moved to the front of the plane to start her preflight inspection but stopped short. "Real cla.s.sy, Brody."

"What?" Jake stepped around to her side, and Kayden held up her flashlight in the dimming night sky-the light resting on indentations marring her props. Someone had taken a baseball bat or other heavy blunt instrument to the propeller.

"Great." She sighed. "Looks like we won't be leaving tonight."

"Someone did what to your plane?" Landon asked over the speakerphone.

Thanks to Imnek's sheriff, Jacob Marshall, Kayden and Jake had use of one of the deputy offices while they were stranded on the island.

They wouldn't be able to locate new props until morning, so they'd definitely be spending the night.

"Someone took a bat or something like it to the props," Jake said, standing to Kayden's right.

"Who do you think did it?"

"My guess is Brody and his buddies," she said, irritation flaring through her. She couldn't believe they'd messed with her plane.

"Brody Patterson?" Landon said, recognition in his tone.

"One and the same. He wasn't real keen on the questions we were asking."

"We got some backlash at the diner where the climbers hang out," Jake added.

"The Roost?" Landon asked.

Kayden smiled. "You got it."